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2024 HOME HAUNTER AWARDS CONTEST

The Home Haunter Awards Contest is the signature annual awards event honouring the creativity, passion, hard work, and investment of the Canadian Haunters Association’s many members.

The Canadian Haunters Association recognizes all the time, expense, and work that go into preparing and decorating a home, yard, garage, barn, or walk-through Haunt leading up to, and throughout, Halloween.

Awards are presented in multiple categories to recognize each aspect of the artistry and ingenuity of a Haunt-themed attraction.

To enter the contest, you should compile a video showcasing your creation and upload it to YouTube. The video should be filmed in Landscape format (sideways) and can be a compilation of still images and video clips. The video can be any length but will only be judged on the first 3 minutes (for best Prop, Costume, Scare Actor, and Set) and 5 minutes (for best Yard Haunt/Display and Walk-Through), so it is to your advantage to ensure that the best footage/images are positioned within that time frame.

Each submission will be evaluated by a select panel of judges who are subject matter experts in various fields of themed (Halloween and Haunt) attractions and video creation and production. The judges will consider elements such as a particular theme, originality, innovation, detail, continuity, distressing, lighting, recycling of materials, props, scares, music and sound effects, actors/characters, video editing and anything else your creative minds can come up with. Planning and build/construction footage is welcome but, unless it is focal to your creation, it should be positioned near the end of your video.

Winners will receive a custom trophy and an award certificate (certificate only for Scare Actor, Costume and Scare Actor/Costume Hall of Fame), and of course, the coveted bragging rights for being recognized by the Canadian Haunters Association as a distinguished innovator and trendsetter and person(s) to be applauded.

 

2024 HOME HAUNT AWARD CATEGORIES

BEST STATIC PROP (A PROP THAT DOESN’T MOVE)

(Open to Canadian, US, and International Home Haunters)

The Judges will be looking for the following when you submit your entry:
– Do you have plans or drawings of your prop?
– Is your prop homemade?
– Is your prop unique and innovative?
– Did you recycle materials?
– Photos or video showing the building of your prop
– Photos or video of your prop being used in your Haunt
– Video editing of your submission

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BEST ANIMATED PROP (PNEUMATIC, HYDRAULIC, ELECTRIC, OR ACTOR-MATRONIC PROP)

(Open to Canadian, US, and International Home Haunters)

The Judges will be looking for the following when you submit your entry:
– Do you have plans or drawings of your prop?
– Is your prop unique and innovative?
– How does your prop move?
– Did you recycle materials?
– Is your prop synchronized with sounds, lighting, video?
– Photos or video showing the building of your prop
– Photos or video of your prop being used in your Haunt
– Video editing of your submission

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BEST SET DESIGN (A ROOM, FACADE OR SCENE)

(Open to Canadian, US, and International Home Haunters)

The Judges will be looking for the following when you submit your entry:
– Do you have plans or drawings of your set/room
– Does your set/room have a consistent theme (ex: no clowns in a lab)?
– Is your set/room inspiring?
– Did you apply distressing and creepy finishing techniques?
– Did you recycle materials?
– Did you use creative lighting and special effects (fog, haze, bubbles) to highlight detail and create ambience?
– Did you use background music or sound effects to enhance your set/room?
– Did you have live actors in your set/room?
– Did you have static or animated props in your set/room?
– Photos or video showing the building of your set/room
– Photos or video of your set/room being used in your Haunt
– Video editing of your submission

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BEST COSTUME – MALE OR FEMALE

(Open to Canadian, US, and International Home Haunters)

The Judges will be looking for the following when you submit your entry:
– Do you have drawings of your costume design?
– Did you recycle materials to create the costume?
– Is there a theme to your costume?
– Originality, is your costume unique?
– Creativity, is your costume homemade?
– Photos or video showing you creating your costume
– Photos or video of your costume being worn
– Video editing of your submission

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BEST SCARE ACTOR – MALE OR FEMALE

(Open to Canadian, US, and International Home Haunters)

The Judges will be looking for the following when you submit your entry:
– Is there a theme to your character?
– Does the costume support and suit the character’s role?
– Does your character use props in their act (dolls, weapons, tools, etc.)?
– Originality, is your character unique?
– Is your character frightening, engaging, or entertaining (in the case of queue line)?
– Creativity, is your character’s costume homemade?
– Photos or video of your character acting in the Haunt
– Video editing of your submission

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BEST COSTUME OR SCARE ACTOR – MALE OR FEMALE – HALL OF FAME

Only previous year’s winners (2012 to 2023) can enter into the Hall of Fame Category

If you’re a Hall of Fame Winner from the previous year, you can enter for the current year, but it must be a completely different costume or character unique for this season

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BEST CANADIAN ROOKIE HOME HAUNT (2 YEARS OR LESS AS A HOME HAUNTER, INCLUDES BOTH YARD DISPLAY & WALK THROUGH)

(Canadian Haunters only)

