I'm ahead of the curve, friends! Thanks to some dietary changes, a new exercise regime, and an increased motivation I decided to uphold an age-old time-honored Family P tradition and set up:
THE SCARY FRONT YARD/PORCH DIORAMA!!!
Many of you (two of you) may recall my frassin about how from my earliest love of horror films/Halloween a desire to replicate the special FX was born. From probably 4th grade until well after I left home, we would haul down crates and musty boxes filled with decorations, ghoulish masks accumulated from pricey costume shop and thrift store alike, and particle board tombstones and make a frightening front lawn and garage display in our old ancestral Brrrooklyn Park homestead. After several moves and before landing in my current NE abode (and after my folks moved to their new digs) I "inherited" the big plastic box of goodness, vowing to keep it inside to maintain the integrity of the costumes and latex masks. (Some things, tombstones, signs, etc...were lost to the ether)
Annnnd...I promptly never did s#it with it. Oh sure, every year I'd WANT to make something high-falutin'. Something to eclipse those masks, once stuffed with newspaper and propped on sticks and torn up box with a brides dress and a plastic skeleton stuffed on top. But my motivation was lacking. (As, usually, was time. Since I am, you know, a Procrastinating Pendergrass) So usually I'd manage a few window dressings...a scary mask on my porch, my "macabre" orchestral album "Fright Night" (A find, indeed. Instead of dumb "haunted house" noises it has Mussorgsky, Beethoven...stuff like "Danse Macabre" and such) and a seizure-inducing strobe light which is...ahem...very old.
Not...friends...in 2010.
So a few weeks back I made a pledge- With materials I have and can scrounge, I wanted to create a diorama that was slightly more three dimensional and infinitely more terrifying. And with scraps of wood, old costumes/robes, Mom's help, and a loooot of duct tape, I'm about to show you kids some of the early renderings. (An album will be created on Frassbook of the finished product. My happiest comment is that, since I started this a few weeks back and gave myself time to do it- I'm ahead of schedule. And, all done on a budget. Except the fog machine. It was on saaaale though!) Please note- WORK IN PROGRESS!
From a suitcase in my basement, puppet dummies are intrinsically scary. I have since, added an ancient dummy head from the 40's that this guy is holding. Don't believe the scary? Watch "Magic". You're welcome.
This guy was one of two cheap plastic skeletons that I'd just throw up. I'll be adding detail to the ribs later, but I found a Fright Skull mask with hair and two big plastic skeleton hands. A T-Frame to mount the head and position the arms later, this guy is two feet off the ground.
Another mask we purchased ages ago at my former PT employer in their "Discount" bin. The mouth and snout protrude (like a "Dementor") but I didn't want to mask the face. I shoved an old karate head gear with a weird protuberance around the jaw to keep it in place and stuffed newspaper around the head for shape. Another T-frame and a monks robe. Still need some hands. This one, as well, is 2 feet up.
I first picked this werewolf mask at the height of my werewolf/horror spaz nerdery in 1987 and wore it out to what was to be my last trick-or-treating session. Found in the deluxe sections at Knightcostco in Brookdale Mall, I wore it with a grey fox fur vest turned around and a shirt over it. And it promptly became decoration for the following H'weens. ($36 in 1987 dollars well spent, I'd wager) An old flannel of my dads and my old overalls/boots. A cheap pair of gray skelton "fright" hands (doctored with gray crepe hair) The legs are stuffed as are the arms, and will be reinforced with cardboard tubes then "handcuffed" to the chair. (Bought in the Dollar Store toy section. Chair is a wrecked "princess" relic) The chest form is an old "Roman Gladiator" chest piece reinforced with a inflatable body form (More on that in a second). The head, stuffed and rested. (Incomplete project as of today)
Along with "Freddy" (who is still being built*) This was my big project and the first one I started building before the weather went to pot. A mannequin body form was used, then arms measured and cobbled from an old pair of 1x4's from the cabin and affixed with duct tape. The legs were the same, but ended up with a "Satyr" quality due to the bodies "posed" shape. I found some old sturdy 2 x 4's in the garage, ran them up the leg holes and sawed them to shape then ran a screw in. (I ended up doing the same for the arms after dressing it. Since the overalls were snug)My had the overalls, the head was an old Don Post "Rotting Corpse from the 'Father's Day' sketch in the film 'Creepshow'" that we bought at a Woolworths 20 odd years ago. The hockey mask was an old garage sale find, painted to look like Jason's. The hands/gloves were tricky. I used old thin foam cut to shape, then duct taped to seem like it was jointed. I formed the right hand over the ax (Originally, I wanted to use a real machete but it was too heavy. A licensed "Jason" machete was f#ck all expensive, so I found this plastic axe for under $4) The arm sagged, so I jury-rigged it to the porch curtains to look like it was raised and I hope people don't notice he's wearing cowboy boots. All told, this effer is over 7 ft tall.
Okay. More final pics to come of the graveyard, the hanging mummy, body parts, fog, before/after heads, and last but not least...MY costume.
*We found these inflatable body forms at Ax Man surplus years ago and they don't sell them anymore. They are yellow, vaguely woman shaped, and in two pieces (Torso and legs, with rubber grommets to tie them together) I have to wait with "Freddy" b/c the cold weather will probably sap the air out too soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment