Building Arsenic Asylum

On the Arsenic Asylum website I will be adding information and tutorials regarding the methods used to create the images that illustrate the story. 


Creating digital environments, digital "zombification" and a behind the scenes peek of our zombie wardrobe which you will have to see to believe. Trust me, it's insane.


First up is a behind the scenes peek at building the miniature of the asylum.


Here the link to Building The Asylum.

Arsenic Asylum

Your cell is waiting at Arsenic Asylum.

Living Retro

Now that the troll project is done I have moved on to a darker place, possibly my darkest subject matter to date.

My current project is a combination of things; my love of non-CGI special effects, film and of course papier mache.

My current project is also something I’ve had in the back of my mind for years, sort of a culmination of all the things I love rolled up into one.

(I hinted at this a while back in my post regarding "Cinemagic" magazine)

The “old school” nature of the work has moved me to dig out the turntable and listen to some vinyl while working on this project….Alan Parson’s Project is my current preference.

Hell, the retro thing has even moved me to ditch my shaving gel and start using shaving soap and brush, … sometimes newer isn’t better.

Looking forward to sharing my current works in the coming weeks…it’s dark, it’s comfortable and best of all it’s undiluted horror.

For The Love Of Giger

My previous post touched on my fondness for the science fiction/horror genre, I love science fiction and I love horror so when you combine the two you are going to get something great right?

Sort of like a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup.

On this blog I’ve rambled about some of my favorite films and favorite books which leads me to another genre, the film companion book.

I love these things whether they are movie novels or “making of” books.

Big or small I have gotten quite a collection over the years starting with the movie ALIEN.

A few weeks after seeing ALIEN in the theater I bought what would be the first of many film related books.

Here are “The Book of ALIEN” and the “ALIEN Movie Novel” both from 1979 and both are well worn from hours of staring at each still and production photo.

Back in 1979 there was no instant gratification in terms of films, I mean once you saw the film that was it, you couldn’t search the internet, pop in a DVD or browse Netflix.

These books were the only way to revisit the movie short of seeing it again in the theater and a movie such as ALIEN is always a good place to visit.

C.R.A.P. Files 006

Been a while since I’ve dug into the crap files, for those not familiar the C.R.A.P. files are my collections of Halloween stuff.

Stuff I like to call “Collectibles Retained and Packed” while my wife just insists on calling it crap.

This bin is a doozey, a treasure trove of goodies that I stumbled upon this past December while unpacking Christmas decorations.

This bin is filled with small Halloween items that we used to use to decorate a Halloween Tree during October.

There are hundreds of items to show and tell so we will take it slow and feature one collection per post.

First up are some of my all time favorite Halloween items, Little Big Heads.

All of the LBH’s were purchased from www.sideshowtoys.com.

My collection has figures from several different series including the “Silver Screen Edition” which are black and white, “Universal Monsters,” “The Munsters,” and a special Christmas edition.

The LBH’s were not limited to just the horror genre but featured characters from various movies, music, presidents, wrestlers and historical figures.

Each figure is approximately 3.5 inches high and feature heads that can be posed.

Little Big Heads get two big thumbs up in my opinion. These toys are fun, perfectly rendered and painted.

Love me some LBH’s!

Little Big Heads can still be found on ebay and other toy collectible sites.

Little Big Heads were manufactured by Sideshow Collectibles.

Yes My Gatekeeper!

Delving into my obsession with all thing scary is well, pretty scary.

One area I have yet to post about is my love of horror related board games.

Horror board games?

Yup, there are plenty of horror themed games out there and as you have probably guessed I’ve acquired quite a few over the years.

The first one up for discussion is “Nightmare: The Video Board Game,” which debuted in 1991.

“Nightmare” is a FMV or Full Motion Video board game, a novel concept designed to plunge players into 60 minutes of terrifying playtime.

Here the description from the box:

“Turn the volume up, the lights down, press PLAY and your video cassette recorder and you are in for a night of frightening fun as Nightmare brings a thrilling new dimension to home entertainment; INTERACTIVE TELEVISION!

No game ever plays the same way twice, and there is no need to FAST FORWARD, REWIND or PAUSE the tape. All you need is ONE HOUR and a video cassette recorder.

Once you press PLAY, you only have 60 minutes to win or the game’s host THE GATEKEEPER wins! Only you can stop him!

