CHEAP HALLOWEEN PROPS

SPRING CLEANING MEANS CHEAP HALLOWEEN PROPS

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 20:09:00 +0000

This is the time to score some Cheap Halloween Props for your haunted house. It' time to start preparing for Halloween 2008 so lets start with spring cleaning. Now is the time of year when people start throwing out old junk in their garages and closets. These items are worthless to them but priceless for the amateur haunter. I have found all sorts of good props this way. Like an old chandelier, I just wired a power cord on it and threw in some flicker bulb and had one of the coolest chandeliers you have saw. I still use it to this day and I only spent about 12 dollars on it.

I have found chairs, beds, lamps and even found a hospital bed once. I just check around with people in my neighborhood. After they all found out I used this stuff for my haunted house they will call me when they have something to get rid of. I even have people who will give scrap wood that they have left over. This is awesome because lumber is expensive and needed to build a lot of projects. Getting it free can save hundreds of dollars not to mention the props you build can be reused over and over. A little tip about building props with wood is to use wood screws to build them with that way they are easy to take back apart and store. I also tend to need different props from year to year so a lot of the time the pieces that I disassemble can be used to make what I need.

As I have said before, if you know of places where naughty people like to go and dump old junk that they are too lazy to properly dispose. These are great places to find stuff. I will literally go and dig through junk to find useful items. I have found a lot of great items that became good props. Just watch out for snakes, these places can be kinda dangerous.

The main thing is think outside of the box, there are lots of places to find old items that can be turned into great Halloween Props for your haunted house. These are the items that will not cost very much at all. You can get these items for free and make them look however you want them to. Just remember that other peoples junk can make Cheap Halloween Props.

5 EASY TIPS TO SPICE UP YOUR HALLOWEEN PROPS

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 15:23:00 +0000

If you are like me you finish your haunted house then go around and try to make it just a little bit better. I have came up with a small list of five of my favorite add-ons for my halloween props. These are little add-ons that can be done in a few minutes and are extremely cheap. The first and easiest is to hang pieces of fishing line from the ceiling at different lengths. This is works best in rooms or hallways that are kinda dark. It feels like you are walking through spider webs. Just staple or tie them to your ceilings. You would be surprised at how effective something so simple can be. I like to hang these everywhere in my haunt. The second tip is to use blacklight paint. You can get about six bottles of blacklight paint in six different colors at spencers gifts for about thirteen dollars. This stuff is the perfect thing to add to props. You don't have to go crazy with it, just use it to touch up props. I use the yellow or the green on bones and skulls. Yellow is also good to imitate moonlight shining on branches. I have a box full of crows that I have used from time to time. I painted their feathers with the purple, their beaks orange and their eyes with the red. They look extremely awesome under blacklight. My third tip is to take a bunch of dark colored paints and mix them up in a bucket of water. Then take a bunch of cheese cloth and soak it in the water. Now wring the water out of your cheese cloth and let it dry. Once it is dry it will look old and dirty. You can rip it up and drape on props, make tattered curtains or just shred it and drape it from the ceilings. Tip number four is to cover the floor of your haunted house or just a few hallways with dried leaves or peanut shells or anything that will crunch. Just make sure that you use something that people can't trip over and fall. Styrofoam packing material also works well because it has a weird texture, the only downfall is that it will usually glow under a blacklight. My fifth and final tip is what I call body bags, These make some super cool Halloween Props. These are very easy make depending on how many you make. If you have small room or a hallway that needs a little something this is perfect. Take a large trash bag, about a thirty gallon bag will do nicely(use the hefty ones). Next get some one gallon zip loc bags(once again get the good ones) fill one bag with water, seal it then put it inside of another zip loc bag for a little extra protection. Now put the bag of water in the bottom of the trash bag and fill the bag with wadded up newspaper or something similar. Then just tie the bags and hang them from the ceiling with rope or wire. Try to keep your bags close together so that people have to push their way through them. Also hang them so that they are about chest high on an average sized person. When your victims push through them the bags of water in the bottoms feel very nasty. I used this trick a few times with great results. These tips work great to fill a hallway or dead spot, plus they are a very cheap and effective way to improve your haunted house.

