Contest & Home Haunt Of The Year Finalists.

A Frightfully Scary hello to everyone today!

Just some updates today. The "What would a Zombie Santa Give as a Present" contest is still running. We have a few entries so far and there are some pretty funny answers so please check it out in the post below. All you have to do is answer that question with a creative answer in that post and Bingo Bango Boingo! your entered to win an 11x17 canvas Zombie Attacks poster that is nicely framed along with Vol. 1 of a Very Zombie Christmas!

The contest will run until Christmas Day when we will announce the winner in our Christmas Day post along with their creative answer. You can enter as many times with as many answers as you want. I will be picking the winner with the help of a few family members and friends but essentially everyone will be a winner because as long as you enter and sign up to follow the blog I will be sending out some cool Zombie Swag to everyone who that signs up as a follower so remember to sign up and have some fun with your answers!

Next update is about the  Home Haunt of the Year Contest brought to us by the Home Haunters Association. There was about 50 entries this year and they were all awesome. So many pictures and videos, I can't imagine how hard it was to judge. Grimlock Manor Submitted a video but unfortunately we didn't make the cut this year but that is ok because it gives us the drive to continually perfect our craft and strive to continually make our haunt the best it can be. I've posted the first round finalists below and a link to the HHA website so you can view all the videos and pictures. I encourage everyone to take some time to head on over there and take a peek at all the hard work these home haunters put into their haunts. As a home haunter myself I know we put in endless hours working on our haunts every year, some of us work all year round on them so I tip my hat to everyone who continually strives to put on a great show and give Halloween the respect it's due and thank you to the HHA for running such a cool contest for us Home Haunters to participate in. Also, a quick shout out to Steve's Haunted Yard for making the first round cut's! Steve was the first entry into the "What would a Zombie Santa Give as a Present"contest and I want to wish him some good luck in the running for Home Haunt of the Year!

Stay Scary everyone, remember to take a few minutes and enter the contest in the post below and please support the awesome home haunters of the world and check out the HHA Website below!


Home Haunters Association

HOME HAUNT OF THE YEAR FINALISTS:
Los Banos Haunted House
Casa Fear
Darkwing Manor & Morguetorium Museum
Haunt 31
Halloween Brothers Train Ride
Rotten Apple 907
McKamey Manor
Northrad's Yard Haunt
Soul's of the Forsaken
Steve's Haunted Yard
The Count's Crypt
Shadow Theme
The Wicked West Ghost Town
House of Stonewell
Davis Graveyard

Zombie Terrors!!! & Zombie Santa Contest!

Good Evening One & Everyone!

I figured I would start with a greeting that had a little more kick than just "hi all" or something along those lines, so what did ya think haha!

Well I wasn't sure I was going to put a new post up until a few days from now but today I was sitting at my desk at work looking at this 11x17 zombie poster that I got for free at my local comic shop down the block from were where I work in New York. I got the poster a few weeks before Halloween and it is a poster that is advertising a new Graphic Novel called Zombie Terrors!

I usually go to my local comic shop on Wednesday's which is new comic book day for those none comic book readers out there. I kept forgetting to check out what the Zombie Terrors comic was all about and finally after starring at the poster yet again today at my desk I figured I would head down to the shop to finally check it out seeing how it has been out since Halloween day. Needless to say I was pleased with it. I mean how can you go wrong with zombies right? Arrrrrggg! Brains!!!

Zombie Terrors is a compilation of Zombie Stories by various writers and artists that is produced by Asylum Press. Asylum Press has a few other Horror related titles but for around 14 buckaroos you can have your self one nice book with a whole bunch of zombie goodness. For a quick peek at what is in the book check it out HERE

Next up on my Zombie Comic list is "A Very Zombie Christmas." I saw it today while in the shop and figured with the holidays right around the corner I can't go wrong with this one but answer me this "what kind of presents would a zombie santa give out anyway?" Now don't just say BRAINS!! ...but read carefully here...if you do answer with a creative answer in this post I am going to be giving away a cool one of a kind Zombie Attack Poster created by yours truly (see poster below) and a copy of A Very Zombie Christmas Vol 1.

