# Road's End Eerie Manor 2020



## jdubbya (Nov 6, 2005)

New Year, new decade, and a new direction for Road's End Eerie Manor Haunted House! When we closed out our haunt season last year, we talked about scaling back the existing set-up. In recent discussions, Mark and I have made plans to take the haunt in a new, and what we think will be, fun direction. The idea of doing a haunted "house" is one that has served us well for the past 6 years. The structure has been entertaining and has allowed us to do some really great haunt themes but as many of you know, it was also a lot of work. Set up, tear down, hauling and storage are among the issues that are becoming more difficult. Beginning this year, we're going to what could be best described as an "enhanced scene or set", utilizing a portion of the driveway previously taken up with the haunt structure. Essentially, it will be a façade or building front, to create the image of a larger structure. The space behind the façade will be minimal, perhaps enough to house one or two actors, or display a few props. It will not be a "walk in" building. We want to use the façade as a focal point of our yard haunt and it will serve as a space where we can hand out candy, create a really detailed scene and set up a few good scares! This simpler build can be changed up to go with a chosen theme, and while we'll come up with some different ideas, plan to keep with old school Halloween themes like cemeteries, witches, vampires, skeletons, etc.. We have no doubt that this new approach will keep things fresh, and really let people see and appreciate all of the detail we put into our haunts. As for this coming Halloween, we're still fleshing out some plans for the scene, but rest assured it will be pretty spectacular and we're sure it will be well received by our visitors. More details to come and we'll be sharing our ideas and progress. Look forward to your input and comments!:jol:


----------



## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

I trust there will still be some foam carving involved, because it just won’t be Halloween without seeing lewlew getting covered with foam dust:jol:


----------



## DandyBrit (May 23, 2013)

Sounds interesting - whatever you do it will be phenomenal because it always is.


----------



## jdubbya (Nov 6, 2005)

RoxyBlue said:


> I trust there will still be some foam carving involved, because it just won't be Halloween without seeing lewlew getting covered with foam dust:jol:


lewlew has been put on a zero foam diet, at least the white beaded foam. I'm sure some pink extruded foam will be used in places but the days of the huge foam pieces are behind us.



DandyBrit said:


> Sounds interesting - whatever you do it will be phenomenal because it always is.


Thanks! We're knocking around a few ideas for this year. We'd like to get into some projections and other effects, coupled with a few simple actor scares. Hoping the shift makes us more family/kid friendly and that we get people who actually want to appreciate what we do, rather than just run in, get scared and run out. Our crowds can be daunting and traffic congestion is also an issue. A lot of factors drove the decision but I'm thinking the new layout will be well received. We'll have our annual planning breakfast in the next couple weeks and get it down on paper.:jol:


----------



## Hairazor (Mar 13, 2012)

Change up ehh? Can't wait!!


----------



## jdubbya (Nov 6, 2005)

Hairazor said:


> Change up ehh? Can't wait!!


Thanks! Should be fun and I think we'll come up with some cool ideas.:jol:


----------



## lewlew (Mar 15, 2006)

This is Lewlew and I fully support this message.

Actually really looking forward to what we can do with this. While the actual building serves us very well and was always fun to trick out, setup and tear down was consuming time and energy. More than once I had to remind myself that this is supposed to be fun and a creative outlet.
Rosy, don’t worry, there will be blood- I mean foam. Foam! Sheesh 
The one nice thing about a consistent setup is that the big things only have to be created once and repurposed for several years. It’s fun doing a new facade every year but storage was a giant Pain In The A$$.
So stay tuned. Our planning meeting is coming up quickly so the devilish wheels are turning.


----------



## jdubbya (Nov 6, 2005)

Lewlew and I met yesterday for our annual planning breakfast and as usual we got a lot accomplished, including entertaining other patrons and the wait staff as they overheard us talking about drop panels, facades, projections, pallets, etc.. We got the preliminary plan down on paper. Lewlew had been secretly looking at my house on google maps and came prepared with detailed drawings of my property! Yikes!! We are going with a mausoleum themed facade this time around and there will be a lot of great detail. We even managed to incorporate some foam for Mark to carve so he's a happy haunter lol! The new layout is going to be pretty cool and so much easier to set up, decorate, tear down, and store. We will have to cut some wall panels down to 3 foot from 4 foot to accommodate the change in size, a good summer project. We're also going to be looking at some projections for the door opening, and we have plans to use a couple other wall panels to add some dimension to the scene. It was fun to get together again and put things on paper. We both have projects to work on now and I think I speak for both of us when I say we're both really excited about the new haunt design. We even discussed design ideas for future years so it's safe to say Road's End Eerie Manor will be around for a while. I'll add that Mrs. dubbya, who has been on hiatus from our haunt for the past three years, has even said she might rejoin us on Halloween night. She and lewlew's gf will make an awesome candy hander outer team lol! More updates to come.


