Light Tunnel

The Light Tunnel is a powerful special effect for a haunt.  As you walk down a hallway, you are inside of a tunnel of bright rotating colored light beams.

This effect has several benefits:

Light tunnels are not widely used and therefore have a big "wow" effect.

The hallway appears well lit to the patron.  But the reality is that the light beams are very focused and anything not directly in a beam hides in complete darkness.  This lets you put an actor just under the light.  If done properly, people will touch him before they see him.

The proper setup is to shoot the beams so they are rotating around the guest as they enter the hallway.  Although you are not flashing the guest in the eyes, the "brightness" of the room will cause the guest's pupils to adjust.  This makes the following areas of your haunt look darker until the pupils readjust.

The effect is easy to setup and can be done by a beginner.

Creating the Light Tunnel

The effect is accomplished by hanging a light called a moonflower above the head of the patrons at the end of a hallway.  Unlike most lighting effects, you direct the light fixture straight at the entrance to the hallway.  To create visible beams, you must use a fogger or hazer.

The Light Fixture

We originally tried this with a cheap 12v/50w moonflower light, which did not work.  We replaced that with a 20w/250v moonflower light from cheaplights.com.  It cost about $100, but is now discontinued.  AmericanDJ has a similar light called the Color Pod 250.

Some light fixtures have a "duty cycle".  This typically means that they can not be ran more than a certain amount of time and then must cool a certain amount of time.  If your fixture has a duty cycle, then you need a remote switch to turn it on and off.

Note:  These lights run on standard 110v house current.  Don't be misled by the 250v in the bulb description.

When you buy the fixture, also buy an appropriate clamp for your truss or lumber.  These lights are very heavy, so mount them to a very secure point.  Also, make sure to use safety cables in case your clamp slips.

Buy at least 2 spare bulbs when you buy the fixture.  They are typically less than $5 each.

Fog or Haze

To get the light beams visible, you need to fog or haze the room.  Professionals would say to use haze, but I have no experience with haze.  If this hallway or trail is outdoors, even the tiniest air current or wind will move your fog right out of the hallway.

To fix this you need to put a fogger or hazer at both ends of the tunnel.  You want to adjust the timers so that you get the room just barely fogged.  If you can tell their is fog in the room, you have probably used too much.

For the fog, we used 2 400-watt "The Fog Machines" from Walmart.  I would suggest you avoid the "Fox F/X" brand foggers and the ones available at Target.  You will also need a timer for each.  On a still night, set the timers for 5 second burst / 30 second interval.  For windier nights, increase the burst until you can consistently see bright beams.  Fog machines with timers cost about $30.

Although foggers work better on the floor, I like to hang my foggers so the kiddies and the jerks don't play with them.  When you are buying your light, buy a few extra clamps for the foggers.

Remote Switch

As stated earlier, if your light fixture has a duty cycle, then you need to be able to turn it on and off.  You can do this low tech by using a surge protector with a power switch inline with the extension cords.

A better alternative is to buy a Remote Power Switch ($20) from Home Depot that comes with a keychain remote.

Power Cables

People often overlook the power consumption of their special effect lighting.  Not having the proper gauge power cord or service is bad for the lights and most likely will also blow fuses.  There is an amazing website and calculator that covers this subject in detail at http://www.lightshow.cc/explorer/Calculators/Power_/power_.html

For the safety of your family, make sure that you have at least one GFCI device in each outdoor circuit.  It can be located in the fuse panel, at the outlet, or in some of the newer extension cords.  Also, make sure that all of your extension cables and other components have a ground wire.  This will keep you from literally getting shocked to death or burning down your house in the case of wet electronics.

If you found this article helpful to light your haunt, then please consider putting a link to it from your haunt webpage.

The author of this article is not a professional and has no affiliation with any of the companies listed.  If you would like to support his business, you may want to check out the Glow in the Dark Paint at Glow Inc.