The Hollowmen: Year of the Scarecrows

I'm sure anyone who looks at this blog probably already keeps up with Pumpkinrot's blog. If not, you should. These are some of the pictures he has posted from his 2008 haunt. This is my favorite yard haunter of all, and he never lets me down with his amazing work.






www.pumpkinrot.com
The What's Brewing Blog
This is simply the best Halloween blog you will ever find.

Paper Mache Skulls

Out of all the new things I learned over the past year, making paper mache skulls was probably one of the best. I have to credit Spooky Blue for teaching me this through a tutorial on his website. Now that I have learned this I can make an unlimited amount of heads for zombies or anything else I need one for. Here are a few pictures of how I make mine.

I start with this basic skull, which came with a handy stand which makes things a lot easier. This one used to have some stuff inside that made it "talk", but I took all that stuff out.

Then I cover it with strips of newspaper, about three layers. I have found if you alternate the colors, it helps you keep track of what you have done. For instance, use black and white for one layer, then something like the comics for the next layer, then black and white again.

After this dries, usually overnight, I cut from below where one ear should be up and across the top of the skull and down the other side. Then start working on peeling off the pieces. Once you get them off, tape up the inside really good and fill it with expandable foam (I used Great Stuff). Be careful not to put to much in at a time as it will make the head kind of shaped wrong, which could be a good thing if you're going for that look. I usually put in a few layers at a time to prevent this, or have poked holes into the foam when it is about half setup to let the gases escape from inside, which will stop it from expanding.

I think this ended up being the head for this guy...

One of the cool things is that every one of these will end up looking different. I also do not add teeth, I think they look kind of cool without them and I was probably too lazy to make them. I also followed Spooky's groundbreaker corpse tutorial to make these guys.

Spooky Blue's Tutorial

The Haunted Trail: 2008

This is a yard haunt that is about a mile away from where I live. I had heard about it last year but didn't get a chance to go see it, so I was looking forward to it this year. It has many more props than I have shown here and a trail that goes through the front and back yards, as well as a short stretch through the woods. It also has a long tunnel at one point, complete with a Michael Myers prop who is waiting for you at the exit. I wish I had been able to see this at night, but I had my own haunt to tend to then.










Looking forward to seeing this one again next year... Good Job Pam!

Grim Hollow 2008

Halloween Night

So it's 1 o'clock in the morning and I just got done breaking everything down and put into the garage... man am I tired. It was worth it though. Had a really big turnout and everyone seemed to like the display. Even convinced a few people to start their own haunts from the sound of it. The kids seemed to like it, some laughed, some cried, some laughed at others crying. The only thing that broke was the ankle blaster that was built into the candy trunk, I think I blew the solenoid in it. It worked fine up until that point though and scared a lot of kids. I was a hooded ghost looking creature, similar to the two ghosts I have in the setup, only a different color. I had fun scraping a shovel on the driveway and shaking this little rattling thing I made at people when they walked by. I'll probably post more tomorrow, but for now I'm going to kick back and see if any scary movies are on. Hope everyone had a Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween

Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Halloween. Changed the color of all my lights to amber tonight and put the finishing touches on most of everything. (The yard is not lit up this bright really, the camera makes it look brighter than it is).

A co-worker stopped by last night and I was telling him about the "Lost and Found" box that I was planning on doing with an ankle blaster inside. He said "You should put the candy in that", and I think that is what I am going to do. That way every trick or treater will have to walk up to it (I only plan on using the ankle blaster on the TOT's I think can handle it, no young ones). Same goes for the rest of my pneumatic props, I only use them on older kids or the ones who seem like they won't mind too much, like big groups of kids. I guess I just want everyone to enjoy the haunt.

Hope you all have a Happy Halloween and good luck with your haunts!

Grim Hollow Video

I had a few people wanting to see some of these props in action so I made a little video. I didn't know that the quality would suffer so badly when I sent it to YouTube, but you get the basic idea. The credits at the end, which are hard to read even if you watch it in full screen mode, are basically thanking my son for standing out in the cold wind and operating the switches for me while I made the videos. You can see him jumping up and down in the background on one of them. I think that was from a combination of being cold and being excited that he got to operate the switches. The music on this video is by Igneous Flame.