THE ULTIMATE HALLOWEEN PROPS | COMPRESSED AIR

The ultimate addition to any of your halloween props is compressed air. There are places selling air cannons all over the web for hundreds of dollars. I on the other hand would rather find something much cheaper. Fortunately for me I have access to a large air compressor in my shop where I normally have my haunted house. My air compressor has a large tank that will power all of my air needs. Now I know not everyone has access to an air compressor, but maybe you know someone who has a portable compressor they will loan you. You can also buy small air compressors for fairly cheap, usually around $100 to $150 dollars. You may think that isn't very cheap but you will get years of service out of it so I think it is a fair investment. Other alternatives are cans of compressed air, or portable air tanks(around $30 bucks). I don't like canned air because you don't get much of a blast and they are fairly expensive since you will need a lot of them. Portable tanks will give you the pressure you need but will eventually run out. I still have not found anything that works as good as an air compressor.

The uses for compressed air are numerous. You can use it to add effect to your existing halloween props or as a stand alone trick. A popular use is to build a corpse and mount it on a piston that is mounted in a casket. When someone steps on a switch on the floor or if someone if controlling it compressed air will extend the piston and the corpse will jump out of the casket. Now with the right sound effects and say a strobe light this is a very effective scare. Of course this project is a bit more complicated. I will try to touch on it in another article. I personally get good results out of a good old blast of air. I simply run my air hose around to a good spot in a narrow hallway and cut 2 tiny slits in the black plastic wall. Then someone stand behind the wall with the nozzle stuck through the bottom slit in the plastic. The top slit is for the person to see through. Now when people walk by just blast them with the air. The cold air along with the sudden noise will scare just about anyone. I use this usually in a hallway that is empty or to narrow to do anything else. It works great for filling dead spots. I try to keep the hallway as dark as possible, this makes it that much more unexpected.

If you want to take the above mentioned trick a little further then try this. Take a 16 or 20 ounce water bottle, the narrow ones work best and cut the bottom off of it. You can cut it in half, it doesn't really matter just play around with it. Now slide the end with the opening onto the air nozzle. Make sure the end of the air nozzle is flush with the where the neck of the bottle widens out. Next tape the bottle onto the air nozzle with duct tape. Now take the confetti of your choice, I usually just shred up paper into tiny pieces and fill the bottle. When you blast the air it will shoot confetti all over you victim. This is only one example, PVC pipe works extremely well. The smaller the diameter, the more direct pressure you will get. Another method is to make streamers out of paper or thin plastic and glue to the inside of the bottle. Then just stuff them inside the bottle and blast someone with them.

These are just a few suggestions on the uses for compressed air with your halloween props. Remember just be creative and keep safety in mind so everyone can have fun at halloween.