THE ULTIMATE HALLOWEEN PROPS | COMPRESSED AIR

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 15:31:00 +0000

The ultimate addition to any of your halloween props is compressed air. There are places selling air cannons all over the web for hundreds of dollars. I on the other hand would rather find something much cheaper. Fortunately for me I have access to a large air compressor in my shop where I normally have my haunted house. My air compressor has a large tank that will power all of my air needs. Now I know not everyone has access to an air compressor, but maybe you know someone who has a portable compressor they will loan you. You can also buy small air compressors for fairly cheap, usually around $100 to $150 dollars. You may think that isn't very cheap but you will get years of service out of it so I think it is a fair investment. Other alternatives are cans of compressed air, or portable air tanks(around $30 bucks). I don't like canned air because you don't get much of a blast and they are fairly expensive since you will need a lot of them. Portable tanks will give you the pressure you need but will eventually run out. I still have not found anything that works as good as an air compressor.

The uses for compressed air are numerous. You can use it to add effect to your existing halloween props or as a stand alone trick. A popular use is to build a corpse and mount it on a piston that is mounted in a casket. When someone steps on a switch on the floor or if someone if controlling it compressed air will extend the piston and the corpse will jump out of the casket. Now with the right sound effects and say a strobe light this is a very effective scare. Of course this project is a bit more complicated. I will try to touch on it in another article. I personally get good results out of a good old blast of air. I simply run my air hose around to a good spot in a narrow hallway and cut 2 tiny slits in the black plastic wall. Then someone stand behind the wall with the nozzle stuck through the bottom slit in the plastic. The top slit is for the person to see through. Now when people walk by just blast them with the air. The cold air along with the sudden noise will scare just about anyone. I use this usually in a hallway that is empty or to narrow to do anything else. It works great for filling dead spots. I try to keep the hallway as dark as possible, this makes it that much more unexpected.

If you want to take the above mentioned trick a little further then try this. Take a 16 or 20 ounce water bottle, the narrow ones work best and cut the bottom off of it. You can cut it in half, it doesn't really matter just play around with it. Now slide the end with the opening onto the air nozzle. Make sure the end of the air nozzle is flush with the where the neck of the bottle widens out. Next tape the bottle onto the air nozzle with duct tape. Now take the confetti of your choice, I usually just shred up paper into tiny pieces and fill the bottle. When you blast the air it will shoot confetti all over you victim. This is only one example, PVC pipe works extremely well. The smaller the diameter, the more direct pressure you will get. Another method is to make streamers out of paper or thin plastic and glue to the inside of the bottle. Then just stuff them inside the bottle and blast someone with them.

These are just a few suggestions on the uses for compressed air with your halloween props. Remember just be creative and keep safety in mind so everyone can have fun at halloween.

EASY BUILD CASKET FOR YOUR HAUNTED HOUSE

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 01:06:00 +0000

Every good haunted house needs a good casket. Caskets are one of the most versatile halloween props you can have. They can be used for a good scare or as a piece of scenery. Today I want to show you a very easy design for a coffin that is effective as well as easy to build and will last for years. This coffin is constructed out of 1" by 12" pine boards. Unless you have a bunch of these lying around you will have to by them,
But that is the only wood you will need other than a piece of plywood for the bottom. You will also need some inch and a half wood screws, some small hinges, a piece or 2 of small rope or chain and some stain or paint. This project will require a power saw, a drill with a screw driver bit, wood glue and brushes or rags for your stain.
Now I am not going to post any dimensions because length and width will depend on what suits your own needs. This casket is based on the old toe hugger pine box caskets. I have included a rough drawing to give you an idea of what it looks like, hopefully I can add some better pictures soon. Now once you have your dimensions start by cutting out the two end pieces. Next You will need to cut the sides in two pieces, to make the angles in the sides. Once all of the pieces are cut, join them with wood glue then fasten them with wood screws. Now I use half inch plywood for my bottom. Simply lay the plywood on top of your frame and trace the outline. Now just cut out the bottom and fasten it to your frame with wood screws. Next you are ready to build your lid. I simply take two 1 by 12 pine boards and lay them on top of my frame side by side. Then like the bottom trace out your pattern and cut them out. Next take some of the scrap pine boards and cut out 2 brace for the lid(they are shown in the drawing). Now apply some wood glue to the bottom of your braces and fasten them to your lid with wood screw. I bout three small brass hinges at a hardware store and used them to mount my lid on my casket. Next I took a piece of nylon cord and stapled one end the the inside of my casket and the other end to the inside of my lid so that the lid would only open to a 90 degree angle. The last step is to apply paint or stain to your casket. I used a gel stain in a cherry color to give it an antiqued look. Since pine doesn't take stain very well without preparation it gives it a neat look. Now you have a very nice halloween prop that will last a long time and didn't cost a fortune. If you want to dress it up a little more you can go to a home improvement store and buy some handles for cabinet doors and mount around the sides, or some brass or stainless steel trim pieces. I hope this article inspires someone to build some nice halloween props.

