Sunday, October 14, 2012

2012 Haunted Houses

Here's my list of 2012's haunted Houses. If you have one to add, please contact me.

Open Now

Potter's House of Horrors (Surrey) A Great haunt year after year.  Get there early enough or buy the VIP tickets and hit the Bear Creek Scream Train too which is just a short drive away
Bear Creek Scream Train (Surrey) We always get some great laughs and hear many screams from this train. Actors can and will touch you.
Fright Nights at Playland (Vancouver) I've not been back since a bad experience. It might be worth it if you go on a rainy weekday, but I've found that they oversell the attraction and too many people in the haunts, and long lines wreck the fun. Still the most Halloween per square meter that you'll find. We're going to give it another try this year and I'll report back.
Dunbar Haunted House (Vancouver) Always a wonderfully decorated haunt with some clever scares. Their second year at a new location and an intriguing theme. Not the scariest haunt, but one of the fullest and best themed and decorated. Proceeds to charity.
Reapers (Chilliwack) A great haunt that embraces darkness really well. Great scares.

Opening Soon
The Haunted Barn (Surry) It's back! After a limited run last year, the Haunted Barn is back and all that pent-up fright will be unleashed to scare you senseless.
Jordan's Haunted House (Richmond). I got to see his handmade hearse at Fright Fest this year, and if the attention to detail in that prop is any indication, you're in for a pretty good show here. Free, but donations appreciated.
Haunted Highschool (Vancouver) Normal Highschool can be pretty scary. Add zombies and it gets even better. Proceeds to Make a Wish Foundation
Island Haunt (Nanaimo) If you're on the Island, check it out and let me know!
Blackrose Cemetery (Vancouver) I know very little about this haunt, if anyone has more info, please let me know.
Ghost Ridge (Maple Ridge) I've still not heard much about this haunt, or been, please send me your reviews




Wednesday, February 08, 2012

West Coast Haunter's Convention


 

The new and original ghostbusters
The winning costumes
The West Coast Haunter's Convention was June 1st-3rd in Portland Oregon. I had a great time at the costume ball, and attending the seminars. Just being around so many people who love Halloween was excellent. I brought out the steampunk ghostbuster costume again (fixed the smoking barrel and remembered to add the green glow to the chamber). While I didn't win the costume constest, I have no problems losing to the couple who won with their fabulous vampire count and countess costumes My full photo gallery is public on Facebook HERE.

Tuesday, February 07, 2012

Sean and I on CBC Early Edition

Sean and I were invited to come and talk about our costumes and Halloween on the Early Edition, Early on Halloween morning. You can listen to the interview here (skip to 0:31:00)

2011 Costume: Steampunk Ghostbuster

Front
Back

This year's costume reused (with several modifications) the backpack from my steampunk Frankenstein Monster costume. I took a month off from work to build the ray gun, and enlisted my friend to do some circuit building and arduino programming. The backpack smoked, there was a nixie tube countdown, a custom mixed audio track, the gears turned, the green on the side of the gun is a plasma disk, and it shot a rotating laserbeam. The barrel was supposed to Gatling around some green cathodes, but something went wrong with the 800+ volts that went to them. I hope to post a video of the thing in action one day. Oh, and I grew the facial hair for the costume.