The Crypt

Electronics, Halloween, Paints, Scenic, Texturing, Woodworking

The plan

Build a cemetery crypt so an actor can hide inside and jump out to scare trick-or-treaters on Halloween.

The parameters

Must be big enough for an adult to fit and hide inside
The actor should be able to press a button to activate sound effects before the jump scare
Must be able to be disassembled and take up minimal storage space

The result

After researching materials, I decided to use styrofoam insulation for the walls. It’s only about an inch think and it wasn’t too expensive. Once I started framing the crypt, I was getting some advice from my dad on how to layout the walls so I could take them apart easily. Once we got that figured out, I started cutting and screwing the walls together. I attached the styrofoam using drywall screws with large washer to prevent the screw heads from pushing through.

Next, I drew the mortar lines to plan where I was going to cut. Using a utility knife to cut the mortar lines was slow and messy and I saw people online using special soldering irons for this. It looked much cleaner and my dad had a soldering gun that we could put custom shaped wire into, so we made one that was curved like cinder block mortar. This worked and looked much better. I also used a heat gun to melt parts of the styrofoam and give some extra texture.

The final step was to paint it. I used gray paint that we had already but if I had to do it again, I’d buy new paint. This paint had a satin finish and has a bit of a shine to it. Flat gray would’ve looked more like stone.

After it was built and in place, I wired it with a powered speaker, a sound board and buttons to trigger the sound effects. An actor hiding inside could press one of the buttons to activate a jump scare sound as he jumps out to scare trick-or-treaters.

By the end of the night, we were able to scare a lot of people and some ran screaming in tears…I think it worked great!