The contest ends Christmas Day and we will post the winner right here on the blog SOOOooo...What kind of present would a Zombie Santa give?
Your Answer here_____. Be creative, most creative answer wins! Please keep your answers nice and not too naughty!

Zombie Terrors!

The Comic You Can Win!

The Poster You Can Win!

The Hollow Face Illusion.

Hi everyone!

Been a few days since my last post and really it's because I am slacking with the two props I am in the process of working on but with Christmas right around the corner it's been a little hard to get anything done so there might not be any prop updates till after the holidays however!... I do want to highlight a prop of mine that I have had for the last two years that I really like called the "Hollow Face Illusion."

Most home and pro haunters out there are probably familiar with this illusion so this is nothing new but it is one of my all time favorites! If you have ever been to the Haunted Mansion at Disney then you have seen this illusion at work.

Basically the Hollow Face Illusion is an optical illusion in which the perception of a concave mask of a face appears as a normal convex face.

A hollow face can appear to move its eyes faster than the viewer: looking forward when the viewer is directly ahead, but looking at an extreme angle when the viewer is only at a moderate angle. All in all the face appears to follow you as you walk by it.

I think this is such a great effect and if it is lit properly and in the right setting you will have a lot of people doing double takes. Below are a few pictures from the original hollow face illusions from the Disney Haunted Mansion ride as well as the two CG versions that appeared in the Eddie Murphy movie The Haunted Mansion.

I have also created a quick video of my hallow face illusion from my haunt. I have two of these guys a male and female bust but only shot the one, I think you will get the idea.

I hope you enjoy and please stay tuned in. Lot's of new stuff brewing for the new year so hopefully after the holidays we can really get to the good stuff!

Springheeled Jack

Hello All!

I'm on a slight animated video kick recently. I love all the old school 80's cartoons like He-Man, Thundercats, G.I. Joe, Transformers (and on, and on!) I also really love stop motion animation and 3D animated flicks. I'm a HUGE Tim Burton fan (who isn't) and absolutely LOVE The Nightmare Before Christmas, I even had a Nightmare Before Christmas themed wedding! With all that said, I'm always on the look out for some unique short films I've never heard of or a cool stop motion or CG film and if it has a spooky vibe to it then that's even better.

In my last post I wrote about the stop motion series "What It's Like Being Alone." If anyone has taken a few minutes to watch any of the series I would love to see some comments in the post for the series to see what you thought about it.

Today I am writing about a short CG animated film called Spring Heeled Jack. I don't have much info on the film other than it was created by Geof Wolfenden. I do know a little something about the actual character however! Spring Heeled Jack is a character from English folklore said to have existed during the Victorian era and able to jump extraordinarily high.  SH Jack was described by people claiming to have seen him as having a terrifying and frightful appearance, with clawed hands and eyes that resembled red balls of fire! You can actually read more about SH Jack on Wikipedia if your interested in a more in depth look at the character.

This short film seems to show off the character os SH Jack just as explained above. It's a fun concept for a film and I think it's a unique character concept. The CG isn't spectacular but the narrator does a great job with the story and the soundtrack gives it that little something extra.

Overall I felt it was a fun little short film with a christmasy/halloween-ish feel too it that I hope you will enjoy! Please feel free to let me know what you thought!



Spring Heeled Jack from Geof Wolfenden on Vimeo.

What It's Like Being Alone Series

Hi All!

I'm currently continuing my work on my new paper mache prop today and hope to have some progress pictures by Sunday night or mid week next week but I wanted to get a post in here today. I do have some exciting news to share soon but it will probably be another week or so before I can really share so please stay tuned because it will be a fun and interesting addition to this blog for sure!

Todays post is about a stop motion series I came upon maybe a year or two ago that I was just thinking about the other day and because it has some freak show type Halloween-ish type characters so I figured it was fitting for the blog and maybe most of my haunt readers out there might like it.

