# The Asylum - 2010



## joker

I haven't had the time to take pics or post on here in some time, but thought I'd get a thread started for this years haunt. 

We are in a new location this year and are adding to the haunt. After last years success the local Chamber of Commerce contacted me and wanted me to do the haunt for them this year. I agreed but only if a donation would be made to Habitat for Humanity (the charity I did the haunt for last year).

We're using the 100 panels we built last year plus I have a $3,000 budget for building this year. Anything that I dont use of the 3K can be used towards props, lighting, costumes or whatever for the haunt. The cool thing about this year is that I get 20% of the profit and get to keep anything built or purchased out of the the 3K budget. 

The chamber is taking care of the signage, marketing, insurance, the venue and utilities. I didn't think last years deal would get any better but it seems that it has. I just wished we would have gotten an earlier start. Currently have 3 rooms built and will be building phase one of our maze this weekend. I'll get a layout posted and some pics later this weekend.


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## Uruk-Hai

Congrats!! Sounds like a great deal. Looking forward to seeing the progress. You'll be hard pressed to top last year's success - it looked awesome!!


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## Northern Touch

Congrats!!! and the best of luck to you!


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## Lunatic

Sounds great! Good luck Joker.


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## ScreamingScarecrow

Paid to Haunt!!
I would wet myself!!!


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## Just Whisper

That is awesome. Congratulations. How much do they charge to go through the haunt?


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## joker

Sorry no pics yet, and still working on part of the layout in sketchup.



Just Whisper said:


> That is awesome. Congratulations. How much do they charge to go through the haunt?


We charged $5 last year and $8 on halloween night. It'll be $7 this year and $10 halloween weekend.

We do have a little over 1/2 the haunt built though so no pre-build pics.


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## Creep Cringle

You do great work every year, I'm sure this year will be even better! Can't wait to see the progress!


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## joker

Here's the layout so far. Everything to the left of the small opening is completed. We're working on panels for everything on the right and have quite a few of them built and painted or waiting for paint.

If time permits there's still room far left of completed area to add on.


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## joker

Creep Cringle said:


> You do great work every year, I'm sure this year will be even better! Can't wait to see the progress!


Thanks Creep Cringle!


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## Spartan005

I can't wait to see the progress pics for this. Last year's Asylum was probably one of my favorite haunts that I've seen on this site. 

Good luck Joker!


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## Psyc0 Walrus

This looks great! I never did see anything more than early build progress in 2009 :/


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## joker

Psyc0 Walrus said:


> This looks great! I never did see anything more than early build progress in 2009 :/


There was quite a few progress pics and I think a short walk through vid posted in the Haunt Photo and Videos thread The Asylum Charity Haunt 2009


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## Giles

Following the progression of your haunt last year was one of my favorite pasttimes. I can't wait to see your progress on this one. Congrats on the deal with the Chamber.

Good luck!!!


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## Aelwyn

Congrats on getting funding! That's awesome!

And your layout looks fantastic....can't wait to see more progress pics!


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## Dark Angel 27

that's awesome, i can't wait to see some progress pics!


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## joker

Hopefully I'll have some time to take some pics this weekend. The build is about 90% done, but then I have lighting, audio, etc.... to finish.


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## Giles

I helped build-out a pro haunted house 4 years in a row and I know what you mean about not having time. We know you are super busy and when you get a chance you'll WOW us with what you have accomplished.


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## fick209

Your layout looks great, look forward to seeing your progress pics.


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## Regions Beyond

That layout looks very good indeed, nicely planned...be glad to see progress photos whenever you have them, and have fun with it! :xbones:


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## joker

This is horrible....we've already gone two pages and no pics. Here a few pics of what we've accomplished.

One of the new rooms....chow hall









One side of a two way tunnel/hall









The dot room









The Chapel - the staind glass is broken so they'll be able to see into the cemetery as they go through the chapel.









Mausoleum and cemetery area.









2 weeks till we open and dress rehearsal next weekend and still tons to do!


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## joker

A couple more

What's for dinner?


















