Year one, we had a fog machine and a dream.
From our own HAUNT series — #010, The $100 Starter Haunt Kit.
The first year, the yard had a fog machine, some store-bought tombstones, and big ambitions. The fog floated up and away like steam off a soup pot. The tombstones were clean, bright, and all the same — they read as toys from the sidewalk. One white floodlight made the whole thing look like a yard sale after dark.
So we stopped buying decorations and started studying the houses that worked — the ones where cars slow down, the ones kids dare each other to walk past. They weren't spending more. They were doing three different kinds of things, in the right order.
Year two, the fog stayed low and crawled between the stones. Year three, a grave in the yard started to breathe, and a neighbor stood on the sidewalk for a full minute trying to figure out why he was uneasy. That's when we understood what we'd actually been building, one October at a time.
Here's the ladder, exactly as we learned it ↓
Three levels. Stacked, not shopped.
Level 1 — Atmosphere. Fog that stays low. Tombstones that look 100 years old. Light in three colors, sound in layers, and the safety walk that keeps the haunt alive for a decade. This is the ground everything stands on — and it's where Beginner Builds lives.
Level 2, shown on the series: HAUNT #002 — The Breathing Grave.
Level 2 — Motion. A grave that breathes. Sound timed to the second. A cemetery laid out like a scene, not a storage lot. Stillness is a decoration; movement is a haunting. Intermediate Builds is this level, full treatment.
Level 3, shown on the series: HAUNT #007 — Projection-Mapping Your House.
Level 3 — The movie tricks. Projection mapping measured to the throw distance. Pneumatics with a real safety doctrine. A ghost on a crank. Professional Builds — movie-special-effects quality, with the numbers checked, not guessed.
Don't take our word for any of it. One Level 1 build is worked in full, right here, free ↓
Build this one tonight: The Fog Chiller.
This is Build 5 of The Haunt Starter Kit, word for word from the kit itself — the real product, not a summary. No email needed to read it. The full kit is below it.
The Fog Chiller (Low Fog That Stays Low)
Fog that hugs the ground and spills between tombstones is the atmosphere backbone of every great haunt. A fog machine alone won't do it — warm fog rises. You have to chill it.
What you need
- A standard fog machine and fog juice
- A foam cooler
- Flexible dryer duct (two short lengths)
- Bagged ice
- A small fan (optional, for a slow push)
Build it
- Cut a hole in each end of the cooler, sized to the duct.
- Run duct in one side; fill the cooler with ice around a loose duct coil inside; duct out the other side to your graveyard.
- Fog enters hot, travels through the ice chamber, and exits cold and heavy — it will crawl along the ground instead of floating away.
- Refill ice every 90 minutes or so on the big night. Freeze water bottles instead of buying cubes — they last longer and melt contained.
- Position the outlet upwind of the scene so the fog drifts through the stones, not into the street.
Haunter's note: fog juice residue is slippery on concrete. Keep the densest fog on grass and soil, and keep walkways clear.
The actual page 7 of the kit — not a mockup.
Get the whole kit — free.
The Haunt Starter Kit: 13 pages, 9 builds (the Window Apparition, the Breathing Grave, the Watchers, the Drop Spider, the Haunted Mirror, the Coffin in the Yard & more), plus the Three-Color lighting rule and the first-night safety checklist. Sent by Spooky At Heart <sah@thedecodernetwork.com>.
Double opt-in: we email a one-click confirmation first, then the kit. No spam — haunting tips and the HAUNT series, that's all.
The kit is Level 1 in condensed form — nine builds, quick-start depth. The books below are the same craft at full treatment: diagrams, dimensions, timing charts, verified parts lists, troubleshooting. Here's the whole ladder
Every level removes one failure.
LEVEL 1 · Fog Foundations
The 3-part fog system — generate, chill, contain — plus fog ranking, the mistakes that empty a yard, and juice storage & machine care. Removes: fog that floats away.
LEVEL 1 · Tombstones & the Cemetery Ground
The 3-coat aging system, anchoring for windy nights, and the $100 Starter Kit chapter that opens the book. Removes: stones that read as toys.
LEVEL 1 · Light & Sound, the Invisible Half
The 3-zone uplight system ($15 trick included), the blacklight reveal, the 3-layer sound build, and the safety foundations chapter every level stands on. Removes: the yard-sale floodlight.
LEVEL 2 · Motion & Timing
The Breathing Grave at full treatment, the 2-second sound-timing rule, and cemetery layout as scene design. Removes: a yard full of still decorations.
LEVEL 2 · The Moving Builds
Crank-slider Tombstone Peeper, Floating Candle, Zombie Arm Groundbreaker, Moving Portraits, Corpsed Skeleton, Levitating Object. Removes: the step from decorating to haunting.
LEVEL 3 · Projection, Measured
Projection mapping on three surfaces, with throw distance measured — not the marketing lumens, the real numbers. Removes: the washed-out ghost.
LEVEL 3 · Pneumatics & the Flagships
That's the ladder the HAUNT series has been climbing in public, episode by episode. Here's how getting it works ↓
Beginner Builds: the whole ground floor.
