Black And White

Cloaked

Little-known fact about my Cloaked Ghost - there's a face in there. Those fingers below the opening, they're very long and creep up into a wide mouth and empty eye sockets, like roots pulling apart a ghostly visage. I think it's neat that the face wouldn't show up in any photos due to shadows. Neat, and spooky.

Now Playing: Dark City

Amazing film score by Trevor Jones and a super cool track by Hughes Hall called Sleep Now (Track 5 on the album) that I featured in my 2007 Ghost Dead video.

Click for samples (Track 5, and 7-14 recommended).

Ghost Dead

More old photos (kept them large).

Haunt Theory: Point Of View

I've often said that even if I didn't get one child trick-or-treating on Halloween night, I'd still do my yard haunt. And I would.

But since I probably don't have to worry about that happening at the current suburban location of my haunt, I started to think about an aspect of my display that I've never really spoken about - it's designed for kids. Not in the dripping dried-up organs and armless zombies sort of way, but rather in the way I build the props and display them.

During the construction process of a prop, I'll find myself lowering my point of view to the height of a child to see what they'd see. I use that technique to determine the height of my props, or the tilt of a head, or the height of a reaching arm. The Hollowmen scarecrows were placed lower on their posts so a non-adult could see more details. I didn't want trick-or-treaters looking up and seeing scarecrow nostrils. The Ghost Dead were all made with height in mind. My Witches' faces are all about the height of a child, as they crouch around their fire. I think it's more intimidating and personal that way. The trick-or-treater is face-to-face with a Witch - not just looking up at one.

Nothing too severe, just a few inches to a foot on the height of a prop, or a more drastic head-tilt or positioning on a taller prop, as if it's looking down at a child rather than straight on at an adult.

So if I lived somewhere that never saw any kid-traffic on Halloween night, I'd do the same all-out haunt. It'd just be a few inches higher.

Horror Cafe

Here's a page where I sketched out the Ghost Dead concept back in 2007. A funny little note on the next page said "blue lights in chests?" That would have been neat.

Haunt Theory: Backstory

In the early days of my haunt, I can recall creating some basic information regarding the logic behind my display's layout - a story to justify why props ended up where they ended up. I didn't share it with anyone. It was just something I kept in the back of my mind to help me with the flow of things (and to have a comeback if my father asked an annoying/condescending question like "Why ain't that skull coming back to life like them dead people are?").

Back in the late 90s, when I first added a Witch to my display, things really clicked when she became the logic behind the rising corpses. She was responsible. She was causing it (and loving it). Still didn't share it with anyone though. It was just something in my mind like a private joke. But it made things feel natural and logical.

My scarecrows have all benefited from a backstory. Back in 2005, I had the fun of inventing a Bigfoot-like creature called Roots and received emails asking me if it was an actual legend. My Bog Man's faux history is something that I still enjoy reading about, as if it were actually a real tale.

Having a backstory evolved over the years into something that I personally MUST have in order to feel comfortable with my yard haunt. The Three Sisters raising zombies from an old cemetery. A Wrath Poltergeist forming as an angry byproduct of reanimated corpses - filled with hate and rage and violence. The return of the Sisters with a new plan: fusing souls of the departed with their rotting corpses to create the Ghost Dead - forcing ghostly zombies to do their bidding (more powerful than regular zombies, by the way - and a gunshot to the brain won't help in the least). A field of mysterious scarecrows in a lonely and dark hollow. And then a repulsive legend of something called a Corn Witch.

For the most part, people visiting the haunt will never know your backstory. And that's just fine. It's really for you anyway.

2007 Leftovers (Video)

Music from the film 30 DAYS OF NIGHT.

Ghosts And Witches

More 2007 leftovers.

2007 Leftovers

Cloaked

The Cloaked Ghost Dead from Halloween 2007, on his last day in my possession. I'll have to check in on him to see how he's holding up at my coworker's house.

Ghosts Of Eerie Acres

Great photo of a fellow haunter's display - this one sporting some cool Ghost Dead.

Thanks, Dave!

Observant

Got the Cloaked Ghost Dead figure out of my parents' attic this weekend so I could do some touch-ups before handing him over to my coworker for her lawn. As I was carrying him through the house my father saw it and asked "Is that a new one for this year?" Carrying him to the car, the neighbor that shares the porch with my parents saw it and asked "Wow, is that new?!"

Found it funny that something that's very distinct and memorable to me was quickly forgotten by two people that saw it for an entire day last year.

Housewarming Gift

It pays to sit next to me in the office. A coworker who digs my Halloween display asked me about borrowing some of my props for the first Halloween in her new house. She's really cool so I figured I'd turn it into a housewarming gift and let her have my Cloaked Ghost.


Nice to think of a prop that would probably have never left attic storage as getting a new lease on life and haunting someone else's lawn. Plus it's probably lined with spider eggs by now so the joke's on her.

Ghosts

Pumpkins & The Ghost Dead

Loading up the Pumpkin Hollow shoppe this week.

Raising The Ghost Dead

Going through old photos today from Halloween 2007. So many that I never posted to my site for one reason or another. Here's one that I thought was pretty neat.

Hollow and Ghost

Ghost Dead Residue

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