While it's difficult to credit any 1 person with the invention of a prop, as typically props have more of an evolution. With haunters creating better and better props as they are standing on the shoulders of haunters that have created similar props before them....I give credit to the pneumatic zombie (perhaps my favorite prop?) to Spencer of Casa Fear in Broomfield, Colorado.

Link to Casa Fear How To:

Directions Below thanks to the prop creator: Spencer of Casa Fear!

Things you will need:

Over 5 feet of 2x4.

6 - 3” hinges

2 pneumatic cylinders with 2” stroke, universal mount, and double acting.  The bore can be between ¾” and 1 1/16”

2 rod clevis that fit the cylinders

3 sets (of 2 pieces each) rear pivot mounts for the cylinders

Fittings for the cylinders and solenoids

¼” tubing

2- 5 way 4 port solenoids

10 – 2” x ¼” carriage bolts

10 – 2” x ¼” hex head bolts

2 – 2 ½” x ¼” hex head bolts

A bunch of ¼” stop nuts

A bunch of ¼” washers

A bunch of drywall screws, or better yet, 1” lag screws

A controller for controlling 2 different cylinders.  I used a PicaBoo but a prop -1 from EFX-TEK is cheaper and code is on their forums.

Take a 2x4, cut 4 pieces at 12” and one at 12.5”.

Cut 2 of the 12” pieces at a 30 degree angle (on one side only) leaving a 1 1/4 “ left on the widest part.

Cut a 30 degree angle on both sides of the piece that is 12.5”.  Make sure to keep the length of the longest point at 12.5”.

Arrange the pieces together so all the cut pieces are touching.  The middle piece is the shoulders, the center piece is the upper arms (with the 30 degree cut) and the pieces without an angle cut are the lower arms.

Place a hinge between the lower arm and the upper arm.  Leave a space between the two pieces (about the width of the hinge joint).  Use coarse drywall screws to screw hinge into boards.  Do this for both arms.

Note: Although I used drywall screws for this, 1 ¼” hex head (or lag screws) would be better.

On each of the lower arms, measure 6”  from the end of the board and mark it.

Place the left and right rear pivot mount behind that line so your pivot is on the opposite side of the hinge.  Go ahead and place your cylinder on the pivot mount to get the spacing.  Center them on the board and mark the 4 holes for the 4 bolts will go.  Drill 4 holes where you marked using a ¼” drill bit.  Place a ¼” x 2” carriage bolt into each of the 4 holes.  The top of the bolt should be placed on the pivot mount.  On the other side, use a washer and a ¼” stop nut to completely hold the cylinder in place.  However the cylinder should still be allowed to pivot up and down.

Next, attach the rod clevis to the cylinder, but only screw it half way down.  Attach one (of a pair) of the rear pivot mounts to the rod clevis but don’t attach it to the board yet.  

Extend the cylinder all the way, keep pulling on the cylinder until the other ends lifts up about 4 inches from the end.  Where the rear pivot mount (the one attached to the rod clevis) meets the upper arm, mark two dots where you will drill the holes (1/4” bit) to bolt the mount to the arm.  Go ahead and attach it just like the other end of the cylinder using two ¼” x 2” carriage bolts, washer and ¼” stop nuts.  Once attached, lay the upper arm flat on the surface (as best you can with the bolts), check the height of the lower arm from the surface.  If it is lower than 3”, tighten the rod clevis, otherwise leave it alone. 

The purpose of this is to not allow the arm to be straight when the cylinder is fully extended.

Next is to attach the arm to the shoulder.  Lay out the arms to the shoulder so the cut pieces are parallel and the wood forms a U.

Place a hinge between the upper arm and the shoulder. The hinge should be on the same side of the arm as the pneumatic cylinder.  Leave a space between the two pieces (about the width of the hinge joint).  Using a ¼” drill bit, drill a hole through the center hole in the hinge on the upper arm.  On the shoulder side, drill a hole through the center hold and on the one on the outside.

Each arm should look like this.

Next is to attach the upper arms to the shoulders.  All bolts should be attached with a washer and a ¼” stop nut. 

Place a 2” x ¼” hex head bolt through the hinge and to the other side of the board on the shoulder (the board with two holes).  Do this for both holes on the shoulder.  For the hole on the arm, use a 2 ½” x ¼” (notice the slightly longer bolt size) bolt, but because this side needs to move, place a washer between the board and the hinge and also between the hinge and the head of the bolt.  In other words, from a top-down view, first  you have the head of the bolt, next a washer, then the hinge, another washer, the 2x4 arm, then a washer, and the stop nut. Do not over tighten when attaching the stop nut as it should have able to move.  Do this for both sides.

Next is to place a hinge at the bottom of both arms.  The hinge should be placed on the same side of the arm as the pneumatics.  The joint of the hinge should be just below the bottom of the 2x4, this will allow the arm to move just a little to the opposite direction.  Once you have the hinge where you want it, drill holes using a ¼” bit through the holes in the hinge all the way through.  Then place 2” x ¼” hex head bots through the hinge and arm.  Do this for both sides

To place the zombie on the plywood base, screw in a drywall screw into the center hole of one of the hinges on an arm.  Place the other arm 27" apart from the parts of the arm that are closest to each other (the corners on the wood).  Screw in another drywall screw in the center hole of that arm.  Right now, the prop should just about fall forward.  Slowly move the "elbows" apart and the front (where the face will be) will start moving up.  Once you find a place you like, place drywall screws in the rest of the holes in the hinges.  I have seen a lot of people place the elbows to far apart and it doesn't look right.  If you look at the video of it in action, the head is actually quite low and leaning forward.  If the head height and elbows are not to your liking, you can put the arms a little farther apart or closer together.  But once you get that done, manually extend one of the arms and make sure the other arm should lean in and that arm should be still closed.  In other words, when running this prop most likely you will have one arm extended and the arm closed (or not extended) and you need to make sure there is not a lot of stress on the arms to do that.  If everything is working fine, replace the drywall screws with 1/4" bolts.  Trust me on this, it won't last a day using screws.

When testing start with the air pressure low and slowly increase until you get the movement you like.  When I ran it I had used the 1 1/16” bore cylinders at about 40 psi.  If you want the zombie to just “go nuts” and use even stronger air, you may want to replace the drywall screws on the elbow with bolts.

If you have any questions on this or any other prop I have, just email me at casa.fear@gmail.com

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