Haunt Forum banner

Ideas for my haunted woods

52K views 125 replies 24 participants last post by  Hobz 
#1 ·
Last year, my dad & I decided to do a "Haunted Woods" on the 7 acres we own. It is sort of like a haunted house, except it is set outdoors in the woods. As an added bonus, the property is actually located on a street named "Cemetery Lane" and sits between two actual cemetery sites.Everything went as well as it could for a bunch of amateurs their first year LOL. The first year was really about deciding if we liked it and wanted to make it an annual attraction. We loved it. I joined this forum in hopes of gaining inspiration, ideas, and guidance from some of you guys that have been doing this for years. My imagination is pretty big, and my dad can build anything. Together we made some pretty cool stuff last year. But, I want to make all of our scenes/themes different every year. I am new to this business as an owner, but I have been going to these types of attractions since I was a kid. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!
 
#85 ·
There's no reason why it couldn't actually. Maybe it wasn't discovered to be cursed until after it was too later and burials had already occurred. Maybe the cemetary encroaches, but not into the actual cursed area.

I mean, there are a lot of cursed cemetaries, in film and legend, so it most certainly could work. It's all about execution, obviously, but it just seems a shame to not utilize the best pre-existing element that she's got, that makes what she is doing stand out from what any of the rest of us can do...
 
#86 ·
The idea is good, and we used it last year. But like Fontgeek said, part of the story line this year is that the woods are possessed by evil, the ground is unconsecrated, and the families were too afraid to bury their dead there. But it could be tweaked to include that perhaps there were people buried there before the area was settled and their lost souls roam the grounds or something to that effect. I did the cemetery thing last year, and I was trying to give it a whole new theme this year. I already published the bit about no one being buried in the woods and that was the reason the cemeteries are on either side and not actually in the woods on the website. I am trying to convince the guests that the woods are actually badly haunted, with gruesome murders and unexplained disappearances there. I almost feel that including ground breakers and things normally seen in cemetery scenes in the currant storyline would take away from the ability to convince them that this is real. I am trying to stay away from mythical creatures like werewolves and focus on things that people find truly terrifying like malevolent spirits, or evil things/beings in the dark woods, and the possibility of encountering one.
 
#87 ·
You may be able to get away with ground breakers, provided that they are demons or something that is breaking out from below. Making them non-human helps to give you a source for the demons/creatures rather than them just accidentally showing up for your haunt, and as discussed earlier in this thread, having limbs holding down a "guest" kind of already hints that there are demons or some sort of creatures coming up from the soil.
You have a lot of time to fill out your story line before it gets critical to public reading. For you, that means that you can still tweak your story a bit, but don't stray far. People will remember the gist of a story, if not the fine details, and if you stray too far from what they may have read you can lose the following you've already built. Adding in more and more information as it's "Discovered" by you, the reporter or historian lets you fill out your story and build anticipation by the readers. The more you can tie your story to known events and known landmarks the more people will buy into your story, and the haunt as a whole.
 
#88 ·
Hmmmm...thinking about the idea of " demonic" ground breakers...what about some sort of demonic looking thing that could be animated with a wiper motor? How long would a 12 volt battery power the wiper motor? I could buy the rechargeable ones. But it would need to run for about 5-6 hours at a stretch. Any ideas on that?
 
#90 ·
:jol: Since it is in the woods an idea would be to create a short walk through a walkway constructed of wooden pallets. You can get them free from autoparts stores, dealerships, etc. Martha Stewart used them last year on a special she did for setting up a haunted house in her garage. http://www.marthastewart.com/865190/martha-stewarts-haunted-house
It would be neat if you constructed one, but the catch is, each person must go through the Corrider of Spirits alone. Since your father is so good at building he could construct it quickly for just the cost of some nails, since the pallets would be free. Then you could age it and cover it with branches, twigs, cornstalks, whatever to make it more 'woodsy'. I think when you seperate people from a group into individuals, suddenly the giggly fun of a spook trail becomes ominous and frightening in a way it never is when you are surrounded by friends. The whole safety in numbers thing really rings true when you face your fears......alone.....just a thought. A haunted wood sounds so cool. :D I sure hope you share pictures.
P.S. I love the chicken wire ghosts too. I am going to do a few for my graveyard this year as well.
 
