Fart Man: Hallowe'en is Incomplete Without Him

Anniversary present for Mr. ShellHawk? Not in my budget, but oh, so tempting! 


WARNING: PRETTY DOGGONE RUDE AND OFFENSIVE! Click on the pic to watch.

Available at The Horror Dome, if you can get past the stench.

Darkwing Manor 2010

Click on the pic to watch.

What a classy haunt!

Casa Fear 2010

At long last, I have the opportunity to start going through my Home Haunter DVD collection! It seems that every time I try to sit down in any empty living room with a tv and a dvd player, someone else suddenly wants to come in and ask, "What the Hell is this you're watching?" (Thanks, Mom. You've only been in your room all day, waiting for this opportunity to annoy me, haven't you?)

I got to watch one of my favorite haunts, Casa Fear. I wish I had the budget and the knowledge to add a few more pneumatics and animatronics!

Click on the pic to watch

Just wonderful! *happy sigh*

Fun Costume Project For Animatronics Geeks

I really wish I had the budget/knowledge to make this happen! Click on the pic!

We Are the Haunters

A Few Things I've Learned About Prop Building This Season

1) No matter how perfect the humidity was for spray painting when you're almost ready to apply said spray paint, when you actually have the can in your hand and your prop before you, the humidity will rise to 110%, and therefore ruin all your hopes for decent coverage.

2) Ditto the heat index. It will rise to 110 degrees.

3) No matter how still it has been outside for the past three weeks, the instant you are ready to spray paint, 30 mph winds will blow in from nowhere. And stay long enough to put you at least seven days behind schedule.

4) Regardless of how perfect the gravestone pop-up worked during the test, the nuts will tighten to the point where, when you check your prop several hours later, you are certain the motor has destroyed itself in a puff of smoke which you, sadly, didn't witness.

5) The stirring witch project will work for everyone but you.

6) Ditto your Pepper's Ghost illusion.

7) Though you were sure you bought enough extension cords, you will be exactly one short on Halloween night. Even though you have twenty of the damn things.

8) Though you carefully checked your electrical box to verify the load before you plugged in your three fog machines, two air compressors, seven prop-1 controllers, Monster Guts Nerve Center, Flying Crank Ghost, pneumatic ground breaker zombie, and sundry other props, all circuits will blow the instant you plug in only half of these things.

9) Though you started building your props on November 1st of last year, on October 30th of this year, you will have a minimum of four props that defy all efforts at completion.

10) In spite of all your plans and successful tests, the head won't turn, the fog machine (which you know for a fact you switched on) won't run, and at least one of your spots (with the brand new bulb)will burn out-and you won't realize it until you review your pictures and video the next day.

11) The night you put out your tombstones, 50mph winds will destroy half of them, or at least pile them up in the middle of a major street, where they can be run over by the local grocery truck.

12) Though the weather report called for clear, still conditions, it will either snow or pour rain-and only for the four hours trick-or-treaters could possibly show up.

13) Some idiot will bring their three-year old to your haunt at 10:00PM. This child will get the crap scared out of them, bawl like you just killed SpongeBob, and their parent will give you the stink-eye.

14) Your neighbors will absolutely love you for it. And will thank you for all the effort you put into your haunt and the fun you brought back to the neighborhood.

Tongues and Noses

Taxidermy has always seemed an odd pasttime to me. I know. Coming from me, that's quite a statement.

Blog bud Dave Lowe sent me the link to this place, Van Dyke's Taxidermy, originally for a horse form on sale (think Headless Horseman). Of course, I had to look around at other stuff while I was there.Yes, you, too can be the proud owner of cougar jaws.


Or wild boar jaws.
Or a coyote nose.

I know I can find a use for these in my props...

How to Haunt Your House

Huzzah! It came in the mail! The Book!

For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about... Where have you been? Crawl out of the dungeon once in a while!

The book is How to Haunt Your House by Shawn and Lynne Mitchell. Every page is filled with ideas and pictures of various Halloween props and gags. My favorite so far is the "Pepper's Ghost" illusion, which is a great way to add a flickering ghost to your haunt. There are step-by-step instructions of sand-casting techniques (which can yield a poseable hand or a nice, spiky graveyard fence finial). There's also a recipe for Monster Mud, which seems to be a staple of the haunter's tool box. The only down side to this is if you're the frustrated English teacher type, as there are some typos and grammatical errors. (This seems to be common in the self-publishing world.)

