# Creep Acres Gets a New Home!!!



## The Rotten Pumpkin (Mar 28, 2010)

*EDIT: Plans have been changed, we are doing a home haunt instead of a pro haunt. See page 3 for more info.*

Before I say anything else, let me kick this off by saying that we are moving this year to a farm with a 2000 sf shop and plenty of space for an outside haunt setup. Did that grab your attention? lol

Before I get into any of the details, I just want to give a little background on myself since I've essentially been off the forum for the past year or so. Right now I'm just ending my 10th grade year in high school, so I'm younger than pretty much everyone on here. But for the past 5 years I've been running a haunt out of my garage and backyard that grew in size and detail every year. I would say that some of our scenes from last year were pro quality or better. If any of you are interested, I have thread up with video from last year.

*So that brings me to this year. The plan right now (and yes, my parents suport it) is to team up with a non-profit and run a pro-length charity haunt, charging probably $6-8 for general admission.* Granted, I haven't even begun the long process of negotiating with any charities, talking to inspectors, or really any of the business stuff for that matter, and to be honest I have absolutely zero experience with this stuff. In addition, we will be in a sort-of hard to reach location that's a little off the beaten path. Needless to say, this is not 100% certain for this year.

However, last year I talked to a haunt in the same town we will be in and to sum it up it seemed like the local fire marshall and building inspector have some pretty low standards. That's all I'll say there. Also, I have an uncle who runs a company that builds the printers that companies use to make banners, so I might talk to him about maybe getting some discount banners printed to help draw in customers. We also have over half th wall panels we'll need already built from the home haunt.

The basic plan for the layout is to have a small out door cornfield with a few small buildings, and then have guests go through a standard walk-through style haunt inside of the shop, probably utlizing about 2/3 of it. We don't move until June 14, and because of vacations I won't be able to do much other than plant corn until mid July.

So to sum it up, I'm SUPER excited!!! This is one of my huge dreams for life, and I feel incredably blessed to be able to live it. Over the next five months, I'll post the progress on this thread and up on YouTube for you guys to see.

That being said, here's the start of a few build pictures. Most of what I have is in storage or just boxed up around the house right now, so this is just a sample of some things I've been working on.

The new facade for this year. I started it thinking we'd be doing a home haunt, so the 2' wide doorway will have to be widened to 3'.










All the haunt wall panels stacked in the side yard and ready to be moved.










And last but not least, here's a quick prop I started a few weeks ago. All it is is 2"x3"s, screws, chicken wire, and clothes.










That's it for now! Thanks for reading

~Collin


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## Pumpkin5 (Aug 8, 2010)

:jol: Congratulations Rotten Pumpkin! I am so excited for you! It is so great to see the new haunters come in to resurrect the dreams of the old haunters. It is such a bright future you have in store...and just follow your Halloween heart....it will never steer you wrong...:jol:


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## CoolDJTV (Jun 28, 2011)

nice to see another young haunter. regardless of what my profile says I am 16!
cool, look forward to see you new props!


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## Headless (Sep 4, 2011)

It all sounds fantastic - good luck.


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## The Rotten Pumpkin (Mar 28, 2010)

Thanks so much everyone!!!



CoolDJTV said:


> nice to see another young haunter. regardless of what my profile says I am 16!


Haha I know exactly what you mean... I think I remember adding a few years to my age back when I was under the minimum age to join these forums :googly:


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## Hairazor (Mar 13, 2012)

Go Rotten Pumpkin! We're rooting for you! Looks like you already have a headstart.


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## The Rotten Pumpkin (Mar 28, 2010)

*A few more pictures...*

Here's a few shots of some work I did yesterday and today...

The first is of the facade. I pulled it out and widened the doorway to 3' so it sould be wheelchair accesible. Damn though, those panels wiegh a ton with all the framing and 1"x4"s on them!

The rest are of a drop panel frame I built yesterday. I had this small old cabinety thing lying around with the back disconnected. I was about to just throw it away, but the I realised I could just build a boo door. All the things on the shelves were just distressed with watered down black and red paint.


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## ProjectFEAR (Aug 25, 2011)

The Rotten Pumpkin said:


> Here's a few shots of some work I did yesterday and today...
> 
> The first is of the facade. I pulled it out and widened the doorway to 3' so it sould be wheelchair accesible. Damn though, those panels wiegh a ton with all the framing and 1"x4"s on them!
> 
> The rest are of a drop panel frame I built yesterday. I had this small old cabinety thing lying around with the back disconnected. I was about to just throw it away, but the I realised I could just build a boo door. All the things on the shelves were just distressed with watered down black and red paint.