HALLOWEEN PROPS FOR 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 18:41:00 +0000

It's been awhile, but I am back. So what better than to go ahead and kick off the haunting season a little early this year. I will be posting alot of new articles on building halloween props to help prepare for halloween 2008. Be sure and keep checking back as I will be making some changes and adding alot of new content.

ULTIMATE HALLOWEEN PROPS - TWO WAY MIRRORS

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Mon, 21 Aug 2006 02:05:00 +0000

If you have never used a two way mirror in your haunted house then you are definitely missing out. If you are looking for one of the coolest halloween props for your haunted house that can be reused year after year and won't cost a fortune a two way mirror is perfect. I purchased a two foot by two foot mirror from a haunted house supplier for about twenty five dollars. I framed it with some left over trim from a remodeling job on my living room. There are just too many ways to use a two way mirror in a haunted house. My personal favorite is to hang it in front of a wall in a hallway. If you don't make your walls out of black plastic or a material that you can cut and get behind this may not work. I try to find a spot with enough room for a person to stand behind the plastic. Cut out the plastic behind the mirror about two inches smaller on each side than the size of the mirror. Now tape the back of the mirror to the plastic with duct tape. I usually tape another piece of plastic or a large trash bag that is wider than the mirror on the back side of the wall. Now get a good flashlight and put on a mask or face of your choice and stand with your face right up to the back side of the mirror. Put the piece of plastic you just taped up over your head to keep the flashlight from lighting up anything else. Hold the flashlight up to your face and wait. When people walk by the mirror just turn on the flashlight and your face will suddenly appear in the mirror out of nowhere. This is an awesome trick because people generally tend to focus on mirrors, and a face appearing in a mirror is usually pretty scary. A good way to use this is to put the mirror at the beginning of a long hallway. Cut a slit in the wall just past the mirror. Leave the hallway pretty dark except for a bright strobe light hanging from the ceiling. Now adjust the strobe light to flash very slow, so that everyone seems to move in slow motion. Now when your victims walk past flip the flashlight on and scare the crap out of them. Once they pass the mirror bust out of the wall where you cut the slit and follow them down the hall brandishing a knife or weapon of your choice. The strobe light will disorient them and make your approach look very distorted. Trust me this will scare the hell out of everyone. This trick works best if you dress like a well known slasher from a horror flick. If you feel real adventurous you can just hang the mirror up and let it be a regular mirror if all else fails. Out of all of the Halloween Props that I have used over the years my two way mirror has been my favorite Prop. It was inexpensive, multi-functional and has lasted for years.

DO MOVIE MONSTERS MAKE EFFECTIVE HALLOWEEN PROPS?

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Sat, 19 Aug 2006 02:48:00 +0000

For many years I tried to distance myself far away from using characters from horror films in my haunted houses. I wanted to come up with original characters in my haunt, to be different than everyone else. I thought that using movie characters wouldn't scare people. About three years ago I found out I was dead wrong. I decided to use a few guys from some classic horror flicks. A couple of my friends wanted to be Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers. I wasn't too thrilled with the idea at first, but I decided that I would give it a shot. They ended up being the highlight of the haunted house. I have used them every year since, I just find a new place to use them. This made me stop and rethink my whole style of haunting. I guess people can relate better to things they are familiar with. We see these characters in movies and they are scary, but to run into one of them in person. These were two very good characters because they don't speak. They just bust out of nowhere and come after you. People literally went into fits at the sight of them. If you can work these characters and things that people relate to you will have a haunt that will scare the crap out of people. Plus if you plan on running your haunt for several days at Halloween you can always change things if they aren't working, so don't be afraid to experiment.

