Thursday, November 17, 2005

Dark Works 2005

Darkworks shotThe hauntmeisters over at Terror Syndicate have put up their web page with a photo tour of their Dark Works haunt for 2005. As is usual for the guys who came up with Monster Mud, their haunt has a uniquely interesting look and a crazy level of attention to detail. These guys make a haunt that looks better than most pro haunts.

If you're interested in reproducing some of their effects, they have a long line of haunt products that they make themselves and sell. They sell foam skulls and other nasty props, and also have a line of books that have detailed instructions on prop building. While the production values on the books are pretty low (photocopied pages bound with plastic rings), and the price is a little steep, the books are high on content, and better than the published books you can find at Amazon. These guys know what they're doing, and have some of the best-looking corpses in the industry.

6 comments:

Daniel Lopez said...

Cool....very scary too. I think this is way beyond the type of displays that you want to create in terms of the "fear factor." This appears to be more adult based than kid based. Other than that, I really like the use of pneumatics to move the displays. Dude...I have the air compressor...Can you just imagine a couple of Pirate Skeltons dancing on the deck of a pirate ship to the "Pirates' Life for Me!" tune....Arrrrrrrrr

CC said...

Heh. Yeah, if we did something like Dark Works at Carnival of Souls, I think we'd traumatize a lot of young'uns. It's definitely an attraction squarely aimed at the surly teen crowd. As much as I'd love to do something like Dark Works sometime, I think for the next several years, at least, we need to stay the course and cater to the younger crowd.

And I feel good about that, because there are precious few venues for that age range for Halloween - when they get older, there's always the KLAQ Haunted Warehouse and the like. They'll "graduate" from the Carnival of Souls and start seeking out the bigger and better scares, and maybe when they're adults, they'll think back on how fun and magical our Halloween productions were, and do the same thing for the kids in their neighborhood. It's a "circle of life" thing.

CC said...

Oh, and yes, I can imagine an animatronic pirate ship. It scares the crap out of me from a logistical standpoint, but yes, I can imagine it. Heh.

Daniel Lopez said...

Logistics....migistics....We can do it. I can build a ship's hull (at least the front side). You can build the crew. And I sure we could figure out a way to animate them.

How cool would this display be for the 4th of July Light Parade!

Arrr....

-daniel

CC said...

Heh. I'm up for it if you're willing to store the damn thing during the off-season. I'm out of space.

Start drawing up some plans for what you're thinking. Having never created a float before, I'm wondering about things like the float vehicle, powering lights and motors on the float, and how tall we can make the masts and still be able to navigate around telephone wires and traffic lights.

Daniel Lopez said...

Coolness. I will draw something out. Hey, do you have time tomorrow (Saturday) morning to help out with my christmas display?(I need some muscle to for the GT) We could also discuss the pirate ship float (get it, float)LOL! Let me know if you are available.

Thanks,

daniel