The bricks I'm seeing in one picture are wooden, if I am correct? They look very nice! I like the doorway too, not too big and fancy but it still look awesome.


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## The Rotten Pumpkin (Mar 28, 2010)

ProjectFEAR said:


> The bricks I'm seeing in one picture are wooden, if I am correct? They look very nice! I like the doorway too, not too big and fancy but it still look awesome.


Bricks? I think you're probably refering to the wood slats on the facade. They're just old 1"x4"s that I cut down to size and put in place. I'll probably end up disttressing them more with paint washes once we get moved, but for now that's all I'm doing to it.

Thanks for the comment!


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## ProjectFEAR (Aug 25, 2011)

The Rotten Pumpkin said:


> Bricks? I think you're probably refering to the wood slats on the facade. They're just old 1"x4"s that I cut down to size and put in place. I'll probably end up disttressing them more with paint washes once we get moved, but for now that's all I'm doing to it.
> 
> Thanks for the comment!


Hey, no prob! I was actually about to ask on this forum if it's better to make a faux brick wall from carved foam, or use wood painted. I'm thinking foam would give me the texture, but......wood wood probably be an easier material to find around my area.
but it looks awesome, can't wait to see pictures of the whole thing set up! And congrats on going pro!


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## The Rotten Pumpkin (Mar 28, 2010)

ProjectFEAR said:


> Hey, no prob! I was actually about to ask on this forum if it's better to make a faux brick wall from carved foam, or use wood painted. I'm thinking foam would give me the texture, but......wood wood probably be an easier material to find around my area.
> but it looks awesome, can't wait to see pictures of the whole thing set up! And congrats on going pro!


Either this year or next year I'm thinking about doing a large portion of the haunt as a sewer, and for the bricks I was planning on using wood. My basic idea is to put down a base wall out of just OSB or something cheap and then cutting bricks out of plywood. I would then use joint compound or cement to put the "bricks" in place and then use it to further make them look stony and to fill in the grout lines. And after that it would just be paint. Time consuming, yes, but I feel like it would look almost like the real thing.


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## The Rotten Pumpkin (Mar 28, 2010)

Hey guys, I just wanted to give a quick update on planning. The haunt will be split both physically and thematically into two sections; the outdoor cornfield and the portion inside of the haunt.

For the cornfield, I'm 99% sure that we'll be going with an outdoor version of our haunt from last year, "Uncle Bubba's BBQ and Packaging." Basically, it's a *******, cannibal slaughterhouse situated in the middle of a cornfield.

For the inside, I'm tossing around several ideas:

1) "2012: The Zombie Apocalypse" would start in a Maya temple and then go through a laser vortex into the present time and the zombie apocalypse. This haunt would take guests through a ******* greenhouse and tool shed and eventually land them in an overcrowded hospital jammed full of flesh-eating freaks.

2) "Rampage: Into the Sewer" would take guests through an industrial basement full of psychotic killers and rotten victims. From there, guests would venture through a busted out wall into a sewer full of rats, reptiles, and much more aggressive creatures.

3) "The House of the Killer" would guide patrons through the rotted out home of a serial killer. This haunt would include the standard rooms of a home, in addition to the killer's basement and backyard tool sheds and outbuildings.

So what do you guys think? Give me your vote!


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## Spooky1 (Aug 25, 2008)

I like the sewer idea, but it might be a tougher build than the others. Good luck with the haunt.


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## The Rotten Pumpkin (Mar 28, 2010)

Also, I had a logo designed by Rick Whitlow of Rick Whitlow Productions ( http://rickwhitlow.com/ ). He's a great artist and a great guy, it was an absolute pleasure working with him and I couldn't be happier with the final result.

I'm on a slow connection right now, so it takes quite a long time to upload high-res pictures, so I'll just link to the page on Rick's site with it. As of right now, mine is the first logo on the page, but that will change as he does more work, so if you're reading this sometime in the future just check down the page for the Creep Acres logo.

Link: http://rickwhitlow.com/?page_id=13

What do you guys think? I really like it!


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## The Rotten Pumpkin (Mar 28, 2010)

*A little update...*

A ton has been happenning move-wise, but not so much with the build. We did take all the haunt panels over to the new place on Sunday, and I vlogged that... 




We take ownership this coming Thursday, and on Saturday a bunch of folks are coming to help us unpack our 2 PODS, which is where most of my haunt props are (in addition to all our family's random stuff).

Thyen Sunday and Monday I'll be planting corn for _The House of Slaughter_, the "Uncle Bubba's BBQ" haunt that will be outside the shop. Then, I will be making panles all through mid-July, and then construction begins on the indoor portion. It should be awesome!

