# Hillbilly style haunt - Need Ideas



## Chuck (Oct 10, 2009)

Kind of a long read, but I want to give you a bit of information beforehand.

Myself and another member on this site, BigAnt, have been asked to create a haunted house for our community this year. This is out first one and want to make a big impact. We have a park in our community that is maintained by the City. There is an area that is fenced in with a large maintenance shed the city has given us to use. The total fenced in area is 160'x80' and the building is 40'x40'. We want to use most of the whole lot for this. The building looks like an old warehouse so we want to use this as the beginning of the haunt and then use the rest of lot for an outside haunt. The nice thing, the building has been not used in years and is practically empty. The layer of cobwebs on this thing and the dirty floors and walls, make it PERFECT.

The city that we live in prides itself on being "Country Western" oriented. So we figured a good "Hillbilly" style haunt would be perfect.

Here is the idea so far. We want the visitors to feel like they just stumbled upon an old meat packing plant with a corn field behind it. We will have some country folk playing banjo's, maybe a moonshine still, various actors interacting with the crowd. When they enter the front of the building there will be bodies wrapped in burlap hanging from the hooks. We will have a live actor in here as well, wrapped in burlap (not hanging on the hooks). When they get through the bodies there will be another actor inside a caged area (this is an all steel cage that is part of the building. really creepy looking) working on "processing" the bodies so to speak. His job is the scare the people out of the building

When they exit the building they will find themselves in a Hillbilly camp. Faux campfire with a body on a spit roasting, a little shack, and assorted actors and scenery. There will be a corn maze behind the camp that the visitors will need to walk through to exit.

The story behind this is; Mama runs her little band of hillbillies. However, mama is dead. Think Norman Bates. Mama speaks to her kin as a figment of their imagination. I like the idea of Mama, because subconsciously people see a mother as an endearing loving figure, and we are turning this into something sinister. The actors will say things like "Mama, looks like we got a fresh batch comin through, want me to sick Cletus on em?" (or somehting like that). A fairly large man in a burlap sac mask will come out and chase them into the maze with a chainsaw.

The next scene is the Row of scarecrows. There will be an actor on the ground before the row starts using one of those scarecrow puppets like Cornholio from VFX Studios. It will seem like the scarecrow came off his perch and attacked someone. Once they start walking through the row of scarecrows (which will probably be like 20 of them) they are wondering which one is alive. Of course, one will be a live actor that will scare them into the next scene.

The next scene will be spiders and spider webs. Behind the walls, that the spiders are on, is a sealed area for actors. They can move the spiders, make them jump off the walls a little bit, stuff like that.

After this there a few twists and turns and we are a little lost on idea for here. Visitors will eventually end up in an area where people have been captured. Actors will be locked inside small chicken wire cages. A deranged hillbilly will poke the actors with a fake cattle-prod or something like that. Saying things like, "Mama is gonna love you". He will then chase the visitors out of this area .

There will be another couple twists and turns in the area of the maze. Not sure what to do in these areas yet.

Eventually they end up in the last long walk to the exit. This walk is about 40ft. Once the visitors make the turn the same "Character" with the chainsaw chases them to the exit. This character will not be the same actor. Same size and build, same costume, visitors will think it the same person from the beginning that has been hunting them through the whole maze.

Before they actually exit. The exit is on their right, however to the left of them will be a backhoe of if we are a lucky a combine. An actor will be sitting in the control seat and activate headlights and a loud airhorn that should scare the crap out of them as they exit the maze.

We need some ideas from out fellow haunters on here. Looking for additional ideas to fill the scenes. The actual maze is not set in stone yet. So anything that pops into your heads will be greatly appreciated.

Here is a sketchup of the design so far.


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## Chuck (Oct 10, 2009)

I forgot to mention. Power is very limited in this location. Therefore lighting will be extremely limited. The idea that we had was to hand the visitors a lantern that they may use to walk through the haunt. There will 2 levels of fear to choose from. Choose the small lantern for the "Come at me, bro" experience, or choose the large lantern for the "No daddy, please don't hurt me" experience. Lanterns are then returned at the end of the haunt.

For kids that may visit and are scared easily, we have the local police department handing out the Red flashing safety pins. Kids can choose to wear these through the haunt. The actors will be instructed to either tone there scare level down or actually be afraid of the red light and make the small kids feel empowered over the "monsters in the dark" so to speak.


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## Aquayne (Sep 1, 2008)

You can use the real scare of walls that look too flimsy and falling barrels that tip as if falling but stop. Make everything look as if it were barely held together.


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## Aquayne (Sep 1, 2008)

I saw one scare that was the standard chainsaw, but it was rigged so that it threw sparks from the bare bar looking as if they forgot to remove the chain for the haunt.


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## Aquayne (Sep 1, 2008)

There used to be a remote flashlight that could be turned off and on my the haunt operator at will.