----------



## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

Looking forward to seeing what you boys come up with!


----------



## Ravenseye (Jul 11, 2007)

I look forward to these sets of posts every year! Thank you for spicing up the doldroms of winter!

Looking forward to seeing what you cray cray kids come up with!

-Raven


----------



## jdubbya (Nov 6, 2005)

RoxyBlue said:


> Looking forward to seeing what you boys come up with!






Ravenseye said:


> I look forward to these sets of posts every year! Thank you for spicing up the doldroms of winter!
> 
> Looking forward to seeing what you cray cray kids come up with!
> 
> -Raven


Thats us! cray and cray! We'll have updates forthcoming. The original plan is already changing to incorporate a few more elements. The fun of planning early is that we begin to develop the scene and work on components during the spring and early summer. I've got several props in progress in my basement work area. Typically, we'll set up the front yard to go with the overall haunt theme but this year I think we'll just put a lot of stuff out, all traditional Halloween related stuff. It was always hard to leave neat stuff packed away as it wouldn't go with our theme, but now, going back to basics, we can bring out all of the skeletons, lots of pumpkins, small props, etc.. This will make it more visually appealing and interesting/fun for the kids. We'll be bouncing ideas off each other from here on in and if the final product is anything like we envision, it should be very cool!:jol:


----------



## jdubbya (Nov 6, 2005)

Over the past few days we've really begun some detailed planning. We had mentioned that the facade will be a mausoleum but not just a random mausoleum. There is one in the Erie Cemetery which is actually called the vampire's crypt. It has a lot of folklore attached to it and it has become a great urban legend in our neck of the woods. Mark is going to model the facade after this crypt, and what better way to incorporate the urban legend into our haunt than by resurrecting our vampire theme. We did a vampire haunt 4 years ago and it was our most elaborate and detailed haunt to date. We still have several elements left and plan to bring them back for this year, tying it together. One of the neat things Mark suggested was to print out the legend of the Vampire Crypt and mount it on a board/post, placing in in the queue line for guests to read while waiting. This will get the jitters going. The yard display will be tricked out much like the last vampire haunt, and we're going to incorporte a couple of startle scares near the facade itself. Lots of bats, skulls, some tombstones, dead trees, all to create atmosphere. We're both getting jazzed already and as the details go on paper we realize we have several projects to work on. Fun times ahead!:jol:


----------



## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

I saw the picture of the crypt you posted on Facebook. It will make for a beautiful facade.


----------



## jdubbya (Nov 6, 2005)




----------



## jdubbya (Nov 6, 2005)

Haven't posted in a while. Been doing home stuff and keeping my distance from the undesirables during the pandemic! Been working on several smaller props at home and have most of them finished up and stored in the garage. Lewlew and I communicate weekly and plan at some point to get to our warehouse storage and start going through our wall/roof panels to see what we're going to keep and re-purpose. There will be a considerable purge of these since the walk through haunt is done. Mark will take some of the panels to his place where he can design the facade. We'll be cutting a few of them down and can re-use much of the lumber however there will be many of them that get scrapped. Kind of sad when we think back 7 years to our first joint haunt and building everything from scratch, but the stuff has served us well. I plan to order our projection from Atmosfx soon. They also sell a scrim that I think will work well and Mark has access to various projectors. We did a vampire theme 4 years ago so resurrecting it will be fun and we still have some of the things we used before. With everything that's going on, we're wondering about Halloween this year; Will there be traditional TOT or will it be banned due to concerns for the virus? Even if allowed will parents bring their kids out to participate? Our decision to not have a walk through haunt may have been a wise one. It would have been disappointing to construct an elaborate walk through only to have it go unused. Maybe the worst case scenario will be to have drive by displays, much like Christmas. Hoping that people will come by to see the display in person. We've talked about having everything plugged in and running for a few nights the week of Halloween so people can see it. Being all outdoors and not in an enclosed space lends itself to social distancing and safety so we're optimistic that we'll have a fun time this year and that our layout will be appreciated. That's about all for now. We'll be working on things as the next couple months unfold and then hitting it hard come September. More to come!


----------



## Ravenseye (Jul 11, 2007)

Nice! Glad to hear there are still plans to charge ahead and deal with whatever the situation is by the time our season comes to be!

Good luck!

Hopefully, we can start getting back to (our version of) normal soon! 

-Raven


----------



## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

JD, we currently plan to do the yard thing again, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Halloween is more of a drive-by this year. That’s okay, because we’ll still be keeping the spirit (no pun intended) alive, as will you.


----------



## Pumpkin5 (Aug 8, 2010)

:jol: I look forward to seeing what you guys come up with, I am sure it will be spooktacular!:lolkin:


----------



## JR_Ferreri (Jun 24, 2020)

I suspect that while it will vary a great deal based on location, for many of us it will be about putting up an elaborate display knowing that there is a strong chance that we will see little to no TOT out this year.

😢


----------