I decided to go with the _2012: The Zombie Apocalypse_ theme for inside the shop. It's an idea I've had for three or four years and I think I'll regret it if I don't take advantage of all the 2012 rumors.

I've mainly been working on converting the website over to match the new location. The adress is http://www.creepacres.com/

On the attractions page, I put up the first drafts of some short backstorys I did for the 2 haunts as well as the 2 super-quick logos I made using Powerpoint and the "Paint" application. I'll mainly just be marketting with the professional logo I had made, so I don't think it matters that I made them so quickly.

Also, I'm on a quicker computer right now, so here's the 2 copies of the professional logo I got from http://rickwhitlow.com/ I higly reccomend his work, he got me a great deal and does amazing work!



















That's it for now!

-Collin


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## Cat_Bones (Jun 1, 2012)

So far it's looking great Colin I love your Uncle Bubba's BBQ idea that sounds fantastic. And I love the logo as well.

This is my super jealous face, you're definitely living the dream this is what I'd love to do is get a place with a big enough yard/garage/land to set up a haunt. 

Can't wait to see the progress!


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## scareme (Aug 29, 2006)

I like the zombie idea as well. You can use the other two anytime. But you only get the Mayan 2012 end of the world in 2012. So go with it. Sounds like you have some great ideas, and great parents too. Keep us updated.


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## The Rotten Pumpkin (Mar 28, 2010)

scareme said:


> I like the zombie idea as well. You can use the other two anytime. But you only get the Mayan 2012 end of the world in 2012.
> 
> 
> > That's what I was thinking. Also, based on the layouts I drew up, "2012" gives me the widest variety of settings, which makes it both more fun to build and also makes it easier to fina materials for one of the areas.
> ...


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## The Rotten Pumpkin (Mar 28, 2010)

*Haunt progress!!!*

Here's a few photos from over a week ago. The past week I was out at my Mom's place (the haunt is at my Dad and Stepmom's) so I didn't get a ton of work done. The plan was originally to plant field corn for _The House of Slaughter,_ but I can't seem to find any seed for it this late in the season. The good news is that I picked up a few packets of sweet corn that mature in 73 days, so I should be good to go by the time we open. Also, I tilled the field (and fenced the horses out of the haunt area) a week ago, so the field is all ready to plant sometime in the next few days.

Here's the pics:

Quick tour of the shop-
The one car garage that will house the Maya temple









The back room that will house a greenhouse and toolshed, and currently houses all my props (more on that below)









From left to right, the large garage that will house the hospital overrun by zombies


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## The Rotten Pumpkin (Mar 28, 2010)

*Props*

Here's a few of the props for this year-

The ceiling crasher from last year will return with a new zombie mask and an even greater fall aided by this chain link gate-









A new whipping-tongue prop in the works for the maya temple. When triggered, the air hose in his mouth will whip around giving a great effect-









On the left is a prop I built this year, still not sure where it will go. On the right is an old prop from last year that I gave a quick makeover to and will either go in the hospital of _Zombie_ or the BBQ Shack of _House of Slaughter._









A bunch of the torsos, pants, and other gorey props from last year-


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## The Rotten Pumpkin (Mar 28, 2010)

*Layout for House of Slaughter*

Here's a few more of part of the space for _The House of Slaughter_ as well as a shot of the inside of the pre-existing shed that it will exit from. The wood on the ground is being used to lay out the scenes.




























The shed will get a second door added in the back left corner so guests can flow through it-


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## Headless (Sep 4, 2011)

So much room!!!


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## The Rotten Pumpkin (Mar 28, 2010)

*Gore vs. No Gore*

As we're having the argument on another thread about wheather or not to use gore in haunts, I think as you can tell I'm pretty in to gore...

Here's a new gut table I'm working on that will go in the slaughterhouse (the first building in _House of Slaughter_). Here's a few pics before and after painting. I think it looks way better in real life.




























Also, here's a prop I built over the winter that folds at the waist. This will be put on a gurney in the hospital of the zombie haunt.


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## The Rotten Pumpkin (Mar 28, 2010)

*Panel Yard*

Also, here's a view of the storage are for the panels. It looks like a lot now, but I'll have to more than double the amount of 4' panels I have for this year's haunt.




























That's all for now!


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## The Rotten Pumpkin (Mar 28, 2010)

*Change of Plans*

For many reasons, I've decided not to do the two-haunt pro setup for this year. Mainly, I didn't want fire marshalls breathing down my neck and I wanted to be able to do my standard 2' wide hallways instead of 3'.