FLYING HEAD PROPS ARE SIMPLE AND EFFECTIVE

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 16:54:00 +0000

If you are looking for something to add to an empty hallway, or a small narrow hallway I have the perfect prop for halloween. What I call the flying head prop is an ages old prop that is always effective. It consists of a head or large spider or whatever you choose that travels on a piece of fishing line. When your victims come down a dark hallway a head comes flying at them. It seems extremely simple, which it is but works everytime. I like to attach a small pulley at each end of the hallway. Then run you fishing line around both pulleys and tie the ends to create a continuous loop. This allows you to reel it back to the start point after each trip. Then I attach another piece of fishing line to the head and attach it to a stick or anything easy to hold onto. Try to run it high enough on the other end so that it won't get tangled on any of your victims. I like to build a false wall on the other end of the hallway so that someone can stand behind it and work the prop. I cut holes in my walls on both ends so that the head comes out of the wall travels down the hallway and disappears into the other hallway. A good way to enhance the effect is tie pieces of fishing line of different lengths to the head so that they hit your victims on it's way over their heads. Try to place the head high enough so that it won't hit anyone in the face. There are several ways to work off of this prop. You can cover the ceiling and walls with cobwebs and use a large spider instead of a head. Just be creative and use some imagination and this will be one of the simplest and most effective Halloween Props.

IT'S ALL ABOUT FRIGHT TACTICS!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 01:53:00 +0000

The single greatest part of putting on a haunted house is the scare. To scare the living daylights out of someone is what you work toward from start to finish. I never tried to make money or become famous with my haunted houses, I only wanted to scare people. Adults, children, old and young I love to scare people. Let's pretend that there are two schools of thought when it comes to fright. The first one I call this frightful imagery. This method includes highly detailed scenes that focus on what frightens people, such as Clowns, monsters, characters from horror movies. I call these things a sort of slow fright, there isn't the shock factor involved. You simply expose people to things they are afraid of. For example, alot of people are afraid of clowns. You have a room that is brightly colored with balloons and streamers. The walls are painted some sort of circus theme. As your victims walk past a large jack in the box, a clown pops out of the box. You create the scene to set the mood, then you execute the scare with something that people are generally afraid of.
The second method which happens to be my personal favorite is the shock fest. This method relies on dark eerie scenes with lots of surprises. I have found that if a person doesn't see it coming then they will be even more scared. An example of this would be a dark crypt scene with a person busting out of a coffin. I try to put things in the room that will distract people or draw their attention somewhere else. This way when the real shocker happens they won't be expecting it. The shock effect can be enhanced with sound effects, lights and other props. I like to incorporate alot of darkness with low ceilings, mazes and trick walls. When victims enter a room that seems empty only to have a person in a mask tear out of the wall in a frenzy you get one hundred percent pure terror. I have had people run through the walls in my haunted house trying to get all because of these simple setups. Just about anything that jumps out of a dark corner at someone is guarenteed to scare them. Loud noises, chainsaws, strobe lights, trick walls, two way mirrors and caskets are just a few things to enhance your scare shockers. I have used this method the last three years because it is extremely cheap to build because there are no real elaborate scenes to build and decorate. I don't use animatronics of any kind. I call it going back to the basics, alot of darkness with twists and turns and lots of surprises.
In the past I was obsessed with detail. I loved to build these elaborate scenes with their own sound effects. They looked awesome but they just weren't that scary. I finally decided to focus more on being scary then being something cool to look at. I got some pretty good results with this method. I went from drawing a crowd of around four to five hundred people to drawing about a thousand people. Just remember that however you decide to scare people just stop and ask yourself if you would scare. If you think that you could scare yourself then you will probably effective.

OPEN FOR SUGGESTIONS!!!!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 01:41:00 +0000

I strive to write about topics that people would care to know about, but you can't please everyone. If anyone has a question or a topic they would like to know about feel free to leave a comment or drop me an email. I will try to roll out an article as soon as possible.

Masks, Prosthetics or Makeup?

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 16:25:00 +0000

I have always strived to find a medium that looks good is comfortable and convenient. Back in the day you either wore a mask or makeup. My biggest problem with masks is finding one that looks good and fits right. Usually a mask will be too big, or the eyes holes will not be aligned with your eyes. Masks are also extremely hot to wear for long periods of time. You will also spend alot of money buying high quality masks. On the other hand a good mask will last you for many years, and they don't require any preparation time. You can just slip a mask on and off when you need to.
Makeup on the other hand requires some prep time to apply. Depending on the type of makeup you apply or how complex it could take several hours to get it all on. The hardest part with using makeup aside from time is keeping it from smearing or running off from sweat. If you do a good job makeup can be extremely effective and cheap. The best time to buy makeup is right after halloween. I usually go to Walmart after halloween and buy it on clearance. You can usually find everything for a dollar or less. My favorite is always going to be Latex Prosthetic apllications. The application just glues to your face with adhesive. The neat thing with latex prosthetics is they bend with you facial expressions. You have full freedom to move you mouth and face. I have been using prosthetics for about four years now. They look like part of your face when applied right. They are fairly cheap and can be applied in about twenty minutes time. You can purchase them from several sites on the internet. If you can find one that suits your needs you can buy all of the components seperate such as noses, ears chins and scars. I highly recommend every one to try them. Whichever method you choose just remember to pick the one that looks best and fits within your budget.