#91 ·
:jol: I just had another thought...you could make the front of the walkway look like the entrance to a mausoleom. Then as they entered you could make it seem like they are going underground like into a crypt with bones hanging down, worms, dirt falling on them...you could make it super crypty-crawly. You could even dig it down so the ground actually is graded down so they would be walking down, into a grave.....hhmmmmm...:eek:
 
#92 ·
Unless you have the area pretty well lit, people won't be able to see much with the ground breakers. Remember we're talking about real woods at night with cemeteries on both sides so little or no ambient light.
If you need to keep the people in a group then the only practical way to do the "spirit hall" is to have their guide go through first and have everyone wait until the last of their group comes through so that the group can go on.
If this is supposed to be cursed land then you won't find a mausoleum or crypt on it.
Having dirt or anything else for that matter falling on guests is an invitation for major lawsuits and injury.
If you actually had the dirt walls collapse, you could kiss your haunt and a good chunk of your life savings goodbye, and that's provided you have insurance. I can't imagine any fire or safety inspector letting you have that kind of setup. And if it can't pass them then the insurance wouldn't cover it. So digging the trench for people to walk down into is pretty much out.
 
#95 ·
Adding a boombox or two that have someone or something with an evil sounding voice calling or chanting something indecipherable to those on the trail can help your trail stay "alive" even in areas where there are no props or actors. You can plant them, the boom boxes, in several places all with the same stuff being played to make it sound as if the creature or demon is surrounding them. If you have a Mac, know someone who does, or you have musical equipment that has a reverb and or echo on it, applying it to the recorded voice for your finished recordings can help make the voice seem more other worldly/etherial. You can add those effects in itunes on a Mac. Having loud "whispers" or having a whispery version of the chant or call going at the same time as the chant can make it creepier too. If you've ever heard "The Doors" song "Riders on the Storm" you will know what I'm talking about.
 
#100 ·
I'm on the same page. Chanting, whispers, maybe some kind of ritual?

Maybe even ghosts attempting to re-enact the ritual that caused the trouble in the first place...but yeah, chanting and whispers and strange langauges (Ia! Ia! Cthulhu ftagn! or however it's spelled...)
 
#96 ·
Boom. Mind Blown.

Personaly, I think something that could be scary is if you did a fallen boons area. Something along the line of hideous inbreads/hill-billy's and have all scratched together shacks that you could walk through on the path or just have the front for an appearence where actors could come out of. You could even borrow ideas from old westerns in the way that the buildings could look or such.
 
#101 ·
Make the chants very 'Breathy" rather than just a plain whisper, a fair amount of reverb and lots of depth can go a long way in hiding the location of the speaker(s) that are broadcasting this. Using a made up language, but something that is consistent and keeps a good rhythm or tempo helps sell it as something believable and helps you avoid people pointing the finger at you, the haunter, for branding a real culture as being worshipers of satan, or whatever. It also gives you a lot more flexibility in the timing and cadence of the language/text.
 
#104 ·
So, I am thinking about my storyline, and I am thinking about more props. Could I weave some zombie type of characters in there, the souls of the ones who were murdered or disappeared into the woods? Perhaps having several in one scene, with an actor or two hidden in them, that would come after the group?
 
#105 ·
How many actors do you have at your disposal? I think that having lots of actors helps most haunts, it keeps them from just looking like a collection of props. But getting and keeping actors is tough, especially if your haunt is going to go for more than just a night or a single weekend.
 
#106 ·
I am shooting for 15-18 actors. 15 would be the minimum I could use. That is not counting myself or my family, since we do the business end of it. Just the actual actors I would need to hire outside of us. Yes, I struggled with keeping regular help last year. I am hoping that recruiting the drama clubs will help with that this year.
 
#107 ·
I'm not sure what kind of "props" you would use to have several zombies in a scene shy of having some zombie puppets being operated by other zombies. Static zombies would look awkward if they are supposed to be "alive". If you have zombies then you kind of need to explain their presence in your storyline. If you tweak the zombie thing so that they are guests who have been captured by the woods/forrest then you could do the makeup and costumes to have more of a plant-life based look. Maybe having one or two live actors and a couple of static, or mostly static zombie puppets chowing down on a "captured guest" (maybe a static prop, or an actor who could be working a puppet or two himself). But the thing with zombies is that they tend to look like decomposing corpses if they aren't in motion, so you need either mechanics or actors to put them in motion for scenes. Though you could "plant" some "guests" as we described in an earlier post who are basically tied down to the ground by roots and such, throughout the trail of your haunt. But given as dark as your woods will be, you would have to supply some lighting that's either stationary or by the guide's flashlight to make sure that the "captured guests" are seen/visible to those taking the tour. You may only need to "light" one or two of them early on, that will have those on tour looking for them throughout the rest of the tour.

