The Haunted Midway

When the Carnival of Souls was sucked into the netherworld when Marius Blackwood's evil plot turned sour, the dark energies that overran the midway twisted the once-pleasant carnival games into something a little darker.

Come with us as we explore the shadowy realm of twisted carnival games and other horrifying attractions.

The Midway Games

Cauldron Catch

In this simple carnival game, children take large, plague-ridden rats and try to toss them into a series of three black iron witch's cauldrons. The smaller the cauldron, the bigger the reward.

This is a simple carnival game you can have at your own Halloween festival next year. You can get the plastic rats at Big Lots for a dollar each, and the cauldrons are about three dollars. Drop a few heavy rocks in the bottom for stability, and you have an instant creepy-themed Halloween game.

Boneyard Bone Toss

In this game, children are given large rings of gold, which they can toss into the boneyard. If one of the magic rings lands around one of the many bones jutting outward, they get a reward.

This game took a little more work to create, but it still is nothing too challenging. We took some hardboard and made a small wooden frame out of 2"x2" wood to hold it at an angle. Using a drill, we made holes for dowels to be inserted into the hardboard, and drilled holes in the end of some plastic "Bluckie" bones ("Bluckies" are blown plastic skeletons available from places like Big Lots for $8 each). Add some gold crochet rings, and you have a fun ring toss game.

Midway frame

The midway frame was constructed using PVC pipes and a bunch of various PVC elbows and joiners. Using a hacksaw, we just cut pieces to size and then hammered them into place. A coat of spray paint turned it all black, and then it was topped off with Halloween-themed garland.

The game signs were carved from foam using a hot wire around the edges and a Dremel tool for the lettering. They were then painted gray and detailed with black.

Skully and Bonehead

Let it never be said that we here at Carnival of Souls never gave you pirates. Somehow, these two scurvy dogs ended up in the Carnival - probably on shore leave. Now they spend their days telling groanworthy pirate jokes and watching over the Carnival's midway.

We made the animatronic talking skulls using haunt technology from Cowlacious Designs. Unfortunately, we ran into technical difficulties, and the skulls only worked for part of the night. Hopefully, Skully and Bonehead will be able to spook our visitors longer next year.

The decorations on the two pirate skulls was done by local artist, actor, musician, and comedian Bob Diven, whom locals will recognize as Robert the Ratcatcher at the Young Park Renaissance Fair, and from his frequent community theater and comedy performances. Bringing his stagecraft skills to bear on the task, he made an ingenious texturing mix using flour, glue, paper, and other materials to make the dessicated flesh on the skulls. He also weathered the pirate flag, bandanas, spears, and eye patch. They look like real skulls left out to dry in the hot New Mexico sun.

If you can stand a series of really, really bad jokes, you can read the pirate script. But I wouldn't recommend it.

The Photo Booth

Ghouls were snapping photos of the poor unfortunate souls who wandered into the Carnival, and their weatherbeaten old camera has been recovered from the debris of the carnival. Pulling the old device from the bony fingers of the ex-shutterbug, we had the film developed.

The photos that did not have images with disturbing omens on them have been uploaded to Shutterfly for your downloading and printing pleasure.

More Photos

The Graveyard

Here we see a long view of the graveyard as it appeared during the daytime. On the left is the Crypt of the Phantasm, and on the front porch, you can see the Magic Mirror.

The gravestones are made of foam, and include unpleasant Gorey-esque epitaphs in rhyme for misbehaving children. There are several new tombstones since the more primitive gravestones that we created back in 2002.

The Magic Mirror

Here's a view of the Magic Mirror during setup. When there's light behind the facade, you can see through the scrim that hides the Magic Mirror monitor.