Haunted Overload photos

[shawnc]

Wow, you think big.

[Grimley]

I want to see this haunt more than any other. Too bad you guys are so far away. I had a few of the same concepts with the pumpkins lining the road but your creative team just blows my mind. Everything has an organic feel and therefore much more creepy. It looks seamless as if you didn't even have to try. And that's just what I can see from the photos and promos on the site. Love your work.

[DarkTikiEntertainment]

Thanks for the reply!! Please keep posting pictures!!

[elowther]

Here's a few more.

[Lord Barnabus]

I absolutely love it all. But my favorites are definately the tree monsters.

[damon carson]

Those are some really great pictures Eric. Is there anything you all dont make? LOL! How do you find the time? Im sure it saves some money in the long run.! I love the lighting in your pics. What do you use exactly? The lights seem very bright in the pics. Also what is it you put on the props to make say that giant pumpkin ect. Ive seen you carve it out on the Hauntworld vids ect. Is it Joint compound? On the smaller props I see you use alot of spray foam. How did jumping out the mouth of your stage go with the chainsaw this year?! Look like you had a great show this year! The place looks more lit up than a Christmas park! Love it!
Damon

[elowther]

Damon,

It is really tough to find the time to make all this stuff. I usually don't sleep much and run out of time for all the props I have on the drawing board every year but the patrons don't know what I had planned. I'm really looking forward to next year when I can revamp the old monsters with new ones and add more detail to the haunt now that I have the circus tent and tower built. They took a huge chunk of time this year. Making my own stuff saves tons of money and gives the haunt it's unique look.

For lighting I use many different kinds. Anything from simple colored stake lights to big street light type lamps with colored gel over them. Sometimes Halogen work lights with black wrap and colored gel work well also. You have to build a buffer zone away from those type with the Black Wrap Cinafoil and gaff tape because the gel will just melt if it's too close to the hot bulb. The photographers do almost too good a job capturing all the light with long exposures but the haunt is bright in spots and very dark in others.

I like to coat props like the big pumpkin with Liquid nails and a thick coat of laytex paint followed by spray paint. It makes it very weather proof and lasts for years. I buy the gallon buckets of Liquid nails and smear it on with rubber gloves.

I totally ran out of time to make the platform safe enough to jump out of. I had it half 3/4 of the way done. It needed to be braced more and lighted so I could see where I was jumping but I had to pull the plug because I would have killed myself the way it was. The lights were shining right in my eyes creating a blind spot on the landing area. We still had an actor up there with a microphone playing to the crowd. It turned out really cool. I need better lights on it for next year to make it more dramatic. The deep red gel that I used kind of washed out all the detail but it looked good. There's always next year to improve upon it, I still whirled the saw around in the mouth but just went back inside.

The weather held out so it was an awesome season, thanks for the good words.

Here's a few more construction photos and a cool black and white 15 minute exposure to get the star trails.


Scale model and tower in the background


We built half of the face on the ground and hoisted it up. It was hot as hell that day! I was nervous the ropes or pulley's would break on the way up.


Circus tent being built.


Cool timed exposure by Dan Plumpton.

Eric

[DarkTikiEntertainment]

I really like the detail of the rope holding the tree's mouth shut! I'm also enjoying the pics of the "work in progress".

A lot of people voted for Haunted Overload in the "What should be in Haunt World #20" thread. I'm really hoping you end up in the magazine!