Anyone done aliens?

[Kelly Anderson]

Working on the part of our haunt that takes the patrons into a flying saucer like ship. Once inside the ship they will encounter a room where an alien is disecting a human. Our initial plan was to have the alien be played by a live actor. However, this will be our first year with a alien theme. We dont really have much for alien costums. And we may be short on actors anyway.

I am now considering having our alien just be a prop, possibly on pneumatics. My thought for the room at the moment is this: the human being disected will be a live actor. We've already got the table made for the actor to lie in. The alien I am thinking being this big blob looking thing with many long arms/tenticles resembling an octopus, hanging from the ceiling directly over the actor with its arms draping down all around the actor as well.

I was thinking of making this blob thing on a piece of plywood with a pneumatic cylinder set up in such a way to make the alien blob move up and down over the top of the actor but initiated only during the scare.

What are your guys/gals thoughts on this alien thing? What would you do? Make it move or not? If so, how? How would you make this alien look? What materials would you use?

Thanks a million!!!

Kelly Anderson
www.hauntyourhouse.net

[Allen H]

Classic grays creep people out, I think a blob like thing would be almost to inhuman to be frightening. If the room was built differently from a normal room with sloping sides as opposed to 90 degree corners that would help the illusion. Lighting will be a key factor but I do not have a rock solid idea as to which way you should go with it.
Allen H

[Jim Warfield]

Strange, Your Alien description..

It sounds to look ALOT like something I saw running down the road infront of my headlights about 37 years ago.
It's body was shaped like an airplane wing wrapped in leather, complete with the spar ribbing. There were six tenticles very Octo-pie looking ("Oh , Jim, you have quite an imagination, you just schemed, dreamed this up!")
I know what my imagination is doing. If I would have invented such a critter it would have had a head, a front, back, face, and this thing ran sideways to my imaginating, three legs leading, three legs following.
I last saw it that night running into the bushes next to where a blind man lived all by himself..very much like the blind woodcutter in the Frankenstein story.
"Hello, Friend."
"Hi, Jay, how you doing?"
Not fiction.
I was driving about 10MPH through a series of 90degree curves coming into Mount Carroll passed the trailer court. The creature ran into the road from the north, ran down the road infront of my headlights, starting out also under the streetlight, two light sources illuminated it then. It went down the road for maybe 75 feet before going into the bushes surrounding the blind man's little house.

[Smiley]

If it were my decision, I'd probably change the prop. A tentacle blob might be strange and, well, alien looking to the average person, but there's a certain creepiness to the Grey's nature. What with their large black eyes and skinny form. Making it wouldn't be hard. Just slap on a Grey alien mask and alien skin-like gloves to a wooden frame. The rest of the body could be covered with some alien-esk clothing. A robe would look fine. Not a bathroom one mind you; the kind that a grim reaper costume would sport. Maybe paint on a few stripes, some alien symbols. Stick a few tubes on him if you like; going in and out of different places of his body or perhaps give him some tendrils and have them wrap around the victim.

As far as the motion for this kind of figure, well, pneumatics aren't really my forte. But how about putting an alien surgical tool in his hand and giving him a stabbing/probing/sawing motion? Or maybe instead of a tool, put some gore in his hand and make it look as if he's pulling out of the victim. Simply something for him to do besides stand there.

Least that's how I would go about it.

[Jim Warfield]

how about...

making your little alien a puppet with the control srtrings, wires, fishline , in the hand of the human victim laying there, save your pnuematic money and need one less body on the payroll.
Maybe even a footpeddle for the operator so their hands could both be free making the illusion more complete.

[shawnc]

making your little alien a puppet with the control srtrings, wires, fishline , in the hand of the human victim laying there, save your pnuematic money and need one less body on the payroll.
Maybe even a footpeddle for the operator so their hands could both be free making the illusion more complete.

I was thinking the same thing, kind of like a flying crank ghost. Either that or build an alien figure like the others have suggested but with minimal movement. Just the head turning to look at the patrons as they come by and a little movement in the arm. The actor could be freaking out but the alien would be very calm and detached.