To beat THE GATEKEEPER, you must collect 6 keys and make your way to the center of the board where you will face your Nightmare; the thing you fear most!

But your number just came up and THE GATEKEEPER wants to speak to you! If you fail to answer him or fail his tests, you are banished to the BLACK HOLE!”

That’s a lot of exclamation points and capitalization…regardless of the play value I love the concept and the idea of bringing an interactive horror experience to the mainstream.

We played this game once or twice and while it was unique it really wasn’t what you would call a lot of fun.

Whatever….”Nightmare” deserves a place in horror history gaming and if you ever see it at a thrift store or garage sale pick it up strictly for the nostalgia aspect.

3-6 Players aged 12 to Adult.

Contents…

60 Minute HI-FI VHS Cassette. Gameboard. 256 Cards (TIME, FATE AND CHANCE). 36 Keys (six sets). 8 Nightmare Cards. 6 Plastic tombstone Playing Pieces. 6 Numbered discs. Plastic Coin. Nightmare Cloth Bag. Marking Pencils. Die. The Rules.

P.S. Love the bat!

Library: Manga Occult and Horror

How To Draw Manga-Occult & Horror is another “how to” book showing the steps involved in drawing occult and horror characters.

Manga is a term which broadly refers to Japanese comic strips and cartoons and while I’m not a huge Manga or Anime (Japanese animation) fan some of the ideas presented in this book are interesting.

The book is written by Hikaru Hayashi and distributed in North America by Digital Manga Distribution.

The book features black and white illustrations with clear instructions and will serve you well if you are looking for something outside the box when it comes to designing your Halloween props.

Worth a look.

I Blame . . .

. . .Fangoria magazine for all the woes in my life.

I blame Fangoria for some of my poor grades in college because I was too busy reading about Jamie Lee Curtis to study.

I blame Fangoria for the thousands of dollars I have spent on horror merchandise, books, music and movies.

I blame Fangoria for the lack of storage space in my workshop because I refuse to get rid of any issues.

I blame Fangoria magazine for my ongoing love of all things horror.

Ok, maybe the word “blame” is not appropriate. A better word would be “thank.”

I thank Fangoria for years of news, photos and inspiration.

Recently I pulled my 130 or so issues of Fangoria from storage and spent some time reading through 20 plus years of horror goodness.

At first I was dismayed, i.e. pissed that several of the earlier copies were missing the covers then I remembered that some of the early issues featured posters. The posters used to hang on the walls during my college days; yes, I was a chick magnet back in the day.

Reading past articles was pure joy and brought back a flood of memories. One of my favorite sections was the Starlog Trading Post or classified ads, oh how I would spend hours looking at the various books, t-shirts and other assorted goodies offered for sale; I had to have the latest book by Tom Savini or Dick Smith.

Thanks Fangoria for fueling a long running passion for horror!

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3

A few weeks ago my youngest son stated that he wanted to watch one of the Nightmare on Elm Street movies.

Kyle is only ten years old but he’s a huge fan of horror flicks although the number of horror films he has seen is quite limited.

It’s hard to find good horror that doesn’t contain a tremendous amount of adult language, sex or explicit gore. Some of Kyle’s favorite films are Poltergeist, The Fog, One Missed Call and The Messengers. He had never seen a Friday the 13th or A Nightmare on Elm Street flick.

One of my favorite Freddy films is the third in the franchise, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3:Dream Warriors.

My recollection was that it was fun and action driven without being too explicit. My memory served me well except for one scene where a hot blonde nurse disrobes and “tongue-ties” one of the characters.

Kyle closed his eyes for this part.

The thing that struck me with this film and the reason I’m discussing it on a Halloween and papier mache blog is the film’s opening title sequence during which time the main character (Patricia Arquette) is constructing a miniature version of the house featured in the first Elm Street film.

The house is built with Popsicle sticks and papier mache, yup, papier mache.

The interesting thing is the technique used to coat the newspaper strips. Instead of dipping strips in a bowl of paste she puts the strip of newspaper on another sheet of newspaper and globs the paste onto the strip. Messy and not the best practice in my opinion but I will cut her a break because she is all sleepy and trying to avoid Freddy.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors is good old fashioned horror movie fun from 1987 and while Kyle may have found some of the effects rather clunky and cheesy I found the whole thing to be pre CGI goodness….even if the main character doesn’t know how to mache properly.