Halloween Funhouse-lantern and other ideas

We are rapidly approaching Halloween and once again I'm being tapped to create the "haunted garden" a the bed n' breakfast owned by my friend's parents. We have everything ready to create "the maze" on the back lawn but I'm also looking for some extra little tricks to play.

One idea that popped into my head was to hand people a (cheap) lantern as they entered and they could use it to find their way around. The trick I'd like to do is arrange it so the lantern could be remotely turned off at a couple of locations and then turned back on after the "surprise" was sprung. However I really can't figure out a way to do this to 5-6 lanterns and stay within the budget.

Any suggestions? Any other nice "funhouse" pranks anyone can come up with?

Thanks

Well heck, no sooner do I ask and my friend emails this to me. Anyone seen any of these? (I need the remote to work from about 7-10 feet away)

http://www.coleman.com/coleman/colemancom/detail.asp?product_id=5310-710K&categoryid=15600

I remember a lot of favorable posts on that light a year or 2 ago. Never ran across one in a store to buy though.

Seem to be plenty of places online, just do a search for Remote Control Lantern 5310-710K. Any order will arrive way before Halloween.

http://store.yahoo.com/americanesuperstore/5310-710k.html

Yes, I don't think ordering them will be an issue, I was just wondering if anyone knew the range of the remote and/or if one remote will trigger multiple lanterns. I've got an email in to Coleman asking.

Possibly OT, but the title says you're looking for ideas, and it is light related…

One of the slickest and easiest effects I've ever seen in a haunted house was a "dot room".

Take a room made of flat black drapes or black painted walls, spatter them liberally and evenly with 3-4 colors of fluorescent paint, and light it with a black light.

If you get the paint dots spacing right, the viewers brain tries to combine them funny like 3D glasses, and if you stare at it awhile it creates an unsettling effect like the walls are 1-2 feet deep and the dots float at various layers. If you've never seen a glow-in-the-dark dot room, you've had the same effect if you've ever stared at wallpaper or fabric with a regular pattern, and your eyes went buggy when your brain gets confused and starts combining the wrong images together.

Then, for over an over the top effect, dress up a few volunteers in black fabric covering their whole bodies, spattered with the same dots, and they become "invisible" against the walls as long as they stand still. After the group of guests have had a moment to stare at the room, the volunteers suddenly dance about. It's startling and creepy, they don't even need to make any noise or say "boo". I'd argue it's better if they don't.

For an outside Haunted maze or path, making a three-sided dot room from black cloth and a frame of pipes should be pretty easy. You'd just have to run power for black lights, which can be had pretty expensively in the standard fluorescent tube type.

I'd love to make a dot room out of my foyer for handing out candy, but my suburb has daylight trick-or-treat. The dot room only works well at night, or in a completely enclosed space.

What an awesome idea (the "dot room") I'm adding that to the list!