1st hallway









Another pic from chow hall









There are still 4 other rooms I haven't taken photos of as well as a maze that spans over a 15' x 40' area, and I meant to take a pic of the over 5' tall electric chair a buddy of mine is building. All I can say is it will definitely be intimidating.


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## RoxyBlue

I think that skellie in the front pew isn't really paying attention to the sermon

You're making good progress on this project, Joker. That dot room is so '60s:jol:


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## Bone To Pick

Is that guy in the front pew wearing a pimp hat? 

Looking good, joker! Seems like a pretty cool layout from your sketch - and much bigger than last year's?


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## Front Yard Fright

Coming right along!
Keep it up!
.


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## joker

RoxyBlue said:


> I think that skellie in the front pew isn't really paying attention to the sermon
> 
> You're making good progress on this project, Joker. That dot room is so '60s:jol:


Yeah he's a little distracted....pretty sure it's OCD



Bone To Pick said:


> Is that guy in the front pew wearing a pimp hat?
> 
> Looking good, joker! Seems like a pretty cool layout from your sketch - and much bigger than last year's?


What? Pimps don't need to be in church?

Ok here's a progress pic of the electric chair









Still needs straps, head piece and I'm working on a large knife switch this evening for it. Going to try and make it somewhat functional in that it'll trigger the Picoboo that's connected to the sander and strobe.


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## scareme

Looking good Joker. Is Jared going to be the plant this year, or has he cooked up a new scare?


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## Dark Angel 27

this looks so awesome! great job!


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## Devils Chariot

WOW! Looks like this years gonna be even better. very exciting Joker. Your living the dream Joker, living the dream.


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## joker

scareme said:


> Looking good Joker. Is Jared going to be the plant this year, or has he cooked up a new scare?


Yeah, that's what he wanted to do. It's such a great scare and he loves it. I just love it when he scares the 6'4" 275 lbs. guys.



Dark Angel 27 said:


> this looks so awesome! great job!


Thanks!



Devils Chariot said:


> WOW! Looks like this years gonna be even better. very exciting Joker. Your living the dream Joker, living the dream.


Thanks DC that's the plan. And to think just 4 years ago I was doing my first home (apartment) haunt. I think we've added about 1500 to 2000 sq ft to the haunt this year. Still learning and laboring, but having fun too.

I should have some more photos to post soon.


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## Haunted Bayou

I like the chapel you added....where did you find pews?


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## joker

Haunted Bayou said:


> I like the chapel you added....where did you find pews?


There's a second hand place in town that gets quite a bit of my business. They have all kinds of odd ball things. I bought 3 pews 19' long for $15. I cut them in half and now have 6 8.5" pews and used placed the cut ends against the walls. Had to make legs for them as they were missing the legs.


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## Haunted Bayou

That is a good score.
The chapel reminds me of the scene in Silver Bullet with all of the werewolves.


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## Aelwyn

Looks amazing!

What, pray tell, is this plant creature?????


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## joker

Aelwyn said:


> Looks amazing!
> 
> What, pray tell, is this plant creature?????


Here he is in the front row....the last 2 years he sat or stood in a large flower pot mimicking an ivy or small bush. Building him a planter box this year to give him more room and flexibility.


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## joker

Here's some better pics also found on this thread form 2008


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## Aelwyn

Bwahahahahaha! I love it! Thanks for posting those!!!!


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## joker

Couple of more progress pics. Looks better in the actual lighting we're going to use and its still a work in progress.

Existing shelves that will be in the morgue









Outside of church/mausoleum and caretakers quarters









My cameras batteries died, but I took a few with my phone I'll upload in a bit.


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## joker

More photos from my cell phone of the cemetery area


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## Dark Angel 27

awesome, awesome, awesome. i so wish i could come to this asylum in person!


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## joker

Dark Angel 27 said:


> awesome, awesome, awesome. i so wish i could come to this asylum in person!


Thanks for the kudos. You're only what 6 hours away?

Dress rehearsal this Saturday night and we start next Friday
Lots of things still to do, but we'll get them done in time.


