Which Witch is Which?

 

I've been itching to do some Halloween stuff, but between being broke and not being sure if I'd relocate to New Orleans before October, I haven't really done anything yet this year.

But last night I got kind of bored, and decided to start on a witch prop. I've wanted a witch for my haunt for a few years. Witches are cool. This one is admittedly influenced by Pumpkinrot!

My mother gave me a "bag 'o' bones" for Christmas a couple years ago... I'll just let that sink in... anyhow I took the skull out of the bag, nabbed a roll of masking tape, put on a few episodes of Charlie Brooker to put myself into an appropriately misanthropic mood, and set about laying some flesh on dem bones.

I think she's turning out okay. I need to find some way to seal it, as the tape will lose its tackiness eventually, then I just need to paint her up.☠

Zombie Awareness Now ☠ A Public Service Announcement

So, I don't know why I haven't shared this before.

Some of you may know that I am the Director of Animation on an independent feature length horror film called "Blackbird Pie". Well prior to Blackbird Pie we produced a short film on which to cut our film-making teeth. We had zero budget, and few resources. We drew on the local community for talent, we shot late-nights on the streets of Eugene Oregon, and improvized A-lot.

Zombie Awareness Now was the result.

So, here is un-living proof of what you can achieve with no budget, a consumer DV camera, loads of toilet paper, corn syrup, red food dye, and some good friends.

I must say I highly recommend movie-making, nothing reanimates the childlike joy of youth like being on set. Especially when there are zombies involved.

Yes I do have a small part in this, no I won't tell you which, ha ha!

Welcome to, the Twilight Zoan

This is Zoan, our newest resident at the house. Zoan is actually a previous acquaintance, he lived with our roommates when we were all still in apartments. When we moved to the house, Zoan went to live with my roomies ex-girlfriend. Well this week the roomie went to help his ex move her stuff our of her ex-fiancees house, and they found that the fiancee had left Zoan all alone in the house with a pile of food and no one to care for him.

So Zoan was scooped up and brought back to our house. Left to his own devices without anyone to care for him, Zoan had overeaten and gotten too fat to clean himself properly, so he got a bath and grooming job. My roommates brushed out the burrs, cut off the matted hair, and put salves on his wounds.

So our house finally has a black cat, which I think was somewhat innevitable.  Zoan is a real buddy too, always wandering under my desk while I'm working, looking for a little attention. I prefer nice cats to the aloof ones, So we're gettin' along. ☠

Celebrate Summer Solstice ~☠~ The Wicker Way

Happy first of summer to all of you! Just one more season to go till Halloween!

Every holiday seems to have its accompanying horror films, and it seems the solstice is no exception. If you've never seen The Wickerman (1973), well you oughta. It's really a very hip and whip-smart mystery film. Police Sgt. Neil Howie travels to isolated "Summerisle" investigating the disappearance of a missing child. In the course of his investigations he discovers that the island has reverted to Paganism, and Howie struggles with the culture shock in dealing with the denizens of summerisle, while unearthing the truth of what happened to the missing girl.

The plot comes to ahead at the summer solstice, and this chilling rendition of a traditional celtic song "Summer is Icumen in" hailing the oncoming season.

(SPOILER ALERT)

~ ☠ ~ Interesting Haunts ~ Driveway Follies, Oakland Ca. ~ ☠ ~

This is such a unique yard haunt that I thought it would be cool to share, "Driveway Follies" sets itself apart from others, by being a live Halloween puppetshow for neighborhood kids. It's got a great vintage Halloween aesthetic, focusing more on classic spooky stuff, rather than contemporary ghoulishness and gore. Check it out!

"Mysterious Mose" puppetshow

Their yard haunt

An oldie, but a goodie ~ ☠ ~ The Life and Death of a Pumpkin

I've often contemplated the oddness of our curious custom. It's a bit grisly though, isn't it? Trepanning  pumpkin gourds, exentrate the innards, gouge a face into crisp orange flesh, and light a fire inside.

Yes I've oft contemplated the oddness of our curious custom; as I picked wet strings of pumpkin guts from my hands, and set the hollowed corpses out to dry in the waning autumn dusk.

The Hitchhiker ~ ☠ ~ Classic Suspense Story

This is one of the eeriest and most effective ghost stories I've ever heard, it still sticks with me today. It's the first hand account of one, "Ron Adams" of a trip from one coast of the American continent to the other, and the singular specter that haunts Ron's foreboding journey along the way.

Starring Orson Welles, and with a particularly eerie composition by Bernard Herrmann evoking an otherworldliness which makes the American landscape feel like the dark side of the moon. I can recall listening to this particular story on audio cassette as a summer evening waned into twilight, as my father worked away on an oil clay head that was to become a monster mask for Halloween.

Settle in for the evening, dim the lights, and enjoy. Won't you? ☠