Yep you read write. A few years back i thought up this idea while touring a haunted trail back in Illinois. It was one of those what if i owned or worked an outdoors haunt what would i build.
So now im working an outdoor haunt i drew up this device and gave the drawings to the owner and he loved the idea.
Last season we toured Spookywoods and they had something similar but i wanted this to be a faster more startling effect.
Tony's haunt they used what appeared to be spandex covering a hole that the actors slowly came out of, at our place we wanted it fast and startling.(fast paced zombies like many seen in movies)
So we have dug two holes for two Zombie pits staggered slightly apart.
Yesterday we framed in the holes with wood and i started building the track the panels hatches will slide along,these will be attached to the pit wood framing as well as staked into the ground behind the wood box.
It's designed with a counterweight run off behind the pit under a fence out of harms way.
So the idea is the actor waits inside the box for the group, hits the lever (and ducks out of the way of the lever!)the top panel slides open and the zombie comes out at feet level.
We are putting small wrought iron fences in front of the pits so the actors don't get kicked yet the patrons still have a great veiw as the zombie fly's out of the box at them.
Were going to dress the whole system to look like freshly dug graves.
Building these yesterday i couldn't help but think man is this going to scare the crap out of people in a dimly light situation. My buddy and i even talked about the timing and how it would work for different sized groups and we laughed our arses off at how effective these pits will be!
He and I are really contemplating actually working these pits the first night were open just to see how effective they will be.
Has anybody seen anything of this idea at any other attraction? The ground level drop panel? May need to rename these since their not dropping their sliding.
Attack Hatches, there we go!
So now im working an outdoor haunt i drew up this device and gave the drawings to the owner and he loved the idea.
Last season we toured Spookywoods and they had something similar but i wanted this to be a faster more startling effect.
Tony's haunt they used what appeared to be spandex covering a hole that the actors slowly came out of, at our place we wanted it fast and startling.(fast paced zombies like many seen in movies)
So we have dug two holes for two Zombie pits staggered slightly apart.
Yesterday we framed in the holes with wood and i started building the track the panels hatches will slide along,these will be attached to the pit wood framing as well as staked into the ground behind the wood box.
It's designed with a counterweight run off behind the pit under a fence out of harms way.
So the idea is the actor waits inside the box for the group, hits the lever (and ducks out of the way of the lever!)the top panel slides open and the zombie comes out at feet level.
We are putting small wrought iron fences in front of the pits so the actors don't get kicked yet the patrons still have a great veiw as the zombie fly's out of the box at them.
Were going to dress the whole system to look like freshly dug graves.
Building these yesterday i couldn't help but think man is this going to scare the crap out of people in a dimly light situation. My buddy and i even talked about the timing and how it would work for different sized groups and we laughed our arses off at how effective these pits will be!
He and I are really contemplating actually working these pits the first night were open just to see how effective they will be.
Has anybody seen anything of this idea at any other attraction? The ground level drop panel? May need to rename these since their not dropping their sliding.
Attack Hatches, there we go!
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