| Bates Haunt Halloween Show | |
| Location: | 1233 Morning Oaks Drive, Taylorsville, UT |
| Status: | active |
| Genre: | Halloween Show |
| Frequency: | Annually |
| Founder Name: | Dave Bates |
| Last: | 2023 |
Bates Haunt, an annual Halloween display in Taylorsville, Utah, is the first and longest running video projection mapping show on a building. The first show was on October 31, 2002. It continues to hold performances each October.
The first performance was on October 31, 2002, using a borrowed 1200 lumen projector projecting from the home across the street.[1] Each year additional elements were added. In 2005 a quartet of leaf bag pumpkins were added singing an original song.[2] The haunt drew the attention of one of the first DIY haunter's conventions HauntX in 2006. There the haunt was awarded two awards: "Best Home Haunt" and "Halloween Enthusiast of the Year".[3] The next year the haunt was featured on Comcast's new digital TV channel Fearnet. Since then the show has continued to grow adding additional original songs and content.[4] It was featured in 2013 on Good Morning America's website in the top 10 Outrageous Halloween Homes Across America[5] as well as various local media outlets.[6]
Bates Haunt pioneered a technique which used a common drawing program Adobe Photoshop to trace 3D objects using a projector.[7] The resulting image is then brought into a video program and used to precisely align video elements to the projection surface. The show is a single 30 minute video running in a seamless loop.[8]