As I alluded to earlier, the last part of the haunt this year is actually outside the garage. This is a spinning tunnel that you walk through, commonly known in the haunt community as 'vortex tunnel'. I saw this for the first time at the National Haunters Convention in Philadelphia. I walked through this thing and could not believe the intensity of spatial disorientation. I seriously felt like I could not get through it. Yet the concept seemed fairly simple. A dark 10 x 20 foot long cylinder turning around a stationary bridge that you walk on. Black lighting to light up the glow in the dark spots or whatever on the inside of the cylinder and since that is your only reference, the rotation of the cylinder creates the illusion that you are rotating and this causes you to grab very tightly onto the railing. Now these things fully assembled cost upwards of $8000. Not in the budget. So no question about it...I HAD to build one. Luckily the internet has many examples of home built vortexes and I was able to find a couple that made sense and had a lot of references. We do have a carpenter friend who worked on the house a couple years ago and I have enlisted his services. I also found a resource on another site for obtaining the computer-templated wood pieces that make up the hoops. Thankfully I already have enough equipment and props for the garage so this year's budget is all going toward the vortex.
The vortex hoops are made of 1/2" plywood, 8 pieces to a hoop, double thickness overlapping and bolted together. Since they are 10 foot hoops and the tunnel is 20 feet long, there is no way it's going inside the garage...so no problem. It's a perfect grand finale since there is no way people will be able to get through a haunt of any kind after going through this thing!
This is what we hope to create this year!
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