# Rick Polizzi's Boney Island Videos



## Mr_Chicken (Nov 26, 2008)

I just found this whole collection of videos from Boney Island, an early haunting influence of mine that got shut down a few years ago. If you're not familiar, here's a taste of the spooky goofiness:




There's 11 more videos on this guy's youtube page: http://www.youtube.com/user/spinagain7


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## Devils Chariot (May 23, 2007)

that haunt was 1/2 mile from my home. luckily i got to see its last 2 years. lot!s of fun ideas to rip off


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## Front Yard Fright (Dec 23, 2005)

Very cool... Thanks for sharing! I've heard of the place and seen some pictures, but I didn't realize he did the entire show to music as well! That's great!

What was the reasoning behind it getting shut down??

Such a bummer to have something so great shut down!
.


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## fick209 (Aug 31, 2009)

Wow, that's very cool. Complete bummer to have a place like that shut down. Thanks for sharing!


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## Hauntiholik (May 17, 2006)

The Boney Island Skeleton Yard Haunt shut down due to complaints from neighbors.


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## operatingnurse (Sep 21, 2009)

I think my neighbors are gonna have me shut down, too!


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## bloodymaniac (Jul 14, 2010)

yep thats people ruining good times cause there stupid


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## Spider Rider (Nov 8, 2006)

I seem to remember reading he sold some of the "rides" on ebay for charity. So jealous of DevilsChariot for getting to see it in person!


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## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

Man, I wish that guy had lived on my block. What a wonderfully creative set up!

The skellies on the roof are a hoot


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## nixie (Sep 17, 2008)

I saw this haunt on HGTV, I would have loved to see it in person. Such a shame he was shut down, I thought he just decided to stop on his own. That's a bummer.


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## debbie5 (Mar 2, 2007)

I don't think he was forced to shut down..I think he just got sick of the cops coming over, neighbors complaining, fighting code issues and generally getting heckled by his municipality who were basically trying to "law" him out of doing his haunt. .....am I right?? He would get over 13,000 visitors in the 2 weeks before Halloween.....

I'm so glad thess videos are still "out there". LOVED this place..wish I could have seen it IRL.


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## PirateLady (Jul 23, 2010)

I hadn't seen this before... I had heard of it... thanks for sharing...


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## jaege (Aug 23, 2009)

The sad thing is that there are whole streets that set up Christmas displays. Huge affairs that really light up the night and no one complains or tries to shut them down. There is a house a few miles from where I live that has a huge Christmas display in his yard. He has to have thousands of lights and scores of props, and he lights up a tree that has to be 35 feet tall. Where is the uproar over that?


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## turtle2778 (Jul 9, 2006)

I would LOVE my street to get into halloween. We do have a neighborhood here in KY louisville actually that sees like 3000 toters. The whole neighborhood does it.


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## Otaku (Dec 3, 2004)

There's a street in Palo Alto (SF Bay Area) that is famous for it's very elaborate Xmas displays. Lots of animations, and most of it home made. A guy moved onto the street a few years ago, but did not participate in the decorating. Admittedly, he knew what he was getting into by living there, but I'm sure he had his reasons.
The neighbors tried to shame him into joining them by placing signs on his unlighted front yard, saying things like "Scrooge lives here" and "Bah, humbug!".
The traffic around that street is heavy with all the people coming to see the displays. If the same thing happens due to a successful and popular home haunt there's often an uproar, with people complaining about the "disruption" and additional traffic and spectators; with some exceptions, it's for just one night, not each night for two or three weeks. And sometimes, these are the same folks who smile fondly at the memories of the record-setting crowds who came to enjoy their Xmas stuff.


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## mroct31 (Nov 10, 2007)

Rick is a member of our group Cal Haunts and as I haven't talked to him as much as others in our group I'll tell you even though his haunt was great, and it was, if I was his neighbor I might have had enough as well. It's one thing to have a ****eload of people over on one Halloween night, but his haunt had grown so popular that he had to run it for a few weeks and the numbers of visitors over that time was staggering. There was really no choice for him but to shut it down. With as crazy as it would get at his intersection with the cars and people all about, as a neighbor, he did the right thing in respect to his fellow home owners. As a haunter it's obviously a loss but if you got a chance to see it in person like I did and luckily my kids to, it's a memory that will last forever and I'm grateful for that.
We do have "those" Christmas streets in our town as well and I guess if everyone for the most part is involved the crowd issues aren't a problem. To bad all of us don't live on one street together, could you image what those crowds would look like!


