# Halloween across the pond



## Upke (May 5, 2009)

Hello everyone,

I've been lurking these boards for a couple of months now. I came here because I was looking for inspiration for an idea I had. You see over here in the Netherlands Halloween is slowly gaining more ground. Since 3 years our local residents' association organizes a contest for the best Halloween decorated house. Each year children and their parents follow a route through our neighborhood so they can see what's on display.

This year I had the idea to do something big, to give Halloween a boost over here. When I look back I might've killed it off... ;-) Inspired by a local theme park (with a beautiful indoor cemetery attraction) I set out to create something that will make children and adults alike could marvel at.

By browsing this site and others like it I found technical solutions to what I was trying to create. I wanted to do a peppers ghost but I needed to find a way to do it as cost effective with the resources in hand. While I was at it I added a talking skull and something that looks like a flying crank ghost and after a couple of months of hard work this is what came out. It won me first prize....which is nice.





































This was all created using wood, lots and lots of cardboard and plastic. I purchased a fogger and a couple of 230 halogen lights which I could manually dim. Oh yes, this is all manually operated. Light control, fogger, even the opening of the coffin and the lowering of the ghost 

Enough talk, let me show you a video of the show. Obviously it's in Dutch, don't let that scare you. Video is a bit dark but you can use the pictures to fill in the blanks.











We'll that's it. I hope you like it, go easy I'm still a beginner. 

I already have a cool idea for next near. I've searched the web but haven't found anything like it. When the time comes I will update you.

Thanks for reading!


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## Dr Morbius (Sep 21, 2004)

Love to see Halloween celebrated in other countries..Looks great!


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## beelce (Jul 21, 2007)

Nice work Upke !!........very dramatic...thanks for sharing


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## shadowopal (Aug 9, 2007)

Excellent work! A nice way to take the initiative and blow everyone away (I assume). Looking forward to seeing what you come up with for next year.


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## nixie (Sep 17, 2008)

Great job, and congrats on your 1st place win!


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## halloween71 (Aug 9, 2007)

Very nice work!!!


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## fick209 (Aug 31, 2009)

Great job Upke - very nicely done. Congrats on winning 1st place!


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## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

Congrats and welcome to the Forum!


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## Bone Dancer (Oct 7, 2005)

Greatings and welcome. And congrates on the first place award too. From the look of it there was a lot of hard work and lots of time put into your haunt. Good luck in spreading Halloween in your part of the world.


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## Revenant (Mar 17, 2007)

Nice! In the house-lit pics, the flat look is obvious but when it goes dark with the haunt lighting it picks up a lot of depth and dimension... that panorama with the town below looks great in the dark shots. The moss on the skull is a nice touch (I do love mossy bones; they're so rarely done). And I love the way that sequence played out with the white face on the tombstone and the ghost... no idea what the hell he was saying but nicely done. Did you use a projection for that or a monitor behind a scrim?

Congratulations on winning first place. And thank you for helping spread Halloween! I look forward to seeing more Dutch haunts.


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## Sickie Ickie (Jun 20, 2006)

Great job! Looks more than just a beginner's work! You really raised everything a notch there!


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## Upke (May 5, 2009)

Thanks for all your comments! They encourage me to keep going, and to make it even more spectacular next year.



Revenant said:


> Nice! In the house-lit pics, the flat look is obvious but when it goes dark with the haunt lighting it picks up a lot of depth and dimension... that panorama with the town below looks great in the dark shots. The moss on the skull is a nice touch (I do love mossy bones; they're so rarely done). And I love the way that sequence played out with the white face on the tombstone and the ghost... no idea what the hell he was saying but nicely done. Did you use a projection for that or a monitor behind a scrim?
> 
> Congratulations on winning first place. And thank you for helping spread Halloween! I look forward to seeing more Dutch haunts.


You're right. I was hoping the clever use of lighting would mask the fact that its all cardboard and paper. It worked out nicely.

The projection is a peppers ghost. I used an old t.v we had lying around here and placed it behind the tomb. (it's supposed to be a tomb ;-)) I stacked the tomb up high enough so people wouldn't see the t.v. I then placed a piece of plexiglass over the t.v. And voila we have Count Rudolphus floating above its tomb. Because that was the general idea. Some kind of evil count coming back to take revenge on the people who finally got rid of him. The skull was one of his last victims. He warns the visitors not to linger. At 12 o'clock the tomb opens and he shows up. He has his dialog. (oh I'm great, I'm powerfull, you'll all die bla bla bla) Then Another one of his 'victims' shows up, decending down from heaven as a kind of savior. He explodes and gets sucked back into his coffin. The diorama in the back is supposed to be the town I live in.

I did the skull voice myself, a friend of mine played the count. To bad I don't have any up close pics about how it all was done. The plants, twigs, moss and the ton of leaves on the ground are all real ;-)


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## ScreamingScarecrow (Oct 1, 2008)

Nice work! Haunt the planet!!


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## hpropman (Jul 27, 2008)

Love it! great job I never would have guessed you are new to this. Welcome to the forum and I can't wait to see what else you come up with. You have great creativity.


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## RavensHollow (Nov 3, 2009)

Great job! Gefeliciteerd on the first place! (I hope that's correct) I lived in The Netherlands when I was in Secondary School. There was only the international school's little party to celebrate my favorite holiday. Some of us did decide to try out trick or treating although we knew nothing would come of it. People were very nice in trying to explain that "we don't do that here." It seems that the celebration is growing.


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## kprimm (Mar 14, 2009)

That was very cool, a halloween play. You did a great job putting all that together and doing it all manually.Thank you for sharing it with us.


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## scarymovie (Feb 14, 2010)

Good job!


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## Jaybo (Mar 2, 2009)

Go easy on you? Why? You did a great job! It doesn't matter what you use or how you get things done. All that matters is the end result. You display the true spirit of a good haunter. Use what you got to the best of your ability. It's evident that you put a lot of thought and effort into the making of this display. Good job! Now, get to work and make it bigger and better this year!


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## NytDreams (Sep 10, 2009)

Great work! Congratulations on 1st place there, you deserve it for all that work.  I really like the projection there, nicely done.
Haunting is soooo addicting...you'll just keep getting bigger and better every year and I look forward to seeing what you come up with!


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## madmomma (Jul 1, 2009)

Like everyone said, great job! Thanks for bringing the Halloween Spirit to other lands. You put a lot of work into your display and deserved to win. Kudos to you!


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