Posts tagged "Haunted Fort"

Haunted Fort Final Shots Before Opening

Well, it was a very long month in preparation of the Haunted Fort. I’m very glad it’s finished. Now it’s all up to the actors who will be working each night to try to scare the masses of people going through Key West’s only Haunted House.

The last week was a constant struggle to find those last few things you always need more of.. colored lights, extension cords, fog machines.. you know, halloween staples. We had about 6 fog machines, only one worked. I took them apart, cleaned them, spoke nice to them, but in the end none of them would come back from the dead. Luckily some nice last minute sponsors bought a few for us.. phew.. can’t have a haunted fort without fog.

Frank worked himself right into the ground on this project, I honestly don’t know how he did it, he’d work at the fort from noon to 7, hit Dante’s pool bar for a drink or two, then walk to the Magic Bar at Schooner Wharf for his magic show from nine to midnight. And he did this every day of the week. His mornings were spent rounding up sponsors and chasing down posters, tickets, and random building supplies. A Herculean effort by anyone’s standards, and still he pats me on the back introduces me as the guy who built the whole thing…. like I did even half of the work he did.

These shots are all with a flash, but you can get an idea of what it’s like. Someday I’ll be back into a camera that can take decent low-light shots. The place really comes to life when you have the 20 or so actors running around in there chasing you with meat cleavers and chainsaws and such.

It was a different kind of event for me than I’m used to, with my big halloween parties, I’d spend all my time and energy on decorations because they space was meant for mingling and drinking.. people would be looking at things closely so they had to be high quality.. with this event, people are cruising through in almost complete darkness with actors jumping out at them.. so things didn’t need to be super pretty, no one was going to have time to stop and inspect the craftsmanship. So it took some getting used to, but after I finally did get to go though it one night with Christina and her Brother, I saw how it works.. and work it did.. people were scared!

I wish I had some action shots of the actors at work, but the one night we did get to go out there with the camera was the night of the Vampires Ball, when there was a big costume party going on at the fort alongside the haunt. One of our party (who shall remain nameless) was too blind stinking drunk to be in public, so we had to leave almost as soon as we got there. Sigh.

Better luck next year! At any rate, enjoy the pix!