ENTER YOUR
HAUNTED HOUSE

2023 HOME HAUNTER AWARDS CONTEST

The Home Haunter Awards Contest is our signature annual awards event honouring the creativity, passion, hard work, and investment of our many members.

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

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

To enter the contest, upload a video of your Halloween Haunt to YouTube and send a link to the “ENTER THE CONTEST” link below. Be sure to include the name of your Haunt, the year, the awards category, and the subject of the video in the title of the video so that it is judged in the appropriate grouping, ex: Carl’s Creepy Closet/2023/Best Scare Actor/Snickers the Clown.

The video should be filmed in Landscape format 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 window of time.

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, who will consider elements such as a particular theme, originality, innovation, detail, continuity, distressing, lighting, re-cycling of materials, props, scares, music and sounds effects, actors/characters, video editing (ex: not shot in one take) and anything else your creative minds can come up with. Planning and build/construction footage is welcome but should be included at the end of your video.

Separate and unique videos for each entry (per category) are required, including submissions for best Prop, Set, Costume and Scare Actor.

Winners will receive a custom trophy and an award certificate (certificate only for Best Scare Actor, Best 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.

 

2023 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?
– Is your prop frightening and/or inspiring?
– 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

_____________________________________________________________

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 homemade?
– Is your prop unique and innovative?
– How does your prop move?
– Is your prop frightening and/or inspiring?
– Did you recycle materials?
– Is your prop synchronised 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

_________________________________________________________________

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

_________________________________________________________________

BEST STATIC OR ANIMATED PROP OR BEST SET DESIGN – HALL OF FAME

Only previous year’s winners (2012 to 2022) 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 Prop or Set unique for this season

_________________________________________________________________

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

________________________________________________________________

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

_________________________________________________________________

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

Only previous year’s winners (2012 to 2022) 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

_________________________________________________________________

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

_________________________________________________________________

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

_________________________________________________________________

BEST CANADIAN YARD HAUNT – 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’t enter for one year

_________________________________________________________________

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

_________________________________________________________________

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

_________________________________________________________________

BEST CANADIAN WALK-THROUGH HAUNT – 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’t enter for one year

_________________________________________________________________

CHA AWARDS CONTEST RULES

The contest runs from November 15, 2023, to January 31, 2024

The deadline for contest entries is midnight MT January 31, 2024

This contest is only open to home haunters and enthusiasts. Sorry, no commercial or pro haunts.

You must join the CHA Facebook group page so that we can keep you up to date on the contest info.

Join the CHA Facebook group at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/99809088969

Haunt submission video content and photo images must be from the current 2023 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).

All videos must be uploaded onto YouTube and should be less than 10 minutes long, although they will only be judged on the first 3 or 5 minutes, depending on the category.