Hand Carved Krampus Masks by Stefan Koidl

A year ago, I wrote about my dream to one day own a custom, hand-carved Krampus mask from one of a wide array of European artists. In fact, one of my bucket list items would be to one day travel to Europe and participate in an annual Krampuslauf parade. It really is a wintertime equivalent of working in a Halloween haunt, and every video I've seen looks like an incredibly crazy time! 

I recently discovered the work of Austrian sculptor and painter, Stefan Koidl. His hand-carved Krampus masks are truly stunning, with intricate carving and finishing details on each piece he produces. Seeing his work makes me want to refocus on getting that Krampus mask to add to my collection and book my flight to Europe!

Do yourself a favor and go check out all of his art here.

The detail and intricate carving on this Norse King mask is some of the best that I have ever seen. I can't even imagine the work that we will be seeing in the coming years...

All photos courtesy of The Art of Stefan Koidl

  

And enjoy a quick interview where Koidl talks about creating his masks...

Throwback Thursday: Halloween, 1987

Time for one last Throwback Thursday photo for this Halloween season! My first three posts were hilarious photos from Halloweens long past: Halloween 1974-75, Halloween 1976-77, and Halloween, 1978-79. It's a great glimpse into a young boy's quest to finally find a "cool" trick-or-treat costume...

For the final installment, I'm going to jump ahead from the previous posts. I'm going to revisit Halloween, 1987 and a photo that I have never posted before!

In 1987, I was 14 years old. My partner-in-crime Jim and I were inseparable. We skated together. Listened to punk rock music together. And we loved all things horror! The 1980s was the golden age of horror films and were were both hooked! We managed to watch all of the Halloweens, Friday the 13ths, and Nightmare on Elm Streets that we could get our hands on. We even got to see a few underground flicks like Pieces, Motel Hell, Texas Chainsaw Massacre and An American Werewolf in London. The horror section at the local video store was a gold mine!! 

Our bible was Fangoria Magazine. We would scour each issue, paying special attention to the groundbreaking practical effects in all of the stories. And then we'd order all the catalogs that we could from the mask and f/x companies that advertised in the back of the mag. It was pure magic.

And during the Halloween season, we began to experiment with our own practical makeup effects. A far cry from the days of the old plastic Ben Cooper costumes!

Every time I see this photo, I laugh. It's a perfect snapshot of the time, showing exactly what we were into back then.

Simple wound appliances with cheap fake blood and rough makeup. And check out my mullet! Jim was always a mask guy, and rocked this gory masterpiece. (PLEASE NOTE: if anyone knows what company created this one, we would LOVE to know. He has been wanting to get another copy of it in his collection!)

This photo was taken at my grandmother's house. She had the perfect neighborhood to really score the candy during a night of trick-or-treating. It was actually one of the last years we went out, although we then transitioned into hitting as many haunted houses as we could during the season. And with living in Northeast Ohio, there were a TON of haunted houses to visit.

I get super nostalgic when I see this, because it reminds me of that weird time when we were no longer kids, but not quite teenagers. But it always makes me feel really good because these two ghouls are now 31 years older and they still dress up and celebrate Halloween together, visiting haunted houses, running our yard haunts and keeping the spirit alive for the next generation.

Happy Halloween everyone!

  

"They Live" Donald Trump Limited Edition Halloween Mask

This is going to be huge. It is going to be really great. This is going to make Halloween great again...

That hair. A hilarious, limited edition Donald Trump "They Live" mask, available from Trick or Treat Studios. Obey. Consume. Buy.

 

"Krampus" Masks from Trick or Treat Studios

From Trick or Treat Studios:

Trick or Treat Studios and Legendary are proud to present the officially licensed Dark Elf Sheep Cote Clod, Dark Elf Window Pepper and Krampus Halloween Masks from the new Christmas Classic, Michael Dougherty's Krampus.

These amazing masks come directly out of the screen used Resin Masters, which were provided to Trick or Treat Studios by Weta Workshop and finished by our Art Director, Justin Mabry.

I am REALLY impressed with the detail in these new masks and I can definitely see the Dark Elf Sheep Cote Clod making its way into my collection quickly.

All three are now available for pre-order at Trick or Treat Studios.

    

The Four-Hour Mask

I'm heading over to work in a friend's yard haunt tonight and I realized that I didn't want to do a full face makeup, as I'll only be there for the last hour of his trick-or-treat. So I quickly decided that a mask was in order for the evening's quick festivities. The only problem is that I don't have a mask that I could bring.

So I got creative.

I rummaged through all of my Halloween bins and found one of those old, clear plastic face masks with the elastic band. You know, the kind that the old bank robbers always used to wear...

I then ran down to the basement to see what paints I had available to improve on the mask. I pulled a can of off-white spray paint and covered the entire mask in one coat. As the paint dried, I came up with the idea of making it look like a broken porcelain face. And although it had been done many times over, I didn't want to have the traditional feminine doll face. 

When the paint was dry to the touch, I took a Sharpie permanent marker with a nice, sharp point and started drawing the cracks. I wanted to focus the area of damage to the right eye, cheek and forehead, as the old mask already had a real crack in that area around the eye. After the cracks were drawn, I quickly added a wash of watered-down black paint to grunge it up a bit...

All told, this took roughly four hours of time and will work perfectly for tonight's haunt. It is something that I whipped out quickly and will be easy to put on and take off (especially in those slow times, where a cold beverage is in order!). And furthermore, I can put this in my extra costume bin for Halloween night, in case any of my actors need a quick mask.

Good luck to everyone who is putting on their yard haunt displays tonight! I have until Friday, so it's back to the garage for me. I have one final push before the big night and I'm going to see how much I can get done by then.

  

Day Of The Dead Zombie Mask by Trick or Treat Studios

I just came across this new Day Of The Dead Zombie mask, sculpted by Kelly Mann for Trick or Treat Studios.

From their site:

Keeping in the tradition of Trick or Treat Studios love for the unique and our love for the Mexican Day of the Dead Festival, Kelly Mann created the most incredible Zombie Halloween Mask ever produced, a mask we call the Day of the Dead Zombie.

The Day of the Dead Zombie is an artistic masterpiece of mask making and comes with 360 degrees of artist wonder. This Day of the Dead Halloween Mask has it all, including hearts, flowers, a moon, a cross and an ultra cool eight ball. This is the ultimate Halloween Mask to celebrate the Day of the Dead.

So get yourself a plane ticket to Mexico, our Day of the Dead Zombie Halloween Mask and march the streets of Mexico!

Pre-orders are being taken now and can be ordered here. This sweet piece of latex will be making its way to my shelf shortly!