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  • $500 Dollar Budget

    Next October will be my first year of having a Haunted House. We have a garage for it and a lot of props already. We have 10-15 skulls, a demon prop, hanging clowns, crows, tombstones, animatronics, giant spiders, and more. Is there anything that is a HAVE TO HAVE for a Haunted House? What are the best donations for diabetes and cancer? (We're donating) What are some cheep props you guys recommend? The picture is also mine, its my favorite prop I own. Thanks, Ethan out.
    Attached Files
    - Ethan Hall, EEK Productions Owner/Operator

  • #2
    Originally posted by Lochness View Post
    Next October will be my first year of having a Haunted House. We have a garage for it and a lot of props already. We have 10-15 skulls, a demon prop, hanging clowns, crows, tombstones, animatronics, giant spiders, and more. Is there anything that is a HAVE TO HAVE for a Haunted House? What are the best donations for diabetes and cancer? (We're donating) What are some cheep props you guys recommend? The picture is also mine, its my favorite prop I own. Thanks, Ethan out.
    I'd suggest visiting sites like Haunt Forum and Halloween Forum for creative and cheap ways to put on a display/haunt. This forum primarily consists of large scale commercial haunt owners but I'm sure there's a few on here who might have a few tips for you!

    Zach out.
    Zach Wiechmann
    www.frontyardfright.com

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    • #3
      I suggest a couple of things, in addition to Zach's.

      First research prop making on YouTube. There are a lot of inexpensive ideas out there. Stiltbeast Studios is a good one.

      Also, do you have actors? Props set a mood, they can distract but they rarely deliver a scare like an actor can. Don't forget the humans.

      Determine what are your scenes/themes? You will waste time and money buying and making things that you then decide don't go with your theme. Once you decide, second hand stores are great for finding detail props and costumes.

      Hope this helps,
      Jan/Grey Lady
      greyhousehaunts.com

      Comment


      • #4
        Time To Buy?

        A small air compessor!
        hauntedravensgrin.com

        Comment


        • #5
          Do you have dreams of growing into a bigger, professional haunt? If so, taylor what you buy/build towards things that you could use for a pro-haunt. Certain things work for a home haunt, certain things work for a pro-haunt, and some things work for both. If you start off using things that work for both, in 5 years you'll have accumulated a pretty good amount of stuff. Either way, best of luck and have fun!
          Mike Quill
          Fear Town Haunted House

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          • #6
            Yes, the one thing you HAVE TO HAVE (if you want to protect yourself from becoming homeless) is proper insurance coverage. Check with your agent to see what your liability coverage will actually cover. If anyone gets hurt in your garage, you'll be glad you know you have enough liability coverage and that it covers your home haunt. Most people have just $300K liability, so you may want to consider upping that. Unless you have an LLC, everything you own is up for grabs if there is a law suit, and if someone is hurt (whether it's really your fault or not), there WILL be a lawsuit. You can count on that.

            I'm not trying to rain on your parade and no, I'm not a shill for the insurance agencies, but everything I'm saying is true given today's Personal Injury Lawsuit mentality, especially if the victim is child. If you're going to let the public into your home, you owe it to your family to protect all your hard earned assets, because the lawyers have 2nd homes, car collections, and mistresses to pay for and all that money isn't coming from nowhere.
            www.TerrorOfTallahassee.com

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            • #7
              Question.

              What are some shops that sell Professional Haunt Props?
              - Ethan Hall, EEK Productions Owner/Operator

              Comment


              • #8
                Ethan,

                There aren't "shops" (especially not in CT lol). Almost any professional prop is made to order, because of the cost to create large and major props, and the niche market for them, little to no stock is carried by 99.9% of the shops.

                Look up the Transworld Vendor Directory, I think there's even a vendor haunt list one of the forum regulars put together.....I don't have the link off the top of my head, but I'm sure it couldn't be hard to find.