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## katshead42 (Jul 30, 2010)

Wow that's so awesome. I can't believe his neighbors are that uptight. I'm lucky to live in a neighborhood that seems to embrace my kooky Halloween obsession.


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## trishaanne (Aug 20, 2005)

My granddaughters make me play this at least twice a day..lol. I guess they're hooked! Of course now the youngest wakes up singing "This is Halloween everybody scream".....kinda freaks out her mother  And they BOTH pretend to take off their heads when the skeletons do it. 

I watched the interview with Rick and his wife on youtube. They said it costs between $6,000-8,000 a year to run it. Sorry, I don't care HOW much I like this little hobby, I could never justify that. At least without getting divorced...lol.







;


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## jaege (Aug 23, 2009)

It is a shame we all didnt live on one street or at least in the same neighborhood. What a treat that would be?


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## Ryan Wern (Dec 3, 2009)

That sucks that his neighbors shut him down! I'm sure he didn't leave the music on all night, it's stupid how some people just don't like fun. My friends neighbors called the police on him a few years back because of his Christmas display. It was very cool, all controlled by computers. The music for the display was broadcast through an FM transmitter, so with the exception of Christmas Eve, nobody could hear the music unless you were tuned into the proper radio station. At the end of the day, his neighbor's gripe was the display itself. He only ran 1/2 his lights on the days leading up to Christmas and turned the whole thing on on Christmas Eve, so it's not that his lights were causing propblems. His neighbor, come to find out, did not celebrate Christmas so she didn't think he should be allowed to have such a display. The cops laughed at her and told my friend that as long as he wasn't blasting music till all hours of the night and keeping people up with his lights than he wasn't breaking any laws. People just blow my mind sometimes.


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## Devils Chariot (May 23, 2007)

jaege said:


> It is a shame we all didnt live on one street or at least in the same neighborhood. What a treat that would be?


He he he! he lives 3 blocks from me! So I got to see it for the last two years he did it. Man it was great!


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## haunt1000 (Aug 23, 2010)

Boney Island was a fantastically creative yard haunt that is sadly missed. It was the perfect haunt for little kids, as well as adults, because of its sly use of haunted humor.
The simple yet ingenious fishing wire and pulleys animation system was what really elevated this from a static display to the fully immersive kinetic disneyland-like attraction that it was. It really was quite impressive in person, and drew huge crowds. Thousands of people had fun and enjoyed it, except for a few selfish and negative neighbors, who in my opinion, should have just left it be.


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## debbie5 (Mar 2, 2007)

is his line & pulley system documented online (in a how-to) anywhere??


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## Dark Angel 27 (Sep 11, 2008)

what an awesome display! damn those stuck up neighbors of his.

we should all move over to haunted westgate where mike and nixie live. :lolkin:
i really like the idea of a halloween neighborhood. last year i did a halloween fanfic that featured a halloween neighborhood like that.

i'm lucky to live in my neighborhood. the one year i actually had a yard display the neighbors said it was great that someone on the block had the holloween spirit!


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## mroct31 (Nov 10, 2007)

debbie5 said:


> is his line & pulley system documented online (in a how-to) anywhere??


He used FCG mechs on the majority of the bluckie props he had. I don't even think he did to much to specially wire them other than maybe install them a bit higher out of sight. Of course, he had a lot of them!


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## debbie5 (Mar 2, 2007)

Cool. Thank you. 

I knew I should have married an electrician....


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## TRex-socal (Sep 29, 2011)

It's okay everyone. Boney Island is returning for 2011. You can get updated information at www.boneyisland.com. After a 3 year break it is coming back at the same location. All new displays (as the old ones were sold) still using skeletons and the classic Boney Island humor. The them will be "Magic" instead of a carnival...nothing scarey and very family friending....all still animated with movement and custom soundtracks. There will be some things that will definitely "wow" the most experienced haunters!


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## trishaanne (Aug 20, 2005)

I am so glad to see that he is going to be setting up again. My grandkids LOVE watching the video of his yard.


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## mroct31 (Nov 10, 2007)

*Boney Island back and better than ever!*

Went last night and Wow, Rick is back at it in a big way! Look at the water show, just amazing!


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