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## joker

I got my IR light for my camcorder in yesterday so I plan on trying to do a walk through the haunt this evening. Not sure how my lighting will effect the IR, but hopefully I'll have some video for you guys/gals by tomorrow.


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## Giles

Very exciting news!! I can't wait to see what you can film for us.


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## The Rotten Pumpkin

Awesome!


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## joker

Having issues with the video, but dress rehearsal was a blast!! 30 volunteers in a 6,000 sq ft haunt. We didn't have a lot of groups go through but enough to figure out what we need/want to do/change. Out of the 20 or so people who showed up 3 wouldn't even go through. 8)


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## joker

Pics taken the day of dress rehearsal














































There's a local monthly periodical that sent a photographer/reporter by later that evening so I should have some more pics with the actors in costume taken in the graveyard. I'll post them and others as soon as I can. Hope you enjoyed these!!


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## tot13

It's amazing how the lighting absolutely transforms everything. Beautiful -


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## Dark Angel 27

joker said:


> Thanks for the kudos. You're only what 6 hours away?
> 
> Dress rehearsal this Saturday night and we start next Friday
> Lots of things still to do, but we'll get them done in time.


probably, but sadly i can't drive and i have no license.


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## Dark Angel 27

great photos by the way!


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## The Rotten Pumpkin

*Looks awesome!*

Great thing to do for such a great cause! Thanks for posting pictures and happy haunting!


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## Ryan Wern

Great quality on the build, awesome lighting, and the props are SICK! With I could go


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## Spartan005

Wow Joker, those pictures came out fantastic! I especially like the green lit ones in the middle... too cool!


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## joker

Thanks for all the positive feedback. Overall I'm sastisfied, but a 5 week build just isn't enough time to put together a 6,000 sq ft haunt. To me it's to clean almost sterile looking. Part of that is using a retail store building with carpet and that makes it difficult. Give me an old building with concrete floors a couple more weekends to play......I can only imagine what could be done with a dedicated building for haunt to be able play in year round.


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## RoxyBlue

Nice, moody shots, Joker!


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## Bone To Pick

Looking good, Joker!


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## joker

Not a great photo, but one of the Electric chair with the working knife switch. The contacts of the switch trigger a PicoBoo F105 that works the Sander and Strobe.










I'll try to remember to get some video of it tonight.

Oh yeah, we open tonight!!!


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## Dark Angel 27

what's an assylum without an electric chair? Best of luck on opening night! May there be soiled pants and loud screams in your haunt tonight!


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## The Rotten Pumpkin

Looks great!

Have an awesome openning night!


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## joker

Opening night wasn't all that great, but the 2nd night went better than expected. We live in a small rural town (pop 15,000) so I wasn't really expecting that many people. Friday night we had 52 go through. High school football is pretty big in small Texas towns. Saturday night we had 151 so 203 for opening weekend. On a scale of 1 to 10 those exiting avg score was a 9. There were a couple 7's and some that didn't even make it through to the end to even vote. Friday night we had one lock up in the 3rd room with breathing problems, and Saturday night we had one pass out at the exit. After that I made sure to find out who of those on our crew had medical training/experience.

Can't wait till next weekend!!

Here's a few pics from the weekend:

Me (left) and a couple other actors









My g/f with an fx faces appliance topped off with air brushed makeup and a real strait jacket. Isn't she beautiful:smoking:


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## RoxyBlue

What a lovely trio, and your girlfriend looks like a keeper

May not have been the numbers you were hoping for, but it sounds like the weekend was a success by any other standard. It also sounds like verifying the medical skills of some of your actors is a good idea


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## joker

No new pics or vid yet, but here's a link to this years radio commercial
http://www.hauntdetails.com/mp3/ChamberHalloweenAsylum.mp3


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## Dark Angel 27

wow joker, that had to be freaky for them! I'd hate to wake up and see a mental patient/bloodied up doctor standing over me...touching me...going through my purse....yeah. I should stop now.

I love the pics by the way!


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## Dark Angel 27

i also forgot to mention the radio ad...very creepy! you should be proud!


