# Yard Displays - Walk Through or Seen From the Street?



## BadMonkey (Sep 7, 2011)

Hey Haunters,

Looking for some advice from those of you that have "yard displays". While Greenwood Cemetery looked great from the street this year, I've been thinking of trying to get my visitors a little closer to the action.

My goal this year is to animate the majority of my zombies and expand on the backstory of a toxic waste spill bringing the dead back to life. Yes, I know, not horrendously original, but I'm an old school zombie flick fan. My display consists of several static ground breakers and full sized characrters. In the middle of the cemetry is a wrecked car with a "victim" in pieces.

My question is, do you have a path through your dispay, or do you let TOTs look from the street with a direct route to your door for treats? With all the extension cords powering the cemetery I'm concerned about people tripping over or pulling up props.

Any feedback would be great. Look forward to all of the creative thoughts!


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## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

We set up our graveyard on both sides of the walkway that comes up from the sidewalk and driveway, so pretty much anyone coming to the door walks through the display. We don't, however, have a path going through any part of the yard because of the extension cords we use. We also partially fence both sides so (hopefully) folks understand that they are not to walk into the graveyard areas.


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## Lunatic (Oct 3, 2006)

My haunt is mostly a fenced display with animation, lights, fog and a couple audio tracks that no one passes through. A walk through idea sounds great but I don't like the liability. I like to set things up and have them run without too much attention. I like to relax a little bit and enjoy the scene before tearing it down at the end of the night without the worry of people getting hurt or breaking something.


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## Dead Things (Apr 4, 2009)

My hanut is a display with animatronic and pneumatic props. One year I had a toddler run into the yard and he alsmost got clobbered by a prop. Since then i gave built a fence to keep people out of the yard. Have toyed with the idea of a garage walkthrough.


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## BadMonkey (Sep 7, 2011)

Great feedback. Maybe I should rethink my prop layout to have some of the motion activated props closer to the street. Will DEFINITLEY be adding a fence this year as we did have folks traipsing over cords.

Dead Things, I absolutely have plans to expand to a walk-through very soon!


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## Osenator (Nov 11, 2011)

If you can do a walk around the house, Like we did, including a front cemetary, every loved it.


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## hazeldazel (Aug 2, 2011)

i live in Cali-sue-ifornia. 'nuff said. Keep your Homeowner's insurance up.


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## jdubbya (Nov 6, 2005)

Our front yard is the display portion of our haunt. It's a fenced off cemetery and no one is able to walk into it for all the reasons mentioned. At the peak of TOT hours there are 50-60 people lined up along the fence looking at the display, taking pics, etc..
We also have a walk through portion which goes down our driveway, past a covered patio scene and to the garage and then out through the back yard. This is the interactive part with scare zones and actors.


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## MurrayTX (Nov 4, 2011)

I have been struggling with the same question, as I have long dreamed of having a walkthrough haunt. The research into liability and the huge language barrier with most guests has nearly killed that dream. I have settled on going more elaborate and keeping stranger-class guests outside of my rockwall & iron fence (to peer over) as an alley runs the length of my side and back yards. My hope is to allow close friends (read: non-suing) friends a less-Halloween walkthrough. Maybe you can do similar?


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## fontgeek (Jul 24, 2006)

The idea of a walk through is neat, but you have to have the restraints/fences and manpower to handle the added exposure to your props and layout. The more angles people can view your setup from the tougher it is to keep the magic a secret. Keeping hoses, light fixtures, sound systems, extension cords, hidden ghoulies and ghousties, and other support pieces hidden from the viewers who can only see your stuff from one angle is tough enough, adding a whole new range of angles in addition to the original angle is a whole lot more work. Before you commit to adding a walk through, draw out a "floorplan" or aerial view of the whole layout, and include the sidewalk in front of the house as well as the walkway or path through it, look at all of the viewing angles for guests just standing there, as well as coming and going from the end of the path where they will get their candy. If you can still do the stuff you want with all of those viewing angles then great, If you can't... It's better (less expensive time and money wise) to work it out on paper or computer first if you can.


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## debbie5 (Mar 2, 2007)

Just remember: 8 year old boys love to PUNCH **EVERYTHING**.


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## stagehand1975 (Feb 22, 2010)

I make sure everything is more than an arms reach away from the path to the candy that goes up the middle of the yard to the side of the house where we put up a small tent to dispense candy from. Path is lined with fencing and caution tape. The sides of the yard have permenant fencing which helps.


