2006 we decided to do a mummy theme, so here is the curse of the mummy! This was probably our best year yet, with 8 animatronics, and 3 different illusions, including Pepper's Ghost, Endless tunnel and a ghost skull that you try to touch, but your hand goes right through it! The haunt went through the back yard, and finishes in the mummy's tomb (garage). We probably had over 500 people go through the haunt, and had all sorts of good reactions. Not sure how we'll top this next year! I've included a some pics from the haunt here, but if you want to see the rest of the pics, we currently have them stored on Webshots. Also, the best way to view the haunt is on the videos. Here are both day and night videos. The night one we didn't have sound, so I had to do a rough edit to get some of the sounded added.


Near the entrance to the backyard where the haunt begins, this mummy warns trick or treaters about the curse of the mummy. This mummy was made from a Christmas Singing Douglas Fir.
~Video~


The TOT's then enter the back yard, where they receive further warning from an animated archeologist. This is the same animatronic we used in our haunt last year for a grave digger.
~Video~


Along the path to the mummy's tomb, we have an animated snake charmer.
~Video~


We also had a 3 ghoul animated band singing walk like an egyptian, and King Tut from Steve Martin's Saturday Night Live egyptian skit. The arms of both the skeleton guitarists were animated, but decided to stop working the night of Halloween.





A couple of egyptian skeletons dancing to the music



A Sphinx with flicker bulb eyes and a Nefertiri head in a pyramid.






As the TOT's get nearer the tomb, the high priest Imhotep summons his mummy guardians from their underground crypts to stop the intruders.










Anubis, ruler of the underworld guards the entrance to the mummy's tomb. This prop also broke right before halloween, so the mouth movements aren't synched with the audio like it was supposed to. It still was pretty cool though.
~Video~
~How-To~



This is one of the few store bought items in the haunt. His eyes move, and he moans.
~Video~



Down the corridor of the tomb, the walls are covered with hyroglyphics. At the end of the hall is where we had our pepper's ghost scene. Hopefully I'll have some good pics and video of this effect this year.



While the TOT's are looking at this scene, a ghost appears out of the sarcophagus. This is a crowd pleaser when done correctly. This is the same effect you see at Disney's Haunted Mansion in the ballroom seen, with all the transparent ghosts that appear and disappear.






A couple of pics of the ghost appearing in the scene.



Final look at the scene with the pepper's ghost



Here's the little pyramid we made, with an endless tunnel heading down into the depths. This is the same effect as we used in our endless cave for our dragon in 2003. This time we just used a 5 gallon bucket for tunnel, with the two opposing mirrors.



In this last hall on the way through the tomb, we vaulted the ceiling to make it seem more 'tomb-ish'.



This was our skull the TOT's would try to grab, but their hands go right through it. I'll throw together a how-to sometime for this. It was a big hit. The way it works is there's a hidden concave mirror, and the skull is positioned underneath the platform. But the mirror projects an inverted version of the image on top of the platform. The result is, the only skull they see is a projected image that looks real. So you can see it, but not touch it. Very cool!



One more pic of the skull.




The final thing the TOT's see is some catacombs or shelves with various mummies.