The Haunt at Hellizondo

(papertowel mache over wire armature with celluclay)

….unless your nuts.

I have a long history of obsessions. Whatever that thing is that people have to try and be cool and be carefree about life, well I don’t have it. How could you only half love those things that are important to you? You must be passionate about something! What if your passionate about lots of things! There are some who say “You must only be passionate about one thing, lest you become a dilettante.” (Yes, they say “lest” in my internal dialogue.) I am good at lots of things. That’s what I like to do, learn new things and do them the best I can.

In 2006 I decided to make Halloween one of them.

I have always done something for Halloween. Made a painting to decorate the door for Trick or Treaters, thrown a party, or gone to some special Halloween event. It wasn’t until I met my HunBun that I started going to Haunted mazes. I don’t get scared at those things, but man I loved the sets and scare-actors and the fun of screaming people. I wanted a peice of that to call my own, and so it began in 2007.

But not without some pushback. I was told that “some people are gonna think your bullying them into Halloween, your gonna be too good at the prop making and make eveyone else feel like thier props suck, that your gonna be a control freak and a perfectionist, and your gonna make a mess of the house and intrude on people’s space and property.”

But that didn’t happen. After working every night for a few weeks in September I showed what I had made at a family BBQ, and then everyone wanted to play. I showed them how to make a shrunken head out of paper mache and a cheap toy skull. Even though it was last minute it was fun, and everyone had a good time, and everyone wanted to do it next year.

All I needed was a dead monkey to get everyone on board.

(Some of the first props I made, foam casts of a bucky skull)

It all starts with Bullshit.

Your old now. Maybe not OLD old, but too old to Trick or Treat. It’s the end of a fun Halloween night handing out candy and walking around the neighborhood. Now your sitting around with the family and some friends talking about your decorations and the neighbors decorations, and how it would be so cool to go all out next year with decorations.

BUT. but. But…

1. It’s so expensive, and 2. We don’t know how to do any of that stuff, and 3. People will steal it or vandalize it. We’ll pack up our collection of decorations cobbled together from the previous years Halloween clearance sales and party decorations saying to each other “You what would be cool …”.

Those ideas might linger for a few days, but they soon disappear into the dead leaves, rain, and thanksgiving travel plans. Then it’s Xmas before you know it and it gets away from you… and you forget. Unless…

(cont.)