** I Need Some Halloween HELP! ***

[Jeff Westover]

For the first time in many years we have the opportunity to actually be home for Halloween (it's a long story). My 16 year old daughter, who just LOVES Halloween, wants to be involved in the family fun and has pinned me down on helping her make the "Tunnel of Doom".

We have about a ten foot portion of our walkway to our front porch that people have to walk through to get to the front door. Abby wants to make it an adventure for all the trick or treaters to get this.

Bear in mind -- I'm in Utah. There are more than 90 kids on my street alone. We're going to see HUNDREDS of kids on Halloween.

What should we put them through? I need help!!!

 

[trackrebel]

that sounds great...how about checking out some halloween episodes from Roseanne....

seriously...I´m sorry I can´t help...but I would love to see a vid of the tunnel

 

[SparkleNana]

My son and some of his friends did a big production one year. They started when it was really dark. One was lying on a blow-up mattress, pretending to be dead. He raised his arms and started moaning, after the kids had their candy. He was quiet before, so they didn't notice him - he was a few feet off the walkway.

Another was in the bushes by the front porch and had a strobe light, that he turned on when someone had just gotten their candy. They were all wearing black clothes, so they were hard to see. I think there were about 6 of them working together to be scary. They didn't start the scary stuff until after 7:30 - when the littlest kids had come and gone. And if they saw small children coming, they didn't scare them. Word got around fast, and there were big crowds of kids in the street, watching as each group got brave enough to approach the porch. People absolutely loved it, and talked about it for years.

They didn't have "things" that looked scary. It was the dark and them making scary sounds and using lights briefly. Oh, and they had a "scary soundtrack that they played loudly.

If you do this, have unbelievably large amounts of candy. Word gets around -- and everyone wants to come and see the show (and get candy).

 

[Ms_Speedy_Elf]

My boyfriend told me that one year some people that he knew had an "honor system" one Halloween . They sat the bowl of candy in the lap of a spooky stuffed critter with a note that said"One Piece Per Person" .When the person took more than one piece of candy that spooky "stuffed" critter wasn't stuffed any more ,as he grabbed their hand when they went back for second's .:evil::coffin:

 

[elfworks]

ms martha has some great ideas in this years halloween book. (send abby to the bookstore) and do you want to enclose the sidewalk, or leave it open? cuz when you said "tunnel" i was thinking enclosed which could be waaaaay cool but also kinda limiting but scary in its own way, iykwim. not enclosed gives you more haunted house options....

xox

 

[Jeff Westover]

Yes we want to enclose it. The porch is set back a way and the eaves of the house extend out about 15 feet, making a kind of shady area of the walk. I can easily build something to make it feel more closed it. She mentioned dry ice, warm dripping blood, screams, etc. But I wonder what else we should do? The strobe light sounds like a good idea. My son, who is 14, wants to be up on the roof with a bazooka squirt gun but that might be a bit over the top. We do have to worry about the little ones. But this is Utah -- where even teenagers trick or treat -- which means I may be out there with a squirt gun too.

 

[MerryChristmasLydio]

A bloody haunted barber shop with lots of fake blood squirting at the kids from ghostly barbers who were killed and stabbed by their own costumers by using scissors and razers!!!! LOL!

NO! WAIT! Start out as a Haunted Bloody barber shop. Then go into things like a Haunted doll house of nightmares, then a bloody restaurant kitchen, then a ghostly hospital. YEAH! WHAT?!

 

[elfworks]

lots of groovy moss hanging from the trees and spider webs and things. as they walk thru the tunnel, they need to get the feeling that something is gonna leap out of the shadows and get them! you dont need anything graphic to acheive that.
can i come help?? im so jealous. this dopey retirement village we live in doesnt allow trick or treaters and i have to keep the deco to a minimum.

as

 

[Jeff Westover]

Yeah, bring your spatula. That would come in handy.

 

[elfworks]

Yeah, bring your spatula.

ha!! you wish!



xo

 

[SparkleNana]

Jeff -- I didn't want to be the one to suggest having someone on the roof -- but our sons' group did that. It was incredibly effective and scary. I can't remember what he had - but a bazooka squirt gun sounds great. (Could you have water bottles up there for refills - so he wouldn't have to come down to refill it?)

 

[Jeff Westover]

Are you kidding me? He wants to take the hose up there.

I'm a bit concerned because we've got so many age groups to look out for.

 

[MerryChristmasLydio]

A bloody haunted barber shop with lots of fake blood squirting at the kids from ghostly barbers who were killed and stabbed by their own costumers by using scissors and razers!!!! LOL!

NO! WAIT! Start out as a Haunted Bloody barber shop. Then go into things like a Haunted doll house of nightmares, then a bloody restaurant kitchen, then a ghostly hospital. YEAH! WHAT?!

To add to this, how about a gorey looking dentist office! OR how about a bloody funeral home?!

 

[Ms_Speedy_Elf]

Ummm,at a fair once they had a spook house and they had a chain saw in there. Of course it didn't have the blade on it ,but you could have someone in a scary mask revving the chain saw .

At a spook house we had during a school carnival we had bowl's filled with worm's( spaggetti ) and eyeball's (grape's in jello). Someone took the people's hand and stuck it in the bowl's.

 

[auntieclaus]

Yes we want to enclose it. The porch is set back a way and the eaves of the house extend out about 15 feet, making a kind of shady area of the walk. I can easily build something to make it feel more closed it. She mentioned dry ice, warm dripping blood, screams, etc. But I wonder what else we should do? The strobe light sounds like a good idea. My son, who is 14, wants to be up on the roof with a bazooka squirt gun but that might be a bit over the top. We do have to worry about the little ones. But this is Utah -- where even teenagers trick or treat -- which means I may be out there with a squirt gun too.

Beware of the strobe light it effects people who get seizures.

 

[Ms_Speedy_Elf]

Beware of the strobe light it effects people who get seizures.

Yes,I'm one of them.

 

[hummin4him]

Tunnel of doom

We did a haunted house for our youthgroup one year. One of the scariest things was extremely easy. We hung a section of the walk with black yarn drenched in water. We tied knots in the end to make it feel like you are walking into spiders. If you keep this section dark it creates the same feel as walking into a spider web unexpectedly.

As I remember more I will post it.

Happy haunting.

 

[Jeff Westover]

Good one! Keep them coming...

 

[lightitup]

Do you have a spirit store there. It is a halloween specialty store. I love that store for ideas. Lowes has some really neat ground breakers when you make a loud noise it talks to you and tells you to leave his grave area. I like it. Here is a picture of my ground breakers.

This guy is made out of a tomato cage with two rebars for legs and they are the stakes in the ground. I bought a latex mask and hands. We took a tomato cage and welded two halfs of a small tomato cage to the second ring in the large cage. Then welded the two rebars coming down for the legs. We dressed him in a thrift store jump suit and put his mask on and hands on. I put a light in the face mask and he is scary.

I wish I lived next to you that would be fun.
The simplest things are the scariest. Have some one dress up in a scary werewolfe costume (it works best with a couple of them) and have them just follow the people making scary noises but never touching anyone. That scares the heck out of the teens. I would also say get a fogger at a discount store and have that putting out the fog at the beginning of the walk.
Check out xmaslilly's decorations in the halloween section at my site. I will tell her you need help and see if she will come over and post some neat ideas for you.

 

[Jeff Westover]

Thanks, lightitup -- I should post this over there. Yes, we have a Spirit store here and Abby is already there spending my money.