# Road’s End Eerie Manor 2022



## jdubbya (Nov 6, 2005)

Our 9th annual collaborative haunt came off without a hitch! We kept the vampire mausoleum theme for the third year, making some changes to keep it fresh. We were able to use a portion of our neighbors yard to expand our cemetery. The addition of a few more live actors really made for some great interaction with our visitors. The best of these was lewlew seated in the throne. He had some awesome scares and the scene was movie set quality. Great weather, an appreciative crowd of close to 500, and a fun cast of characters made for one of the best Halloweens ever!


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## jdubbya (Nov 6, 2005)

More


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## jdubbya (Nov 6, 2005)

More


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## jdubbya (Nov 6, 2005)

Walk through videos taken a couple hours before TOT hours and a couple hours after. The night video is eerily quiet but gives a good view of what the visitors saw.


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## stick (Jan 21, 2009)

Looks great as always. I look forward to seeing what you and lewlew have creative for the season.


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## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

So if that was lewlew on the throne, it must have been you on the hearse

Absolutely superbly done! The entire display looks like a movie set, and your little cemetery remains #1 on my list of favorites. I love the two sentries by the front steps, and the use of a projection inside the hearse is way cool.


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## The Haddonfield Slasher (4 mo ago)

So excellent! I haven't seen your previous years, but this one is fantastic. I love the use of the area between your houses. The whole setup with the thrown is very cool. And the tight areas of the cemetery, while out of necessity due to space, gives a very cool New Orleans cemetery feel. Absolutely love it. You prove that you don't need tons of front yard space to have a fricken cool cemetery. 

Simple question for you. Are your Jack's lit with candles or something else? Love the look, but if they're real candles, I wouldn't have the patience to go out and light them every night, and monitor for when they go out. Just wondering if they're lit some other way that I could learn from you.


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## jdubbya (Nov 6, 2005)

RoxyBlue said:


> So if that was lewlew on the throne, it must have been you on the hearse
> 
> Absolutely superbly done! The entire display looks like a movie set, and your little cemetery remains #1 on my list of favorites. I love the two sentries by the front steps, and the use of a projection inside the hearse is way cool.


Me on the hearse?! Why I oughta... Thanks for the compliments! It was so much fun putting this all together. Lewlew was great on the throne and got some fantastic reactions. We loved being able to expand our footprint a little bit this year. It all came together nicely and we had a great cast of actors to round it all out!


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## jdubbya (Nov 6, 2005)

The Haddonfield Slasher said:


> So excellent! I haven't seen your previous years, but this one is fantastic. I love the use of the area between your houses. The whole setup with the thrown is very cool. And the tight areas of the cemetery, while out of necessity due to space, gives a very cool New Orleans cemetery feel. Absolutely love it. You prove that you don't need tons of front yard space to have a fricken cool cemetery.
> 
> Simple question for you. Are your Jack's lit with candles or something else? Love the look, but if they're real candles, I wouldn't have the patience to go out and light them every night, and monitor for when they go out. Just wondering if they're lit some other way that I could learn from you.


Thanks very much! We do have a limited space but manage to use pretty much every inch of it. The challenge is sometimes keeping it cohesive but having themed haunts makes this easier. The jacks are lit with real candles, always! Since we only run our haunt to the public on Halloween night, (maybe a friends and family night), using candles isn't much of a problem. I let them burn out on their own (little tradition of mine). The last thing I do before turning in on Halloween night, which is usually around 1-2 AM , is go outside one last time to see if they have burned out. If not, I let them go.


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## Greg G (Nov 4, 2012)

The vampire on the throne is absolutely excellent. Perfect purplish paleness. Looks like right out of a horror movie.


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## jdubbya (Nov 6, 2005)

Greg G said:


> The vampire on the throne is absolutely excellent. Perfect purplish paleness. Looks like right out of a horror movie.


Thank you very much! It was funny that we spent the better part of half an hour positioning the spotlight, moving the throne back and forth, forward and backward a few inches, putting on the costume and making sure the shading was just right! But! It paid off! It was pretty foreboding and there were a lot of people who wouldn't even approach the fence that spanned the door!


