Industrial Accident Prop

The Industrial Prop
The industrial accident prop was actually an experiment that turned out fairly well (well, as haunted house props go it turned out fairly well).

The house theme in 1996 was a factory that year and I wanted to create a scene where a small boom crane had fallen directly on a worker's head. I started by building the wooden boom crane
Industrial Prop - Extreme Close Up!
and made sure it was nailed securely into the wall. Then I placed a set of mannequin legs at a proper angle and clothed them appropriately in a one piece jump suit. An arm was fashioned from foam with a store-bought latex hand.

The mess on top of the legs was done using 3 times expanding spray insulation foam. I believe I used two cans and just gobbed the stuff in to get a bulbous look. I made sure it formed around the beam and the mannequin torso. Once that dried to the point where it was tacky and began to expand, I got some 1 time expanding spray foam and tried to create entrails and ribs. Most of the real work of the effect was done using red, white and black paint though. In its initial form, it just looked like a lot of gobbed up spray foam.