Hallowe'en Haunted Maze

This Hallowe’en we put together a “haunted maze”, or really a short, winding tour through my sister’s back yard. I’ve always wanted to put together a haunted house, and as a kid I loved visiting houses that went the extra mile to create a spooky experience for trick-or-treaters.

A plan of the backyard with locations of graves, hay stacks, people, and the intended path for trick-or-treaters

The Plan

I drew this out in early September.

A sketch of the backyard from the perspective of the porch, showing the whole path to the candy

The Feel

I drew this along with the plan to better explain the experience I wanted to create.

A zombie hand made from a rubber cleaning glove

Zombie Hand

On October 21st I began working on props for the yard, starting with this zombie hand. It’s stuffed with shaped pieces of cardboard, making it slightly pose-able.

Phil piecing together the cross part of a cardboard gravestone

Hard at Work

Moving on to the gravestones, I quickly became proficient in sizing up a piece of cardboard and making the largest possible gravestone out of it.

A set of 14 cardboard gravestones and a rubber glove zombie hand

The Whole Set

Wayfinding

I knew we’d need some proper wayfinding, despite the simplicity of the route. Even with the arrows we had to direct people to follow them. Kids just follow their noses to the candy.

The weekend before Hallowe’en I brought all the props over to Jenn’s and I spray painted them with various grays and a rock texture. We had a few hay bails, which will be used to plant garlic, that we used to block out the path. Jenn made some stakes, and our friend Mackenzie figured out where each grave would go. A couple of spare tires, a frame with chicken wire over it, and a rusty, busted up shipping palette rounded out the decor.

By stroke of luck, on Hallowe’en day, as we chose our pumpkins at the grocery store, we asked about the hay bails they were stacked on and we got them for free. So, we piled as many as we could into the minivan. That added six large bails to the set and greatly solidified the path wall.

Jenn and Phil carving pumpkins on a patio table

Carving Away at the Last Minute

Phil holding a jack-o-lantern, making the same face

Showing Off My Handiwork

We finished carving, sticking, hanging, lighting, and positioning everything just in time for our first little cowboy trick-or-treater. I rushed on some makeup with a vague idea of a grim reaper, somewhat à la Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey. What resulted was actually a lot more like The Babadook. It certainly stunned, scared, and otherwise creeped out plenty of people.

Phil accidentally dressed as the Babadook and L dressed as a witch

L and I

L in the shed at the candy table with trick-or-treaters approaching in the background

Some Early Trick-or-Treaters Approaching

My sketch kinda nailed it, right?!

A top-down view of the backyard with the full layout visible

Everything According to Plan

Hay bails forming a wall, with lit jack-o-lanterns, cobwebs, and gravestones in the background
L standing with the candy cauldron, flanked by cobwebs bathed in green light from the shed lanterns
The entrance to the haunted

The whole thing was very well received, by kids and parents alike. We had a line all the way out to the street at some points. Kids would come back a second time, not even to get candy, but to experience it again. We still gave them candy, of course.

We’re already figuring out how to top it next year.