Halloween Parties!!!!

This will be the second year for our yard haunt Pandemic Cemetery. As some already know, our haunt used to be an indoor Halloween party / haunt for family and friends called the Metuchen Slaughter House. All though I love doing the new yard haunt that everyone can see, I really miss the parties we used to throw. So to help all the my fellow haunters out there who still throw a Halloween Party, I've put a list together of the best ways to have one kick ass Halloween party.

1) Make sure every room that your guest are going to have access to is fully decorated. Nothing is worse then walking through a haunted library with flying ghost and moving books, and then walking into a floral bathroom with cute towels and Dove Body Wash. Keep your guest in the Halloween mood. 

2) Make sure you have a room that people can get away from “Halloween” for a bit. Yeah, I know that goes against the first rule, but 6-7 hours in death and darkness, or clowns and strobe lights does start to get to everyone. Any room that's not decorated, that  has normal lights and is away from the thunder, body parts and bat droppings is great for people to take a little break and get re-energized if there over loaded.

3) EVERYONE MUST COME IN A COSTUME. It's a Halloween party. The guy in the corner with jeans and a t-shirt on, that thinks he's way to f**king cool for a costume, is a real party killer.

4) Have prizes for a costume contest. You wouldn't think it but those stupid plastic trophy’s from Party City can really get people motivated to get in some over the top costumes. (Make sure to buy one for Sexiest Costume) Also, a couple gift cards are great prizes. I usually went with $25 1st place, $15 2nd place and some party gifts for the runner ups. Like candy bags and severed limbs.

5) Got to have good music. Don't just play Midnight Syndicate all night long. There are tons of great Halloween themed music that goes great for Halloween parties. And I don't care what age group this party is for... You have to have “The Monster Mash”.

6) You can't have a good party without good food. Most Halloween parties start later at night so finger foods are great. The types of foods people can stand and eat are the way to go. Check out what Martha Stuart is making for Halloween that year and do that. And I always have tons of candy in Halloween buckets and witches cauldrons placed all over the house. It is Trick or Treat time after all.

7) Spread the food out. People tend to hang around were the food is at, and if your house is on the small side or your 8 foot Frankenstein is taking up way to much space, put the food at several smaller tables to keep your guests moving around.

8) Alcohol is a Halloween Party favorite. (Well that goes for most parties) But when you have a 60 year old, 6ft 3in, 245 lb guy walking around in a tooth fairy costume, you better have some alcohol around. Have a good variety that both men and women will like. (A keg of beer is not going to cut it)

9) Keep garbage cans in every room. For some reason, when people go to Halloween parties they forget how to throw shit out. I guess it's because, it's dark, the house looks like a torture chamber, and with all the fog, why not throw the candy wrappers on the floor. But extra garbage cans are helpful to save on the dreaded next day clean-up.

10) Have fun!!! As the party host, it's hard to sometimes step back from serving drinks, getting food out, and helping the girl puking and peeing all over herself after drinking to much. But have some fun of your own. Dance, eat, and drink with your family and friends. If you planed it right, the party will take care of itself.

A new way to paint a Haunt Wall.

I'm still working on my new workshop. The good thing about turning my shop into a Dungeon is that I'm learning new paint and decorating techniques. Each wall I do comes out better and better, almost to the point where I want to go back and do the first wall all over again. (But I’m not) This new paint technique I’ve been using is so easy and so quick to do. You could do a 10 x 10 room in about an 2 hours start to finish, and that includesdry time between coats! I'm going to make a how-to video of the process and put it up on You-Tube and my website, but until then I will give a quick run down here for ya.

You will need:

Black flat latex paint
Dark Tan gloss latex paint (or any color you want as your primary color)
Wood stain (Mahogany, Red Chestnut, something dark)
Latex Gloves
Paint Brushes
Clean Rags
A bucket or small pail

First, Paint around the edge of the wall with the black latex paint. Only paint 10 to 12 inches from the edge.

Let that set up for about 5-10 mins, do not let dry!

Next, with a brush, paint on the dark tan latex paint moving in long up and down strokes. The black will mix with the tan giving a streaked look. Go over the whole wall keeping the edges more black and the middle more tan. You will see what I mean when you do it.

