Portal of Correa's 2012 Haunt

What started 17 years or so ago as a typical halloween decorated yard has grown over the years to an obsession that takes my family and several friends 8 to 10 weeks to build, of course that doesn't include side projects we work on through out the year. Most of the pictures you are about to see were taken during the day, night pictures are generally to filled with flashed fog to do any good and despite numerous attempts with different video camera's we were unable to get useable footage

Step 1: To the Entrance

The past few years we have had large crowds on multiple nights so we set up a que, the front yard is decorated pretty much like the average home. Leading up to the Haunt entrance are several projects. props or decorations I'm not sure what they are considered. We have a couple of lolipop ghosts, my dragon and several mini haunted houses I created from discarded doll houses

Step 2: Thru the Portal

Our working drawbridge only worked the first 2 nights then the poor old motor gave up, off to one side is a rose tree with eyeball centered roses, the 3foot wide by 10foot long tunnel is very dark and filled with machine generated fog

Step 3: To the Saloon

Exiting the portal tunnel you turn left and enter our saloon room, the walls are privacy fence turned on the side, the rood is a portable carport mounted on 4x4" supports, the bar is made from bi-fold closet doors and an interior door, our drunken saloon dolly gives you conflicting instructions on how to survive and a "safe word".. no one caught on that the safe word just made the actors focus more on you. We had people screaming avocado, fried chicken or barking like dogs in my actors faces.. it was PRICELESS.
 Many of the bottles are sporting labels we created and several had homemade "stoppers"

Step 4: Kitchen

there is a short twisting hallway leaving the saloon and you enter the kitchen, all of the appliances were curb rescued as was the sink and all the cabinets, a lot of the guts and offal is nothing more than spray insulation painted red with some purple and blue added. Some more home made labels on the jar of pickled fingers or the dried people ears. The large jars are filled with dollar store buys that swell to 100x thier size in water but after several years they are unrecognizable. There were several actors rotated thru this scene, a bound and screaming female or a people eating pig or a leatherface kind of serial killer

Step 5: Every Haunt Needs a Bates Motel Shower

of course we had a bathroom with the required shower, the shadow was printed on the curtain, the scare actually came from the unseen door next to the mirror and behind the body. The ghosts in the mirror are simply white glue that I read about here on instructables, trying to get my 3yo granddaughter to hold still while I traced her face was the most difficult part of the project. You can see my comment on the the link https://www.instructables.com/id/5-Minute-Ghost-in-a-Mirror/ from the bathroom you walk through a dark 12' long tunnel to the toxic room

Step 6: The Toxic Room

The biggest expense in this room was all the fluorescent paint, several of the barrels were donated by an actor who works at a local very well known golf course ( a LOT of players wear green jackets) the pipes and tubes are cardboard carpet rolls or clear vinyl tubing that we ran paint through, the "tanks" were some kind of store display. The small chains came from another actors works trash

Step 7: Intermediate

leaving the toxic room you encounter a store bought large ghouls, we connected a piece of pvc pipe to the arms and an actor behind the fence could make the arms move, there were several groups who ran back and forth between the toxic mutant and this ghoul then you finally hit another short dark tunnel with a very slow strobe light

Step 8: Bone Room

thsi room is really more of a wide hallway but one of my actors wanted to haunt it, he hung various bones and made the small flying ghoul move along a zip line, the wall at the end is angled to throw another twist and several feet to the haunt

Step 9: Wall Scare 2

leaving the bone room there is a small room with several trunks stacked against the wall, remember the guy from the bathroom? he gets you again here with a small door

Step 10: Trick the Eye Room

this room was haunted by the toxic mutants young son in an all black body suit with hood, fluorescent paint was sprayed all over the black plastic and the kid in costume, even KNOWING he was there we couldn't see him. Kade got some of the best scares of the week, even scaring several professional haunter friends who came through, his mother helped by providing a distraction with the creepiest sounding marionette ever, the doll came loose and chased you into a short hallway that seemed to be blocked

Step 11: Swamp Ape

entering this next room with a hay covered roof you see a long haired 6'7 creature with its face buried in a body
it raised to look at you, pulling a piece of bloody intestine up with its teeth and growling insanely, in its hand is another piece of bloody intestine that is actually an air hose with a small water hose attached and he blasts you with "gore"  several other bodies are scattered around and finally a repurposed santa is dressed as a demon

Step 12: Rotisserie Room

the rotisserie room was rather simple, the discarded medical skeleton was partially covered with plastic shopping bags that were melted with a paint stripper gun, a few pieces of rebar and a fence pole over a "fire" from a discarded fake fireplace surrounded with styrofoam "rocks", the wall is a repeat from last years haunt, its several closet doors covered with house paint and paper towels, there are several colors that react to the black light and make the wall shimmer and glow eerily. You leave this room through the mine entrance a 20 foot dark curving tunnel has fishing string to distract you

Step 13: Spiders

I hated this room, I was constantly getting snagged with spiders, we really just needed a break from the long curving tunnel so a spider room it was !

Step 14: Demon Delivery Room

this room didn't work as planned, people were to interested in the demons being born so it got changed , the the guys wouldn't leave so I had to split up the actresses, my daughter jumping off the wall definitely got some scares. Leaving this room there was an open to the sky hallway leading to the cemetary

Step 15: Cemetery

I really wish I could have gotten pics of this cemetery at night, low lit with blue lights and fog it was a true work of art by the grave digger and his reanimated corpse that POPPED from the grave

Step 16: Dark and Infinity Tunnel

leaving the grave yard you enter a 15' pitch black tunnel lined with wet carpet padding at the end is an eerie orange/red glow from the infinity tunnel that was at the other end of another 15' tunnel, unfortunately after numerous shots I couldn't get any usable shots of the infinity tunnel lit up. A curb find patio door with 2 way mirror film was attached to a frame another recused mirror was attached facing the mirrored side of the door about 2 feet away, between the two was draped plastic with a flame pattern and twinkle lights shone through the plastic

Step 17: Insane Asylum

next up is a narrow room with various figures and a static filled tv, th cage to the back holds a straight jacketed figure who stands still until you pass thru the curtain, another caged figure on the other side of the curtain scares you back and the first figure comes to life. we had to rake new dirt into this area several times a night

Step 18: Exit ?

this next room is very dimly lit, there is a cage with an electric chair and a bloody nurse, body parts hang from the ceiling and walls, before you stands a box that says exit but as you near your salvation the box slams open and this creature jumps out and makes you beg for the hidden door. No one knows what he was but it was CREEPY, amazing what a can of spray foam and some imagination can create

Step 19: The End

finally you think you can see the end, but remember that guy in the cage? he just got you again!  The aroma of fresh popcorn fills the air as you enter the clown room, my 18month old grandson activates the laughing clown and laughs exactly like it while he flashes the led flashlight at you

Step 20: That's All Folks

I hope you enjoyed the pictural tour of our 2012 HAUNT as always we had a blast scaring our friends and neighbors from around the north east florida area with around 2500 people over 5 nights of operation we are looking forward to next year and already have several ideas in mind........... stay tuned and HAPPY HAUNTING