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## joker

Here's some photos of the group at dress rehearsal:

Cemetery Left









Cemetery Right









Morgue/Electric Chair


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## joker

Here's a quote used in the article, I'll try and get the rest of the article posted soon.



> "I love haunted houses," said Bobby Parr. "I'll drive a hundred miles to see a good one and the one Shane's put together in Mt. Pleasant is as good as anything we saw last year at Six Flags."


:xbones: GOOD TIMES :voorhees:


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## RoxyBlue

The actors look great, Joker!


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## Ryan Wern

joker said:


> Here's a quote used in the article, I'll try and get the rest of the article posted soon.
> 
> :xbones: GOOD TIMES :voorhees:


Quite a compliment! Your haunt seriously looks top-notch, it's great that other people recognize all the hard work that goes into it, huh Joker? My little garage haunt is small potatoes compared to what you did, but it's still a tremendous amount of work. I can't imagine covering all the square footage you have to work with


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## Dark Angel 27

awesome as usual. they all look freaky and disgusting!


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## Spartan005

joker said:


> Opening night wasn't all that great, but the 2nd night went better than expected. We live in a small rural town (pop 15,000) so I wasn't really expecting that many people. Friday night we had 52 go through. High school football is pretty big in small Texas towns. Saturday night we had 151 so 203 for opening weekend. On a scale of 1 to 10 those exiting avg score was a 9. There were a couple 7's and some that didn't even make it through to the end to even vote. Friday night we had one lock up in the 3rd room with breathing problems, and Saturday night we had one pass out at the exit. After that I made sure to find out who of those on our crew had medical training/experience.
> 
> Can't wait till next weekend!!
> 
> Here's a few pics from the weekend:
> 
> Me (left) and a couple other actors


Joker,

Any luck with more people showing up to the haunt? Mine just opened as well and we got similar results, but I'm hoping the numbers will improve this weekend as we're getting closer to halloween. By the way, is that a mask or makeup that you're wearing? Its creepy as hell.

Good luck this weekend!


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## PeteW

Looking forward to pictures.


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## joker

Spartan005 said:


> Joker,
> 
> Any luck with more people showing up to the haunt? Mine just opened as well and we got similar results, but I'm hoping the numbers will improve this weekend as we're getting closer to halloween. By the way, is that a mask or makeup that you're wearing? Its creepy as hell.
> 
> Good luck this weekend!


Spartan005 our numbers doubled from week 1 to week 2. Based on last years numbers it looks like we could double again for this weekend.

As far as my costume goes that's an SPFX clown mask (silicone). The zombie in 1st picture of the last set posted is also another SPFX mask. They're pricey, but love them. After wearing them I don't see wearing anything other than silicone from now on. Easy to see and be able to work on stuff during the haunt and they definitely help with scares too.


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## joker

Ryan Wern said:


> Quite a compliment! Your haunt seriously looks top-notch, it's great that other people recognize all the hard work that goes into it, huh Joker? My little garage haunt is small potatoes compared to what you did, but it's still a tremendous amount of work. I can't imagine covering all the square footage you have to work with


Ryan this is only my 4th year haunting. Trust me when I started I was small potatoes. Having sponsorship definitely helps and by donating proceeds to charity has opened other doors that I wouldn't have been able to do by myself. Now if I could just get into a building and have more than 5 weeks to build that would be great!


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## Haunted Bayou

joker said:


> Now if I could just get into a building and have more than 5 weeks to build that would be great!


I have faith that you will have that in the future.


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## joker

I've got some more editing to do but here's a couple vids from the haunt.

Had a little trouble keeping up with this group...lol


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## Spooky1

Looks like you've done another great job with the haunt! Good luck on your final week.


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## RoxyBlue

Cracks me up how girls will always hang on to each other as they go through a haunt, as if that will PROTECT THEM!


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## joker

Here's a couple good scares form one group towards the end of the haunt


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## The Rotten Pumpkin

That's a pretty nice haunt you got there. Great Job!


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## joker

Thanks Rotten Pumpkin!!


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