I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again

I like too many themes. It’s hard for me to make up my mind when choosing the theme for this year’s haunt. It was happening constantly last year, and twice this year. I also recall saying that I’d be doing a smaller haunt at my Dad’s house. Well, that’s changed, too. I’m doing the haunt at my Mom’s house again, and we all decided on a theme, and I think it should really fun, and different. It will be an easy to do theme, but it won’t just be a re-do of the “Scarecrow Hill” theme. I won’t be saying what it is just yet, but I’ll leave you with this clue:

Baron Samedi

See if you can figure out what the theme is….heh heh heh

Haunt Dilemma – “Phantom” or Pirates?

OK, first things first: I’m a flip-flopper when it comes to themes. Remember last year? I went from carnival to year-off then back to carnival before repeating the “Scarecrow Hill” theme. My problem is both indecisiveness and a enjoyment of many haunt themes. While I like all kinds (except for aliens/sci-fi), very few actually inspire me. Ever since I posted that teaser video for a redo of my old “Phantom of the Opera” haunt from 2006, I just haven’t been feeling the whole “Phantom” thing.Lately, I’ve been wanting to try my hand at a different theme – pirates. Now, before you start groaning, let me explain my reasoning.

1) It’s a theme I love, and have thought was fun and cool for most of life.

2) I haven’t actually built any props or sets yet, so the window of opportunity is still open.

3) Both sets would be similar in design – a cave, but instead of a Gothic style lair, I’d be doing a hidden tavern for the scoundrels.

4) With a pirate theme, there’s opportunity for a façade over the garage door.

5) Finally, while there are many excellent pirate haunts out there, none of them have been done the way I’d done it, with other haunts going very Disneyland instead of dark and frightening (along the lines of Nox Arcana’s Phantoms of the High Seas album).

So, before I start making any changes to my haunt plans, I’m going to get as many opinions as I can. If you have any ideas or opinions, please comment below. So, my fellow spookables, what do you think: Phantom or Pirates?

Yes, I know...

I've had a bunch of different haunt and party ideas this year. And It wasn't very fun. I mean, thinking about the different themes was fun, but towards the end I started feeling confused and uncertain about the haunt this year. But Halloween is only 99 days away and I decided to buckle down and decide on my Halloween plans. So here is the final, absolute, super-duper plan of the HalloweeNut (I promise):

Party:
This is my first Halloween party. I mean, EVER. So, I'm gonna keep it simple - no theme, Pizza, chips 'n' dip, music, scary movie. I figure I kinda have to show a scary movie that most people probably won't have seen, but still ties into the season. So I'm gonna show one of my all time favorites: TRICK 'R TREAT! The music will be a mix of Scary Rock/Metal (Rob Zombie, Creature Feature, Powerman 5000) and dark ambient (Midnight Syndicate, Nox Arcana). I've got all kinds of cool of ideas for decorations, and my costume will be the same costume for my haunt. Which leads me to announce the actual theme of my haunt this year....

Haunt:
Well, I've truly come full circle with this year's theme. I've gone from carnival to taking a year off, and I decided to buckle my @$$ down and choose a theme, and start building! So I'm going to go with original theme - Troupe Macabre Haunted Sideshow. I'm changing it from a "carnival" theme to a "sideshow" theme. The front porch will be transformed into a Freak Museum, and the front sidewalk will be the "Midway". Once again, plenty of cool ideas, but there's a lot hard work ahead. But I'll try to take some time to blog. I've got tons of cool circus/sideshow stuff to show you all. But that will have to wait; I've got props to build. Stay Scary!

OK, for those that didn't know already...

I'm quite indecisive when it comes to my haunt. My plan for this year was to take the year "off" (so to speak) and let my stepdad take over the haunt in PA, while I prepared for a walk-thru party haunt in 2011. Well, it didn't work out exactly as planned. Not that I got distracted by another theme, but I got overwhelmed by the size, scale, and EXPENSE of the walk-thru project. Remember, I'm only in high school, so I don't have a huge budget! So I've made a slight change of plans: my Stepdad will still run the porch haunt in PA this year, and I'll be focusing my energy and personal budget on a Halloween party for my friends. This one doesn't have a theme (unless "general Halloween stuff" counts as a theme). But it should be fun and I'm looking forward to it.

PS: the above image is one of many cool pics from the Love Manor Flickr page