"Master....the Plaaaaaaans"

Yes, of course. The Plans! Actually I start thinking about these as soon as the last haunt is over..or pretty close. Sometimes there are ideas that are in the works for a few years before they materialize. The web is an amazing resource for home haunters. Need some ideas? Here is a site that I have gone back to time and time again: http://www.halloweenmonsterlist.info/
Anyway as I was saying, the challenge for garage haunting is taking a small space and creating the illusion of a much bigger space. You need to create a lot of changes in depth and height. Our garage is unfinished so we have the advantage of 10 foot ceiling height in some areas. Take a look at this initial walkthrough below. We divide the haunt into 'zones' or 'events'. In the video it's difficult to see how the transformation will occur since there still is a lot of junk lying around. That's where imagination is so critical. Here is what we have planned in summary:
Zone 1: entry way which will have a crypt theme. There will be one actor on either side of the entrance hall interacting with the guests
Zone 2: after walking through a doorway which will open 'mysteriously on cue' to the left, there will be a spooky transition room with perhaps spiders, etc.
Zone 3: the cave. Many sets of red blinking eyes will peer into the darkness. One set will be worn by an actor who will approach the guests out of the darkness!
Zone 4: peppers ghost illusion. Not sure why they call it 'peppers ghost'. Anyway, this is a cool effect where you have a scene and an actor projected into the scene appearing as a ghost who then disappears, only to reappear in the actual room where the guests are! We're thinking about doing an electric chair theme. Let's see how that works!
Zone 5: after walking away from the ghost, the guests will enter the prison room where a headless prisoner (live actor) will lunge through the bars and try to grab the guests!
Zone 6 will be a small room where a corpse will surprise guests by leaping out of a trashcan filled with fog and uplighting strobe..a very creepy effect
Finally zone 7 will be a holding area where guests will be greeted by another actor who will monitor their entry into the grand finale...the rotating tunnel that you walk through (commonly known as 'vortex tunnel'). Every year I do one or 2 challenging projects and this is THE ONE. We plan to build it outside the garage as the actual exit...more on this later.