# ideas for a haunted trail



## Dan The Welder

I had a few ideas for an escaped experiment roaming the woods but I have much more room for more ideas, help guys ?


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## RoxyBlue

Take a look at jessjaja's thread here:

http://www.hauntforum.com/showthread.php?t=30164

The haunt is a trail through a wooded area and folks came up with a number of suggestions.


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## fontgeek

Like JessJaJa's situation, you will get better results from us, the rest of the forum, by telling us what you have in the way of props, actors, and terrain.


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## Dan The Welder

Idk an exact length, its a good 5 minute walk and leads to an actual graveyard. I have around 6 actors volunteering, I like to build my own props so that's a unlimited source of props, kinda. I had an insane asylum theme a few years ago but I want a new theme.


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## N. Fantom

You should try and play with tho whole 2012 thing and do an end of the world theme, thats what i'm doing with the haunted house i work at.


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## Dan The Welder

I like a post apocalyptic theme, do you have any ideas


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## Dan The Welder

RoxyBlue said:


> Take a look at jessjaja's thread here:
> 
> http://www.hauntforum.com/showthread.php?t=30164
> 
> The haunt is a trail through a wooded area and folks came up with a number of suggestions.


 this was very helpful, thank you


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## N. Fantom

Hmmmm, i'm doing a different take on the apocalypse but i'm keeping that a secret. That depends on what type of apocalypse your doing, myan style, zombie, nuclear, military, etc


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## Dan The Welder

I respect your secrecy, it would be amusing to watch mayans scare people with calendars, but kinda military, like a nuclear wasteland


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## N. Fantom

hmmm, fun! Well, obviously you have the radioactive waste barrels, nuclear reactors, zombies, nuclear waste puddles, mutants, sirens, destroyed towns, crashed cars. It all depends on your budget and ability.


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## N. Fantom

I would use a lot of green UV reactive paint and black lights.


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## Dan The Welder

Uv paint and black lights are good, I can't use the cars or towns, waste barrels are possible and zombies are too, my budget is pretty low though. Like a hundred dollars is my max for now. I might have more funds later


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## N. Fantom

Actually, i just recently start to build a facade for a mansion that was35 feet tall 50 feet wide for a film i was working on for around 30 bucks out of PVC, cardboard, and spray paint. I also began to build a crashed helicopter out of chicken wire, paper mache, burlap and monster mud. Also, if you want to increase the length of your walk, perhaps a looping section would work.


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## Dan The Welder

That's fantastic, I like to use pallets and old fencing for pathways


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## Dan The Welder

*experimental research themed haunted trail*

I would like to have a secret lab themed haunt this year, have 5 actors and a limited budget, any advice ? I need creative help :googly:


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## fontgeek

Your description sounds a bit like "The Island of Dr Moreau", though without more specifics on what your experiments are supposed to be it's a bot tough to say for sure.
Can you give us more specifics on what you had/have in mind?


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## QueenRuby2002

'grow pals' there little 3D toys that grow in water. You can cut them up or scratch them up then throw them in a creepy looking jar in foggy water or yellowed water and watch them grow and become monsteus looking. Sevreal jars like this on a shelf labled 'failed experments' looks cool. Or if your really into detail you can lable each one with a card like label giving it a name or number how it died and results. I'd only do the last on if your doing a party setting where quest might get close enough to read your lables.


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## Acid PopTart

QueenRuby2002 said:


> 'grow pals' there little 3D toys that grow in water. You can cut them up or scratch them up then throw them in a creepy looking jar in foggy water or yellowed water and watch them grow and become monsteus looking. Sevreal jars like this on a shelf labled 'failed experments' looks cool. Or if your really into detail you can lable each one with a card like label giving it a name or number how it died and results. I'd only do the last on if your doing a party setting where quest might get close enough to read your lables.


Agreed! You can age paper labels with tea in a squirt bottle or brown dye too. Queen Ruby, I just love reading your signature, haha!

