Week Ending September 25
- The "old" Sony Handycam got a workout filming the ghost hands playing the piano at Mr. Macabre's Hallowe'en Celebrations. Very cool prop!
- Where do faeries go when they die? Shadowboxes at Hook' Haunted Hollow.
- Frog on the Pumpkin reports the Davis Graveyard has begun erecting the scaffolding for their facade. Can't imagine the undertaking that is, to enclose the whole front of the house for a good month.
- The Mortician arrived at The Shadow Farm this week.
- My absolutely favorite time of the month arrived -- the new Hauntcast podcast began airing!
- Can Rob Zombie recapture the horror mojo found in The Devil's Rejects, but totally lost with Halloween? Johnny Thunder's Midnite Spook Frolic says he may have a chance with his new project, The Lords of Salem.
- I can't be the only one enjoying watching the haunted carousel at The Haunt at Hellizondo come to life, right?
- Once again, Johnny's Ghost has created a terrificly creepy prop, this time the Leer Ghost. I so want one!
Week Ending September 18
- If you need a bit of Halloween inspiration, check out the three-part video series on the making of "Nightmare Before Christmas" on Dave Lowe Design.
- Pumpkinrot gave me a reason to put The Mothman Prophecies at the top of my Netflix queue with the tale of The Grinning Man.
- Wouldn't it be great to have a magazine to turn to listing all the great haunted attractions in your state? Stolloween is fortunate to have "Fear Finder" in Michigan.
- Hook's Haunted Holloween is ready to descend into the bottomless pit.
- It was Lucky 13 for Seasons of Shadow providing us with the latest up on his Angel of Death prop.
- It's looking like Noah's Ark over at the Davis Graveyard SpiderFEST 2010 where the spiders are coming in two-by-two.
- Johnnys Ghosts gives the final steps in creating his awesome Wallbreaker prop.
- Another 13th update, this time of the haunted carousel at The Haunt at Hellizondo.
- For a look at a the true meaning of a Halloween fence, check out the one at The Gallows.
- Grimvisions spider entry for the Davis Graveyard is really very creepy.
Week Ending September 11
- Season of Shadow took a video tour of his local Spirit Halloween store.
- Egyptian hieroglyphics will be the focus of wall partition at the Halloween Prop Shop.
- The always prolific Stolloween is cooking up a garden patch full of pumpkins for his Etsy shop on his Scotty ART page.
- Chris at SpiderFEST 2010 fondly remembers when the Frog Queen used to get frog-themed knick knacks; now they're all spiders.
- Wouldn't it have been cool to take a college course in zombies? Johnny Thunder's Midnite Spook Frolic highlights the lucky dead at Baltimore University who get to do just that.
- Pumpkinrot entered his SEEDS scarecrow in a new competition.
- Patrick O'Treaty got a new foamcore lantern at Dave Lowe Design.
- Grimvisions completed their spider for the DG SpiderFEST 2010.
- A Bubba scarecrow mask will be the costume this year for The Scarecrow's Post.
Week Ending September 4
- SpiderFest 2010 continues to bring in new entrants like this thoroughly creepy specimen from Darkrose Manor.
- Stolloween posted a link on his concept-to-completion tutorial for Gourdon Rotsworth, the prize for lucky Scott Alan Dimmick who won Stolloween's Facebook contest.
- Tinfoil also took center stage at SpookyBlue where it was used as a mold for a "realistic" corpse from a bucky.
- Frog on the Pumpkin has been busy enough building props -- incredibly detailed ones at that -- that ought to light a fire under most haunters. A "knight," a retro ghost costume, and a haunted statue. Um, do you guys sleep?
- After seeing The Raven's Barrow's review of new indie flick "Monsters," I went on a quest to find out even more about what looks like a pretty cool movie.
- The Haunt at HelliZondo updates us on Build Week 12 of their haunted carousel.
- Dave Lowe Design shows how to make a top hat out of tinfoil.
- A step-by-step tutorial on building the forms necessary to build the incredibly awesome "Wallbreaker" prop was featured at Johnny's Ghosts.
Week Ending August 27
- PumpkinRot adds eyeballs to his corpses and elicits a multitude of reaction.
- Froggy's Fog products is reviewed on Mr. Macabre's Hallowe'en Celebrations.
