Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Undead Cannibals

Of course 'cannibal' implies interspecies activity, and they don't feed on each other.  Just us.

The Whimsy Terror

I'd love to stand this outside of someone's window at night and just walk away. 

I'm assuming the intent of its creator was bladder-emptying terror, but maybe whimsy was in mind and something went horribly horribly wrong.

Image by alice i am.


In Theaters Again

A high definition transfer of the immortal classic will be making the rounds this October in select theaters. 

Click below to check for your town.


Lightning

The oaks shone
gaunt gold
on the lip
of the storm before
the wind rose,
the shapeless mouth
opened and began
its five-hour howl;
the lights
went out fast, branches
sidled over
the pitch of the roof, bounced
into the yard
that grew black
within minutes, except
for the lightning – the landscape
bulging forth like a quick
lesson in creation, then
thudding away.  Inside,
as always,
it was hard to tell
fear from excitement:
how sensual
the lightning’s
poured stroke!  and still,
what a fire and a risk!
As always the body
wants to hide,
wants to flow toward it – strives
to balance while
fear shouts,
excitement shouts, back
and forth – each
bolt a burning river
tearing like escape through the dark
field of the other.


Mary Oliver

Image by Maxim Vorobiev.
 

Monday, September 23, 2013

Now Playing: A Deck

By Sleep Research Facility, from the album Nostromo.

Click below:



Now Playing: The Return Of Dr. X

From Halloween at High Noon, by (Man with) the Spinning Face.

Click the nice man below:

Earthy

There's an earthy feel to this, like I see in a lot of other vintage photos.  Like grime and earthiness were a part of Halloweens of the past (grime might be too strong a word..and too gross a word).  Maybe it's just the high contrast in the old photographs, or because people had their costumes/masks stored away in old dirt-floor basements or dusty hot attics.  Or because people would wear hand-me-downs...costumes worn by older sisters and brothers, and uncles and parents before that.  Not sure, but I dig it.
And I think people who have that Old School look in their Yard Haunts are totally in on this secret.
And I dig that even more.

Sunday, September 22, 2013

3rd Annual Faces Of The Great Pumpkin Art Contest

It's back.
And you should totally enter.

Click last year's winning entry by artist Rhode Montijo for details.



Liquorice And Snake Weed

A string of lights from Target - orange-glassed flicker bulbs, and a candle from HomeGoods.
I'm unfamiliar with the scent of Snake Weed so I can't be sure if the company is lying to me and just went with a spooky-named weed to make it sound cool.

But it sounds cool.
And it smells good.


First Jacko Of The Season

Through his nose, you can see the cloves we jammed into his lid.
Loved the result.  Toasted pumpkin and toasted cloves.  Definitely going to do this on Halloween night.


Friday, September 20, 2013

Building The Perfect Family

These guys would have been the best uncles growing up.
I feel I got screwed.


























Plummer would be my dad, and he'd say from the corner of his mouth, "Come here, son.  Have I told you I love you, son.  And that I'm proud of you, son."  And I'd say, "This hour?  Nope."  And we'd laugh.

Word Nerds Are Cool

A very interesting post over at The Skeleton Key blog regarding the pronunciation of the most beautiful word ever spoken on this planet.

HALLOWEEN

The Creatures Of Elora

If you haven't seen these before, you're gonna dig.  Seriously dig.
I think I need to move to the town of Elora.  Every year I wait to see new photos of this incredible event.

The photos are by Mark Heine.

Click below:















And click the tag 'elora' below to see other posts about these neat things.

Get Your Moth On


The Tee Lake Horror

Some fun photos here.

Click below:



The Monster That Rania Made

Click below for the latest creation from The Haunted Garden.


Smell Like A Smoke Break

Sweet dried tobacco leaf, aromatic spices & rich honey muddled with cocoa, Tonka Bean, tobacco flower and a layer of dried fruit and exotic wood.  


Begging For Candy


Thursday, September 19, 2013

Heavens No


More Faegoria

Don't...open...that....  
Too late.

Halloween Is Here

Click below:

lw_hal_preorder

Final Girl

Revisiting an old favorite.

Click below:
Final Girl

Now Playing: Dark Night Riders

From Way of the Wicked.

Click below:

Image source.

Candlelight

From Warts and All...

Now Playing: Alone In Kyoto

Click below:

Image source.

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Headless

Saw the series premiere of Fox's Sleepy Hollow.  It was like watching a fun Halloween Special with great effects.  Though my judgment might be slightly off due to the fact that the headless effects were pretty flawless and anything with a living, convincing Headless Horseman (who uses and axe and occasionally fires a machine gun), well, it becomes very subjective for me.

I'd watch an hour of the Headless Horseman making sandwiches.

Note:  Headless Horseman Syndrome very similar to Robot Syndrome.

Murder And Mayhem

They gots it all.
Full yard scene with spider web

Now Playing: Beneath The Floorboards

I think September is Halloween at High Noon Month.

Click below for another track from a past release:

Image by Dave Koen.