I'd look at adding spiderwebs, and I'm talking about big, nasty ones to your haunt, and do some big but realistic looking spiders too. You can string a strong line of fishing line across the trail that has a bunch of fine fishing line hanging from it at the level of peoples faces. Showing the spider webs and spiders early on puts the suggestion or thought in people's minds that the spiders are there, so that when they feel the "spider's webs" on their faces they will panic and start to scream and run.
I got a large tarantula mold off of ebay to be able to cast silicone spiders with. Using that kind of thing on your spider webs helps bring the idea home that the guests are being hunted by the spiders too. You could have some "captured guests wrapped up in spiders webs too. If you have a human figure like shape with one of the Shiatsu massagers making the stomach area "squirm" it can help sell your story. Having several captured guests cocooned and held up high (out of reach of guests), they too can help sell your story-line.
 
#108 ·
I'm not sure what kind of "props" you would use to have several zombies in a scene shy of having some zombie puppets being operated by other zombies. Static zombies would look awkward if they are supposed to be "alive". If you have zombies then you kind of need to explain their presence in your storyline. If you tweak the zombie thing so that they are guests who have been captured by the woods/forrest then you could do the makeup and costumes to have more of a plant-life based look. Maybe having one or two live actors and a couple of static, or mostly static zombie puppets chowing down on a "captured guest" (maybe a static prop, or an actor who could be working a puppet or two himself). But the thing with zombies is that they tend to look like decomposing corpses if they aren't in motion, so you need either mechanics or actors to put them in motion for scenes. Though you could "plant" some "guests" as we described in an earlier post who are basically tied down to the ground by roots and such, throughout the trail of your haunt. But given as dark as your woods will be, you would have to supply some lighting that's either stationary or by the guide's flashlight to make sure that the "captured guests" are seen/visible to those taking the tour. You may only need to "light" one or two of them early on, that will have those on tour looking for them throughout the rest of the tour.

I'd look at adding spiderwebs, and I'm talking about big, nasty ones to your haunt, and do some big but realistic looking spiders too. You can string a strong line of fishing line across the trail that has a bunch of fine fishing line hanging from it at the level of peoples faces. Showing the spider webs and spiders early on puts the suggestion or thought in people's minds that the spiders are there, so that when they feel the "spider's webs" on their faces they will panic and start to scream and run.
I got a large tarantula mold off of ebay to be able to cast silicone spiders with. Using that kind of thing on your spider webs helps bring the idea home that the guests are being hunted by the spiders too. You could have some "captured guests wrapped up in spiders webs too. If you have a human figure like shape with one of the Shiatsu massagers making the stomach area "squirm" it can help sell your story. Having several captured guests cocooned and held up high (out of reach of guests), they too can help sell your story-line.
Hmmmm....I love that idea!!
 
#109 ·
If you have a shed or something the guests are going to walk through, have it after they see the spider webs and captured "Guests", that will let you hang the threads down into their faces within the shed, and at it's openings/doors in or out. Having the spiders seen first plants the ideas that there are spiders that are hunting guests, so that by the time they feel the "webs" on their faces they will already b a bit panicked by what they saw earlier. The webs in their faces should get them to scream and start to run. If you get a chance, watch the movie "Arachnophobia", there's lots of good stuff there for ideas.
 
#110 ·
I would avoid Tiki torches and burn barrels, or anything involving actual fire. Use the vegetation to your benefit; it's easy to hide actors in bushes in the dark.

We did a haunted trail at our renaissance faire last year for the first time, and the most effective thing, I think, was our cemetery set. The downside to a cemetery set is that it telegraphs upon sight that "scares are ahead." But on the other hand, I think that's what people want to see the most--something with imagineering in it, instead of startling from the darkness.
 
#112 ·
Thanks pparent79! It is going to be a lot of work...actually it already is LOL! But, I am really excited about it. I have gotten some great ideas here. I am also lucky enough to have a wonderful mentor who has helped me tremendously. Without his help, I don't know what kind of a woods I would have had! Nothing close to what it is growing into. So, I cannot take all the credit, I have had a lot of help. Even though they may not actually be by my side building it, they planted a lot of the the dark, twisted, evil seeds. bahahahahaha!!!:)
 
#113 ·
Hey Guys,
I have an unexpected snag I cannot seem to get past with my woods. There is an old mobile home on the property. It was suppose to be moved but we have ran out of time. I have painted it black and piled brush around it to make it look like it is an old abandoned building. There is no back door to it, and the front faces away from my trail. I am stumped as to what to do with it & still fit into my story line. I cannot use a cemetery scene, or movie characters. I cannot lead groups through it either. Any ideas would be great.
 
#114 ·
How about an old scientific lab, that they used for unspeakable experiments. No one can go in now because of some accident that happened years ago, and it is radio active. They must stay away or otherwise become infected with an overdose of what had turned these poor creatures into zombies, or some type of flesh eating waste.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top