Halloween 2011 Haunted Graveyard Post Mortem

Another year, another Halloween party. And another Halloween party means another Haunted Graveyard in the backyard! This year is my fourth attempt. You can see pictures of last year’s graveyard here. I got lots of compliments from the party guests for that effort, probably because it was a huge improvement over 2009 — of course, that just set the bar that much higher for this year!

The first step in setting up the graveyard was actually taken last year — the day after Halloween I hit the 50% off sale at the Spirit Halloween Superstore, so I picked up a few more characters and decorations at a huge discount. You’ll see pictures of the new guys below. One thing I was not able to find at the sale was a fog machine. In previous years I borrowed one from my sister-in-law, but I really wanted to have my own. So this year, a couple weeks before Halloween, I sucked it up and bought a few at regular price — expensive, but absolutely worth it!

So, once I had all my inventory assembled, the next step was to setup the perimeter. I used the same 2 foot fencing this year, as that seemed to work really well last year to direct traffic and avoid people tripping over cords. I think I ended up with a little bit more area inside the fence than I did last year (you can click on any of these pictures to see a larger version):

Next I started to populate the graveyard — these guys are just dying to get in there. First in was this great zombie. He lays flat on the ground, then pops up and makes creepy noises when people walk by. One thing I learned with this guy is that you have to put a heavy block on the front of the stand — otherwise he’ll catapult forward when the latch releases, because the spring is really powerful:

Next I added the mummy and the animated ghost guy, you probably recognize them from last year:

And of course my favorite space-filling decoration: Styrofoam tombstones:

OK, now things get interesting. Like I said, we had some trees trimmed back over the summer, so I didn’t have as many places to hang decorations. So this year I strung a rope from a hook screwed into the eaves of the house down to the fence on the other side of the yard. Then I positioned some of my characters on the rope. I tied knots in the rope to keep the characters from slipping down the line. The guy in the middle is the same ghost I used last year, but the guys on the the ends of the line are both new this year:

I brought back the plain white masks too, I really liked the look of those last year. I moved them to the other side of the yard though, so they had a more prominent display:

No graveyard is complete without cobwebs of course:

Here’s a close-up shot of one of the new characters. He’s some kind of scary-looking ghost thing. He’s actually really tall, six feet at least. He doesn’t do any but look spooky, though, which is a little disappointing. I set up a purple flood light to shine on him:

Here’s a close-up shot of the giant light-up, inflatable spider that I borrow from my sister-in-law every year. He sits in the back of the yard, so he’s hard to see in most of the pictures here:

And here’s the second new character this year. This guy is awesome! He’s labeled the “flying animated reaper” or something like that, and his eyes light up, his wings flap (!!), in a really creepy, unnatural way, and he makes spooky noises. I got him for only about $30 on sale, and everybody loved him — definitely my favorite character this year:

And of course I had to bring back the Zombie Barbies from last year. This time I made tiny nooses for them and hung them from the fence, instead of leaving them on the ground, so they’d be easier to see. I put a small red strobe on them too:

Finally, of course, here’s the obligatory “action shot”. I love how the colored lights make the bushes look like they’re on fire! I assure you that’s just an artifact of the color management in my camera — nothing was actually burning!

All in all, I think this year’s graveyard was a great success. There’s still a lot of room for improvement though, and the pressure is really on now — I think the kids that come to the party are getting braver faster than I am making the graveyard spookier at this point, so if I don’t step it up next year, they’re all just going to laugh at me!

A couple final thoughts and suggestions for those who might stumble across this page while planning their own Halloween decorations:

• If you’re thinking about buying a fog machine, go big. The small machines are a waste of money. They just don’t generate much fog.
• On the other hand, I highly recommend the Low Lying Fog Machine. This is a regular fog machine with an extra compartment for ice, which cools the fog as it comes out, so the fog stays low to the ground. It works like a champ! The only problem is the cycle time is pretty long — between 2 and 3 minutes — so you might want to get more than one machine and set them to fire at staggered intervals.
• Make sure you take advantage of the “day after” sales! I picked up a huge new “zombie barrel” character for $75, and a second low fogger for just $35 this year.

I can’t wait for next year! I need to figure out a way to rig a zipline, so I can make that tall ghost guy come flying at my victims guests, and some kind of curtain to separate the graveyard, so you can’t see the whole thing at once. Hope to see you there!