2015 Halloween Haunt Calendar


I finally picked up Hector Turner's 2015 Halloween Haunt Calendar, and he has really outdone himself again! Late last year, I submitted photos from my yard haunt, and for the second year in a row, I have been rewarded with a shot on the cover (that's my yard haunt photo on the bottom right corner) as well as a spot in the July spread! Thanks, Hector!!




The 2015 calendar is even bigger, with a huge collection of really impressive haunt photos from some big names in the home haunt world. Along with the photos, Hector has noted all of the major haunt conventions as well as a handy daily countdown until the big night. Outside of being a great calendar, it's an important reference guide that I'll keep handy throughout the year.

There's still plenty of time to snag one for this year if you haven't yet, and don't forget to get those cameras snapping in order to submit photos for the 2016 version.

Great work again, Hector!!










John Russo's MIDNIGHT Soundtrack by Quintessence & Paul McCollough




A beautifully haunting track coupled with amazing cover art. I must admit that I have not seen, nor even heard of this 1982 movie, but the new vinyl soundtrack release is going on my want list. Full soundtrack on vinyl, available here. Enjoy! 




In checking out the trailer, the movie will be going on my "must-view" list, too!



The Mexican Devil Snowman


So what started as a fun time building a snowman with my son today soon turned into something else completely. He got bored and left, so Daddy kept going and made this...







Ha! Not too bad for 40 minutes of goofing around. I just kept sculpting the original snowman figure until it kinda looked like a Mexican Devil figure and used a small cup of chocolate milk, applied by blowing it through a straw, for the brown area. The arms and staff were just small branches that had fallen from the big tree in my front yard.

My wife has already asked it I had knocked it down yet. Nope!

 

Hammer Presents Dracula, Narrated by Sir Christopher Lee




Haunters Hangout 3rd Season Pre-Show Tonight!


Tune in to the Haunters Hangout YouTube Channel tonight at 9 EST for the start of season 3, with special guest Leonard Pickel! Tons of informative and fun live hangouts every Thursday with the big names in the home haunt community. I've been watching for the past 2 seasons and I have gained a ton of useful new information and had a ton of laughs. It's a great tool to get you into the Halloween spirit and to take your home haunt to the next level.

(Deoblo, if that isn't a top notch sales pitch, I don't know what is! See you at 9!)





Time To Get Started


Every year, right after Halloween, once everything has been taken down and put into storage for another year, I take a break. A complete break from everything Halloween—from early November through the New Year holiday. I have found that it's necessary for me to prevent burnout and that time is used for a much-needed mental vacation.

But once that break is over, I find that I'm fully refreshed and ready to go for the new year of Halloween preparation.

And so the 2015 Halloween season starts today. I've got a bunch of posts ready to go and I have a long list of projects already written out. The excitement is back and I'm ready to hit the ground running.

I'll be up for a full season of Make & Takes with the local haunters group (hopefully!), I'm already getting my costume ideas for the Midwest Haunters Convention at the end of May, I hope to hit up a few zombie walks in the area and I'm already mapping out a new group of cemeteries to visit and document in the fall. Oh, and I'll be adding a few more tutorials from this year's new props. And if that wasn't enough, I've decided to dive into prop animation and I'm going to start toying with a newly-purchased Ardruino prop controller. 2015 looks like it will be another busy year in the cemetery!

Can you hear that? The clock is ticking. Only 290 days until Halloween. Time to get busy!!