                I'd name some companies worth looking at, but I don't want to start a riot lol, but OBVIOUSLY you know you wanna check out www.DecimatedDesigns.com LOL.

                Also, congrats on building your first website for your haunt! It's a great start, just keep adding to it

                Lastly, you and your dad are welcome back any time if you want to see more haunt work or pick my brain!

                -Bobby
                The Only Scream In Town
                Decimated Designs

                Comment


                • #9
                  $500 is a slim budget, but its do-able. I would especially recommend making your own props, and not necessarily going for the big dog animations. Just one of those can easily put you over your budget! Lol.

                  I know here at Black Forest, we do spend way more than $500, but we also could easily spend WAY more than we do. We focus on doing things home made, diy, free, and making things the exact way we want them. It still gets a little expensive with DIY animatronics, but other than that we can keep costs down pretty well:

                  Try going to junk yards and seeing what things you can find and build scenes with. You can find old toilets and tubs, why not do a bathroom scene? Find a refrigerator and an old, creepy looking table, why not do a dining room/kitchen them of dining with the dead? Find some old machinery parts and make a industrial/factory room by hanging the parts all over the walls/ceiling. Speaking of free things, try your area's craigslist under the 'free' section. There is some great gems you can find there, and best of all, they are free, and can give you a tiny part of an idea or a scene that can evolve into some great things.

                  Watch out for pallets as well, these are great assets to have on a low budget. Over the next year, you can easily accumulate a good amount of pallets just by searching craigslist or taking a drive behind lowes/home depot and asking if you can take their unwanted pallets! They are amazing for structural support (in the right situation) as well as cool scene setters for making your scene look old and worn out.

                  Another not free, but relatively cheap thing is the Pink Insulation Foam (in 4x8 sheets at lowes/home depot) that you can practically make anything out of. Cool walls, crates, fake doors, anything. It's about $10 a sheet here in Missouri. Just make sure to paint with latex paint and not spray paint! (Spray paint will destroy it and eat it!)

                  There are really endless ideas with free things, you just have to take your own personal time to make them right. You may think you have a year, but it goes by quick. Get started early and have a well thought out plan for how you want things to go. Also, as mentioned, check out some of the home haunt forums, they have great uses for cheap/free things as well!

                  Overall, try to be as creative as possible and not worry so much about having all the best, amazing, expensive props in the industry. Especially for this first year. Start small, but make an impact.

                  I hoped some of this helped, and most of all, Good luck!

                  Tyler
                  Black Forest
                  THE BLACK FOREST
                  22 Years of SCREAMS
                  www.facebook.com/BlackForestHaunt

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Protect yourself!

                    I echo the insurance. Especially if you are on someones personal property (you mentioned garage?). When I held an estate sale for my mothers stuff when we sold her house, I learned a quick and valuable lesson. The auction company was fully bonded and insured, and advised we not even attend the sale. Turns out someone showed up, "fell" in one of the rooms and promptly sued us. The auction company took care of it all, but this taught me to make sure to protect my own personal assets. There are people put there that look for places like haunts to fall and sue!

                    I carry an umbrella policy through my personal insurance agent, in addition to site insurance for the event. We also incorporated (S Corp is one way to go, LLC another but ask your lawyer). It would be a shame to lose your house and savings because you didn't have protection!
                    Travis "Big T" Russell
                    President
                    Big T Productions Inc

                    Owner and Operator of "The Plague" and "Camp Nightmare"

                    Customer Quote of the year: "Damn, I pissed myself"

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                    • #11
                      A realtive of mine

                      worked with a woman who fell alot. Usually camping trails in parks and campgrounds, settled before any real legal expenses were incuured for $5000 here, $4000 there ...
                      Karma, fate, can be cruel,she got a nasty sickness then suffered greatly. Her "Phoney" paines were traded for real ones.
                      Her "Academy Awards" sort of faded then..
                      True story.
                      hauntedravensgrin.com

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