Farewell, 2021. To put it nicely.
Wishing everyone a healthy, prosperous, and peaceful 2022.
Friday, December 31, 2021
More Dustpiggies
‘Hello my children’ the pumpkin man said, ‘crackity crack’ said the young man’s back.
El Marino Cemetery
Looking at the graves again, they saw the remnants of the death fiesta. The little tablets of tallow splashed over the stones by the lighted festive candles, the wilted orchid blossoms lying like crushed red-purple tarantulas against the milky stones, some of them looking horridly sexual, limp and withered. There were loop-frames of cactus leaves, bamboo, reeds, and wild, dead morning-glories. There were circles of gardenias and sprigs of bougainvillea, desiccated. The entire floor of the yard seemed a ballroom after a wild dancing, from which the participants have fled; the tables askew, confetti, candles, ribbons and deep dreams left behind.
The Next in Line, Ray Bradbury
Thursday, December 30, 2021
Confessional: Captain EO
Back in May of 1993, fanny pack clinging to my waist, I walked through Disney World wondering why on earth they'd build such a place in the Vietnam climate of Florida. It was hot and violently humid, and I marveled at the fact that the sun felt like it was only eight feet off the ground. I can't recall being more miserable climate-wise. I remember going back to the hotel every afternoon dripping wet, and it hadn't even rained (though it rained literally every single morning like in the Ray Bradbury story The Long Rain).
Every time I saw a Disney character, my thoughts were instantly about the "actor" inside...suffering and questioning life itself (assumption). If my t shirt, shorts, fanny pack (and goofy hat) were literally killing me from heat stroke, what on earth was that poor person feeling being the innards of a loveable Disney character? I don't think I was ever more annoying on this earth, as I said all of the above over and over and over again.
So there we were, walking through the oven-hot park, when I was trying to muster the courage to suggest that we go and see CAPTAIN EO. I am the world's biggest James Horner fan and this strange 3D Michael Jackson film was scored by James Horner. This was back before the internet, so you couldn't watch this thing anywhere else on the earth (that sounds really pathetic). Thankfully I was very convincing (and probably whining). And then there we were, standing in a dark weird room, waiting for CAPTAIN EO to start. I remember feeling ashamed, but also being aware that everyone else in the room felt ashamed. Maybe I was just imagining this.
The movie starts and instantly James Horner's music grabs you as a small asteroid heads for the audience. The music is building and building. The asteroid is rolling closer and closer. Then, thankfully, Captain EO blasts the asteroid. And that's when the gravity of the situation becomes horribly clear. Puppets start shouting, Michael Jackson starts shouting, and I just felt like the biggest dope for insisting that this weird horror of a film be watched (by anyone). It was truly awful. And confusing. It was terrible. And weird.
But the room was icy cold thanks to the world's greatest invention: air conditioning.
Click below for the trailer if you're not up for the full film...
And click here for the full film, and if you're up for some nightmare fuel...
Wednesday, December 29, 2021
Trailer: Incubus
A spooky film you never see on anyone's best-of lists. Definitely worth a watch.
Click below for the trailer...
MILLENNIUM: The Curse Of Frank Black
A series ahead of its time.
Click below for the very cool intro to the Halloween episode...
Zombie Invasion Projection
This effect is pretty cool. And pretty low-key, which really works.
Still would be cheaper to hire a bunch of homeless people (paid in cheese sandwiches).
Click below...
Tuesday, December 28, 2021
Digging Graves At Revenant Manor
Digital Decorations (Continued):
Click below for a wonderful use of projections in a Home Haunt.
Revenant Manor's amazing cemetery gets elevated even further when the shadow of a gravedigger is spotted. Looks incredible. Subtle and super effective. Adds a real depth to the atmosphere.
Professor Abraham Van Helsing, I Presume
I'm very concerned about his glowing green eyes. Worried he got some Vampire blood in his mouth at some point. Though I'm making a lot of assumptions here and this might not even be Van Helsing, though the hat, duster, and garland of garlic around his neck are pretty conclusive (not really).
Rowhouse Spirits' Anchovy Citrus Akavit
And then both stench and sounds grew stronger, so that I paused shivering and grateful for the cut’s protection. It was here, I recalled, that the Rowley road drew so close to the old railway before crossing westward and diverging. Something was coming along that road, and I must lie low till its passage and vanishment in the distance. Thank heaven these creatures employed no dogs for tracking—though perhaps that would have been impossible amidst the omnipresent regional odour. Crouched in the bushes of that sandy cleft I felt reasonably safe, even though I knew the searchers would have to cross the track in front of me not much more than a hundred yards away. I would be able to see them, but they could not, except by a malign miracle, see me.
The Shadow Over Innsmouth, H.P. Lovecraft
I will absolutely get my hands on this offering from Rowhouse Spirits...
Monday, December 27, 2021
Digital Decorating
Thinking about the projections that a lot of Haunters use, and I was wondering if any of those companies make designs which aren't "fun" or "whimsical." That's not a veiled insult of course, as I love Haunts that have fun elements and, more importantly, kids eat that stuff up. The homes in my neighborhood who have the "fun" decorations usually have a lingering crowd of kids and parents. So I realize these digital effects companies wouldn't make any dough off of the suggestion I'm about to suggest below. But I'll suggest the suggestion anyways...
What if projections were subtle, realistic, and not very animated? Wouldn't that sell too?
Maybe a Poltergeist-like ghost - materializing, and then swaying, moving, roaring, and then vanishing.
Then how about some skeletons rising from the ground. Like they did in that amazing scene in Jason and the Argonauts. One by one, they appear from the earth, like some unholy army. Then they charge towards the viewer in a cloud of phantasmic (word?) mist and disappear.
And then, of course, any kind of Zombie or Ghost they could think of, as long as they didn't move very much, and as long as they looked like the below (and as long as they didn't burst into song).
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