The Outside of the Cave
Several years ago I created a large PVC frame to fit around the entrance of our 1-car garage. To the frame I attached a large flattened out piece of cardboard that had, in it's previous life, been a very large box. I propped it up to the garage and cut an opening about 4 1/2 feet high to allow people to get into "The Cave".
I painted the cardboard (both sides) and PVC with grey latex paint. A second coat of granite paint was added to make it look like rocks. Then I painted "rocks" with black paint. When I propped the cardboard up to the garage, it looked like the opening to a cave. Over the opening we added a very large plastic bat. This hid the joint between the garage wall and the cave wall.
The Inside of the Cave
Midway into the garage, a wall was built with a hole cut into it to fit a 2-way mirror. That wall, the ceiling and the side walls in the garage were covered with black plastic sheeting (very inexpensive). An opening in the plastic allowed the visitors to see themselves coming into the cave in the 2-way mirror.
The floor of the cave was covered with a heavy layer of mulch that we got from a neighborhood mulch pile. It smelled very musty and made it feel like a real cave. A skeleton lay in the corner. From the ceiling we hung several bats and a single yellow light. It was rigged to a dimmer that we controlled from the other side of the wall. (When you do a haunted house, try to think of things that will affect all of your senses)
Behind the Wall and Mirror
Behind the wall and mirror we set up a stool to sit in with a light which would illuminate a terrifying mask. This light was also controlled by a dimmer. We also set up a sound system with a microphone.
How it worked
When the kids and parents would walk into the cave they looked around at the dark surroundings and would sometimes spook themselves in the mirror. Something scary was said into the microphone and if we knew the kids, we would call out their names. We would then proceed to dim the yellow light in the cave and slowly turn on the light behind the 2-way mirror. After scaring them, we would reverse the action. The light on the mask would be turned off and the yellow light would be turned back on in the cave so that they could get out.
People are afraid of the dark and enclosed spaces. This cave really gave people the creeps and many of them ran out screaming.
