The Dimmick Family's Halloween Haunt
Posts tagged Graveyard
Halloween 2009
Nov 2nd
This year’s haunt was a real success. I focused a lot of my time and budget into the lighting and ambiance of the haunt this year. Black lights, fog and chiller, lightning, thunder, candles flickering all added to the creepy, haunted vibe. My “Scaretaker” was a real hit with the kids and adults alike. We had a steady stream of ToTs all evening and at one point there was a huge crowd of parents and kids standing in front of my house admiring all our hard work. I wish I had taken a picture of that, it was quite a sight to behold. 
Here are some miscellaneous pictures from Halloween night.
-
- Drawing faces for our jack-o-lanterns.
-
- Carving our jack-o-lanterns.
-
- Annie loved hers until she touched it, then not so much.
-
- Ben making a face like his jack-o-lantern.
-
- Tyler didn’t want to have anything to do with his jack-o-lantern.
-
- The finished jack-o-lanterns.
-
- With the lights down and “candles” inside.
-
- On the front porch.
-
- They looked spooky.
-
- Not sure what happened here, but I like the effect somewhat.
-
- The Never Moor
-
- The Never Moor
-
- The Never Moor
-
- The Never Moor
-
- The Never Moor
-
- The Never Moor
-
- The Never Moor
-
- The Never Moor
-
- The ghost video projected in our upstairs window.
-
- One of the cooler shots of the night.
-
- Fog machine and chiller worked okay. Hopefully I’ll figure it out better for next year.
-
- The Scaretaker
-
- Lighting was awesome this year.
-
- Creepy walk up to the door.
-
- Last pic of the jack-o-lanterns.
-
- The Scaretaker
-
- The Never Moor
-
- The Never Moor
-
- The Scaretaker
-
- Just before taking everything down.
-
- Just before taking everything down.
-
- The kids hanging out in the graveyard.
-
- Princess Leia (Annie), Jedi (me), Yoda (Tyler) and Darth Vader (Ben)
-
- Annie’s first Halloween.
-
- Ben smiling underneath his mask.
-
- Tyler cheesing it as Yoda.
Graveyard Candles
Oct 27th
One of the candle clusters out in the yard without the flash. Awesome!
To add to the creepiness factor of the ambience of our haunt I wanted to have a lot of candles sitting around lighting the headstones and walkway. I bought a couple dozen battery-powered tealights that flicker like real flames off of Ebay from Zest Candles. I bought a 10′ piece of 1 1/2 inch PVC pipe and was able to cut about 22 4″, 6″ and 8″ pieces. I sanded all of the black writing off of the pipe, then filled them with expandable foam. When the foam was thoroughly dry I cut the excess off, then pushed the foam down to allow the tealights to sit inside the pipe with the “flame” exposed. I then used hot glue to make the “wax” drips down the sides. I was going to paint the pipes with UV reactive paint, but I was pleasantly surprised that the hot glue was already reactive and we think it looks cooler to have just the drips glowing and not the “candle” part.
-
- 1 1/2″ PVC pipe cut and sanded.
-
- Filled with expandable foam.
-
- The foam cut and pushed down into the pipe.
-
- Applying the hot glue.
-
- Applying the hot glue.
-
- Looking good.
-
- They turned out better than I had hoped.
-
- One of the candle clusters out in the yard.
-
- One of the candle clusters out in the yard without the flash. Awesome!
-
- Notice the spots of orange from the candles throughout the graveyard.
-
- With the flash.
Wood Pallet Graveyard Fence
Oct 25th
My graveyard fence for this year was easy to make and free. A local classifieds site had a listing for free wood pallets from a company down the street from where I work, so I picked them up after work one day. It is super easy to make. Here’s how I did it.
I first laid the pallets out and marked the first in each row at 30 inches.
I then attacked each row with the saw making sure to make the ends random and jagged.
I used some of the scrap pieces of wood as stakes to prop the "fence" in place.
An over-exposed shot to show some of my test lighting. The fence throws some great shadows all around the yard and sidewalk.
I’m happy with how this year’s fence turned out. I plan on getting rid of these after Halloween, so I don’t have to store them. They were easy enough to make that I could do the same thing for next year, but I have BIG plans for my fence for next year. Stay tuned.