What happens when you click
- You go to Stripe's secure checkout — one payment, no subscription, nothing recurring.
- The moment you pay, you land on your delivery page: Beginner Builds, ready to download immediately.
- A printable gift certificate rides inside your delivery email — buy it for yourself, or wrap it for the Halloween lover in your life.
- Within 24 hours, a real person emails you from Spooky At Heart to make sure your download landed and your first build is picked.
Beginner Builds — the full Level 1 treatment: fog, tombstones, light, sound, safety:
One payment. Yours to keep. That's less than one foam tombstone at the Halloween store — for the system that makes every tombstone you own look real.
Secure checkout via Stripe · Instant download · Checkout links switch on at launch — this button is wired last, on purpose, so no one can pay for a book that isn't finished
Not sure yet? Talk to a person first.
Questions before you buy? Email sah@thedecodernetwork.com — a real person answers, honestly. If your yard needs Level 2 more than Level 1, we'll say so. We'd rather lose the sale than your trust. Or start with the free Starter Kit and decide with a build already standing in your yard.
The Ultimate Collection.
Already know you'll climb all three levels? The Collection is all three books in one set — and every future chapter drop for these books reaches Collection buyers first, as the guide keeps growing year-round.
Beginner + Intermediate
$27
Levels 1 and 2 together — atmosphere and motion. Bought separately they'd be $19 + the $9 checkout add-on; on this page, one plain price.
GET BOTH BOOKS — $27The Ultimate Collection — all three books
$49
The full ladder. Bought rung by rung — $19, then +$9 at checkout, then +$29 to complete the set — the same three books total $57. The Collection is $49, stated plainly as its own price.
GET THE COLLECTION — $49Secure checkout via Stripe · Instant download of all three books
The path, for the record: start with Beginner ($19) and the Intermediate book is offered at checkout for +$9; after you buy, Professional completes your set for +$29; decline that, and the Signature Five — the five flagship Professional chapters — is offered at $15 instead. One path, three asks, no surprises. January builders: the Professional book is aimed squarely at you — the off-season is when extreme haunts get built.
For the Halloween lover on your list.
Every family has one: the person whose October is a production and whose December gifts are usually an afterthought. This year, give them the thing they'll actually open twice — the guide their next haunt gets built from.
Buy any tier and a printable gift certificate rides inside your delivery email, carrying the download link — print it, wrap it, done. A hardcover printed Collection is planned as a thank-you-page add-on once the digital books are live and selling; it is not sold yet, and we won't pretend otherwise.
And if the Halloween lover is you — nobody here will judge. Start with the free kit ↓
Two doors. Pick yours.
The beginner door
- You've never built anything — Beginner Builds starts from the $100 starter kit and assumes nothing.
- Your yard has decorations but no atmosphere: Level 1 is your whole problem, and it's the cheapest level to fix.
- You want instructions you can execute this weekend, with real parts and real costs.
The expert door
- Your basics are handled and you know it — Professional is pneumatics, projection math, and crank engineering, not decorations.
- You build in January for October: the Professional book is written for the off-season extreme builder.
- You want the safety doctrine written down by people who treat it as the brand, not the fine print.
Save your money if…
- You want it built for you. These are build books — the building is yours, and that's what makes the yard yours.
- You're only here for jump-scare clips. The HAUNT series is free on our page, forever — start there and with the free kit.
Questions, answered straight.
Is this just the videos from the series?
No. The HAUNT episodes are effect-first videos with system cards. Every book chapter is a written build — diagrams, dimensions, settings, timing, verified parts lists, troubleshooting — written so you can execute it from the page alone. The episodes are the proof the effects are real; the books are how you build them. Start with the free Starter Kit above and you'll feel the difference in one build.
I've never built anything. Where do I actually start?
With the free Haunt Starter Kit — nine quick-start builds, one weekend each or less. Then Beginner Builds takes those same builds to full treatment and adds the series' Level 1 systems. Nobody starts at Level 3; the ladder is the point.
I already know the basics. Is Professional really different?
Yes — it's a different discipline: projection throw-distance math, pneumatic pressure doctrine with a dedicated safety review, crank-and-linkage geometry. If your yard already breathes and syncs, Professional is your door; the Collection puts it in your hands with both lower books as reference.
How do I get the books after I pay?
Instantly. Stripe's secure checkout, then your delivery page with the downloads, then a confirmation email from Spooky At Heart <sah@thedecodernetwork.com> with the links again — plus the printable gift certificate. The full click-by-click is in the "What happens when you click" box above, before the first button, where it belongs.
One has decorations.
The other has levels.
The difference was never the budget. It's fog that stays low, a grave that breathes, and a trick worthy of a movie — stacked in order, built one level at a time. Your first level is free, and it's already written.
GET THE FREE HAUNT STARTER KIT13 pages · 9 builds · Double opt-in, no spam
We practise what we teach — so, the asks:
Follow Spooky At Heart — the HAUNT series runs all year.
Share this page with the one house on your street that's almost there.
Watch the pinned HAUNT hub post — every episode, one place.