Icreated the Crypt Creature prop for my home haunt in Orange County, NY that I call “Mountainview Cemetery.” My interest in Halloween and scaring people started early in life. Growing up, I shared a room with my brother, Marcel (we’re identical twins). At he age of nine, we turned our room into a haunted house and got a kick out of showing it to friends and family. As teenagers, we constantly scared each other with different
pranks.
The fun I had as a kid at Halloween
has stuck with me. Now, at the age of
40, I’ve really started getting into building
Halloween props.
Internet Inspiration
It was early fall a few years ago,
when a simple marionette prop known as
the Flying Crank Ghost (see the Haunting
101 article in this issue for a description)
caught my attention and I decided to
build one. Even though it took a while to
find all the pieces (and the time to put
them together!), when I finished it and
switched it on for the first time, I was
floored! This was such a simple build but
it provided such an amazingly spooky
The Crypt Creature is an animated six foot tall replica of a stone block burial
crypt with black bars in front. Inside, a crouched cowled figure grips the
bars with its skeletal hands, its head hanging down (Figure 1). When
activated, the creature lets out a loud growl, lunges forward, and forces the
bars open. Its head snaps up revealing its skeletal gaze while emitting a
shrieking scream (Figure 2). It then bellows "Happy Halloween!" in a deep
sinister voice. After a brief pause, the creature begins laughing as it retreats
to its original position safely back behind the bars with its head moving to
once again stare down at the ground.
TheCrypt
Creature
September 2014 89
FIGURE 2.
Crypt
Creature
after
activation.
FIGURE 1. Crypt Creature
waiting for activation.
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magazine/article/september2014_Cedeno.
By Maurice Cedeno
