This year, Ray got a major upgrade! We finally finished the wings. He got a new face-sculpt, paint job, and a whole new wardrobe. The Wings The metal frames that we finished last year were only the start. Most people thought those were all the wings were going to be. They were really the armature …
Author Archives: Mike
2024 Social Media Links
DEMONGROUND: The Hidden Haunt https://demonground.com Facebook If you enjoyed your visit and would like to support Demonground: The Hidden Haunt, you can leave a tip using the links to the right. All money collected by Demonground goes to supporting and expanding the Haunt. We appreciate your donation! tiptopjar.com/Demonground Chicago Haunt Builders https://chicagohauntbuilders.com/ 2024 Haunt List …
Haunt 2024
Sat, Oct 5 – Thurs, Oct 31, 2024 Welcome to our 2024 Haunt! Props Added: Do you want to see how we did it? Follow the links below…
“Ray” 2023
So…I’m driving back from the store, and I drive past a house that has the Home Depot red reaper prop. “Darn, I think to myself. We had the only one in the area last year.” Then I turn a corner, and there’s another one. And then I spy a third one the next block over …
“Stanley” 2023
Building a Haunt on a hill … where our house is … on a … house on haunted hill! Oh! I just got that. Anyway … when you build structures that are meant to go on an incline, you have to engage in some additional engineering to make them stand “up” (where up is based …
“Grim” 2023
One of our oldest props is “Grim”, a pneumatic pop-up that sits center-front in the display. Kids love him. Dogs hate him. We first built him back in 2006, and every few years his face – up until now usually a latex mask over a foam skull – rots and falls apart. We saw signs …
“Jack” in the (fire) box 2023
For the last two years, Jack was a pneumatic prop. He jumped out, made a big banging sound and then retreated — usually before the startled guest spotted him through the smoke. It seemed like he startled – but didn’t really scare. (see: Jack 2021, 2022 ) From a haunt-perspective, not the effect we were …
Angel Gravestone
Rebecca found a remarkably detailed doll on Facebook Marketplace. The doll is 33 inches tall and looks like the perfect starting point for a monster-mudded angelic figure on an ornate gravestone/base. The picture at the right is a reference photo of an actual grave that we’re basing the design on. Carving the Foam Starting with …
Lasher
Step by Step… So, there’s this prop called an Animated Swaying Zombie, that basically is an upper body swiveling around from the hip. By now, you’ve probably figured out that I like taking an idea, and “Yes and-ing” it until it turns into something no sane person would commit to doing. A note to the …
RGB LED Eyes
After the second or third time you find yourself swapping perfectly good LED’s out of the skull of one of your older props — simply because you’re changing themes, you start wondering if there’s a better way. This method can allow you to “hard wire” some of the basic colors of an RGB by applying …