- The folks at Necropolis Labs shake the cobwebs out of their haunting funk and begin work on a Davis Graveyard-style sarcophagus.
- Speaking of the Davis Graveyard, the Frog Queen at Frog on the Pumpkin shows why Necropolis Labs was so inspired to emulate the prop.
- Grimvisions makes a rather creepy first mask of the year.
- Internet podcast Hauntcast puts up their 22d consecutive monthly show for home haunters and Halloween enthusiasts alike.
- Mache master John Wolfe at Seasons of Shadow gives us yet another look into his unique (and incredibly patient) style of corpsing.
- ShellHawk at ShellHawk's Nest manages not to burn the house down firing up her new Roku kiln.
- Another mache king, Stolloween, at his Scotty ART site, shows off a pile of C.R.A.P.
- Halloween magazines are a real page turner at Boo Spooky.
- The Haunt at HelliZondo updates us on Build Week 11 for its haunted carousel.
- Chris, at The Davis House, plays with dolls and creates another instantly classic creation.
- The Ghostess at The Dead End is another collector of Halloween magazines.
- Monster Man Dan Reeder at Paper Mache Blog twists together two dragons made of, what else, paper mache.
Week ending August 20
The Davis HouseJeff and Chris of the Davis Graveyard held a two-day Molding & Casting class last weekend (wish they lived on the East Coast) where students made a skull mold and then cast it in expanding foam. They also posted progress pictures of their new "video head" prop, a half-carved female statue, as well as photos of the new crypt lid.
Haunt at HelliZondo
Craig Schriber, who you know as Devil's Chariot on the haunt forums (check out his interview on my favorite podcast Hauntcast, Show 21), is into Week 10 of his haunt's build. They've got a huge build underway, constructing a monstrous haunted carousel featuring a variety of decrepit creatures, including gryphons, mermaids, and dragons. Looks like it's going to be awesome when completed!
The Shadow FarmDave the Dead posted pictures of his latest creations, and one is better than the other (you choose which one you like best; I've got my favorite already). The Tar Phoenix II is a haunting, horrible bird while the Bishop is a decrepit, fallen holy man who has crossed the line beyond faith and reason.
Spooky Blue
The ever humorous head spook at Spooky Blue recounts his latest prop score, a vintage embalming table acquired at a funeral home auction. There's also a wonderful tangent on the etymology of "marsh melons."
Dave Lowe DesignDave Lowe, of his eponymous website, once again posts an informative how-to, this time for a rusted scimitar that he plans to include in his curiosities cabinet. Built of foamcore, a candy ball, and a wood dowel, the exceptionally generous Dave gives us yet again an easily replicated prop for our own haunts.
ShellHawk's Nest
The Mistress of Mayhem, who hosts "The Charmed Pot" segment on Hauntcast has taken to expanding her clay pumpkin collection and her latest effort, Pumpkin Head, puts her skills on display. Her Etsy shop creations are growing too and she'll be throwing more of these figures for sale in her store. These would look good in any home, but I'd like some size reference for them to better know where I could possibly place them. I'll have to make that suggestion on her site.
Davis Graveyard SpiderFest 2010The Davis's are nothing if not prolific bloggers as well as haunters. They truly seem to live Halloween 24/7. Chris Davis, aka The Frog Queen, had come up with a unique group prop project: spiders, and lots of them. Haunters around the country would design and build a creepy spider of their choice and send them to Chris to display in the Graveyard. Mr. Chicken, a prop builder extraordinaire himself, has sent in the first arachnid. Anyone following the Queen's exploits on her blog knows his creation will be sure to creep her out to no end.
PumpkinrotIt would be impossible to cover the top blog posts and not have at least one by the equally prolific Pumpkinrot. While haunters everywhere gain inspiration from his creations, a lot of the attraction to what he's built is derived from the artistic way his props are photographed. Scarecrows are never so haunting as when they appear on his blog. Yet what drew me to John's site this week was not so much a picture or a scarecrow (though both played a role), instead it was the fact of his 4,000th post! Begun back in 2003, the vastly talented and giving mache master Pumpkinrot has offered a steady diet of props, links, photos, and insights (search his blog for his posts on "Haunt Theory"), a process which he days he has no intention of stopping anytime soon. Good for us, and good for you John. Haunt on!
