Deep in the swamps, something is stirring! Something dark. Something evil.…
Here is a little video I put together to show what it was like. It's only in Windows Video format. Sorry, I just don't have Quicktime Pro yet. I'm a Mac user, so it bums me out too! :)

BLOODY BAYOU VIDEO.WMV (6.0 MEGS)

It's about 6 megs, so you will probably want to download it, then view it.
Download PDF Flyer 8.5x11
Here's the entrance to the haunt. We built a swamp shack facade on the side of the house, put a sign and a monster on the top. Behind the shack was the first part of the haunt. By far, this has been our best effort yet at an entrance!
As you swing the door open to the shack, you are greeted in the living room by the traditional "Touch nothing sign" along with gramps in the chair. We also put an actor up front to give them a good scare as they came in.
After a short trip down the strobe hall, you enter the kitchen. Mama's cooking something good on the stove for dinner! This room had several things going on in it. The oven door was rigged to pop open and give you a start. The actor (Mama) would kind of just sit against the wall triggering the devices and creeping you out. Finally, in the laundry basket in the back of the kitchen, there was a simple pneumatic pop up head that just scared the crap out of people! I love that prop!
Unfortunately, the coolest room in the entire haunt, the Swamp Room, has no pictures of it. The camera I used to shoot the pictures of it took a dump and I got nothing usable out of it. This year, I've got both a digital and a new SLR, so we'll be getting some great shots of it.

As you exited the kitchen through the laundry backed with a strobe light, you would enter into an open area, the swamp room. A fog chiller pumped low lying fog around the assembled tombstones. Willow branches hung from the mesh roof and a nice swampy sound track played. As well as the vegitation, we had a return of claw guy, the executioner (now used as a light prop) and a desguised barrel pop-up prop. We had lots of great comments about this room. Very etherial and a nice departure from the regular closed in haunted house rooms.

In the swamp room, you would make a U-turn to the right and continue in through the back door. This hallway leading to the flying crank ghost was drapped with lots of erosion control cloth. At the end of the hallway, in front of the flying crank ghost, you went up a small ramp to the left that lead you in the side door of the garage. At the edge of the ramp in front of the FCG, we had another actor who would pop up and give you a good scare.

Next up was another barrel pop up leading into the first room in the garage. Along with several new wall sconces, we had a split wall at the end of the hallway with a corpsed out bucky skeleton behind it. Again, the pictures of the corpse didn't come out. Oh well... Next year. Here's the split wall though.
The split wall was a very cool prop. We had some problems with the trigger mechanism not working right, but for the most part, it worked very well. There was a mercury switch attached to the door that would activate a strobe above the bucky when the doors would fly open.
This is one of the new lighted wall sconces we made for this year. They look awesome, but we had a hard time getting them lit enough to be able to see them.
Turning the corner, you would come face to face with the gallery. These are 3 props that we've had kicking around for awhile now. Another actor was waiting behind the camo cloth to get you as you made the turn.
At the end of this hallway was our scissor lift prop. It was mounted in a 55 gallon drum and placed against the wall. The torso of the figure shoots out at the vistors about 6 feet leaving the arms and hands behind. This prop also had a voice chip that was triggered at the same time. A very cool-very dangerous prop. We always put this one behind a partition so no one can get too close.
Finally, you'd make another turn into the final room. This was called the "guille room". The entire room was draped with erosion control netting. The walls had custom wired LED eyes all around. The actors in the room were also wearing the netting with battery powered eyes in the suits. Because it was fairly dark, it was impossible to see the actors until they moved right in front of you. Lots of screams and lots of fun in this room!

And that was it! Check out the video for more detail and a much better look at all this. I've included a few more photos of the construction at the bottom. Hope we see you all this year!