1998

This was the first year that I got pretty serious about the decor on my lawn. Most of the props were cheapy store bought stuff and some colored lights. We all got in costume and roamed around the lawn. I made half a corpse and rigged a pulley up from a tree branch. As people walked by we'd let it drop down next to them. We scared the heck out of a lot of people and it was definitely all I needed to justify stepping it up a notch. Unfortunately we didn't take any photos this year!

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1999

Well this was the first year that I had been a regular reader of the Howl2000 email list and started getting ideas from some of the brilliant people that do this on a professional level. I built a PVC ceetary fence and made about a dozen styrofoam tombstones. I invested in a fog machine, more blacklights & stobes. We made a walkway through the center of our yard that served to filter people through our little set up. We kept the corpse falling from the tree since it was such a big hit the year before.

Somehow it got listed on a website somewhere that we were running a larger haunted attraction the day before halloween and 2 vans full of people showed up at my house. I also got a bunch of phone calls asking what our admission and hours were. I felt pretty bad turning people away, but had nothing set up 100% until Halloween day.

Anyway, here are the photos of the 1999 haunt. Clicking on a thumbnail will cause the photo to open in another window.

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2000

My 2000 haunt is currently in production. Having the fence & tombstones complete from last year has given me a solid foundation to build from. I'm building pillars for my cemetery, a Flying Crank Ghost, a skeleton cage & a Burton-esque scarecrow.

This year we are also expanding our haunt into our 2 car garage. I've purchased a lot of black plastic tarp and have begun working out the floorplan. This should prove to be pretty fun. It should also be noted that this will be my final haunt for a couple years because I'm getting married next October and will probably be on my honeymoon over Halloween. After that, who knows? If we get a single family home I'll try to move it all over there. If we get a condo or townhome I guess I could continue having at my parents home, they enjoy it as much as I do!

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