Updates to the Toe Pincher

Added some pictures of the nearly finished off coffin, it will all come together on Halloween.

 

Toe Pincher Coffin Finished Off

Haunted House idea…

Now I get ideas all the time about a haunted house or hay-ride, so I decided I will share this one with you. Though I can’t even come close to taking credit for it, for the original idea is not mine, as a concept at least. The wonderful horror movies of the 70s specifically should be thanked for this idea.

 

Now a couple things have to come available for this to be properly done. First you need an old farm house, with maybe a barn or so, and some nice woods surrounding the house. This is total Texas Chainsaw Massacre house we are talking about. So this is a mixed haunted house/hay-ride concept, except for you walk through instead of riding on a wagon. You start at the end of the driveway where everything is police taped off, and if you can get a hold of them, some police cars with the lights on, also putting your security/staff in police uniform adds to the affect. 

The guide will also be in uniform, he tells the patrons that a group of teenagers came up missing in the area and their car was found at this residence. You tell them you need their help doing a canvas search of the house and surrounding area. You start down the driveway and there is a news team on the side, you stop and listen to the report, and that gives the patrons the whole back story; ie: family abducted the group of teens etc. You then move on down the driveway and come across the missing kids car, glass broken, blood around it and so forth.

You then come up to the porch where a family member is yelling at you for being on their property and the “police officer” shows a warrant and states you will be starting in the barn or surround woods. You bring them through these areas that have scares from the “family.” Your investigation leads to the house where as soon as you get in the “officer” is taken by someone and you have to move through the house on your own, and then you work your way back out.

Typical haunted house stuff going on, its just the set up and delivery that make it unique and interesting.

Just a thought.

-Empty W

Concepts and Sketches

I am a visual person, I like to see things, that way I can have a little more faith in myself and the project at hand. Though it’s too early in the season to know if I pass or fail, can I make this happen, I am hopeful and positive. So for this years I drew out first a light sketch then did some work in illustrator to show my plans, or prop ideas. Also I’ll link to the sites that I got my ideas from.

 

 

Graveyard Sign Concept (Illustrator)

 

Here is the concept for the Graveyard sign, originally I was going to do a column design, but with finances not being awesome, and time always an issue, I made changes. This was mostly because we found a pallet driven fence design, which since I found all these places who are will to give away pallets, cost next to nothing and has a really nice look. I will put up photos of the sign and fence progress as I get them.

10-31-08

 

Halloween 2008 – Morumen Cemetery

Halloween 2008 is on its way. Though it will take years for my haunt to get anywhere’s near where I want it to be, this is a good start. Last yr was last minute, and not that much. This year I hope to bring it to a whole new level. Really my goal some day is to have a haunted hayride and house, but for now, I’ll stick to the front yard.

This year’s haunt brings us to the Morumen Cemetery (say it while placing spaces after each syllable). I’m excited. It’s still going to be simple, doing a graveyard, duh. We will have an entryway with a custom sign, a pallet fence (I will post photos when I make them); I want to have a body bag candy dispenser and a glowing casket, which is already almost done. Add some music and fog and we’re just about there. Also there will be the grave keeper who will be making his rounds on Halloween night. We may even get a visit from Jason Voorhees again this year, but that is not confirmed.  

I am very excited for this yr, I really hope it comes out well; everyone is involved from my family. My girlfriend and I even spent a romantic day building a coffin, which by no fault of my own happens to fit her to the inch. Soon we plan on having a gravestone party so we can get those made. I will update the site as often as I can with the progress that is being made.

 

-Empty W

 

Halloween 2007 – The Beginning

Halloween 2007 was the first year I actually tried to go all out and decorate my parents yard for such a wonderfully wicked event. Unfortunately I made this decision, oh like a week before Halloween. So with no time and even less money, I did what I could.

It was definitely a learning experience. I had a lot of ambitions of what I wanted to do. Such as an automated coffin then opened to be a candy dispenser for the T.O.T’s (trick or treaters). Well as you will see in the following photos, that didn’t happen. I also wanted to make a grapevine scarecrow, well that didn’t happen either, mostly because you need to cut the vines in the spring when they are still soft and able to be formed. So I created some weird skeletal monster thingy. It worked.

My favorite all time Movie Monster is Jason Voorhees, so I took advantage of this and finally made the costume, I fit the size, my build may be off a little but it worked out. Even made one girl cry. As you can see I would sit next to the candy table and would not move until they got right up close, or until they walked away. One parent told me they still thought I was a machine even after I stood up. I had a lot of fun doing it, and I know the limits, most times I ended up taking of the mask to show the t.o.ts that I was just a regular guy. Unfortunately my fog machine wouldn’t work right, hopefully I can figure that out for next year.

 

Before dark 2007

 

 

One question I get asked is about the skull-birdbath. Well it’s a bowling ball, which I have yet to get drilled, don’t know if I will, it’s a great prop. Typically my parents get no more then 5 tot’s. So they don’t buy a lot of candy, well this year we did almost 20 kids, so we had to combine ours with my grandma’s who lives next store. I know for most places 20 is not a lot, but for many yrs we only got one, and that kid loved it cause we gave him all our candy. I had a lot of fun doing it, I will definitely do it again next year, though once I some day get my own house I will be moving on, but for now my parents will enjoy it. It’s fun.

 

Here is a link to the photos from 2007 Halloween Night. Enjoy.

2007 Halloween Photos