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## Riff_JunkieSFR (Jul 11, 2011)

Absoutley amazing as always gentlemen! I still really love the projection in the hearse.


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## jdubbya (Nov 6, 2005)

Riff_JunkieSFR said:


> Absoutley amazing as always gentlemen! I still really love the projection in the hearse.


Thanks my friend! The projection worked very well, and from standing there at the entrance to the queue line listening to the comments, it was really a big hit. Lots of ooohs and aaahs from the kids.


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## lewlew (Mar 15, 2006)

Sorry, always late chiming in. Jdubbya was again the consummate host and always does an absolutely amazing job with the cemetery. While the hearse is center stage, his attention to detail and lighting really brings the cemetery to life. ( You all know what I mean ) So many things for the folks in the que line to take in.
While I was sorry to see the mausoleum leave us, I’m happy that it’s going to a new haunt where it came be used to the same capacity. Can’t wait to help the new owner set it up! 
We’re ready to go a new way with the haunt with some familiar themes but explored and expressed in different ways. It gets us back to prop building but it on such a grand scale.(I’m not sure I know how to do that anymore though)
Thanks for all the wonderful comments. It means a lot coming from you folks.
Stay tuned!


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## PrettyGhoul (Oct 7, 2005)

Just absolutely, mind boggling fantastic!!! I wish to someday see your haunt in person, I would love that!! 🎃 🎃 🎃 

I tend to watch over and over again...noticing all those fantastic details you put in....like the violet plume on your horse. Just so wonderful and every year! 🎃 Thank you for sharing.


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## jdubbya (Nov 6, 2005)

lewlew said:


> Sorry, always late chiming in. Jdubbya was again the consummate host and always does an absolutely amazing job with the cemetery. While the hearse is center stage, his attention to detail and lighting really brings the cemetery to life. ( You all know what I mean ) So many things for the folks in the que line to take in.
> While I was sorry to see the mausoleum leave us, I’m happy that it’s going to a new haunt where it came be used to the same capacity. Can’t wait to help the new owner set it up!
> We’re ready to go a new way with the haunt with some familiar themes but explored and expressed in different ways. It gets us back to prop building but it on such a grand scale.(I’m not sure I know how to do that anymore though)
> Thanks for all the wonderful comments. It means a lot coming from you folks.
> Stay tuned!


Definitely looking forward to our new direction. We've had a "haunted house" in the driveway for the past 9 years and it has become a community "go to" spot on Halloween. So many people tell us that they come here every year and have been doing so when their kids were small and are now in their teens or grown. I mentioned last year that we're seeing a refreshing uptick in the number of families with children and far fewer groups of rowdy teens. We think having the walk through haunt drew this type of crowd so shifting gears a few years ago was a good move. The condensed layout will be just as detailed with some well placed scares, just a lot less work for us in terms of set-up, tear down and storage. Excited to see how it unfolds and of course, haunting with lewlew is just too much fun!!


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## jdubbya (Nov 6, 2005)

PrettyGhoul said:


> Just absolutely, mind boggling fantastic!!! I wish to someday see your haunt in person, I would love that!! 🎃 🎃 🎃
> 
> I tend to watch over and over again...noticing all those fantastic details you put in....like the violet plume on your horse. Just so wonderful and every year! 🎃 Thank you for sharing.


Thanks PG! You're welcome to visit us any time you want! We've often said that the little details go unnoticed by most. This was particularly true when we did the walk through haunt. We'd spend hours detailing the heck out of a room or scene but people were so focused on just running through and getting scared that they didn't pay attention. A few observant folks would comment on some of the things we did but that was about it. With a display only haunt, visitors tend to pay closer attention to the things we have done; the candles, bats in the trees, the cat on the hearse seat, moss and vines that we apply to the facade, and yes, the funeral plume on the horse! Next year's theme will be traditional Halloween but with some dark overtones. We're planning a really cool feature in the driveway that will be scary but entertaining, and we'll be ramping up the queue line interaction as well. Should be a lot of fun!


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