This year, I kinda fell into a theme as I started putting things out, and just went with it

MistressEvil and I also threw a party, but we had a lot of no-shows... LOTS of no-shows. We'll probably skip the party entirely next year. My local friends are all Halloween freaks, so are busy, and her friends all have other things that go on this time of year. Oh well.

So, with no further ado...

Here's the video for this year. Thanks to Vicki at SETIFilms.com for the filming and edit

If that one didn't work for you, here is the Youtube version.

Thanks to Virgil

and Midnight Syndicate

for permission to use their awesome music in the haunt video!

I had three new pneumatics this year. As you can see, Barbie was one of them. I had it on the same Prop-1 controller as the Hanged Man, so when it was triggered, one or the other would go off.
Of course, this meant that EVERY time Vicki went to film the props in action, the one she wasn't filming would fire off 10 times in a row. LOL

This was my second new pneumatic... PVC armature, made in a day. A how-to may follow... I didn't take any pictures while building it, but it's pretty easy
This was the third new pneumatic... basically just a big foam head on a cylindar. I made a guide out of 3/4" thin walled PVC and 1/2" PVC to keep it from turning.	I didn't manage to get any pictures of it, but both this one and the PVC armature were controlled by the same Prop-1, with the motion detector in the eye of another skull. Either one, the other, or both went off when it was triggered. Once again, the random firing gave Vicki fits.
This little group is what finally got me thinking along the lines of a theme. At first, I was thinking just a little cannabalistic group of mini-skeletons, but I expanded that. The broken skull with the brain in it was one of those serendipitous accidents... one of the fence posts fell over and hit the sidewak before I had it secured, cracking the skull in two. I happened to have a plastic brain that was the right size, so we ended up with cave-skelly cracking it open for a tasty treat. Vicki put a red LED inside, so the brain glows at night.	My "Whirling Spirits"... based on a great Rising Spirits prop from Dave the Dead on HauntForum. A how-to will follow... I have a lot of pictures of the process, but very little time. Here is a link to video of the completed prop.
	The hangman is the same pneumatic one from last year, but the skeleton holding the line is new. I was really pleased by how this turned out. Mounting the skeleton at an angle like that really made it seem much more alive.
	ARRRRRRR... there be a pirate on my hearse!
The skeleton kids on the moving see-saw from last year. In keeping with the theme, we took their clothes off, and then had them see-sawing over the bodies of two dolls we bought this year. I had actually been contemplating a lot more blood here, with one of the doll heads in the center of the see-saw, but I finally realized that was just a *bit* over the line... by a mile or so.
	FINALLY figured out something to do with my Frankenbucky... you'd think an 8 foot skeleton is enough on it's own to be scary, but I just haven't been able to use it well up until this year. In keeping with the theme, I should have put dolls in the cages instead of the skellys that were already there, but I got lazy.
Once again working the skeleton theme into an old prop... looks like poor old Ramses is getting his wallet lifted by a light-fingered skelly
Monster Mud and Great Stuff wall breaker... quick prop, took me a day from the time Danielle from the Halloween-L list posted her *much* more awesome Grim How-to for it here
	In keeping with the theme, I switched out the oscilating fan head with a skull.

And now some night shots... sorry for the poor quality, but I don't have a tripod, and holding the camera that steady for a night exposure is a pain

	This is our "Skandaleer" from Anatomical Chart Company
I really need to make a lolcat type macro for this... <yawn></yawn>
Even the neighbors got into the act this year! This is the house directly across the street from us. I loaned them some lights and a few loose bones, but the rest is all theirs. They apparently spent over $300 at the after Halloween sale at Spirit this year, so next year should be even better.
These are our other neighbors across the street. You might recognize some of those props... spillover from our yard. They asked us if we wanted to decorate their yard as well. At first I just said they could raid whatever we weren't using (we probably have enough for 10 yards), but I eventually ended up putting stuff up over there as inspiration hit me.