A day late, but oh well...

Remember, remember the Fifth of November, The Gunpowder Treason and Plot, There is no reason, Why the Gunpowder Treason Should ever be forgot

Hope everyone had a good Halloween, details on mine coming soon!

Happy Halloween, and a Self Portrait

It's here. By tomorrow, magic will fill the streets, darkness shall fall, and Halloween shall commence. Snow or no snow, we WILL create a spectacle for the Trick-or-Treaters and their families. To all my fellow haunters, I wish you all the best of luck, and to the rest of you, savor this greatest of days.

And now, I'd like to thank each and every one of you who came across my little slice of the internet. I can remember starting this blog in Middle School after finding Pumpkinrot's blog, and I now have 76 followers. I have been very fortunate to have found so many amazing people and blogs over the past two-and-a-half years. Many of you have been a great inspiration to me, in both Halloween and in life. I don't know if I will blog forever (I want to), but I will certainly remember the time I spent writing my thoughts, and the wonderfully people I've stumbled across that I would almost certainly have never met otherwise. So I thank you all for supporting my blog. You are ALL awesome!

Before I show you my self-portrait, I'd like to dedicate this Halloween to a few special people:
1) My Mom. You have always supported my insanity, and have such talent, and are one of the most loving people I know. Love you!
2) My Step-Dad, Ben. You have been a great influence in my life, and have really pushed me to think, and not just become a boring, unoriginal person. Thank you.
Last, but certainly NOT least...
3) My friend, Autumnforest. You are truly one of the wisest souls around, and a good friend. You always have words of encouragement, and wisdom. May life continue to give you adventurers.

Now, a self-portrait. I did myself as Edvard Munch's The Scream two years ago as a Freshman, in a Photoshop class. Hope you like;


Happy Halloween to us all!

Lord Almighty, say it ain't so!

Good News: I'm in Pennsylvania, at my Mom's house, for Halloween. One last year of doing a Haunt with her and my siblings. And tonight I'm going to see Steve Hickman's "Dark Works" haunt in it's 13th Anniversary. Should be a blast.



Bad News: It's snowing. TWO FRIGGIN' DAYS BEFORE HALLOWEEN!!! Why, in the name of Hades did it have to SNOW!?!

Halloween Party Tomorrow

Yep, the Second Annual Spookshow Bash is this Saturday. I'm hoping all goes well. It's gonna be fun. Now for a totally random picture:

Anyone see the clown face?

UPDATE: A family crisis arose, I had to cancel the party.

Halloween Party Mix

I've just completed a Halloween mix for my party, the Spookshow Bash, and I though I'd share it with all of you. To listen, just click here, then hit "play all", downscale the page, and let it play in the background! Let me know what you think!

Happy October

The theme song for the neighbors of haunters...

A Rockin' Halloween!

In honor of Halloween being two months away, I've put together a little playlist of Halloween rock music for y'all! Hope you dig, and please, try to not bang your head so hard that it snaps off.

Click Here:

To Hell with Themes!

I'm tired - not of haunting, I'll never get tired of that - but of trying to pull off a decent theme. My problem is that I like too many, and being in High School, I have a very limited budget, and it's hard to build a differently themed haunt each year. The voodoo/swamp theme I had planned was no exception. Plus, due to Halloween being on a Monday this year, I have to be at my Dad's house this time because of school, and his house wouldn't work for a swamp theme at all. So, at least for this year, I'm not gonna do a theme - I'm just going to focus on having a fun time on Halloween. Maybe I'll do a them next year; but in the mean time, I'll just focus on having a good time with haunting.

Try, try again

I'll admit, last year's Halloween party was less than a success. But I've decided to give the idea one more shot. I'm scaling back a bit this year, and inviting a small group of friends to watch a couple horror flicks. Should be fun! I've included some prototype invites for y'all to see (I just blacked out some personal info). I put all the pages in order. Tell me what you think!