The series is called What It's Like Being Alone and was featured on CBC Canada back in 2006. It's a dark comedy claymation series aimed at adults. There are 13 episodes (one season.) The storyline follows a groups of mutant children living in an orphanage.

The characters in the series are:

• Aldous, who is the eldest of the orpahns. She is tall, dark and depressed and very gothic obssessed (ohh that rhymed! LoL!)

• Armie, a boy with no limbs, except for his left arm. He glides around on a skateboard.

• Brian Brian, an incredibly intelligent 9 year old boy with two brains and three eyes.

• Byron & Beasly, a blue baby with two heads.

• Charlie, a flaming boy.

• Princess Lucy, a short, fat, warty grey blob of a girl who believes she is a princess.

• Sammy Fishboy, a swamp monster.

• Seymore Talkless, an eleven year old boy with no mouth and one eye.

And finally Nanny Goodapple who is the orphans' caretaker. I haven't watched all of the episodes which you can find on Youtube but from what I have seen there are some funny parts, the characters are fun and the stop motion isn't bad. I suppose it didn't last because of it's adult content but it seems like the type of show you may find on Comedy Central or Cartoon Network. Check it out if your looking to fill your mutant monster fix for the day. I've posted part one of the first episode below, you can find part two along with the rest of the 13 episodes on Youtube and here is the link for the shows website: What It's Like Being Alone Series

Hope you enjoy!

Working on Props Part 2

Hi All!

I'm back with part two of my Working on Props posts. In the first round I began to modify a plastic skull with an LED Eye Kit from Hauntbots. My goal is to continue to work on that skull, repaint and corpse it and hopefully add it to a body but tonight I started working with a material that is new to me called Claycrete.

Essentially I would say that Claycrete is just like papier mache pulp that you would make at home by blending your paper into a fine pulp than adding in your flour and water, glue and water or whatever mix works best for you. In the case of Claycrete the mache is already made for you and all you need to add to it is the water.

I don't really have a clear idea in mind for this prop yet but I know I want it to be one of the creepy characters at my Carnival of Souls haunt next year. I suppose the inspiration for this prop would be Deadspiders Mr. Hemlock Dench prop that you can read more about on her website AranaMuerta.com.

Instead of using a skull or foam head as a base I built up a large paper mache ball to work off of. When the paper had dried I began to apply the Claycrete mixture to the paper mache ball. The wet Claycrete did soften the paper mache base slightly but not to the point where I had to scratch the idea and start with a different base.

I only focused on the the front portion where the face will be because I intend on adding hair of some sort and possibly a top hat in the end. Right now I am in a very rough state but have attached ping pong balls for the eyes and quickly formed out a nose and some eyebrows just as guide. Another round of Claycrete is up next. I hope to define his face more, add a mouth and fill in around the eyes more. Once the face is done I will need to spend some time sanding it down to smooth it out and then it will be time for paint.

I hope to have a new round of pictures next week to show you the progress I have made. It's surely and experiment using a new product but it's a fun one that I hope turns out good! Stay tuned!

Here is Mr. hemlock Dench who I think is awesome! He is the inspiration behind this prop.

This is a close up of the beginning stages of Mr. Denche's face. When I saw this I decided Claycrete might be a good material to try and see if I can get the same results.

This is the Claycrete as packaged in the store. It is a fine paper pulp that dries super hard!

I started by making a solid paper mache ball and once dry I began to add the Claycrete to form a face.

Once I had the front covered with the Claycrete I added ping pong balls for the eyes applying them with Gorilla Glue. I then formed a quick nose and eyebrows as guidelines for when I begin to detail the face. I'll continue to add more Claycrete to form the face and begin really defining facial details. Once satisfied  I will sand until smooth and then start the paint.

Home Haunters Association Home Haunt Of The Year

Well we are officially registered into the Home Haunt of The Year Contest! We received our confirmation tonight for the video entry and pictures we submitted. You can view our video in the post below or go over to the HHA website to see ours and all of the other very talented haunts who have entered.
http://homehauntersassociation.com/

I'm looking forward to the results and wish the best of luck to all  the entries!