[Kelly Anderson]

A more human like alien it is!

One thing thats so kick-bitt with this site is all the awesome feed back one can get. THanks millions guys for your tips!! Just hering your thoughts is helping me out alot. Ive never really been into the aliens thing so its hard to get a good foundation for an idea.

I think I will try and make it more human like. Probably a mask with the hands. I wondered about the cape....putting the alien symbols on it is a great idea. I think I now where to go with this now.

As far as making it move, just having the head move and maybe the arm could be good. I already have some of the pneumatics, the solenoid valve and some cylinder with about 4 inchs of travel. I was origanally thinking of making it move by some sort of rope or lever action but I though the character lieing in the bench might get tired of it in a hurry.

I would really like to do something cool with the walls like Allen was saying like slanting them. However, Im not sure if I will really have to because of how I built the saucer. This whole alien thing will take place within two seperate rooms. As the patrons enter the first room they walk into a swamp/forest. It is so thick that you cant see the walls or the ceiling. When they get about halfway through the room they will see one small portion of the saucer with the door/ramp open. This small portion of the ship covers the entire wall. You cant even see the side walls or the ceiling. It really looks like a huge ship but you can only see a small portion of it. So when you walk through the door of the ship and go into the second room where the alien and human will be, it still looks like you could actually have a room that big inside the ship. But that aint no fun! ha

Anymore ideas for the walls? Thanks allot guys!! I now feel like I have alittle more direction on this alien thing.

Kelly

[TALA]

I like the idea of a big blob, maybe done a little different.

Maybe something like this:

A sorta smallish alien lab with a HUGE blobish tenticle creature. The tenticles all over the place, 100's of them (or fewer with a few connected to each other) with the actor having a push button to release air thru the tenticles.

Like those little ankle whip things. Sorta like the whole room coming alive when the actor sets it off.

Couple of green lights with some kind of armature holding a brighter light over the table with the actor in it. Once activated, strobes taking over the lighting with a blast from an air cannon toward the crowd.

running all the air lines for the tenticle up thru the body of the blob creature so it shakes and moves when the air kicks in.

Sorry about the formating, should see my notebooks ;-)

I'm liking the idea honestly. I have just the room next year...

[Kelly Anderson]

alien ideas

Thanks for the ideas TALA!! I should be able to make up something good now.

Does anybody ever start building something based on an idea you initially have but by the time it gets done it looks totally different than you had origanally planned......whether better or for worse?

I have a feeling this may end up being one of them times for me. I think I will set out for a more human type of alien. But Im thinking for some reason that it may look to plain for me. Ill probably have to add the tenticles.......we'll see.......this is whats fun for me when doing a haunted house...just dream it up and build it.

Kelly

[Allen H]

Why not have the gray aliens be doing the experiment and the tentacled alien be the instruments? we use in organic tools mostly but aliens might grow their labs as opposed to make them. Just an excuse to make both I suppose.
Allen H

[Jim Warfield]

Maybe...

As the grey aliens age they mature into the blob-people ones?
Look at pictures of a person,a human, when they were a kid, then see them when they are 90. Same person? Hard to tell usually, isn't it.
I have seen some people who from one age to a certain point , they resemble one parent, then as they get older they begin to resemble the other parent.
"We can sure tell who your Mother is, you have a beard just like her, Johnny!"
Remeber a few years ago when they mixed a spider's DNA with a cow's"? No fiction here.
The cow's eyes were different from a normal cow's , the object of the experiment to to see if the cow's milk would have spider web strength and then would be the lightest, strongest material ever made, making it the new choice in bullet-proof vests.
Meanwhile the webs fill the barn and two of your kids are missing.
Ain't science wonderfull sometimes?

[damon carson]

Jim Warfield has and not quite in the way your thinking. Let me reprase that I think they did him. LOL! Thats what happens when your in the middle of a cornfield in Illinois. You get abducted! LOL!
Damon