Building Fear 1313: Creating Your Own Haunted House

[Torrie]

Creating Your Own Haunted House

 

 

Ok everyone! This class will help you create your own haunted house in your back yard!

 

The first lesson will be the how, what, when, and where of your haunted house!

 

Who: The first thing you want to do is make sure you have enough people. Depending on the size of your haunted house depends on the people. You may want to have one person that will lead everyone  through or you may want to have the people lead themselves either way you need enough people to jump out, scare, and gross people out.

 

What:Do you want to have a house theme or do you want to have a different them for each "Room"? Do you want to scare or gross people out or both? Be sure to sit down and make a list of the different siences that you want in your house. Maybe you want a mad scientist, or werewolves, or a swamp theme. Whatever you want done be sure to make sure it flows. It does no good to have a vampire in your swamp. You want swamp thing in your swamp. lol

 

Where: This is always one of the most important questions. If you don't have the room to make a haunted house them all the planning and preparing in the world will do you no good. Some people get permission to use old houses or their own houses and some do it in their backyard. It is important to have each of your scenes separated so that they do not blend together. If you are outdoors you can use plywood to separate. In order to have them separate you will have to have plenty of room.

 

When: Halloween of course! lol Really planning is still the key. Do you want to have your haunted house on the weekend of Halloween? Do you want to open it before the holiday? Do you want it to be open Halloween night only?

 

 

Budget:This is the big questions. Most of your supplies and props can be bought from the dollar store or can be made at home. A lot of the times you can make neat stuff out of old things that have been lying around useless. We found some old speakers that were about 3 feet tall and got some masks from the dollar store. We glued them into the old speakers and then set up a radio behind them so that it looked like the mask was singing. Cost: about $5.00 for the masks. The speakers where being thrown away.

Look around see what you have and then go out and buy what you need.The one thing that I recommend spending money on is the costumes. Even if it is buying the materials and making it yourself. Do not go cheap.

 

 

 

[Torrie]

[

size=20pt]Backyard and Home[/size]

 

Safety

 

As with everything, safety comes first.

If there are children involved you need to be sure that all candles, potions, and props have proper supervision.

 

One rule that I think most Haunted houses abide by is Do Not Touch Anyone! It would be no good if your mad scientist was punched because he grabbed the shoulder of the wrong guy.

 

As there will likely be several candles/flames then a fire extinguisher is good to have around.

 

Be sure that any wires/string is secure and will not cause a tripping hazard.

 

My advice is that after everything is set up to step back and have a good look at what you have created. If you see anything that could be dangerous change it.

 

 

[MashinShin al Mashiara]

When working with fog machines...what about ventilation?    And stroblights should never never bounce off of mirrors....that's just a really really bad idea! 

 

:look

 

 

[Torrie]

If you use a fog machine inside then it most defantly has to be ventalated. Outside you are ok.

 

 

Resources

This one is a supply center that has some really neat stuff:

http://www.hauntedhousesupplies.com/HauntWorld_Movies.htm

 

This is another how to:

http://parent-child-activities.suite101.com/article.cfm/halloween_haunted_house_ideas

 

I find that Lowes is a wonderful place to get started and they have all sorts of how to classes and instructions on making props.

[Torrie]

Here are a few pictures of a haunted house that was done when I was a teenager. Don't look too closely, you will see me in my younger days. lol

 

Ghost:

http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa316/christ1213/HauntedHouse1.jpg

 

The whole group:

http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa316/christ1213/HauntedHouse2.jpg

 

Just the girls:

http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa316/christ1213/HauntedHouse3.jpg

 

Me in my younger days:

http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa316/christ1213/HauntedHouse4.jpg

 

Our cook:

http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa316/christ1213/HauntedHouse5.jpg

 

Mad scientist:

http://i197.photobucket.com/albums/aa316/christ1213/HauntedHouse6.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

Please feel free to post any pictures you have of your haunted houses!