Get a Fog Machine for your home haunt, you won't regret it! - Halloween Prop

Enhance your Halloween home haunt and props by adding a fog machine to your repetoire! When an eerie fog creeps along the ground and moves amongst your set up it not only looks amazing but hide a multitude of ground sins such as wires, cords and basic tricks of the trade. For us, purchasing a fog machine for our home haunt was a worthwhile, affordable investment that I couldn't imagine living without! 

Fog machines are readily available at most big box stores and the price has dropped dramatically compared to when they first became available in retail markets. What once cost hundreds of dollars is now available for under $100. Our fog machine was purchased a few years ago at Walmart for around $70 which included the machine and two extra containers of fog juice. We won't need a refill of juice for Halloween 2010 either.

Fog machines can be placed in any safe, out of the way location then directed where ever you'd 'like' such as hidden on porch, in the corn field or graveyard even inside your house. The only limitation having the ultimate creeping fog is wind, wind is not your friend as most natural weather elements at this time of year ;)
  

Ouija Board

Every scare fanatic, past the age of 13, has at least heard of the Ouija board if not tried it. Having a seance and talking to spirits from the dead dates way back historically to Greece 540BC and has only been recently popularized.

It seems that regardless of your age the chill of anticipated fear and 'what if's' is still exciting, at least for me. Many will stay away from the board completely while I just can't seem to help myself from curiosity. The Ouija board concept intrigues me enough that I'm always the one to initiate a 'game' and on occasion I've even 'played' in the graveyard at night, in the dark. That was a little bit scary but I think it was more my own imagination combined with my cohorts.

Ouija boards are available in stores but the older one's with a wooden planchette (the heart shaped pointer) look a little more authentic, are less commercial and way harder to find. According to legend a real Ouija board must stay with the original owner or else! Why and what?, I'm not sure. True, not sure ;)

Either way, having a seance is a great night to spend amongst friends. Just grab a Ouija board, some candles and a group of friends who are at least open to the concept of a what a spirit board is and does. Loudmouths and scaredy cats will end the seance rather quickly due to laughter and lack of concentration. I think it's a mood, vibe thing... if only one persons energy is focused while others are causing distractions it's just harder to talk to the dead, lol?!

I'm not saying I believe or disbelieve but what I can tell you is that I've used the board a lot and you can tell when people are pushing it (I think ;) but I've also used it on one occasion where myself and two other people had a freaky experience. My boyfriend at the time, his brother and myself sat on the living room floor cross-legged in a triangle with the board resting on our legs. We each reached out and put our fingertips onto the planchette and once all six sets of fingers made contact the planchette  immediately began to swing back and forth. It was pivoting on an exact spot very quickly causing us to swing our arms back and forth like a swoosh, swoosh sort of motion. If one person released their fingers it stopped immediately. When two of us got on nothing happened, then the other two and nothing happened but with all three of us, swoosh swoosh. It was kinda going crazy! Real or fake? Not sure but both of the other people involved I trusted but who's to say they weren't just really good at faking it?

If you've had Ouija board experiences I'd love to hear them, the good the bad and the cheesy!

Halloween Make Up Techniques - Zombie - DIY Video

Regular Joe... it's time to check out! Night of the living dead Zombie wanna' be... it's time to check in!

Turn your untouched skin into rotting, bloodied flesh with basic household ingredients. 

Supplies needed...

- Toilet paper
- White glue (liquid latex is preferred)
- White cream make-up
- Basic make-up kit with black, red, blue, green and yellow
- Paint brushes or sponges

Directions...

Clean skin thoroughly and let dry. Paint a thin layer of glue to the areas of your face you wish to build up and let dry. Apply a layer of toilet paper then reapply another layer of glue and allow to dry. Completely cover your face with white cream make-up and begin to blend in your colours. Begin with the darkest colour first then build up where needed. Create tears in the flesh then add highlights and lowlights with your white and base colours. Experiment and have fun with it, there really is no right or wrong way to create a realistic creature from the dead ;)

Liquid latex dries faster and is better suited for this application but in a pinch, glue pulls through! When you'd like to be yourself again, rinse your skin with warm water to remove the layers of tissue, glue and make-up. You could peel some off but keep in mind that you may remove hairs in the process, much like waxing ;) Do an allergy test patch too, before you cover your face!



This tissue technique is not limited to Zombies nor to your face! Switch up the colours and create the look of an aging vampire, a witch, old people or victims with melted skin, bad acne or severe lacerations. You just need to change the texture of the tissue as you apply it to your skin. For example; pulling or stretching the tissue up and down will appear like melting skin or you can create pock marks with a pen tip drilled gently into a pile of wet tissue. Just think gross, then get gross!

Movie Review - Legion

Welcome to What Wrinkles? Movie Review

Some movies are worth the watch while others

fall flat and disappoint. Here's what I think about ...

Legion
Horror - Released in 2010
Starring - Paul Bettany, Dennis Quaid, Tyrese Gibson, Jon Tenney, Charles S. Dutton

Legion is a movie that awakens apocalyptic thoughts of something far more powerful than any army on earth which leaves you wondering if you're even protected and if so, from what?

...this movie almost had me wishing I hadn't chosen it within the first couple of minutes until Granny shows up, such a bad Granny! Then I was interested, until the story seemed predictable and for myself, far from scary. It felt at somepoints like watching Tremors, similar backdrop much like other movies but of course none others come to mind ;) at the time of this post. Let's just say, if I have to drive thru the desert, I'm going to be prepared!Movie Review... 2 out of 5!

Use Weed Barrier to Create 'Walls' in your Halloween Home Haunt

One of my must have items for the Halloween home haunt is black weed barrier, found at most hardware or garden stores. Only by accident did I learn that in a pinch the black fabric makes not only the perfect barrier, wall or hallway but it even works well for Halloween costumes.

The black fabric is very lightweight and comes on a roll about 50' long x 3' wide and is under $10 each. Our Halloween budget includes 2-3 rolls and best yet, it is reusable year after if you store it properly. Or, use it in your gardens as it was originally intended.

Our Halloween home haunt incorporates our large wooden deck which is wide open without railings or posts and makes a great base for an outdoor room. To create a small stairway, hallway and room both 2'x2's and weed barrier came into play. If you have similar features or you can pound the 2'x2's into the ground you could create this Halloween 'prop'.

Depending upon how you want yours 'rooms' to look consider spacing your posts every 4' maximum. Once your walls are formed then use a staple gun to attach the barrier to the wood. Leave an overlap so you can weave the pieces together with a popsicle stick once the walls are formed. Add hidden areas, walls within walls so Scare Actors can hide behind them. Use black paint to cover the look of wood if you have time. I'd recommend painting before you attach it temporarily to your deck.

The above pic is our Hack in the Box Halloween prop but if you look behind and beside it you can see the black 'wall' which is actually the edge of our deck...and below, the background for this Creepy Clown is the other end of the deck. From the exterior the 'room' appears completely blacked out and covers an area 10'x16' feet. Open stairs with an inner hallway here and ending with stairs and a long hallway at the other end that opens into the Corn Field. Sorry for no pics on that prop, it's another one of those things you don't try to take pictures of on purpose. Note to self: you've now got hindsight!