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## slightlymad (May 25, 2006)

I have done both for various reasons. At the last house we saw between 400 and 500 kids never mind the adults so we had to do a fenced in display otherwise it bottle necked and things were damaged. we did however have things at the side and in the neighbors yard either for distraction or photos. these were always the most resilient and easily repairable. Now that i see a max of 100 its a winding trail through the cemetery so power is split either side of the path items are out of reach and the trail is lighted with rope light but i still use the fence which is currently being rebuilt to include conduit for electric and toying with the idea of piping fog all the way around as well. Simply put the number of ghouls you see and how they flow through is what i use a determination. if my count were to go up i would fence the trail with a 24" fence.


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## The Red Skull (Dec 23, 2010)

I use a walk through format but with care taken to move cordage to overhead when possible, or buried when necessary, to keep tripping possibilities down to a minimum. I also use white christmas lights along the "pathway" as a guide for visitors to follow... it's not fool proof, but then nothing is....


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## rayster1900 (Jan 10, 2012)

We have a temp fence we put up since people would just go under the cation tape and most of the time it was the adults that wanted to take a picture with the blow up ghosts(the wife half of the yard is blow ups and my sons side is more interesting) we have a long driveway that the tot's walk up so we do a 2 sided set-up and just hide all the cables and hoses with black fabric.


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## bloodymaniac (Jul 14, 2010)

My set up is a walk right thrrough my graveyard (front yard) and over to my driveway were u walk into my mortuary setup. I use rope lighting to guide the path and a few friends haunt the yard. Its fun and thank God I get good people that don't wanna break stuff and they all enjoy the walkthrough


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## mroct31 (Nov 10, 2007)

Mine haunt is pneumatic, motorized and static and is not a walk through. I'm with many in here in that the man power/supervision would need to be increased, as well as a lot of other items, and I'm not able to supply that. Like mentioned before I like to have things run pretty much on their own and be able to sit back and enjoy it myself. I do have a fence surrounding most of my haunt but there are some props that can be walked right up to as well as I have a decent length walk from the street to the door and if you want candy at my house you have to make that trek! Funny thing I once did a path through the graveyard a few years ago and it didn't end up being what I thought it would, not to mention it took a lot of valuable display space away as I'm in So. Cal and yard space is at a premium!


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## Sunkenbier (Jan 5, 2009)

I built a fence to separate people from the haunt and things are beyond arms reach on the other side of the fence. Wires cross over the path using a pvc structure I built. I hade 32 extension cords this year including lighting the pvs structure which also doubled as a lit pumpkin arch.


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## wandererrob (Aug 8, 2007)

BadMonkey said:


> Hey Haunters
> 
> My question is, do you have a path through your dispay,
> 
> Any feedback would be great. Look forward to all of the creative thoughts!


Sorry I'm late to the discussion. That said, my haunt is a walkthrough cemetery. I have a marked path (marked by green-lit skulls) through the center of the cemetery. The graves, props, cords, etc are all out of the path so they aren't tripped on.


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## niblique71 (Dec 2, 2009)

My haunt is "topographically Challenged". I live on a VERY Steep Hill. I've made it feel like a front yard haunt and walkthrough all at the same time. I've fenced in my cemetary and other delicate props and generally coral my patrons throughout the haunt. . My goal is to have a "Real" walkthrough in the back of my house where I actually have a few square feet of level ground. 

As far as wires, pneumatic lines etc. I actually went to the trouble to cut my driveway and excavate trenches to install underground conduit for AC and AIR. I'm absolutely anal about not letting ANYONE come near anything electrical even the 12V stuff. There isn't one spot where someone has to step over an extension chord or air line. Although I am far from Pro, I treat my haunt as if it was going to get inspected tomorow. Oh, and the Fire chief lives 2 doors down. Besides, on a hill as steep as mine, a big startle type scare could send someone tumbling down the driveway. so there is extra incentive to have No extra impediments (Chords etc) in the driveway. So, for me, a traditional Maze/panel type walkthrough in the back will be easier and faster to set up and tear down and would allow me to actually "Scare" a few Tots and parents. With some safety in mine it shoudl actually be a safer haunt (In my case).


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## nixie (Sep 17, 2008)

Ours has a fence all the way around it, and a path through it. The front half of the fence is permanent, the back half and path are temporary. The path starts under an arch, goes over a bridge, then the path splits and circles, and ends up under a second arch that leads to the front door. The TOTs and guests really seem to appreciate being able to walk through the scene. I have a definite problem with traffic flow (poor planning on my part), and placing lights so they're not in people's eyes at certain spots on the path is another problem I need to address better. I avoid having wires in the path, but in one area where it's unavoidable, I use lots of landscape fabric staples to secure the wires flush to the ground.


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