# Ideas and Advice needed for a haunted trail.



## Lerushka (Aug 28, 2013)

So I host a Halloween party every October on my farm land in SC. I have a large barn where I have tables with food and such, then a large field where I hold a bonfire. There is a stream with a small bridge over it and then the next area is about 45 acres of thick forest. I have a 1/4 mile deer trail that I keep cleared which is where I have my "haunted trail". I have no power whatsoever out there, and it is super scary once dusk falls. I have a couple of deer hook things (where hunters hook their dead deers to drain and gut them) and that is about the only thing out there besides woods. I want to do a theme this year "Year of the scarecrow" and I am trying to think up some good ideas for the wooded area that people will walk through. I have a corn field where I am leaving up the dried up corn stalks so I can place a Pumpkinrot-esque scarecrow that I made. 
I was considering a back story for this year too, something about how the crows were taking over this summer so we had to make a bunch of scarecrows to try to save our crops from being eaten. When we came back to the farm one day, the scarecrows were missing and so were the people who live in the small house on the property. 
So, if you have any ideas for the haunted trail, which has no electricity whatsoever, I would be so thankful for them!


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## Haunted Spider (Sep 6, 2010)

Get some car batteries and some converters. Then you can have basic lighting for a few small scenes. 

Use Tiki torches to highlight areas of interest. Fire sheds a creepy light. 

Chainsaw with no blade. No explaination needed. 

Scarecrow means corn, lots of corn stalks if you can get them for free. Create a few scenes of with corn backing. Make a costume out of the corn to blend in. 

My favorite for a walkthrough outside. Make a scene lit with some torches. Make up several scarecrows with very odd body proportions with 2x or 3x clothes and chinsy masks from walgreens or the dollar store. Stuff pillows or whatever in them on a simple w2x4 frame. They all need to be standing and look very bad like you didn't even try. Have one that is a person, with the same style outfit on, all oddly shaped arms legs, etc. No one expects it to move as it looks like you just threw it together and it gets a scare every time.


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## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

Take a look at this thread for a start:

http://www.hauntforum.com/showthread.php?t=30164&highlight=haunted+trail


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## ocalicreek (Aug 1, 2013)

> Chainsaw with no blade. No explaination needed.


LOL! Reminds me of a haunt I was part of as a child...

I'll keep an eye on this thread, as eventually I want to make an element of our haunt a path through the lawn, and pacing/spacing the props/elements, I believe, is important. Also going to spend some time reading the linked thread. Thanks for the ideas!

Galen


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## Lerushka (Aug 28, 2013)

Great ideas Haunted Spider, thank you! RoxyBlue, It took me a while to get through that thread, but I got some nice ideas. I also went to a second hand store today and scored a old pair of denim overalls, and 4 mechanic onesies, one black, one navy blue and two khaki material. I am thinking about making some creepy scarecrows out of those, and pretending like the scarecrows hung the farmer, by hanging a dummy with overalls on from a tree. I am thinking about having lots and lots of spider related things out in the woods. Like a spiderweb tunnel that people have to walk through. With a dead body stuck in a giant web. It's difficult to go with all scarecrow related things because I feel like it limits my haunt. However, I feel like a need a theme each year so that I have a fresh haunt each time for my guests. Is this totally cheesy? Could I incorporate other creatures into this as well? Or should I keep a focus on scarecrows and spiders?


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## Hippofeet (Nov 26, 2012)

Can you set up some crow calls? Like off in the distance, off the trail, maybe three or four that get closer as they go down a portion of the trail? Do you have the budget for a scare? So they would hear the crows getting closer, and then maybe a bright light with a crow in front, with a super loud CAW!! close to the trail.

For corn, and I am sure it would work in weeds as well, you can set up a ground based axeworthy that pulls a large rubber ball (the ones kids used to bounce on) through the corn rows or the weeds really fast fast for about 50 feet, right alongside the trail. But thats a bit tough to do, and needs the right motor and pulleys. And time is a bit tight.


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## fontgeek (Jul 24, 2006)

For the woods, maybe some body parts/remnants from both scarecrows and humans, and some crows chowing down on a human skull, hand, etc.
Given the time of year, people will either be walking in the dark, or you'll need to put some kind of source for lights out there. The tiki torches... You need to be really careful, between people and your property getting burned, they may be more of a problem than a solution. Do your hunting for boom-boxes, Safari lights, lanterns, etc. now. Adding some ancient looking tombstones partially buried out in the woods can help promote the spooky feel you want too. They can let you "create" some history or backstory for your haunt fairly cheaply. Check out Stolloween's new headstones in the showroom or how-to section. If you, or someone you know has a gillie suit you can use, it can really creep people out when you have someone wearing it who is "stalking" the guests. People see something moving, but they can't tell who or what it is.