Let that dry a half hour or so. Use a fan to speed up dry time. It doesn’t need to be completely dry, just make sure it’s not wet enough to wipe off.

Pour some wood stain in a small bucket. Soak a clean rag in the stain and rub it on the wall, again using long up and down strokes. Wipe off excess stain with a clean dry rag. Do this as many times as you want. The more coats of stain, the darker and grungier the wall becomes. (I only put on 2 coats but you might want more) No need to let it dry between coats. The sticker the stain gets between coats the better the look.

And that’s it. One finished Halloween Haunt wall.

Lets get ready to get ready.

With only a couple months till Halloween, I really need to get moving on the new Pandemic Cemetery design for 2011. I know I want a walk through, I already have the 10 by 20 foot tent I bought a little while back. And I could easily fill it will props and animatronics from when I had The Metuchen Slaughter House. But how am I going to bring it all together into one haunt. The Metuchen Slaughter House was set into three shows, with 3 different thyme's. I had the torture room, the incantation room, and the toxic room. Now its all going into Pandemic, a graveyard thyme. I am a full believer in  having a good story line. So I guess I will start there..... When bringing a story to life you have to ask these basic questions.....Were did the haunt come from? Why is it still there? Who or what is the haunt about? Who is the main character? (there should always be a main scarier) and for who is this haunt going to scare? (kids, teenagers, adults, everyone).  Once I get all that together, then I will start building.

Starting a NEW Blog.

I thought it would be easier for me to blog on Blogger then my own website, so I'm going to try it out. I moved all my old blog posts over to here, so the dates are going to be all screwed up.( its all the same post date) But no big deal, no one reads this shit anyway.

Back from the Haunters Convention

I'm finally putting the video up from the National Haunters Convention. I have been so busy lately that its hard to find time to put these videos together. But when you love doing something, you find time... The show was good. I say good, not great, because we just got back from Transworld and that show is just amazing. (Check out our Transworld videos below) Transworld makes all other shows seem small and disappointing. But in all actually, it's not that the Haunters Convention is small, it's just catered more for the home haunter then the pros. Lots of high quality masks and static props to see. A couple "foam" weapon manufactures were there with axes, sledge hammers, giant wrenches and swords. Some smaller animated props and animatronics were lurking around. Lighting, smoke and bubble machines, webbing, creepy cloth, camo netting, smelly scents...... just about any special effects making "thing" was there. But like I said, more for the home haunter, then anyone else. I will definitely be going back next year.

National Haunters Convention

This weekend is the National Haunters Convention in Pennsylvania. It's like the Transworld Haunt Expo but not as big and geared not only to professional haunted attractions but to Home Haunters as well. This is going to be our first year going to this convention, but from the YouTube videos I have seen, it looks awesome. Although we will only be able to make the show on Sunday, I would have loved to have gone today. Tonight is the Haunted House Bus Tour that takes guest to 8 Haunted Attractions with a lights on tour and a lights off tour for all 8. Now that's cool !! Anytime you can get a behind the scenes tour of a Haunt with the lights on is a definite must see. But because of time constants there is no way we could do it this year. We will be there all day Sunday and I will make sure to take lots of "good" video to put on the site. I really hope to see some good quality props for the home haunters. Not the cheap plastic and styrofoam shit you find at Party City. Since Halloween has become so big in recent years and more and more people are going bigger with their Home Haunts, the prices have started to come down just a little bit, bringing the pro quality props in reach of the Home Haunters. And I've also seen prices come down for prop making supplies for the do-it-yourselfers out there. Better props at better prices is always a good thing.

Well the time has come to start thinking about our home haunt Pandemic Cemetery.

With 6 months till Halloween, its a great time to start planning some of the new improvements. And let me tell you, this is going to be a huge year. ALL the props, animatronics, special effects, and lighting that we had for The Metuchen Slaughter House is now going to join the rest of Pandeimc Cemetery. I just got a 10ft x 20 ft tent that is going to become the new Haunted house. Its not going to be a walk through, more of a "look in". (NJ laws are very strict when it comes to things like that) People will only be able to walk around the cemetery and the look into the haunted house, which I think will work out really good. I'm also working on a new story line. As every true haunter knows, you have to have a back story. A good story breaths life into your haunt. If you don't, all you got is a bunch of meaningless props, scattered around your house, pretending to be scary.