[jdubbya]

The dust has settled, for the most part. Lewlew and I spent the past two days breaking down the haunt structure and hauling it off to storage. To say we had fun would be an understatement, in fact we both agree it was one of the best Halloween's either of us had ever enjoyed. The weather held off with just some low clouds and an occasional spit of light rain. They began lining up at 5:45 and by 6 p.m. there were close to 50 people waiting to go through. We had done a dress rehearsal the night before with all of our actors and they played their parts to perfection. We had a steady stream of visitors right up until about 8:20 and when the last of them went through, lewlew gave the sign to shut it down. At one point the line went down four houses from ours! We had two TV stations do live spots from the haunt at 5 and again at 6, and both reporters walked through with their cameramen. Needless to say we didn't hold back for them and got them good! The scares and screams were plentiful and while there were several little ones who probably didn't enjoy themselves, the overall consensus was that it was the best ever and we killed it. We don't have a fancy video production this year, but here are some of the pics of the haunt. We also had a scare cam set up and hope to have that edited and ready to post at some point soon.
The outside façade including the amazing foam bunker lewlew constructed.

The first room. An abandoned office, until a zombie bursts through a locker and another comes through a wall

 

[jdubbya]

The feeding room

exit hall with 4 zombies reaching through bars as you try to escape. The hallway was only 32 inches wide

and the classic drop panel scare right as they went through the exit

lewlew working the crowd

The sign at the entrance as people stood near the bunker waiting to go in
Mark had this made. It was awesome!!

and our awesome cast of scare actors! Couldn't have asked for a better bunch of fun loving kids. They all want to come back next year already!

link to one of the news casts

http://www.erietvnews.com/clip/10800055/haunted-house-2300p103114

 

[StanFam3]

Wow!!!! Looks like it was a huge success!!! Congrats!

 

[Darth Vader]

 

[Defenestrator]

I'm pretty sure I'm not brave enough to go through that one!

Congratulations to you both on what is clearly a well produced walk-through, and just as importantly, for thoroughly enjoying yourselves in the process!

 

[xxScorpion64xx]

Congrats Jdubbya and Lewlew, Nice collabo, looks great and sounds like you guys had a great time

 

[punkineater]

The haunt looks GREAT~congrats to everyone!

 

[DarkhavenManor]

Wow, really wonderful job!

 

[jdubbya]

Thanks for the kind words! We had a great time working together on the venture and are already talking about next year. We had over 600 visitors go through the haunt, and many of them enjoyed the detail we put into each of the scenes. I suppose having the news crews broadcast our address and that it was free boosted our count but we'll take it! Looking at all the different haunt picture/video threads brings up a point. There are so many types of "haunts"; static displays in a yard, animations, window projections, walk throughs, actor-heavy haunts, and everything in between. Looking at the number of houses that don't do anything, and we haunters are the ones that will keep Halloween viable for years to come. We not only provide a Halloween experience for so many others , but in many cases (whether we know it or not) are igniting a spark in someone else to do the same thing. We are inspiring people to up their game and do something for Halloween, even if it's just putting out a couple of osb tombstones and a newspaper stuffed dummy (heck, thats how I started.) Anyway, it was an awesome night and can't wait to begin the plans for 2015!

 

[Saruman of Many Colours]

Very nicely done!

 

[hallorenescene]

jdubbya, very nice job. you and lewlew always put on fine haunts.

 

[The Halloween Lady]

Holy whoa!!! You and lewlew did an epic job! Super collaboration! Everything, and I do mean everything was just perfect!!!
Now go see that baby!!!

 

[im the goddess]

I know last year you had some thought of going smaller. I think this collaboration was just the thing to get your Halloween mojo back. Great Job. The haunt looks awesome.

 

[Muffy]

What a terrific job you guys did ! It looks great! Much appreciation for what you said up above about us being the inspiration for folks. Where would Halloween be without people like us.

 

[jdubbya]

Holy whoa!!! You and lewlew did an epic job! Super collaboration! Everything, and I do mean everything was just perfect!!!
Now go see that baby!!!

Thanks HL. We are both very detail oriented which lent itself to making the haunt just as detailed. We had to stop ourselves at one point as we knew a lot of the little details would be lost on people just trying to make their way through the structure, but a lot of them really paid attention, at least until we scared the crap out of them!

I know last year you had some thought of going smaller. I think this collaboration was just the thing to get your Halloween mojo back. Great Job. The haunt looks awesome.

Thanks! Working with such an enthusiastic partner made it all the more fun. Up until now I had been pretty much a one man show, with the exception of the helpers I had on Halloween night. This was like working in haunters heaven, and yes, it was rejuvenating. We did use less space but the overall haunt was more elaborate, which made it seem a lot larger than year's past.

What a terrific job you guys did ! It looks great! Much appreciation for what you said up above about us being the inspiration for folks. Where would Halloween be without people like us.

Thanks Muffy! We heard a lot of people comment on how they "want to do something like this" at their house. I wanted to tell them "get started for next year!"
I take every opportunity to tell folks how we started with a paper stuffed dummy wearing a wolfman mask laying by the porch. Just do SOMETHING! It builds from there!

 

[oaklawn Crematory]

The feeding room

exit hall with 4 zombies reaching through bars as you try to escape. The hallway was only 32 inches wide

and the classic drop panel scare right as they went through the exit

lewlew working the crowd

The sign at the entrance as people stood near the bunker waiting to go in
Mark had this made. It was awesome!!

and our awesome cast of scare actors! Couldn't have asked for a better bunch of fun loving kids. They all want to come back next year already!

link to one of the news casts

http://www.erietvnews.com/clip/10800055/haunted-house-2300p103114

Outstanding JDubbya !


BRAVO !!!

 

[TheGraveyardCareTaker]

WOW! Always been a fan of your tombstone work and I really like how different your theme is this year. I love details and you killed it with your set dressing. What did you use for your static bodies? Those are the best I've seen in terms of realism.

Also, I love that blown out foam look out front. Bookmarked into my inspiration folder.

 

[jdubbya]

Outstanding JDubbya !


BRAVO !!!

Thanks man! Appreciate it!

WOW! Always been a fan of your tombstone work and I really like how different your theme is this year. I love details and you killed it with your set dressing. What did you use for your static bodies? Those are the best I've seen in terms of realism.

Also, I love that blown out foam look out front. Bookmarked into my inspiration folder.

Thanks friend! Appreciate the kind words. We really went off the path with our theme for this year. For us, it was edgy and not so kid friendly. The inside haunt was designed to be scary and it was! We've done zombies before but this time we had "in your face" zombies and they got the desired results! So many adults came out screaming and holding on to each other. Mark and I detailed the heck out of the exterior as well as the inside. We wanted it to look just like an over-run military installation/research lab so we had signs custom made. Mark had several mannequins and we dressed them in military flight suits to use as dead guards (one in the bunker and one in the main office room). Mark constructed the bunker from large foam blocks he got from a trucking company. He "carved" them out with a claw hammer, including the mortar blast in the front, them painted/aged them. He also made the barbed wire stanchions out of pvc and aluminum stock, which looked awesome. When he brought it to my house I was blown away by the detail and once we set it up and put the barbed wire on, it could have been used in a movie set. So many people commented on it and how it added to the effect we were going for.
Each of the interior rooms were also heavily detailed but by the time people hit the first room, they were just hoping to get out alive and likely missed a lot. We knew it was there though and it made the effect all the more impressive!

here's a link to the thread outlining the build process on the bunker.

http://www.hauntforum.com/showthread.php?t=39899