October 31, 2011
Super excited to reveal this year's Halloween project:
SWAMP FOETUS.
Something I've wanted to do for a really long time - make a movie. So instead of a yard haunt theme, Swamp Foetus refers to a short film made over the last 9 months. The movie's score is a fantastic original piece by my friend Jon Glassett. I'm floored that he did this for me. It is truly stunning. And I'm way beyond grateful.
In addition to the film, I'll be posting a SWAMP FOETUS image gallery in the days ahead, as well as photos from our yard haunt tonight, a modest and traditional affair, unrelated to the Swamp Foetus theme.
So click below to watch the film (or download and save it).
Or click HERE to watch it on Youtube...though I'd recommend viewing it first by clicking above.
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Happy Halloween
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54 comments:
Such a TREAT! Beautiful shots and lovely props. Thank you, thank you, and HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
~R
Thanks, man.
So glad you dug it.
I loved it :) Everything looked awesome!!! Great job :) HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!
Well worth the wait! Very, very nice. Sundance look out!
Happy HALLOWEEN!
Fantastic! Purely and perfectly Hallowe'en.
Rot,
I've just finished my display, and have been taking pictures and handing out candy for the past few hours. I'm exhausted.
I found this post, and with unbearable exitement, watched SWAMP FOETUS, and checked out your new tinies.
...Words cannot express the incredible spooky beauty of SWAMP FOETUS. The most amazing thing I have ever seen. Superb. You are a true artist. A true legend.
I'll get back from school tomorrow and re-watch it over and over again, study the gorgeous new tinies, and then begin writing up a HUGE comment on this.
You've been warned ;)
But now, I need to sleep. I'm too tired for anything else. Thank you so much for the most amazing Halloween treat ever,
Marrow
Thanks, all.
And Wow. Thanks, Marrow.
Very cool. The long field shots were my favorite!
Great work guys...looking forward to seeing the haunt pics from the new place.
Happy Halloween!
This is pretty amazing. So much fun to see a Halloween witch carrying a pumpkin across a field with Johnny Appleseed in it! Can't wait to see the pics of her "babies"!
Great score, too!
So that's how you make your props...
love the new tinies. the drowned girl is creepy and wonderful!
Cool and creepy as always! Love the black goo squirting from the mouth. High tech!
Wow, that's really awesome dude! Good job. Totally creepy. I loved it.
Hey Rot,
Big Fan of yours. Brilliant work with that video. That was truly a Halloween treat. You are the King of Halloween good sir. I am looking forward to your yard haunt pics.
Happy Halloween,
Rob
FANTASTIC!!! Love the utterly creepy image of the witch walking in the background with the scarecrow in the foreground. What did you use to shoot it? Digital SLR?
Thanks!
I shot the entire film using the video feature on a four year old digital camera.
Very low tech
Wow, I really enjoyed that, especially the long shots and when the little larval creature wiggles its way into the corpse! *shudder* Amazing work!
Spooktacular! I really loved the scene in the mausoleum; seeing your creations in motion is so eerie and wonderful!
Really happy when I saw today's forecast too, hope the weather is just as perfect for you guys. Happy Haunting!
That was wonderful. The highlight of my Halloween day.
Haunting, Beautiful, Amazing. Thank you for a great beginning to this Halloween!
Very creepy and totally cool! Great job Rot!
You are my hero! I been a fan for 4 years. Keep up the fantastic work!
That is one of the greatest short stories put to film I have ever seen. The talent and skill you poses are amazing!!! Happy Halloween
You really should make more of these. It was very well done and beautifully eerie. Happy Halloween!
Thankyou. THANKyou, Rot and Bean for such a treat. I think my favorite shot is the pull-back at the end to show all the swamp babies.
Happy Halloween...may it be a perfect day for you!!
This is awesome, I love it!
Happy Halloween, I'm off to the haunt for the grand finally. Have a good one tonight!
Eric
Amazing... A new genre of haunting is born. ..I am really in awe of the beauty.
Happy H,
Rob
I love your blog and I am loving Swamp Foetus! You are truly talented...keep up the great work!
*Have A Wickedly Good Halloween*
Totally stunning and beautiful. You are a master. Have a Very Happy Halloween
Awesome Rot!!! What a great Hallowe'en treat!
Happy Hallowe'en to you and Bean!
Im going to wait to watch this tonight when it is not so bright and cheery outside, hope everyone has a great night. Thanks in advance Rot.
Happy Hallowe'en
Fanfriggintastic Rot. That witch looks killer.
Happy Halloween man!
Nothing better than a creepy witch! Love those long shots of the witch walking. Classic! Happy Halloween!
ok so now I have watched the video as well, BRILLIANT and the score was a perfect choice... perfection.
I think my eyes just turned into heart shapes. This is LOVELY!
You did a GREAT JOB!!!
Wonderful!!! Happy halloween all!!!
Fantastic film Rot! You had me at burrowing pumpkin creature! ;)
Part 1
I've had a whole day or so to think about how to word this comment.
SWAMP FOETUS is amazing.
I never dreamed that you would end up making a short film - this is incredible.
Prepare for a LONG comment.
I couldn’t help but gush like the mad fanboy that I am.
Chronological evaluation of SWAMP FOETUS:
The wall of candles is amazing! I love all the dripping wax! The wall seems to be made entirely out of tissue mache - dang!
The witch comes into view with her creepy skeletal face and black eyes - she looks stunning!
Love the shot of her running her long black fingers over the pumpkin, and then lifting off the lid with all the dangly guts attached. The table is also a very rot-esque tissue mache design - fantastic!