The Judges will be looking for the following when you submit your entry:
– Is there a theme to your Haunt?
– Does your Haunt or Display have continuity?
– Did you apply distressing and creepy finishing techniques?
– Did you recycle materials?
– Did you use creative lighting and special effects (fog, haze, bubbles) to highlight detail and create ambience?
– Did you use background music or sound effects to enhance your Haunt/Display?
– Did you have static or animated props in your set/room?
– Photos or video showing the building of your Haunt
– Photos or video of your Haunt set up and in operation
– Video editing of your submission

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BEST CANADIAN YARD HAUNT (A NON-WALK-THROUGH DISPLAY)

(Canadian Haunters only)

The Judges will be looking for the following when you submit your entry:
– Is there a theme to your Haunt/Display?
– Does your Haunt/Display have continuity?
– Did you apply distressing and creepy finishing techniques?
– Did you recycle materials?
– Did you use creative lighting and special effects (fog, haze, bubbles) to highlight detail and create ambience?
– Did you use background music or sound effects to enhance your Haunt/Display?
– Did you have live actors in your Haunt/Display?
– Do you have static or animated props in your Haunt/Display?
– Photos or videos showing the building of your Haunt/Display
– Photos or video of your Haunt/Display set up and in operation
– Video editing of your submission

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 BEST INTERNATIONAL HAUNT (INCLUDES BOTH YARD DISPLAY & WALK-THROUGH)

(Open to US and International Home Haunters, only)

The Judges will be looking for the following when you submit your entry:
– Is there a theme to your Haunt?
– Does your Haunt have continuity?
– Did you apply distressing and creepy finishing techniques?
– Did you recycle materials?
– Did you use creative lighting and special effects (fog, haze, bubbles) to highlight detail and create ambience?
– Did you use background music or sound effects to enhance your Haunt/Display?
– Did you have live actors in your Haunt or Queue Line?
– Do you have static or animated props in your Haunt?
– Photos or videos showing the building of your Haunt
– Photos or video of your Haunt set up and in operation
– Video editing of your submission

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BEST CANADIAN WALK-THROUGH HAUNT (PEOPLE WALK THROUGH YOUR HAUNT)

(Canadian Haunters only)

The Judges will be looking for the following when you submit your entry:
– Is there a theme to your Haunt?
– Does your Haunt have continuity?
– Did you apply distressing and creepy finishing techniques?
– Did you recycle materials?
– Did you use creative lighting and special effects (fog, haze, bubbles) to highlight detail and create ambience?
– Did you use background music or sound effects to enhance your Haunt/Display?
– Did you have live actors in your Haunt or Queue Line?
– Do you have static or animated props in your Haunt?
– Photos or videos showing the building of your Haunt
– Photos or video of your Haunt set up and in operation
– Video editing of your submission

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NEW CATEGORY

BEST-IN-CLASS: PROP, SET DESIGN, YARD OR WALK-THROUGH HAUNT

Only previous year’s category winners (2012 to 2023) can enter into the Best-In-Class category, i.e., Hall of Fame winners and last year’s winners of the Best Static Prop, Animated Prop, Set Design, Yard Haunt or Walk Through Haunt categories.

Entries for Static or Animated Prop or Set Design must be unique for this season.

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CHA AWARDS CONTEST RULES

1. The contest runs from January 1, 2025, to March 1, 2025
2. The deadline for contest entries is midnight MT March 1, 2025
3. This contest is open only to home haunters and enthusiasts and charity (not-for-profit) Haunts; sorry, no for-profit or pro Haunts.
4. You must join the CHA Facebook group page so that we can keep you up to date on the contest info.
   1. Join the CHA Facebook group at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/99809088969
5. Haunt submission video content and photo images must be from the 2024 Haunt season. Contest video and photo images taken from previous years’ submissions will result in disqualification. Video and graphic material incorporated into the Haunt/Display as special effects can be re-used (ex; video players depicting commercial content).
6. All videos must be uploaded onto YouTube and the link(s) sent to heflesher@gmail.com. Videos should be less than 10 minutes long, although they will only be judged on the first 3 or 5 minutes, depending on the category.
7. If you’ve only taken still photos of your haunt, you can still enter the contest. All you have to do is create a slideshow with your pictures and upload it to YouTube as a video.
8. For easy of tracking be sure to include in the title of the video the following info:
   1. Name of your Haunt
   2. Year
   3. Awards category
   4. Subject of the video.

ex: Carl’s Creepy Closet/2024/Best Scare Actor/Smelly the Clown

9. All entries will be posted on the CHA Facebook page.
10. There will only be one winner in each category.
11. Only winners of past years (2012 to 2023) of the corresponding category can enter into the Best-In-Class category. Entries for Prop or Set Design must be unique for this season.
12. If you are a Hall of Fame Winner for Best Costume/Actor from the previous year, you can enter the current year, but it must be a different costume or character unique for the current season.
13. Separate and unique videos for each entry (per category) are required. There is no limit to the number of submissions for Best Prop, Set, Costume or Actor, but each entry must be separate and unique. Only one entry per Haunt will be considered for the categories of Rookie Haunt, Yard Haunt or Walk Through Haunt.
14. If you have won Hall of Fame in more than one category, you may submit a unique video into Best-In-Class for any of the categories that were previously won (Prop, Set Design, Yard or Walk-Through).

Happy Haunting and creating!