Happy Halloween

Tonight was our last night open. It started raining pretty early but we didn't close until around 11:30. Despite the rain we had a good turnout which is why we stayed open. We were short actors like we usually are on Halloween night but most people still had a good time. Last week we averaged 160 actors but tonight we only had 97.

The rain also made the place really muddy. It was already pretty muddy before the rain but got worse after it started. We didn't hear any complaints though.

Tomorrow we start cleanup. We need to get the queue line down so Compounce can have their parking lot back. ;p

Second to last night

Tonight we had a lot of people come out to see us. It was one of our best nights of the season. Everything went smoothly and nothing out of the ordinary happened. Tomorrow night it Halloween night and is our last night of the season. There is a threat of rain late but hopefully it will hold off a while.

Last weekend

Tonight and tomorrow night are the last two nights to come out and see The Haunted Graveyard. Tonight should be a great night but tomorrow there is a chance of rain later in the night. Come out and see us before its too late.

Water everywhere

It must have rained pretty hard last night because when we got to the Graveyard this afternoon there was water everywhere. Ernie told Justin, Kurtis, and I to get up there early to help try and get rid of some of the water. There were big puddles in just about every house and water running off the mountain through quite a few also. We did a pretty good job of getting rid of the puddles and stopping the water from running.

The night itself went well. Nothing surprising happened and we had a good crowd. Next week is the last weekend we are open.

The picture was taken in the bunk bed hallway in Catacombs. You can't see it well but the whole hallway was one big puddle that we had to get rid of.

At full staff

Last night the rain came a little earlier than it was supposed. It started raining around 9 but we didn't stop selling tickets until after 11. Many people came early so when the rain started we had a full queue line. The rain didn't stop people from showing up to buy tickets though so we kept selling them. We eventually got the last groups through around 11:30.

Its been raining all day today and its supposed to downpour tonight so we aren't opening today. Tomorrow is supposed to be a very nice night.

Fox61 morning show

Today a reporter from Fox61's morning show was at the graveyard doing live shots. I wasn't there but I saw a few of the regulars in makeup with him. They shot in our various scenes and I saw Marybeth and Taylor among others. Ernie also was interviewed. Hopefully Fox61 puts some clips on their website.

Also we are open tonight. Come out early thought because there is a slight chance of rain after 10.

Also from our website:

Friday night, we're teaming up with KC101 to give away tickets to the Daughtry Concert on Nov. 17th!

Come to the Graveyard this Friday, Oct. 23rd, for a chance to win 2 Free Tickets to see Daughtry!

You can see all the events going on this weekend on our main page at http://www.hauntedgraveyard.com/

Picture 7

Here is a picture of the Bamboo hut in Fishpuppet.

Picture 6

This is a picture of the Slaughterhouse freezer.

Picture 5

A picture of the Temple Calender.

Picture 4

Here is a picture of the Temple waterfall and facade.

Rain = closed

We didn't open tonight because of the rain. Here is a picture showing what The Haunted Graveyard looks like from the hill near the Spider/Demons area.

More special people

Tonight we had a pretty good night. The rain held off until well after we closed at midnight.

We had some people from Walt Disney Entertainment unexpectedly walk through tonight. They were in the area at for a conference and heard about Lake Compounce and decided to check it out. When they got here they saw that The Haunted Graveyard was here. They thought it was going to be some small little walk through so little did they know it was going to be as big and detailed as it is. They said they really liked the sets and the detail that went into them. Its too bad we didn't have all the actors again tonight though. They said they saw some empty rooms and figured we were a little short. Hopefully next week we will be at full actors again.

½Ѡ⒤ⓣ

Tonight we closed early again because of the rain. We closed at 10 and it didn't start raining until a little while after we closed. Ernie decided for the first time ever to reduce the number of paid actors and other paid staff. We had some holes in the show but it wasn't anything too bad. All of the normal volunteer actors were there and they make up most of our scarring actors.

Some good news is that the power didn't go out. Booch, the Compounce electrician, changed the breaker that was tripping the last couple weeks. The new breaker seemed to work better last night and didn't trip at all. Hopefully this solves our power problems.

A group of people who go to major haunted houses around the country came tonight to check out the show. They write articles for some magazine. Someone told them we were one of the two best haunted houses in the country. They didn't seem to expect the size and detail we had in the show. Kevin showed them around before we opened in the daylight and they came through again at night after we opened. They said they really liked the show.

Picture 3

This is a picture of the first hallway in Temple.

Picture 2

This is a picture from Vampires in the room with the 8 caskets. The mannequins appear to be getting married. Why they aren't getting married in the Wedding room you'll have to ask whoever set them up.

Picture

Today's Picture is the Milk Truck outside the Slaughterhouse.

Last night was another nice night. Nothing too eventful happened. The power went out once again but after leaving the door open in the Compounce and shutting off a couple nonessential for machines it didn't trip the rest of the night.

Before the show opens we have to fix things that break during the previous night. I had a strobe light go out that I fixed and Kevin had an animatronic that wasn't working. There were also a lot of smaller repairs like a chair that someone in Manor sits on broke. During the show I started taking down solar powered lights that are placed behind the scenes. Its a little dark behind the scenes since most of the lights aren't working. I'm going to go to the Graveyard sometime this week and replace their batteries.