I was a human lab rat for a while, some terrible memories, but wow the money was good. Also now get migraines on a regular medicine after testing some medicine for migraines. Fantastic. Anyhoo....... failed experiments is a great idea, can also use some vegetables and roots like ginger and bok choy. A good dye for the water is to use food colouring, use teir fluorescent ones, the brightness works really well if you make your containers look rusted and old. Hunt garage sales, auctions, even thrift stores for cheap glass containers and old canning jars. We have an antique mall where a dealer carries older medical tools which could look great hanging on a wall. Creepy lighting can really sell it too.


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## Dan The Welder

I think my budget would allow that. I wanted more of a military experiment theme


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## fontgeek

The problem with the military angle is that you would need to have military uniforms, and probably crewcuts on the "Victims" to carry the theme. I am doubting your friends are willing to get crewcuts much less the issue of supplying uniforms, weapons, etc., that we normally associate with the military. I hope you can get more slave labor, your actor's numbers are barely reasonable for a good yard haunt, especially if the haunt will run for multiple hours, and or for more than one night. Actors can only scream, holler, and thrash about for so long then they either burn out, lose their voice, or collapse.
How long is your "Trail"?


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## Dan The Welder

Its a decent 5 minute walk


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## Dan The Welder

Thanks for moving my other thread to this one, i appreciate it


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## fontgeek

Realistically, you should be looking for a scene, and or a live actor at least every 20-30 seconds in a haunt, if not more frequently. But keep in mind that most TOTs go through haunts pretty fast. If you are talking about mature adults, then they will walk slower, and analyze what they see much more than the kids will.


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## Dan The Welder

We dont get many toters so im going for more of a mature group to go through it


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## fontgeek

The more mature group will go through the haunt at a slower pace, which makes it tougher for you with so few actors. You might consider shortening your path so that you can get better coverage with your actors and props. If you are looking at strictly static scenes, then the need for actors isn't that severe, but it means you need to build out scenes that can take the scrutiny of the slower moving guests.
When people are in a rush, they capture general views and impressions of what they are exposed to, when they go more slowly, they have time to take it in (and pick it apart visually). So, you can build static scenes, and then, if you have some good, scary actors, you can use them as herders/cattle prods to try to speed up the guests by scaring or startling them as they go through your tour.
But you will have an even tougher time trying to carry off the military theme. Older folk will know what to look for.


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## Dan The Welder

I had another idea about local ghost stories and legends as a theme, would that be simpler


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## N. Fantom

That depends on what those legends are


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## Hairazor

I, myself, love the idea of local legends and ghost stories. What ya got?


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## Dan The Welder

Bigfoot-esque creatures, wampas cat, a few ghost stories and such


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## N. Fantom

personally, i think that the Bigfoot and wampas stories might be more complicated than the ghosts just because of the complicity of the creatures themselves. You would have to carve/sew the props/costumes, water proof it, apply fake fur, etc. But again, it depends on the ghost stories, if they involve a gaggle of galavanting ghosties, then it might be easier to do the big foot.


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## Dan The Welder

I suppose i may wing it


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## fontgeek

I like the local legends, even if you have to create them yourself. They let you shape the story around what you have and can do, and your locale or region. The closer you can keep your story to reality or local lore, the more people will buy into it. For haunts, they want to believe, to get scared, but if you make your story too far fetched, or it conflicts with itself the spell will be broken before it begins.


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## Dan The Welder

Thanks for the support guys


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## Dan The Welder

I decided to go with a multi-themed trail. I have 5 sections. Im going to have a butcher shop, graveyard and electrical facility, i need 2 more theme ideas for just scenes with no actors


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## MommaMoose

Personally I would leave the graveyard without actors. Everyone expects something to jump out at them in the grave yard. Just set up a MP3 player with whispers on a loop. Will kind of throw them off not having anything happening besides hearing voices. Its funny to watch how jumpy they get when nothing happens.


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## Dan The Welder

Is there any good mp3 downloads of whispers or would it be easier to do it with a karaoke machine


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