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Posted by: Frightmare Mansion on 2008-09-22, 10:18:13
I have been doing home haunts for the past 15 years and money is always an issue. I got very tired of buying props as they are so expensive, so we started making all of our own props. It's pretty easy to do and there are tons of websites with step by step directions. Here are a few ideas that are cheap to work on the look of your haunted house. If anyone will be passing near windows, Paint them with a water based paint. We had an illusion inside one of the windows and made people walk up to look inside. A "peppers ghost " or "flying crank ghost " illusion looks great. If you can't do any of that just cutting out a silhouette and placing a red,black, or any eerie light in the room will create the right effect. I took large dead tree branches about 4-6 feet tall ones and screwed them together to make dead trees. The bagged cobwebs are inexpensive and can create a great look as well as protect people from touching your props. If you have the time and effort making a bottomless pit is a great effect especially outside where it is more believable. Fog is of course important! But if you have an old cooler you can make a fog chiller to chill the fog keeping it creeping along the ground instead of just flying up and away. Making gravestones is good! An added touch is to take a dark towel, place it in front of the grave, cover it with dirt then place a hand or head like it's a fresh grave and something's coming out. Get a couple of spot lights paint them red (spray paint on regular bulbs works) and highlight some of your better props. It also works well when you want their attention away from where an actor may be hiding to scare. A couple of full sized stuffed dummy's laying around get their guards down so that when you dress an actor the same way and make it obvious that they are stuffed, when the people walk by that when you strike! Well hope those helped! You can check out what we have done for the past few years on our website, FernleyHalloween.com , although I have not updated it from last year. We started just like you and now is a small town we had over 1200 people and the TV and News papers both did stories on us. |