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## Lerushka (Aug 28, 2013)

*Scarecrow theme story*

What do you think of this theme story? I am thinking of printing it on the back of the invitations that I am sending out. I am making this "The Year of the Scarecrow". I have 6 props (scarecrows) made so far. Each one is unique, and each one has a living copy of itself. So, even though the props are stationary, it will be as if they came alive at some point on the trail, because I have actors with the same outfits and masks on, hiding out in the woods. I am working on having lots of spider webs out in the woods as well, and with a large spider I am making now. I will post pictures when I can catch my breath! My haunt is on October 18'th, so I am running out of time. Please tell me how I can improve my story. Also, keep in mind, the average age of my guests is about 7-10 years old, plus their parents, so I try to keep gore at a minimum. 
Ok, so here is the story: The Year of the Scarecrow

It looked like it was going to be a good year for corn. Half way through the summer we thought we would have enough to sell. Then the rain started. It wasn't just a shower or two, it was raining every day for a month. It started to flood the fields. It looked like we might not get any corn at all because the rain was washing it away, day after day. Then one day the sun came back out and scared the rain away, but not before all our corn had just floated away. Well, we are not the kind to give up so we planted again. We plowed up the fields and planted 50 rows and prayed the rain wouldn't come back. The rain didn't come back, but something else did. Crows. First hundreds of crows, then thousands it looked like. The rain had kept them hungry, and they were ready to snatch every seed we'd planted out of the ground. We took turns trying to scare them away. Waving our arms, shouting, and shooting into the air, which worked well for a couple days, but they were too smart and they knew when we had settled down, and then they would flock the fields again, eating up our precious corn seed. 
 We decided we would make false people...some folks call these "scarecrows". We made two at first, stuffing hay into some old burlap and overalls and a couple of masks from a Halloween gone by. Sitting out on the porch we watched, hoping it would work. The crows were so frightened by the false people, that they flew away, and didn't even sit in the surrounding trees to watch. Some of the crows were smarter than the others, and they came back, they stayed out of reach of the false people, and fed on the corn again. We decided to make 6 false people to cover the remaining fields. Taking burlap, and jeans and hats and gloves, any old clothes we could use we made four more false people. We used a pumpkin for the head on one of them. We drew a face on an old flour sack for another, and we even used an old baby doll head for the last one. We staked them up in the field and once again, an watched. The crows left, this time for good. 

 We all breathed a sigh of relief and started watching the corn grow high again. It grew fast and strong and we were thankful. We left for a couple weeks for a vacation our family so desperately needed. We took care to have someone live in the house and watch the land for us while we were gone. It was a man and his wife and two small children. They were nice people and they were happy to do us the favor. We were feeling great during our time away, it turned out to be just the thing we needed after our difficult summer. A week into our vacation we made a phone call, to check and see how things were back home at the farm. No answer at the farm house. We tried calling later that evening, a time when we were certain people would be inside for the night. Still no answer. We tried calling again the next day, and the next. Still no answer. We decided to go home a couple days early, to see if everything was ok at the farm. In the spring we'd seen both a bear and a pack of wild boar in the back woods of the farm. We had always been careful to take a gun with us when walking the land behind the barn, but we didn't know if the folks who were staying there for us knew how dangerous it was out there. That was in the back of our minds as we drove the long road home to the farm. 



 Turning onto the dirt road that led to our farm the first thing we noticed was the corn. It was taller than anyone had ever seen it before! Looking out at the corn stalks we wondered where were all of our false people were. All six that we'd created and staked up to scare the crows off were gone. There was a chill in the air, as we came up to the house. The house was abandoned. The front door was open, all of the windows were broken, and there was no one inside. The strangest thing was the straw and hay that seemed to cover the floors of the house. We looked around the house for some clue as to what happened. Nothing but straw, hay and broken glass, and a glove just like the one I'd used to make one of the false people. We looked outside to see if we could find anything else that would give us an idea of what happened and where the people were.


 That is when I saw him. A straw man. One of the false people we'd made was standing on the dirt road that leads to the back woods . His head was sagging, his body lumpy from the hay we'd used to fill him. His arms seemed to hang lifelessly at his side. Only one of the gloves that we'd tied with twine remained on the old flannel shirt he was made from. He started to take a step towards us. We all backed up slowly, and without saying a word, we quickly made our way to the truck. When we turned around we saw three more of the false people standing on the trail. One held a sickle, another held a old silage fork. The three of them stared back at us with empty eyes. A crow flew close to one, and landed on its shoulder. We drove away from the farm that day we have never returned.....


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