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## Pumpkin5 (Aug 8, 2010)

:jol:Sounds like a terrific plan, and with you and BigAnt working on this, this haunt is going to be AMAZING! One thing I saw on a Martha Stewart special was making a "mine shaft" out of wooden pallets that everyone has to walk though. It is kind of cool because you have to sort of stoop to go through and then actors can poke things through the gaps in the pallets as the customers walk through. I loved this idea when she came up with and the pallets you can pick up for free at so many places.... You wouldn't have to call it a mine shaft, it could be called anything, like the cattle "holding pen or shoot", something like that that the cows have to go through before they are slaughtered. I wish I had the video to post here, it was such a good idea. And jdubbya used wooden pallets last year to hold cornstalks up, and that could be part of the maze. I'll try to come up with some other ideas and I'm sure the great people here are going to bombard you. So far you guy's ideas sound pretty great! Love the spiders idea, don't forget to hang fish line to brush against the patron's faces as they walk though spiderland.


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## BIGANT (Jul 13, 2010)

yeah the pallets and cornstalks that Jdubbya did last year served as a huge inspiration for this. We want it to look like a corn field and had planned on making the walk way out of pallets loaded with cornstalks


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## BIGANT (Jul 13, 2010)

I just noticed the changes you made to how people will walk up to the camp that's perfect!!!!


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## Pumpkin5 (Aug 8, 2010)

:jol:Sorry guys....I just can't believe there aren't more ideas on this fabulous thread...so many good ideas are floating out there in the creative brain that is Hauntforum.....if folks would just share.....
Dang it...


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## Chuck (Oct 10, 2009)

So I was toying with a scare last night and I am sure I have never seen anything like this before.
Our plan is to send a group of people, say 6-7, at a time through the haunt. You could be paired up with people you do not know. This scare depends on that assumption

What if there was a hidden actor area somewhere inside the haunt where the actor was dressed like a regular patron.

The group of people comes by and the "plain clothes" actor silently joins the group. Then when they enter a scene the main protagonist of that scene attacks the "plain clothes" actor. (maybe the scene with the dog cages). They will grab the "plain clothes" actor and make it looks like they hit em with a baseball bat or something and then throws them into one of the cages.

After the group passes through, the "plain clothes" actor would walk back to their hiding spot and wait for the next group.

The patrons will think, "Holy crap, what kind of haunted house is this. They just beat the hell out of one of us and through them in a cage."

We all know in the back of our mind that a haunt is safe because we know that the actors cannot actually touch us. So, without actually touching the patrons you bring a whole new level of fear to the haunt.


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## JustJimAZ (Aug 19, 2010)

Chuck said:


> So I was toying with a scare last night and I am sure I have never seen anything like this before.
> 
> What if there was a hidden actor area somewhere inside the haunt where the actor was dressed like a regular patron.
> 
> The group of people comes by and the "plain clothes" actor silently joins the group. Then when they enter a scene the main protagonist of that scene attacks the "plain clothes" actor. (maybe the scene with the dog cages). They will grab the "plain clothes" actor and make it looks like they hit em with a baseball bat or something and then throws them into one of the cages.


I first saw this scare about 25 years ago in a haunted hayride. The shill was on the wagon, and the actor actually crawled up on the wagon and dragged him off, "killing" him with a shovel. I was favorably impressed.

I really love using shills in various ways. I think this is something to consider for sure.


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## JustJimAZ (Aug 19, 2010)

Chuck said:


> The next scene is the Row of scarecrows. There will be an actor on the ground before the row starts using one of those scarecrow puppets like Cornholio from VFX Studios. It will seem like the scarecrow came off his perch and attacked someone. Once they start walking through the row of scarecrows (which will probably be like 20 of them) they are wondering which one is alive. Of course, one will be a live actor that will scare them into the next scene.


First, I love the idea of "mama". I am wondering if you reveal her corpse early or late in the haunt? I think a reveal of her decaying body - like Mrs. Bates' body in the movie - would be useful to tell the story to the audience.

Then there are the scarecrows. I love scarecrows too. The Cornholio combines the illusion costume and the scarecrow, and I think it is great! You say that "of course" one of the scarecrows will be an actor. I would like to submit that this is not necessarily so. The scare actor COULD be lying hidden under what appears to be dirt and/or hay. I imagine there will be corn, probably arranged in bundles? One of those bundles could be a costume, and the whole bunch of corn could come after them.
if you do want to put an actor in one of them, I would suggest putting him in one that he cannot possibly be in - like one that appears to be just an upper torso on a stake. It's a variation of the "head on a table" illusion, and can be constructed so it looks like there is no way it could be an actor. Of course, when the actor reaches for them , it will be a surprise, and when they jump, and the corn behind them attacks, it should be a good time! For you.
Check out some of the illusions here:
http://www.pinterest.com/justjimaz/magic-and-illusion-for-halloween/


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## Chuck (Oct 10, 2009)

JustJimAZ said:


