Creating a Home Haunt

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The first thing in creating you home haunt is to decide on a theme. Do you want your theme to be vampires vs. werewolves? Evil clowns or evil dolls? Scarecrows? Demons? My theme is zombies.

Next, you need a couple of rules to guide you. My rules are everything needs to be life size and look real.

Every year, make your display bigger and better.

Halloween should be a year-round thing for you. Just like how those folks with large Christmas displays work on their displays throughout the year, work on your Halloween display throughout the year.

That's it! Decide on a theme; create a couple of rules to guide you; and improve on it every year.

Now, let's talk about the details:

Animatronics

Animatronics are great, but you don't want people triggering your animation themselves with a step pad. And the sensor can't be trusted to trigger the animation when you want it to. The best way is to trigger it yourself with a remote control. Spirit Halloween sells a remote control that will trigger four animations separately. If you only have 4 animations, then this is the way to go.

If you have more animatronics, I recommend using the 15-channel remote control that will trigger up to fifteen animations. If you go this route, you'll need the 12-volt power adapters to power the relays, and the cables to plug into the 'Press to Test' hole on the animatronic.



Spirit Halloween's Multi-Prop Remote
Spirit Halloween Link

15-channel Remote Control
Amazon Link

12-volt 1A Power Adapter
Amazon Link

3.5mm Male Plug to Bare Wire Cable
Amazon Link

Here's where you'll need know a little electronics to wire them up. On the 12-volt power adapter wire, cut off the barrel tip end. Bare the wires, plug in the adapter and measure the voltage (VDC) across the two wires. Don't worry, you won't get shocked. If you measure +12 volts, mark the wire connected to the red test lead with a '+' sign (see Fig. 1). If you measure -12 volts, swap the meter test leads. Remove the relay cover. It pops off with a flat tip screwdriver. Secure the wire you marked '+' to the terminal board labeled 'IN+', and the other wire to the one labeled 'IN-'. This will power the relay. Next, secure the loose wires from the 3.5mm Male Plug to Bare Wire Cable to the terminal board labeled 'NO' and "COM'. It doesn't matter which color wire goes into which terminal. All the relay is doing is making a connection (see Fig. 3). 'NO' stands for Normally Open; 'NC" stands for Normally Closed; and 'COM' stands for Common. The terminal labeled 'NC' will remain empty. Normally Open and Normally Closed refers to the condition of the relay when no power is applied to it.



Fig. 1

Fig. 2

Fig. 3

I believe Spirit Halloween has always had nice, affordable animatronics. Others would say they are cheaply made and break easily. Every piece I got from them has lasted at least 10 years. Just take care in storing them. I try to use the original box.

Another good place for affordable animation is Haunted Hill Farm. They have a lot of the older animatronics that I remember from 2010. For some higher quality pieces for your home haunt, try Haunted Props and Gore Galore. Haunted Props also has a retail store in Manorville, NY. If you're in the Pennsylvania area, I HIGHLY recommend going to Frazetta's Costumes in East Stroudsburg, PA. He's got a lot of quality pieces. In the Phoenix, AZ area, try Terror Trader in Chandler.

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Sound

Sometimes your animatronics don't make the sound that you want them to. Just because it came with sound, it doesn't mean you have to use it. If it's not the sound you want, turn the volume knob all the way down and use something else. Use that good Bluetooth speaker that you use for your playlist. Do you have an old iPod or MP3 player? Plug it into an external speaker.

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Lighting

Ground-level spot lights are good to illuminate particular pieces, but not too bright. Use an inline dimmer to tone down the brightness.

Flashes of lightning are a good effect. A good machine that does this is the Perfect Storm Lightning And Thunder Effects Machine. It comes with a cracking thunder CD. Play the CD in a portable CD player directly pointing to the Perfect Storm machine's built-in microphone. Plug in white Christmas lights, or some other white LED lights into the Perfect Storm machine, and the lights will flash like lightning. 1000 watts is the maximum light input. Some Amazon reviews talk about how the CD arrived broken. The reviews also talk about other thunder CD options.

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Fog Machines

The thick fog that stays on the ground is a great effect, but fog machines can't create this effect by themselves. The fog coming out of the machines is hot. That will cover the neighborhood like the fog you drive through. The thick on the ground effect comes from cold fog. So you need to make a fog chiller. Here are 2 different designs:



Uses ice

Uses 3 frozen water bottles

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Mood Music

Professional haunts play mood music while people are standing in the queue to create an atmosphere. You should also play some mood music. Place the speakers in a location where people will approach your home haunt. I recommend a duo called "Midnight Syndicate". They make great mood music that's used by professional haunts. Put the CD on repeat and you're all set.

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