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

I Couldn't Wait Til Christmas

kindofcreepy.com

Drive Thru

I always hated people who used the drive thru for something like Dunkin Donuts (until I started using the drive thru for Dunkin Donuts).  This morning I thought I would be funny, so I ordered a large iced coffee with pumpkin syrup, but joked that I feel that as a valued customer I should get extra pumpkin syrup.  The voice on the scratchy intercom thingy didn't think I was joking.  So I tried to explain it was a joke...at 5:45 in the morning.  Both of us were annoyed (at me).
The good news:  I got my extra syrup.
The bad news:  I'm drinking it shamefully.


Seriously.  Don't joke with this thing.

Monday, September 16, 2013

Spooky Clown Mystery Grips Northampton

clown
Thanks, Jon!

The House In The Woods

A project by Martin Jenkins.  The man behind the amazing music of Pye Corner Audio.

Click below:
The House In the Woods - Bucolica cover

Hold

This living hand, now warm and capable
Of earnest grasping, would, if it were cold
And in the icy silence of the tomb,
So haunt thy days and chill thy dreaming nights
That thou wouldst wish thine own heart dry of blood
So in my veins red life might stream again,
And thou be conscience-calmed—see here it is—
I hold it towards you. 


John Keats

Image source.

In Bulk

I bet those dentures are a hit with the old folk...

Are they edible? Are they rubber?  If it's candy, I'd love to softly chew a few at work at my desk.  When someone walks up, I'd slowly open my mouth and let them come pouring out, as I make a suitable sound, like a startled moan.

A gas for sure.

Image source.

Zombie Pecking Order

Why does every society, club, organized movement, volunteer group, support group, cleaning crew of people who shouldn't be cleaning anything, etc. have a pecking order?  Like it's in our nature to size each other up and create a human spectrum of pecking power.

This hierarchical system was first described this way by Thorleif Schjeldeerup-Ebbe who observed that defense and aggression in the hen is accomplished with the beak.  Literally a pecking order.  And that's literally hysterical to read.  I think it's the word beak.

So I'm looking for photos for the blog and I come across a zombie walk.  Fun-loving, zombie-loving folk living the horror dream of a mass-shuffle of zombie power.  And then I see these guys...














Oh, I get it... a horde of zombies, so there must be the humans who fight them, or rather, dominate them.  A zombie pecking order.  I swear to GOD, if I showed up as a zombie at that event and saw these guys with their plastic guns, I would walk up and start biting.

Image source.

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Now Playing: The Lords Of Salem

After all the negative reviews, I was a little worried this film would be a stinker.  I'm happy to say that The Lords of Salem was quite good.  Beautiful cinematography and some great acting.  And it took its sweet time getting there.  A trait completely missing from most modern horror films.

And its score was wonderful.

And I want Dee Wallace to adopt me.
She's AMAZING in this.

Click below:














And here's another cool track.

Hauntingly Beautiful

Perfection.

Image by sparth.

Saturday, September 14, 2013

Why Don't He Write?

Image by anne.

Old Scratch

Found these awesome Devil string lights in an Ace Hardware store.

Proving definitively that Satan is, in fact, Asian.


Skull And Shark Album Teaser

I'm officially teased.

Click below for a sample from the upcoming Skull and Shark album by Lazerhawk.


Ghost Of Halloween Yet To Come

`Ghost of the Future.' he exclaimed,' I fear you more than any spectre I have seen. But as I know your purpose is to do me good, and as I hope to live to be another man from what I was, I am prepared to bear you company, and do it with a thankful heart. Will you not speak to me.'

Charles Dickens






















This just felt like a rather magnificent prop, so Dickens popped into my head.  And I ran with it.

Image source.

Friday, September 13, 2013

More Drive

Fridays require cool music.

Click below:

A Sea Of Masks

As a kid, masks were mysterious wonderful things.  I'd say something profound like they were a way to be someone/something else, but I don't think that was it.  You'd see them in stores during the season, or in the back of magazines, or in the Bible of my youth - The Johnson Smith Catalogue (cause 'catalog' isn't good enough). 

To see a mass of masks all in one place, well, that was a pretty amazing thing.  And they always seemed to be way up high.  Rows and rows of severed creature heads.  Like the trophies of the world's finest monster-killer.  And I can't say I ever wished to own or wear them...it was more like appreciating fine art.  A rare art, since the only place you could find monsters was on Saturday afternoon tv or in a movie theater...or in those horror magazines those bad kids always had.

Later in life I discovered that latex masks will eventually decay and rot away.  Had I known as a kid that all those rows of monsters had an expiration date, well, I think that would have made them even more mysterious and incredible.

Saw this photo over at the always-awesome Blood-Curdling Blog of Monster Masks and had to share it.  When I saw it, my first thought was "Man, as a kid I would have dove into that and rolled around in all those beauties.  Like a dog." 

Which sorta makes all that art talk above kinda null and void.

Click the monsters:

Begging For Candy


Thursday, September 12, 2013

Accent Pumpkins

Click below: