July 5th Home Haunt Planning

During a span from 1992 until 2005, July 5th was a day I looked forward to all year. It was the day my cousin and I got together to lay down the plans for our home haunt. My Aunt and Uncle would turn their garage over to us each September to convert into a walk through haunted house. We haunted Bode Road in Hoffman Estates Illinois until 1999. In 2000 we moved the operation to another Uncle's property into a large barn.

Unfortunately, we didn't document many of the years. But, I do have some video footage from the 1994 & 99 haunts. Here is a test clip from '99 of one of our animated props. It's a Death Studios Klownzilla prop that is operated by an actor in an adjacent room...


This is a walk through from the 99 haunt. The low light footage is crap, as is the edit, but it's still a fun 2-minute look at what we did...


There are a variety of masks being used throughout the haunt. The walk through video didn't showcase all of the actors from Halloween night, but here are a handful of masks that were used. First up, visitors were greeted by a suspended Death Studios "Legion" mask when entering the first hallway...


At the end of the hall was a wooden coffin with a Death Studios "Cadaver" corpse prop...

 The first actor wore a Be Something Studios "Man Wolf" mask...

A massive Illusive Concepts "Death Lord" and skull shoulders sat a top an 8 foot dummy in the Executioner Chamber...


A Death Studios "Klownzilla" was one of a few clowns in the Clown Room...


 This Don Post Studios "Moonfan" mask was worn by our chainsaw wielding maniac...


A Death Studios "Bad Moon" mask and hands greeted visitors in line...