The Vysther's Halloween Haunt Journal: HALLOWEEN 2018 - 25 Years of The Nightmare Before Christmas....and then some!!!

2018 was a bit more relaxed one with our haunt...still, there is no need to be slouches, either, is there?

After some enormous shuffles with the apartment complex management, we were fortunate enough to get a young lady named Amanda in the office, who, along with being quite competent, supported our endeavors 110%....

The trick was, we had more land to meddle with, but along with it, more young children...what to do, what to do...

Well, truth be told, we had the idea to do the Nightmare Before Christmas theme for a long while beforehand - 2018 marking the film's 25th anniversary - also, we have had a lot of requests for it - plus, it's kid-friendly enough as not to traumatize anyone's children.

The original concept/idea for our Jack, Sally, and Zero figures was that they were going to be scratch built, along with some costumes a friend was going to provide, but, unfortunately, it fell through at the eleventh hour.

Spirit Halloween had a nice set of Jack and Sally animated figures for the meager sum of around $600.....ahhhhhhh, no thank you...

WalMart to the rescue! We found the pair on display for a reasonable price, and, although not what he had in mind originally, we're nothing if flexible, and our displays are designed loosely enough to allow us to improvise if we have to....has happened more than once, trust me...

We kept the cemetery pretty well lit,too...again, kid friendly, and we had a lot of little ones who were playing Ghost in the Graveyard and all that - weather was quite warm this year...didn't drop below the mid-80s until about halfway through the month, and then we were in the mid-to-high 60s after that...

This season exemplified *why* we do this...all through October - and even as we were dismantling it the first weekend in November - so many people in our complex came over and thanked us for all we did....parents and their kids, grandkids, nieces, nephews - as the Beatles said, "a splendid time was had by all"....

The *only* complaint we heard from a few folks was that it wasn't spooky enough.

Duly noted.

*evil grin*

Some daylight shots....as I said prior, we had a lot more room to fiddle about this season, so a bit of experimentation and finding out feet again was in order...we'll push it a a bit further in 2019...

For what it was worth, the neighbors above us jumped in on the fun...gave it some nice accents...

Our 2018 Jack O'Lanterns...designs lifted right out of Nightmare itself...

Apt advice...

It was a pretty warm and stormy the day we set everything up...plenty of rain and thunder and lightning....most appropriate!

I like to call these shots "View from the Bar" - we kept the scene fairly open this season so we could keep our patio chairs and tables set up so we could sit outside and enjoy our work...helps to get a bit of perspective and enjoy people's reactions...

Tom, our beloved inflatable dragon🐉

We purchased him last October, a day or so after the passing of Tom Petty...my wife Lisa LOVES dragons of all sorts, and I had been promising her one of these for many years, and then seemed as good a time as any...

We nicknamed him Tom after we heard "Learning to Fly" on the radio...there's a line in the song about flying but not having wings...

...well, he does now... :-)

Our interior and the Tabletop of Terror kept in line with the Disney/Nightmare theme, although a bit more eerie, with Spider Hall making a reappearance this season, and Lisa's Creepy Kitchen adding a nice touch...we also got our hands on some vintage 1970s-era Halloween decorations from a garage sale in early October for ONE DOLLAR.

I actually had some of these as a kid, and my glee knew no bounds...

By way of a few after thoughts, a few shots shots of some of the stuff we saw this year, both private and commercial...

Lisa and I concluded our time as professional haunt actors this year, with a one-off, final appearance as guest actors at The Devils's Attic in Louisville, KY...many thanks to Jason Besemann and the staff of the Attic for their kind hospitality, as ever....oh, and our Godkids Bonnie and Shaun were along for the ride as well...