Happenin’ Halloween on the Mountain: The Compound

By Patric Hedlund

They say if you want to be successful, do something you love. Jeff Long loves spooky. And he does spooky with aplomb. Complex spooky. Immersion spooky. Successful spooky.

His company, Granite Precision, manufacturers digital sequencers for amusement parks. The devices trigger music, visions, magic and mayhem to amaze and amuse. So, to demonstrate that he is master of all things zombie, on October 16 Long turned a perfectly lovely neighborhood in Pine Mountain into chaos—with a little help from a lot of neighbors and friends.

It started with two weeks of diary entries from a high school girl sent in email to a list of selected friends and clients. Day by day, the plight of Long’s fictional heroine became more dire— unspeakably dire—as the zombie virus transformed family and friends. Then, on October 16, as guests drove toward the location of “The Compound” on party night, a local lowfrequency radio station began carrying news reports and calls from listeners with alarming tales about strange happenings all around Pine Mountain.

The street itself was an obstacle course of broken and crashed cars, steaming cauldrons of chaos, with nasty creatures emerging from shadowed places to give his victim-guests a taste of the dark side—but with great heaps of redeeming humor thrown in.

All guests were required to dress as themselves after they have become…the undead. The list of Long’s collaborators is long and humbling.

Look for Long at Pine Mountain’s Trunk or Treat on Halloween, 4-9 p.m.

Can’t Get Enough?

See Upcoming Events Calendar for more Halloween Events from Friday, Oct. 29 through Sunday, Oct. 31

The Facebook page for Granite Precision’s Zombie party can be viewed in the following links:

Main Wall

Party and Construction Photos

Esther’s Original Diary

Newest Entry to Esther’s Diary

Original FM Radio Broadcast the night of the party

Video of what happened to Blake and Johnson after they returnined to The Compound after finding the military

This is part of the October 29, 2010 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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