# The Hallway Of Choice



## tzankoff (Nov 16, 2008)

While my living situation does not allow me to have yearly haunts (see introduction link in my signature), I will be more than happy to share my ideas with you guys. Here is one of them. The picture is self-explanatory and how you build it is up to you (since I am not able to build one of my own), but I'll go through a few obvious details anyway.










I call this place the "Hallway of Choice". You come into a hallway with one very dim (flicker?) light to show that you have a choice of two otherwise dark hallways to travel through. One hallway is empty and takes you to the next room. The other has a ghoul hiding around the corner that scares you before forcing you to go back and take the other hallway to freedom.

The dead end doorway is a door (duh!) that can swivel both ways so that a dead end can be created at either hallway in a matter of just a few seconds. If you want your ghouls to switch sides in the middle of a haunt, just push the door back, go to the other wallway, and pull the door shut behind you. On top of then door is a small strobe light that is triggered when the victim rounds the corner. I visualize the ghoul actor using a hand held push button remote for this purpose. (Of course, you are free to do whatever you want.) The curtain at the end of the hallway is to help block light from beyond this room bleeding into the empty hallway.

The way I picture it, my only major recommendation at this point is that the outside walls be built sturdier due to fleeing victims more likely to run into the outside walls than the inside ones.

P.S.: This is my first project post. Please be gentle.


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## Fetch (May 16, 2008)

I like this. You could really mess with the minds of repeat visitors.


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## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

I think this could be very effective.


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## tzankoff (Nov 16, 2008)

Hi Fetch and Roxy! I am glad you both seem to approve. I was not exactly sure how well this idea would fare; but at the same time, its something of a new twist on a perfectly good idea.

Most ghoul infested tunnels that I have seen are straight and have little rooms built off to the side for the actors to hide in...which is fine. Here, despite having the extra space along the outside walls, you don't need to build the extra rooms and the whole thing fits rather nicely into roughly a 16x16 area. I admit that might be rather big for somebody like myself would try to use this room in a _garage_ haunt, but with the unused space outside the main walls being perfectly usable for some other room or scene, its not necessarily a bad thing...or so I think.


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## joker (Sep 25, 2007)

I like it....I could see incorporating a couple of drop panels with the interior space created by the hallways as well. Then you would have the option of ghoul either side or utilizing a drop panel on either side. That way whatever decision was made would result in at least one scare.


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## tzankoff (Nov 16, 2008)

I thought about putting a drop portrait where the flicker bulb is currently located (after a slight wall redesign) and putting a wall-mounted flicker light a couple of feet or so into each outside hallway. Then, like you said, I could have either a ghoul in the hallway or behind the portrait. Why I did not draw that idea into the above picture is beyond me now that I think about it.

As for two of them, you could incorporate said redesign of the wall and put in a door (locked from the inside, of course) for the actor to get into position and put the portraits at the end of the inside hallways right before you turn the corners.

The dead end doorway would have to be removed when using the drop portraits since it would not be used otherwise and would get in everybody's way as you exit the room. That is not such a big deal. Just store it inside the room with the portrait actor.


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## joker (Sep 25, 2007)

I was thinking about using your current design, put the portraits at the end of each hallway, but creating an access panel for an actor in one of the other two walls. Then if the patrons went down the non-ghoul hall you could still scare them too and making maximum use of your space.


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## tzankoff (Nov 16, 2008)

After taking into account Joker's thoughts and adding a couple of other tweaks, I decided to update the artwork. As you can see, my MS Paint skills totally ROCK!


I added the drop portraits, flicker bulbs to both of the outside walls, and replaced the dead end doorway with something a little bit more portable. Since we would not want visitors from the empty hallway to walk into the back of the ghoul hallway or access room by mistake, I figured that a simple frame built with 1x3s that can stand on its own and is long enough to cover the access room door and the other hallway should do the trick. Just staple and paint some cardboard on both sides and mount the strobe light on top. The barrier can be switched from side to side with relative ease and can be stored in the access room when not in use.

Any thoughts?


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## joker (Sep 25, 2007)

Nice! What would you say the dimensions of the access room would be in your example and how wide are the hallways?


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## tzankoff (Nov 16, 2008)

I try to design these things with wheelchair accessibility in mind. According to what I have read, that would require 4-foot wide hallways and 3-foot wide doors.

I realize that if you were to send somebody in a wheelchair through this hallway, there would be a problem if he picks the one with the ghoul and there are others in front of him running back. Normally, I would tell him which hallway is empty in advance or, more likely, have somebody tell him right as he gets there.

Another thing to keep in mind is that access doors do not so much have to be door that looks like a door, but a door that blends in and looks like the rest of the walls so you don't have to worry about visitors walking into them by accident. However, in this case, it will not matter since nobody except the ghoul is going to see the door anyway.

As far as dimensions are concerned, I am lucky to have a drop ceiling in my office with 2x2 squares so I can just look at them and visualize measurements using that. With that said, I am picturing the inside walls to be 8 feet long. That would make the entire room 16x16. It may seem like a bigger room than it has to be...

_*looks at the ceiling and thinks about it*_

...but I don't think so. Then again, you are free to make it whatever size you want. My drawings are not made to scale, but I do try to at least make them proportionally correct.


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## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

Hey, tzan, I don't see the mini bar in your second sketch for the actor to use while hanging out waiting for victims


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## tzankoff (Nov 16, 2008)

_*hands Roxy a bottle of water*_
There!

Geez! Are you people ever happy?!?!?
:googly:


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