However, the pictures are very clear, and if you're not feeling as inspired to get going on Haunt 2009 as you'd like, this book will get those juices re-animated. It's really worth the money! Pick it up here. It's not available on Amazon or at Barnes and Noble yet, but fortunately Lulu will give you a good purchasing experience.

Now, where's my hot glue?

Skull-licious Tuesday

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The Shadow Farm

I found this fantastic blog while perusing My Ghoul Friday's blog (which, by the way is pretty darn good, if you haven't had a chance to check it out). The blog is by Dave the Dead, who you may have seen on some of the Halloween boards around the 'net. I am very impressed by his props, and like all the great haunters I know, Dave has created some great backstories for the critters he's created.


I love The Bottle Lady. Since I have a witch to build this season, I will definitely be paying attention to the turorials that helped to create this creepy person. The detail work on her eyes is amazing. I wonder if she has a bottle tree in her front yard? Or perhaps a Halloween Tree?

This toothy character, Clink, just doesn't seem very trustworthy to me. I wouldn't want to turn my back on him in the dark.

This one, Darwin, just seems like a grumpy Department of Motor Vehicles employee to me. Put upon, stuck in a space far too small, forced to be pleasant to people who are too stupid to have motor control. Poor Darwin!

Stop by and sit a spell at Dave's blog, "The Shadow Farm." It is well worth it!

Halloween in January

Non-haunters who know me ask politely how the plan is coming for Halloween. I tell them it's coming along. I may have mentioned that Mr. ShellHawk and I were at a friend's for dinner and I was asked the follow-up question that often comes from the man of the house: "Did you plan your wedding like this, too?"

Of course the answer is yes. Both Halloween and weddings require maximum planning, so things will go as right as they can on the big day. (Halloween is actually better, I think, because you can put the decorations out a month in advance and almost forget about them until the week of Halloween.)

I think the Military should contact a hard-core Haunter or two the next time they need to plan manoeuvres in an urban setting. But I digress.

I joined the northern California chapter of CalHaunts (tag line: "If You Build It, They Will Scream." Catchy, huh?) at the beginning of the month, so I could have some fun time with people whose eyes don't glaze when I start talking about my plans for Haunt 2009. We had our first meeting last weekend, and I walked away with a brand new gravestone popper that we constructed at the make and take, and the very peaceful feeling of belonging somewhere. Everyone was very kind, and helped me through my power-tool challenges. I made it through with all my fingers, and that's always a good day in my book. I also am learning about animatronics, which was something I had planned to do in that nebulous, "someday," we all dream about, and I am happy that someday is now.

I'm on the waiting list for a clay sculpture class at the college (walking distance, no less!), and today is day one. I plan to go and hang out, and hopefully there will have been a few people who have dropped out of the class. I'm really looking forward to it, to further my fine art and for Halloween art, as well. I feel very fortunate that I have this opportunity available to me!

Finally, I was on HauntForum the other day, discussing the sad loss of certain Halloween traditions we had as kids. Some folks had the costume parade (I did!), and most dressed up for Halloween at school. We all know Halloween has been under attack by various groups intent on sanitizing the holiday for the "benefit and safety of the children." Some cite the urban legend of candy poisoning as a reason to stop trick-or-treating and take the kids to a city-run party instead.

I wondered where this rumor of cyanide and razor blades had started, so I went to Snopes to do a little research. Of course, the rumor was FALSE! Amazing how much we believe without checking facts ourselves... Essentially, one child was poisoned by his dad for insurance money, and the dad tried to make it look like a random act. Snopes also has numerous other cases listed of police and media overreaction to the tragic deaths of some children around the holiday, but having nothing to do with poisoned Halloween candy.

So the next time your church or school tries to abolish trick-or-treating, send them the link to the Snopes article, and hit the streets.

I hear you can still get Pop Rocks with a soda at some places...

Animatronics

There's a slice of builders that are the famous "one louder," who have more patience and look to me like they have more money than the rest of us! They're inspired. They're the ones who build their own animatronics.

With the magic of YouTube, we can see a couple of these.

The Bone Tones

Love that! I never would have thought of putting "Helter Skelter" to a barbershop quartet sort of format!

Three axis skull quartet

I have no idea who did the original song. Sort of has that Debbie Reynolds, Singin' in the Rain quality, though, doesn't it?

Here's the final. It looks fabulous!

Perhaps after I become independently wealthy, I can take the time (and the cash) to do this! I guess I'd need a larger Garage of Doom!

Skygodtj has an instructional series on how he built his 3 axis skull here. Hmm, maybe I could do that for the graveyard this year...