2001's theme music was 'Voodoo' by Godsmack. Hanging on my wall was a flyer from Skull Kingdom in Florida. "I can do that." So out of wire, burlap and spray foam insulation emerged my masterpiece. And talk about good furtune, I was lucky enough to happen across a big pile of styrofoam blocks, the kind used to float a dock. They had been burned, which made them melt into really cool rock like shapes.
As you entered through the mouth of the skull, you found yourself in what appeared to be outside again, in a bayou.
You continue into the barn and an eerie feeling comes over you as you walk right into the middle of a swamp, complete with an old run down shack and a fisherman in his boat. The only way out is across a long narrow bridge over the murky water where an alligator lurks.
The Voodoo Scene is another mirror effect. The legs of the stand are landscape timbers. The box part, actually just the sides that reflect back into the mirror, are pieces of old paneling painted to look like bamboo. The "torso" was from an old plastic costume. I added bundles of cane all around as a well blended distraction. The Witch Doctor danced around the bodiless victim singing chants waving his skull staff.
This is a pretty simple way to surprise people. As they are foreced to pass by the body laying on the table, they fully expect it to jump up and grab them. Whaty they dont expect is a hand to come through the stone wall. My dummy was actually nothing but a face with some stuffing and a red sheet. The stone wall was trash bags stuffed with newspaper, stapled to plywood and spay painted.
The rocking tunnel is my virsion of the 'vortex tunnel'. In my vast piles of junk were three rocking teeter-totters(you figure it out). Out of another junk pile came 2x4s from which I built three 8 foot squre frames. Through sheer determination(and alittle help from Jose Cuervo) I managed to attach them to the rockers then attach them all together with 12 foot 2x4s, covered it in black plastic, built a walkway through it, spray painted squiggles on the walls, tried to walk from one end to the other as it rocked and wished I hadnt have had those two shots of tequilla....
The torture chamber table was a lot of fun after i figured out how to build the damn thing. Finding a mirror this big was sheer luck. The table itself was mostly plywood. The most important part of this effect is what is reflected back up into the mirror. I really like the red carpet, but black plastic would work just as well. I used spray paint to make runny blood splashes around the room. Add a good actress, a crazy doctor and a few extra body parts...
Every year our home town has a Halloween parade in which we enter a float. The 5' skull we used on the float was left over from Halloween many years ago. At that time it was just a face. With a little corrective surgery, we managed to complete the skull. Rocks, aka foam blocks from under floating dock, were stacked around the skull.
The "Honorary Voodoo Queen" was my 95 year young Grandma AEnease. Even though she was nearly blind, she had a blast throwing out candy to the kids.
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Go home --- Halloween 2000 --- Halloween 2002
