The History of...

1995



1995    The year my wife and I got married we lived in a townhouse, so I couldn't get too creative. Susan would answer the door, and if the children were small, she would give them candy right then and there. The larger children were sent to the dining room where a dummy held a bowl of candy in his hands. The dummy was just that, a dummy, though lots of kids said "Watch out! That guy in the chair is going to grab you!" However, I hid in the kitchen, wearing a "Jason" costume and holding a chainsaw. (Blade taken off, obviously...) I would jump out as the kids approached, run the chainsaw, and "chop" off the dummy's head.

This TOTALLY surprised the kids, we had several repeat kids who brought thier parents in to see. Overall, positve feedback.

1996



1996    By this time we had purchased our first home. I made a couple of dummies and had a man "hanging" from the attic into the carport. My best friend Paul adopted the Jason costume and I became the "victim". As the trick-or-treaters approached, I would run out covered in blood, spin the kids around and scream "Run! Run for your lives!" As I screamed, "Jason" would sneak up right behind the kids and start the chainsaw. Kids jump, drop candy, a fun little skit. They LOVED it! They asked us if we were going to do something next year. (If they only knew...)

1997



1997    Decided to make a mini-haunted house, but I needed a name. My wife came up with "The Monster Maze", nice alliteration, the name stuck. Originally, the maze was set up through the carport and back yard. We used old computer boxes for walls and some rolls of packing tape to bind them together. THREE DAYS prior to Halloween, a HUGE WINDY DAY destroyed 3/4 of the Maze. ***AAARRRGGGHHH!!!!*** This is when my wife , God bless her soul, kicked in and helped save the day. About 1/2 of the boxes were useable so we moved the MAZE indoors. Enter the front door to the living room, through the dining room, then through the kitchen and out the carport door. My father and I built our first animatronics, an axe murderer whose arm moved up and down repeatedly slashing a dummy "victim". The motor used for the arm was the windshield wiper assembly from a '79 Volvo. The second animatronic was a werewolf using an oscillating fan motor as a head and a couple of red lights for eyes (The cage and fan blade were removed and covered by a plastic lid of a deodorant can so the nothing would catch against the ruber mask.) My friend Paul was back as "Jason", my wife's friend, Michele, became the Fiend under the kitchen table. I was the "Storyteller" at the front door, sending people in one at a time. My wife was a witch candy-giver-outer. We had about 100 people and had some great support and feedback.

1998



1998    The year I was determined not to let Mother Nature get the best of me. I once again made the maze through the carport and into the backyard. This time the walls were made out of wooden pallets and skids (picked up for free) and screwed together, the pallets were then covered with disposable black plastic tablecloths (available at any party store). Sure enough, we had some really windy days prior to Halloween. Not a single thing was damaged! The latest animatronic was an alien inside an AREA 51 barrell, using an oscillating fan as a motor, so that the alien moved it's head from side to side. My friend Paul was once again Jason, Michele was once again the Fiend. I was back as the "Storyteller" and my wife was once again a witch . Three more friends became assistants: Andrew was the Evil-Clown, Chris was the Ghoul and Karl was the Werewolf. (Yes, between Karl and the animatronic I had two Werewolves.) Minor glitches though. The chainsaw died, so we used a circular saw with the blade taken off. An unexpected plus was that the circular saw was MUCH louder.

On the last night of the Maze, we were included as a location for a scavenger hunt. About 35 adults, all in costume, from a neighborhood Halloween party, were required to stop by and go through the Maze in order to retreive the clue from the evil clown.

We had about 300 people and had some people practically begged to help in 1999. Almost everyone talked to my wife, asked how we made a few props, and said it was even better than last year. Though there was one snot-nosed twelve year old boy who said it was "lame", I know I shouldn't let one kid trying to act big bug me, but it does, and I wanted EVERYONE to like what I poured so much time, effort, and energy into.

Moral: There's always someone with more mouth than brain trying to ruin things for everybody.

1999

This years theme:

The Tale of Allistair Crowley



1999 January 5th   My son Logan Michael is born! Here he is fighting off a FaceHugger from the movie Aliens.   I have big plans for my son in the next Monster Maze, If you have an infant, how would you incorporate him into your haunted house? One word SACRIFICIAL ALTER.   Needless to say, my wife Susan does not think to highly of my idea.

1999   My wife, ignoring my wishes, will have my son Logan be a *cute little monkey* for halloween in a costume that my wife made. Oh well, my wife said that I can use my son for my nefarious plans in a few years. My dad REALLY got involved in helping, we managed to get over 150 pieces of plywood measuring 48" x 48" for FREE! (There was a company going out of business.) Don't have to mess with pallets and skids this year! The latest animatronic was a 6'6" Freddy Krueger, using pvc pipe for a body, clothes from goodwill and an oscillating fan as a motor, so that he moves his head from side to side.

Needed help to build this year, so I put up a sign asking for volunteers to help build and man "The Monster Maze". I had six kids (ages 12-14) show up, sure they were loud, obnoxious and a handful, but they worked thier butts off! I laid out the rules early and often and come show time they acted proffessionally! I am so proud! You can see all the kids and thier scare costumes on my Volunteers page.

2000

This years theme:

The Shadow Hunters



2000 June 22nd    We bought a new house !!! Twice as big! Twice as much room for a haunted house! Twice the mortgage!!! Wow! We are moving from lower-middle class to upper-middle class!

2000 October 15th    Bad news, had to fire one of my teenage volunteers, what it boiled down to was an episode of sexual harassment with one of my female volunteers, and I just won't tolerate that.

2000 Halloween    My wife is breaking down, for trick or treat this year she let our son be an evil clown, of course for a different halloween party, Logan was a farmer boy. The important thing is that I'm starting to get my wife to lean in my direction.

The maze went up surprisingly easy this year, because we were working on a flat driveway this year (at our old house, it was on an uneven backyard.)

We used an old pool tarp as a roof for our haunt in the driveway (Naturally the part of our haunt in the garage doesnt need a roof.) My only complaint so far is lack of electrical outlets.

2001

This years theme:

The Carnage Carnival



2001 October 24th    WE GOT ON TV !!! We were on both the 6 o'clock and 11 o'clock news on WHP channel 15. We got almost 15 minutes of total coverage! We weren't just on the news, we were the news.

2001 Halloween    COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD AND COLD
Our Thursday and Saturday attendance was normal, but everything was dead (pardon the pun) on Friday because of the 10 degree windchill factor brought on by 30 mph winds. The winds tore apart our pool cover roof as well. It was ripped to shreds. That's it, I made up my mind, from this day forward we build a WOODEN ROOF! The winds also destroyed part of our graveyard and literally ripped the costume off of my Alien-Pop alien. Everything that weighed less than 20 pounds had to be taken inside otherwise the wind would have knocked it down and blown it away.

My son Logan was Mickey Mouse for trick or treat night, oh well, maybe I can have him be a monster for next year.

2002

This years theme:

Terror Theater:
The Haunted Movie Projector






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