> First, I love the idea of "mama". I am wondering if you reveal her corpse early or late in the haunt? I think a reveal of her decaying body - like Mrs. Bates' body in the movie - would be useful to tell the story to the audience.
> 
> Then there are the scarecrows. I love scarecrows too. The Cornholio combines the illusion costume and the scarecrow, and I think it is great! You say that "of course" one of the scarecrows will be an actor. I would like to submit that this is not necessarily so. The scare actor COULD be lying hidden under what appears to be dirt and/or hay. I imagine there will be corn, probably arranged in bundles? One of those bundles could be a costume, and the whole bunch of corn could come after them.
> if you do want to put an actor in one of them, I would suggest putting him in one that he cannot possibly be in - like one that appears to be just an upper torso on a stake. It's a variation of the "head on a table" illusion, and can be constructed so it looks like there is no way it could be an actor. Of course, when the actor reaches for them , it will be a surprise, and when they jump, and the corn behind them attacks, it should be a good time! For you.
> ...


Her corpse would be revealed early on in the haunt. Those are some fantastic ideas. We could definitely work some of those in. Thanks


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## JustJimAZ (Aug 19, 2010)

A couple more thoughts that came to me over the last few hours....

Dogs. Hillbillies have dogs. Hounds. Now, I imagine having real dogs could be a problem. I would like to think some character out front could have a couple lively hounds on leashes, barking and baying. I have NEVER tried that, and have no idea how well it could be done. They say kids and animals are the hardest to work with.
Having said that, the barking and baying could be put just about anywhere, right? One thing that immediately comes to mind is a trigger that sets off a recording of hounds off to the right, apparently far off, with a man calling "We got their trail! Over here, Cooter!" Followed rather rapidly by a much louder and much closer vicious barking on their immediate left. If it could be paired with someone (something?) slamming into the wall of the maze / scene from the other side(where the patrons cannot see what did the slamming), so much the better! Especially if it's a wall made to move. Maybe made to look like it's fence made from a random bunch of rotting boards barely held together by rusty nails and bailing wire.

The thing about dogs is, the sounds of sniffing, barking, growling, etc., can be used anywhere. You spoke of a chainsaw wielding character that seems to pursue them through the maze. Maybe he has dogs? Or he has a companion who has dogs. The sounds of dogs could be cheaply set up anywhere in the haunt. I know you said electricity was limited, but you will have some, right? Battery operated sound effects are possible, but not very loud or convincing.

Another thing about the hillbillies themselves. Ever see "Dead man" with Johnny Depp? There is a scene where there are a couple of hillbillies / mountain men. As I recall, a fat one and a cadaverously thin one. The thin one wears a dirty, tattered dress. Maybe a wedding dress. Both are cannibals, as evidenced by a scene where they are sitting by the fire eating what is clearly a human arm and hand. Cross dressing cannibal hillbillies seems like a pretty freaky couple of characters. Plus, they talk to their overbearing dead mother? Cool.

Add in some trophies from previous guests - a necklace of ears, a few human pelts on the walls, huge dog dishes with human parts in them, maybe even a few scalps on belts. These are crazy, inbred monsters that do whatever comet to their minds with no rules, right? Maybe some are actually on chains like a junkyard dog.

Remember smells - use scents you can buy, or maybe actual stuff? Keep the dirt near the cornfield wet. Keep an open bag of manure in a scene or two. Leave a can of rotting chicken skin (probably covered in cheesecloth) in a scene for that special aroma. Gross.

Touch them. Maybe not with your hands or weapons, but there are ways. If you use the "mine shaft" idea, you can make it uncomfortably narrow, possibly make sure the sides are always slick and wet. Maybe have soiled underwear on a line in an area they must go through. 
If there is any kind of butcher scene, consider making a rig so that when the "cleaver" comes down, it pushes a bladder or bellows that splatters water (they hope) in the direction of the patrons. I read about one such scene where a guy behind a hurricane fence threw a heart at the people - except is was a wet sponge he threw, and splattered them. 
I'm sure by perusing the various tips and tricks others have posted you will have 10 times the scares you can possible build this year or next.

I hope you post pics and stories when you have made your run this season!


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## Gallows_meat (Mar 14, 2014)

What about an old blind Granny making quilts out of people's skin? That'd freak me out a bit, and I've never seen it before. Maybe another weaving something out of people's hair. Even better, have it look like their eyes were freshly torn out.


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## Terror Tom (Oct 27, 2009)

You could make a few human pelt like Allen Hopps did. 



 You could also add some meat hooks hanging around with some chunks of painted foam to look like organs or flesh.


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## scarycher (Aug 4, 2014)

Terror Tom said:


> You could make a few human pelt like Allen Hopps did.
> 
> 
> 
> You could also add some meat hooks hanging around with some chunks of painted foam to look like organs or flesh.


 Allen also makes some great organs out of tape, great videos!! rats out of dryer lint and just about any thing else you could think of


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## JustJimAZ (Aug 19, 2010)

DID this haunt ever happen, and if so, are there pictures?


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