[Reno McCoy]

My son, who's turning 8 on Halloween, has determined that he wants us to have a Toxic Wasteland haunt theme this year. I'm all for it. I've been gathering ideas, but I figured I'd turn to the experts before I get too far into planning.

What are the top 5, must have props for a successful Toxic Waste haunt? Are there items that are perfect for setting the stage/mood? Are there key items that produce good scares every time you use it? If so, please post them here.

 

[Deekay]

The First things that came to my mind: lots of barrels, some tipped over with ooze/slime/nasty substance coming out, preferrably glow in the dark or UV reactive painted, maybe expanding foam (Great Stuff) would be good for that.
A toxic zombie stuck in a barrel would be great.
And of course lots of hazard signs and stickers/paint on barrels, walls and doors.

 

[Frankie's Girl]

I've never done this theme, so I just have a few ideas I've seen over the years...

Flashing lights, especially the ones like emergency lights like this in either red, green or amber (or all of them with different colors in different areas?) https://www.amazon.com/Flashing-Mini-Red-Beacon-Light/dp/B01449OW9W

Signage is also an easy/cheap decoration: Outbreak signs, caution toxic stuff, the roll of caution tape... coupled with the lights, it is pretty effective.

Could also see getting some chain link to fence off areas or displays.

And barrels with great stuff goo (can paint with blacklight reactive paints and setup the blacklights so the stuff really glows, and a trashcan trauma type of prop would be cool.

Definitely do some searching on here for all of those ideas - and check out pinterest as well! It's a great theme with so many possibilities depending on what direction you take it - could go into alien props or toxic zombie stuff or even both!

 

[Reno McCoy]

In addition to barrels (or buckets if I can't get barrels), I plan to have a few "bodies" covered in sheets. As if to suggest they died in the toxicity. One of those bodies will be a real person to startle folks.

I'm toying with having a guy in a gas mask interacting with a toxic barrel or possibly in a hazmat suit holding on to a glowing rock of some sort. Haven't figured that out just yet, but I do want more interactivity.

 

[Wolfbeard]

If you can get an old drum, you can create a toxic waste victim. Pose a skeleton in the drum with "Great Stuff" expanding foam as the sludge and slime. Paint it a flourescent color and illuminate it with black light. I unfortunately don't have a photo showing the black light effect.

Eric

 

[Ghost of Spookie]

If you need to find barrels and can't, those pop up cylinder clothes hampers if you have any could probably be covered and mocked up. Better yet hoola hoops attached to wood "seams" and then wrapped with black plastic could be a cheap way to get more barrels...Dollar Tree for the hoops...nail or screw them into the wood.

Green spot lighting and strobe lights. Low lying fog for a caustic chemical reaction.

 

[slcjeeper]

My 5: Definitely Toxic Waste Barrels. Yellow toxic suits, a head spitting toxic waste into an open barrel. A dirty rusty industrial set, maybe some sort of lab gone wrong.

 

[Wolfman]

Great suggestions, all. But, if you're ready to have a go at Animatronics, the Vomiting Zombie will be your piece-de-resistance. Your visitors will be talking about it for YEARS, and it's not all that hard. I'll see if I can hook you up with a link...

 

[slcjeeper]

https://youtu.be/4hjC17uShrw

 

[Wolfman]

Dang, I can't find a tutorial for the Barfing Zombie, but maybe 15 years ago we had an animatronic puppet that puked every 7 or 8 seconds. I keep tropical fish, so I used a 400 GPH water pump to recirculate 3 gallons of tonic water (high in phosphorus, glows under UV) tinted with colouring from glow sticks. The tricky part was balancing the armature. I used an old plastic Pringles Bottle in the throat. As soon as it filled, the armature leaned forward into a barrel, spilling his guts. Once the bottle emptied, the zombie straightened up again...only to have the bottle refill, and the whole process repeat itself. It got a lot of laughs, people posing for photos, and so on.
oh, and the pump and hose is fairly inexpensive...

 

[Vandalay Industries]

Toxic waste barrels, biohazard suits, gas masks, signs of course and fog.

 

[Reno McCoy]

OMG, that would repulse so many people. I love it!

 

[David_AVD]

I made some illuminated biohazard containers for this year's display.

 

[dawnski]

Haven't done this theme yet but I've been saving lots of ideas for it. This link should give you a bunch of ideas for your party. https://www.pinterest.com/zim2/halloween-toxicapocalypse/ I would say lots of green lights, barrels with painted green Great Stuff ooze, anything industrial and rusty looking, yellow/black safety type and lots of radioactive/toxic signs.

 

[Screaming Demons]

Dang, I can't find a tutorial for the Barfing Zombie, but maybe 15 years ago we had an animatronic puppet that puked every 7 or 8 seconds. I keep tropical fish, so I used a 400 GPH water pump to recirculate 3 gallons of tonic water (high in phosphorus, glows under UV) tinted with colouring from glow sticks. The tricky part was balancing the armature. I used an old plastic Pringles Bottle in the throat. As soon as it filled, the armature leaned forward into a barrel, spilling his guts. Once the bottle emptied, the zombie straightened up again...only to have the bottle refill, and the whole process repeat itself. It got a lot of laughs, people posing for photos, and so on.
oh, and the pump and hose is fairly inexpensive...

Fantastic idea! I've never been impressed with the ones that just stand there with a steady stream coming out like it's a fountain.

 

[David_AVD]

Something else I've made is some "digital sign posts" using old digital photo frames.

This one is zombie oriented, but I have another one that has various toxic warnings on it.

 

[lbc]

I wonder if Spirit Halloween is having a Toxic Waste theme this year, several of their new props would suggest that:

5 Ft Fenced In Hi-Voltage Zombie
5 Ft Toe Tagged Corpse
2.5 Ft Cryo Chamber Corpse

 

[acanton04]

Hazmat suit- have either an actor walking around with boils/infection/radiation. having a couple of skeleton corpsed props with hazmat suits on
Pop up toxic barrel zombie -
Toxic waste barrels/buckets- neon with black lights are cool- can have body parts/great stuff coming out
Mutant animals/body part/mutant people parts- can be neon again if you want to go with that lighting theme
Having ghost hazmat suits maybe with some lighting- see chicken wire ghost on the forum and get cheap hazmat suits/medical PPE to "dress" them or you can head over to the thrift store for lab coats etc. or the military surplus store for ideas.
Signs/caution tape -
Sounds - alarms going off, laboratory sounds,- if you have Amazon Prime - you can download a lot of free clips from Halloween themed cds on your Amazon Music app for free, otherwise I'd go to the music section of the forum and get some links for the sounds you want to compliment your theme.
Pinterest has a lot of good ideas as well. Good luck!

Also check out http://www.halloweenforum.com/general-halloween/100399-castle-terra-zombie-apocalypse.html
for ideas, home haunt well put together by one of the moderators.

 

[Kev730]

Here are some of my ideas,

Cut up a yellow highlighter (glows on its own) but you can add a UV light for it at night.

Future scene idea

Online ideas