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again

I like too many themes. It’s hard for me to make up my mind when choosing the theme for this year’s haunt. It was happening constantly last year, and twice this year. I also recall saying that I’d be doing a smaller haunt at my Dad’s house. Well, that’s changed, too. I’m doing the haunt at my Mom’s house again, and we all decided on a theme, and I think it should really fun, and different. It will be an easy to do theme, but it won’t just be a re-do of the “Scarecrow Hill” theme. I won’t be saying what it is just yet, but I’ll leave you with this clue:

Baron Samedi

See if you can figure out what the theme is….heh heh heh

Blueprints for Isla Corpus Pirate Haunt 2011

Yep, that's the haunt name - Isla Corpus Haunted Adventure! I came up with the name a long time ago, just didn't know how or where to use it. Anywho, I've decided to show my blueprints for this year's display at my dad's house. The "Davey Jones' Locker" scene in the garage will have my vortex light, and the sounds of a ghost ship. In the side yard, there will (possible) be a buccaneer's boneyard, and the front porch and front walk will be the "Treasure Cave" and "Haunted Harbor", respectively. I'm really looking forward to actually building the props, and have started budgeting. Keep a weather eye open mates!

Haunt Dilemma - I've choosen my theme...

It's Pirates.

I decided to go with it because, unlike "Phantom" it's a theme that people will respond to better. But I can promise you guys this: I will NOT, in any way shape or form, rip-off of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride or movies. As fun as they are, WAY too many haunters "borrow" images and music/dialogue from them. So I'll try to be as dark/scary and original as I can. Expect it to be a very ghostly haunt, while still having an adventurous spirit. I'm very excited about this, and can't wait to start building!

Also, shout-out's to Dr. Blood and Samanta Martins. Glad to have ye aboard!

Haunt Dilemma – “Phantom” or Pirates?

OK, first things first: I’m a flip-flopper when it comes to themes. Remember last year? I went from carnival to year-off then back to carnival before repeating the “Scarecrow Hill” theme. My problem is both indecisiveness and a enjoyment of many haunt themes. While I like all kinds (except for aliens/sci-fi), very few actually inspire me. Ever since I posted that teaser video for a redo of my old “Phantom of the Opera” haunt from 2006, I just haven’t been feeling the whole “Phantom” thing.Lately, I’ve been wanting to try my hand at a different theme – pirates. Now, before you start groaning, let me explain my reasoning.

1) It’s a theme I love, and have thought was fun and cool for most of life.

2) I haven’t actually built any props or sets yet, so the window of opportunity is still open.

3) Both sets would be similar in design – a cave, but instead of a Gothic style lair, I’d be doing a hidden tavern for the scoundrels.

4) With a pirate theme, there’s opportunity for a façade over the garage door.

5) Finally, while there are many excellent pirate haunts out there, none of them have been done the way I’d done it, with other haunts going very Disneyland instead of dark and frightening (along the lines of Nox Arcana’s Phantoms of the High Seas album).

So, before I start making any changes to my haunt plans, I’m going to get as many opinions as I can. If you have any ideas or opinions, please comment below. So, my fellow spookables, what do you think: Phantom or Pirates?

2011 Home Haunt theme

I gave you guys a clue to my costume this year, which in turn has helped inspire my haunt's theme this year. It was my original theme, and the silent horror film it's based on is what got me started haunting. Being back in my old stomping grounds has given me a sense of Halloween nostalgia. So I've decided to give an old theme another go. So, without further ado, here it is, my theme announcement video:

2011 Costume Clue...

My original costume from when I started haunting, in 2006.
And welcome to the Dismal Trader, Movie-Prop maker extraordinaire!

Plans for 2011

Well, another year has come and gone - a time for reflection, peace…and planning for next Halloween. After this past Halloween, I’ve had to make a few decisions about this next haunt. For the past two years, I’ve been doing the haunt at Mom’s house near Pittsburgh, PA. It was very stressful trying to bring props back and forth from their and where I live with my dad in Ohio. I became rather annoyed with myself for forgetting some key props. So, in order to be more productive, I've decided to do a small-scale haunt in Ohio, at my house. I say “small scale” because of some other stuff happening this year that I’ll be blogging about later. I have a couple ideas for this haunt, not entirely certain what the theme will be, but hopefully it’ll be something that the ToTs will remember. I have to admit, while the prospect of an all new haunt with a new location is exciting, from past experience the Halloween audience in my dad’s neighborhood doesn’t really get as in to Halloween as they do in my mom’s town. Not as many people in costume; but then again, I mostly do these haunts for myself. Well, not much else to say, just keep an eye out (not literally, mind you) on my blog for the theme of the haunt, as well as more exciting projects in my near future. Until then, the awesome video below I found YouTube should give you an idea as to what my haunt 2011 might look like (from user rgshollow).

Oh, and a blood spattered welcome to trickortreat and the FROG QUEEN, of the spectacular Davis Graveyard. Seriously, if you haven't seen the site, what the hell have been doing? Go there NOW!