I took some pictures after the show closed. I'm still getting used to my new camera so they didn't come out as good as I would have liked but I'll post a few of them the next couple days. This picture is from the Pumpkin Patch.

Busy night

Last night the weather was a perfect cool October night. We had a very nice sized crowd. The night was pretty uneventful except for the power going out a few more times. The Catacombs pole went out once due to someone turning on the heat in the makeup trailers and not shutting it off. Heat in the makeup trailers and the break trailers along with everything else running off that pole will eventually trip the main breaker. Its fine as long as the Makeup trailer heat is off. The Manor pole went out 3 or 4 times. We are still trying to figure out why but it might just be getting too hot also. Compounce is going to try installing a bigger breaker to see if that helps.

Tonight we are having another radio station with a contest. Our website says:

"Join Hot 93.7 for a Scavenger Hunt only at the Haunted Graveyard! Get a list of what to look for in the Haunted Graveyard. Turn in your answers for a chance to win tickets to this year's Jingle Jam including some special BACKSTAGE PASSES from Hot 93.7 WZMX-FM!"

The site also says

"This Sunday, get a free $10 Gift Card from the Wireless Zone with each paid parking when you come visit The Haunted Graveyard!"

The commercial

I uploaded the commercial to the Haunted Graveyards official Youtube channel. You can watch it here but its better to watch it on Youtube itself:



You can also see behind the scenes footage I shot here: Commercial shoot video

The rain held off

We lucked out tonight. It was sprinkling very lightly after we opened but stopped pretty quickly. The rest of the night was a very nice night for the Graveyard. The park closed early and stopped selling tickets at 10 and the last group left a little after 10:30. It didn't stop raining until 12 as a few of us who shuts down the show were leaving.

We had some excitement when the power went out twice. A breaker in one of the Compounce buildings feeds power to over 3/4 of the show and it decided to trip twice. We aren't sure why it trips since none of the breakers in the show trip but we suspect it happens when a bunch of compresses come on at the same time. It happens very very rarely though and we get the power back on in less than a minute.

We continued to improve the show through out the week. The Manor facade received some new mannequins in the windows and the funeral precession between Catacombs and the cemetery grew larger. The Cemetery path was also lit a little better.

We are expecting big crowds tomorrow since last Saturday was rained out and the weather today might have kept some people away. The weather is going to be perfect so it should be a very nice night to come out.

Commercial shoot video

We had a commercial shoot last month on September 5th. I took a lot of behind the scenes video that I finally found time to edit. The video shows some of the stuff that went on that night (at least the stuff before I ran out of batteries. >< )

Kurtis directed the video and Taylor, Jesse, Marybeth, Mike, and Bobby were in it. Leigh did the makeup which you can see in the original post here.

Opening night

Opening night went pretty well. We had a good crowd and people enjoyed the show. We finished the stuff we didn't get to for the preview night. The night was pretty uneventful. We had a problem with the ball and a shelf Elgin made for a fog machine to blow smoke out of the faces nose. The ball started hitting the shelf and we had to remove it. There are a few dents in the ball that will have to be repainted.

As we were trying fixing a spring that keeps an emergency door at the end of Catacombs shut we ran into a few strange customers. The first was a lady that walked up to us and started trying to push by Mike's arm(the Mike that helps with electrical stuff) . She tried to get past us a couple times until we asked if we could help her. She didn't immediately respond and just kept trying to get by us through the door. Eventually she realized that she wasn't supposed to go through the door and we pointed her toward the Graveyard.

The second was a very drunk older guy. The guy came over to us and started asking what we were doing. We told him to keep walking through the show but he said something about it being fun watching everyone get scared. He kept walking around the display at the end of Catacombs while we were trying to get him to keep moving through the show. He ended up going into Cemetery but only after we kept telling him to move on.

Unfortunately its raining today so we arn't opening tonight. Hopefully there will be better weather next week

Preview night

Last night was our preview night for sponsors and Lake Compounce employees. Everything went pretty well. We have some great new actors especially in Manor. Everyone in there was really getting into the parts. Since there wasn't a lot of people going through the actors were really able to spend some time with each group which is really entertaining to watch and be a part of. Unfortunately when we get busy and have 9000 customers through a night everyone has to keep moving through. (so get here early and get here in the first two weeks when we aren't too crowded.

The last couple days had been very hectic. We had many people working trying to get as much completed as possible. We even had some actors and house managers helping us get finished. The Manor facade was finished on Wednesday and looks really good. It wasn't finished painted until about an hour before the show opened though. The Queue line was also done during the last couple hours before opening. I had a lot of stuff to finish and Dan helped me out a lot getting most of it done.

Not everything was 100% ready for opening but we were close. I forgot the heartbeat CD at home so the Endless tunnel had no sound. I also didn't get to put up the lights in the Manor facade windows and a few other small things. The construction side of things was a little unfinished also. We started putting up the sight blocking walls around the manor facade but ran out of plywood. There was an 8 foot gap in the wall where if you turned around you could see the Compounce paint building. All that will be fixed for tonight's real opening though.

Tonight is the real opening night so it should be exciting to see real customers and hear their reaction to what we've done over the summer.