GET THE MOST OUT OF YOUR HALLOWEEN PROPS WITH CHEAP LIGHTING

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Sat, 12 Aug 2006 02:40:00 +0000

How you light your haunted house is one of the most important factors in successful haunting. I put just about as much time and effort into my lighting than anything else. Whether you want bright elaborate scenes or dark dreary rooms, lighting is the key to setting atmosphere. Black Lights are probably the most widely used lights in haunted houses. They provide adequate light but not too much light, plus they make everything look extremely cool. I usually buy the twelve or twenty-four inch blacklights. They are fairly cheap and the bulbs can be replaced when they go bad. I have some black lights that have been in use for several years. Strobe lights are a good source of light for your haunted house if you want to shock or disorient people. Strobe lights are not that expensive but they will have to be replaced more often. The good thing about strobe lights is that you can adjust the speed of the flash to create slow motion or very fast to disorient people. One of my favorite sources of light would have to be flicker bulbs. The flicker bulbs that most haunted house suppliers sale can be expensive. I found a craft supply store on the internet that sold them for about two dollars a piece. I also found some cheap light sockets with six foot cords for about a dollar a piece. These are awesome in chandaliers and candle holders. They produce a flicker that looks like a candle flame and they put off very little light. Flicker bulbs can be used just about anywhere in any lighting. If you want to create a very eerie atmosphere in your haunt try some flicker bulbs. As always be creative with your lighting. I like to place black lights on the ceiling facing the direction that people will travel. That way the lights are out of direct view of your guests. Strobe lights will work best if they are triggered once people are right under them, so that you get the surprise factor. I like to use slow flashing strobe lights to make people look like they are moving in slow motion. I once had a long hallway where I had a face appear in a two way mirror. As soon as my guests passed the mirror the actor came through the wall and followed the guest out of my haunt. The slow flashing strobe light made it extremely scary. I can't even explain the effectiveness that the strobe light created. Lighting isn't there just so people can see the way to go. If lighting is used properly you can't create a whole different effect.

BUILDING YOUR OWN HALLOWEEN PROPS

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Fri, 11 Aug 2006 01:11:00 +0000

The key to building a haunted house on a small budget is to use your imagination. Once you have a good idea about what you want to do in your haunt just look around you. See what you have lying around you that can be transformed into an awesome halloween prop. Old fruniture, Cardboard Boxes, Styrofoam or even old clothes can be used to make good halloween props. I live in a rural area, and people like to dump their junk beside roads or other places. I have found some of my best props in these dumps. Any item that you can dress up with some paint or cheese cloth can be useful. Best of all is the fact that these items are free. There are lots of people out there who will give you scrap wood or other materials that can be used. Don't look at something and think where will this fit, but what you can make it in to. I was building an electric chair a few years back and had everything but the top that fits over the persons head. I dug around and found an old enamel bowl and painted it silver, tapped a hole in bottom fastened it with a coat hanger. Then I touched it up with some colored electrical wires and it looked good considering what I used on it. It always pays to keep the necessities on hand. Spray Paint, black plastic, cheese cloth, spray foam insulation, chicken wire and cardboard are some things that are good to use on props. Most of these materials are very inexpensive, and can be reused. I like things that are reusable, like black plastic. I use black plastic for all of my walls and ceilings. The neat thing about black plastic is that after halloween you just roll it up and put it away till next year. Corpses can be made easily out of chicken wire and burlap cloth. Make a frame out of PVC pipe or scrap wood, then use chicken wire to build a body and cover the wire with old cloth or burlap. You can usually find some type of cheap burlap cloth at walmart. Then just paint or stain the cloth a dirty looking color, add a skull or head of choice and you have a corpse. Prop building becomes an art form in it's own. Props are usually very expensive to buy, you could spend several hundred or even thousands of dollars on a few good props. I will buy props if I run across something neat or something cheap, but I enjoy building my own above all else. Just remember when you build your haunt think about what you can create with what you have lying around, you will be surprised at the halloween props you can build with the stuff you already have.