The little pumpkin foetus seems almost cute in its first stages of growth – that doesn’t last long ;) Very cool to see Bean’s work in a non-Etsy prop of yours.
All the long shots of her journey are great! So cool that Johnny Appleseed made a guest appearance. The witch’s long black cloak looks amazingly spooky blowing in the wind.
The woods she ventures into remind me a lot of the woods in ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ – the ones that Jack wanders into one late Halloween night. Those rolling hills and tall colourless trees. It looks so very cool and creepy!
I really like the subtle transition between spooky forest and spooky graveyard. Seeing the statues, I couldn’t help but be reminded of the terrifying ‘Weeping Angels’ from Doctor Who (if you haven’t heard of them, look it up on YouTube. Nightmare-inducing stuff).
My already unbearable excitement rocketed when she stopped in front of the old, gothic mausoleum. The shot of the doors opening is my favourite shot in the whole thing - the ancient cobwebbed doors pulling apart and letting in rays of white light looks amazing!!! When light then fell on the desiccated corpse in the coffin I nearly died of awesome.
She plucks the pumpkin foetus out of its orange home, and it tilts up its tiny head and raises its tiny arms like a baby taken out of the womb months early.
The special effects in the next sequence are so insanely cool. The pumpkin foetus wriggling and squirming into the ribcage of a rotten corpse is spine-tingling. The black ichor splurting from the corpse’s open mouth looks amazing. But the best part comes when the foetus grows inside the corpse’s torso. The decayed skin on its belly splitting and pulsing, the black mush that was its internal organs showing between the cracks.
I was amazed when the pumpkin child emerged from the corpse, shakily trying to stand and then raising its head towards its mother. Its movements look so real and natural! No idea how you managed that.
Part 2
Another favourite shot of mine is the witch crossing the field at dusk. I really loved the change in music as she journeyed through the swamp, but I’ll talk more about Jon’s amazing score later.
The strange tree-like growth that she placed her baby on looks super-cool and very organic. It reminds me a little of a ribcage. Of course, the very best part of the film was the slow zoom out showing all the other pumpkin/skeleton creatures in their various stages of growth.
*End of chronological evaluation. Not end of comment!*
The props in the film were all stunning. I loved the witch costume, especially the tall crooked hat.
The pumpkin foetus was amazing, and very cool to see grow throughout the film. It’s elongated head reminds me of Pumpkinhead. It’s thin legs and arms made it seem both creepy and fragile, just as a baby should be (except for the creepy part!).
The mausoleum corpse looks great and so very real, it send shivers up my spine.
Finally, the swamp pumpkin and/or skeleton things are so cool and inventive – I LOVE their long noses and general absolutely-amazing-ness.
I am very curious as to how you did the effects, but I’m afraid it’d spoil that special movie magic.
The score by Jon Glassett is his very best work yet. The pounding drums, Carpenter-esque synths and strange sounds all add to the epic feel of SWAMP FOETUS. There are parts of the score that sound like trumpets, bells and violins. Listening with headphones gives the full amazing effect. It progresses flawlessly throughout the film, and changes to fit the feel of each scene. The score seems to grow like the foetus itself, and is a superb mix of Dark Ambient, John Carpenter and epic orchestral-ness. So many spooky sounds and synths – Jon did an incredible job.
The new Tinies are lovely and creepy.
Elsa scares the hell out of me. Really. I can’t look at that picture without feeling truly unsettled.
Furn is so very cool, I love your props that seem like animals. Grickle has a great old-school look about him, and the long list is like a twisted version of Santa’s good/bad list. I can imagine him ticking off each corpse with it’s own blood.
And Hesh is an almost charming figure, all dressed up in his best suit. VERY cool.
I am most eagerly awaiting your 2011 gallery. Cannot wait to get a good look at those props in the last shot of the movie.
Amazing work, Rot, Bean and Jon. SWAMP FOETUS is a film right up there with Trick ‘r Treat.
Your best work yet.
Just so incredible.
Love the film--it's a Hallowinner! The Tinies are great too. I'm sure you know Creature Feature, a band that makes dark but fun Nightmare Before Christmas-like music. One of my favorites is "A Gorey Demise", the perfect song to accompany your Tinies.
I wanted to let you know that Swamp Foetus has been featured here:
http://noxrequiem.blogspot.com/2011/11/end-of-season.html
Again, great work, and thank you for your inspiration!
Very cool concept to make a film using your props...it was great...to create a film that tells a story without dialog is a tough feat which you pulled off beautifully. What a perfect treat. Thank you!
Not bad. Some haunting images.
Great work, Rot. I think this is your best film yet. The illusions are uncanny...the world needs more puppetry. That witch is alive! It's a hauntingly beautiful piece, as usual, but the fact that you matched the feeling of the images and movements to the look of your creatures (with a digital camera, no less!) is really something. Bravo. Can't wait to see the next one.
Your movie was incredible! I come to your blog at least once a day to see what you have posted or linked to. Definitely puts a sinister grin on my face.
Grotesque and mysterious and chilling and organic and...BEAUTIFUL! What a treat! Thank you!
Once again, you continue to amaze. You perfectly capture the mood and the atmosphere of Halloween. Please, please keep up the good work.
Been away from the computer, What a treat!!! It's great so see some of the back story come to life for your creations. Awesome!!!!
Very creepy, always a pleasure to see what you've been up to. The film is a visual treat for those of us who love your work.
My artist co-worker watched over my shoulder and said "I'm going to have nightmares tonight". I love the wide shots of the witch crossing fields. There was such a dark beauty to your film, fantastic!
Amazing work all the way around!
My gosh. How your mind works.
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