Post
by Murfreesboro » Mon Sep 16, 2013 9:35 am
Welcome to the forum, and congrats on your lovely new home! I don't do a huge, themed yard haunt the way many people on this forum do. Instead I string lights in trees (bats and spiders), exhibit a number of jack-o-lanterns (both real and foam), and display the "ghost lights" or "spirit jugs" (made out of gallon milk jugs) that I have discussed on other threads. I also have something I call a "ghost dance," where I arrange a circle of dowel rods dressed like ghosts, as if they are dancing together in a circle. And of course I myself costume, usually as a witch, to distribute the candy. I have never had a lot of money to sink into the decorations, so my mantra is making things that are cute, clever, and inexpensive. (Most of the store-bought decorations I have picked up on sale after Halloween.)
We do have a street nearby where the neighbors compete with each other on yard haunts. One of them does a terrific graveyard, complete with a (living) corpse in a coffin, and another has a labyrinth which is a little different every year. Always there is at least one seemingly inanimate monster which will randomly come to life (it is actually a family member in costume). There is also one house that does a mad scientist's laboratory, where the TOTers come up to a table and put their hands into stuff, or see weird stuff in jars, etc. And another where the kids get chased by a mad man with a (non-working) chain saw.
So I have seen a lot, and have enjoyed all of it, but I have never gone all out myself to try to make one, coherent yard haunt, with a recognizably unique theme. If you want to go Addams Family or Haunted Mansion, you will have the issue that your house isn't Gothic at all in style. However, for me, the Addams Family is more about the characters than the house, so I guess I'd try to make sure all my family members looked their parts. If you are aiming for Haunted Mansion, I recall that movie had some singing "busts," barbershop quartet style, so maybe you could find a prop like that in one of the Halloween stores.
Since TOT happens in the dark (at least around here), you can probably create the illusion of a spookier environment by putting cut-outs of scary figures in your windows, or having artificial bats hanging in the trees or off the eaves, that sort of thing. Sound effects can help out, too.
You do have a big space there in your carport area, so I guess that is where you will wish to focus the haunt? You can treat that area like a stage and create pretty much any kind of environment you want there.