Halloween Has Come Early This Year

An absolutely stunning display by Marrow.
Traditional, packed with atmosphere, and intensely creepy.



An early Halloween in New Zealand. Pretty awesome, man.

More photos at the House of Marrow blog.

Top Shelf

Image source.

Traditionally

Man, I'm a sucker for a traditional pumpkin cut.


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Prop-less

Working on Haunt Theory a lot lately.
A ton in there about the Traditional side of a Haunt.

Natural

This goes back to an earlier post on Traditionalism and the state of your Halloween display before thinking of adding additional props. I absolutely love the design here: stacked old boards, rusty tools, hanging antlers and bones, cobwebs, cornstalks, piles of leaves, and jack o'lanterns - one of them on the top of a ladder. Even with the flash of the camera eating up a lot of atmosphere, you can tell this porch display is creepy and unnerving. And not one corpse or scarecrow in sight.

Image source.

Haunt Theory: Traditionalism

Was thinking about how traditional a haunt should be. Every Halloween morning, when I first start building the display, I spend a significant amount of time arranging cornstalks and pumpkins. I need my haunt to feel like Halloween before I even consider placing any groundbreakers, witches, or scarecrows. If the Traditional side of your haunt is covered, it'll enhance the entire display, regardless of the theme. Leaves, cornstalks, and jack 0'lanterns can make a haunt totally memorable in the absence of any homemade or store-bought props. I joked last year that I wished someone would tell me that I wasn't allowed to use any props at all in my display - just natural elements. That'd be a really neat exercise in building a haunt.