The new plan is to do a shorter but much better, detailed and more intense haunt using just the shop. As far as home haunts go, this thing will be HUGE. I'm going to be investing the same amount of time, money, and energy into this haunt as I was planning on putting into the pro setup, but because it's shorter it will be twice as good. The generic theme will be hillbillies, but it will have a wide range of scenes including the butcher shop I was planning for "House of Slaughter," a shack area with a repair shop and several small toolsheds, a short ******* house, and the basement of that house.

With all that said, I'm already working on the first scene of the haunt. On Saturday I started work on the repair shop, got it painted Sunday and now other than props and lighting, sound, and other finishing touches it's getting pretty close to done. Here's the pictures:

The facade with new sign-









First room after paint-









A quick cabinet I built for the second room-









Here's a top view-









I am doing vlogs on my YouTube page (link in my signature) if anyone is interested in getting a more in-depth look at the build. I'm a little behind right now, but I'm working on getting everything updated tonight.

That's it for now!

-Collin


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## The Rotten Pumpkin (Mar 28, 2010)

*Haunt Update*

First off, I want to say sorry for waiting so darn long to update this thread.

Second, if you haven't seen the previous post that says that we aren't doing a pro haunt, be sure to read that or this won't make a lot of sense.

Third, I realise now that the previous post makes it seem that I was sad about not going pro. I'm not. Really, I'm extatic to have the creative freedom that comes with not charging for admission. And as I said, I'm putting in the same amount of time and money, but because the haunt is shorter it will be better. Also, since most of this thread was updated when I was planning on a pro haunt, it may seem like that was a big plan in my mind, but at this point it's nothing but a distant memory.

With that said, let me get into what we're working on this year! I said in the last post that it would be loosely hillbilly themed, which is still true. But since then, I've added more structure to the haunt. The haunt will be divided into three sections, each with it's own theme and each lasting for 2-4 minutes. The three areas are designed to flow together and make sense when guests go from one to the next, rather than just jumping from space aliens to hospitals to werewolves to witches etc.

The first area is an encore presentation of last year's haunt, *Uncle Bubba's BBQ*, which will essentially be the same as theme of "House of Slaughter," just on a smaller scale. It will feature a small barn, a 2 room slaughterhouse, and a BBQ Shack, with sveral outdoor themed areas connecting them. On Thursday I built the BBQ Shack, the first scene in this haunt to be built, and as of right now it's 80% done. (Pictures will follow)

The second area is called *Body Repairmen*, with the basic backstory being deformed hillbillies capuring victims and cutting up their body parts to replace their own deformed ones. And it's set in a repair shop. This haunt is all done with basic construction and paint, and I just have a few big projects left before it's just lights and sound.

The final haunt is *UNEARTHED: Into the Cellar*, which is set in an industrial basement where a group of serial killers have set up camp and begun capturing innocent souls. When complete, this area will be amazing! I'm working on a furnace room, a monster mud cave, and a climactic escape into the sewer. Right now, this haunt is a construstion zone. Every scene in it has been started but none are anywhere close to complete. For the past two weeks I've been jumping around from room to room doing different projects in no particular order.

Now on to the pictures! I'll start with the BBQ Shack.

The facade:


__
https://flic.kr/p/db6LuV

Just inside the entrance:

SAM_0459 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

SAM_0454 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Table:

SAM_0465 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

The actor cove for a buzz-saw weilding maniac!

SAM_0467 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

The exit:


__
https://flic.kr/p/db6MmG

More photos coming!

-Collin


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## The Rotten Pumpkin (Mar 28, 2010)

Sorry about having to click over to flickr to see the photos. I thought I'd try it out but I can't seem to get the BB code to work. Ah, well...

Here are some pictures of Body Repairmen

SAM_0302 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

SAM_0393 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

SAM_0398 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

SAM_0406 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

SAM_0408 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!


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## The Rotten Pumpkin (Mar 28, 2010)

*A few more...*

More from Body Repairmen-

SAM_0416 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

SAM_0413 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

SAM_0294 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

SAM_0295 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

SAM_0350 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!


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## The Rotten Pumpkin (Mar 28, 2010)

*UNEARTHED Pics*

Here are some photos from the work-in-progress cellar haunt.

Top view of the first day's progress (it's a lot bigger now):

SAM_0358 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

The start of a brick archway for the sewer scene:

SAM_0362 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

A drop panel that will look like exposed lathe strips under plaster:

SAM_0382 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

The beginnings of the monster mud cave:

SAM_0439 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

SAM_0476 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

That's all for now! What do you guys think? Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Collin


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