Happy Halloween 2006

Yes, Halloween has come to the Gorilla's household. Every year I set up halloween decor for the kids who go trick-or-treating. This year was no exception. Last year, my Four Horsemen were well received. They created a stir in the village because of their all-white, emotionless faces. So this year, I decided that they should come back for a return engagement. This time they brought two new friends: The Ghostly Mirror and The Grim Reaper.

This year I had a month's head start. Planning was months in advance so I knew what to do the whole October. The first weekend was for purchasing and the next three weekends were for down and dirty work.

The Four Horsemen... Now for some unknown reason, I couldn't find the white masks I used last year! So I just had to make new ones else the effect wouldn't be the same. I had to do with a lot of new materials as well as recycled ones. I started with lots of crumpled newspapers which I stuck into small plastic grocery bags. These would serve as bases for the human-sized heads. For shoulders and torso I made T-shapes using balloon sticks reinforced with thick wire inserted in the core. These are good for short term use but bad for the long term. The wire allows me to bend the sticks without breaking them while retaining the shape and form I made. A couple of rolled-up newspapers with duct tape made the necks, shoulders and chests.

Modified Paper Mache Masks... I didn't have time to make thick and sturdy paper mache masks like last year. The previous ones were about 15 layers thick, this time I had to settle for 7. I made a plaster cast mold of a mask years ago and that's what I use to make masks for theater productions and halloween decor. I always start off with a layer of aluminum foil so that the paper won't stick to the mold. I used to slather petroleum jelly on the mold before the aluminum foil layer but I don't do that anymore. The petroleum jelly is so hot when you use the paper mache quick-dry method via oven toaster and has burned me a couple of times.

After the aluminum foil, I placed layer upon layer of paper wet with glue or paste. I was prepared to use "gawgaw" (starch) paste but I saw an unused large bottle Elmer's Glue so I decided to use that instead. Paper layers go on, then I massage and pat the paper to make the fibers of the top paper layer bond with the fibers of the paper layer beneath it. After each layer I brush on a thin layer of glue. (Paul Mendoza and the other OAV guys over at FilCosplay taught me this thinned glue painted layer technique to add gloss to projects. I've put that to good use lots of times, guys. :D)

After trimming the sides of the mask, I fire them up in an oven toaster and dry them out in the sun. Each mask takes 15 to 30 minutes to make, and about a whole afternoon to dry.

Monster Mud... On the old masks and earlier projects I used a layer of white drywall compound mixed with some glue as a final coating for the chalky-white look. I didn't know back then but the technique I used turned out to be similar to the Monster Mud technique used by halloween decor enthusiasts. But this year I wanted to just spray paint them.

After the masks dried I placed them on the grass and spray-painted away! (Hey! Those spray cans can last for a couple of years as long as they don't lose the propellant inside. The ones I used seem to be 5-years-old already. O_o;;) I wanted a color different from last year's white so I started spraying them gold. But they didn't look that nice, the shadows and facial features weren't showing up very well on gold so I re-colored them silver and lightly sprayed gold on some sides where I wanted to emphasize the shadows, e.g. the sides of the nose, the sides of the mask and the brows.

The Horsemen Cometh... I draped medium-sized black garbage bags for that tight-fit torso. I then stuck the paper-ball heads on top and fastened the masks on them with double-sided tape. Then I fashioned Gregorian Monk-type cloaks with XL black garbage bags. I hung the horsemen from the roof with wire. :D (Note: Right after I finished the masks I stumbled on ready-made masks in SM and Watsons. Darn! I could've saved a lot of time and effort... *Groan*)

The Ghostly Mirror... This part of the whole project was kind of hard. I got the idea from The Ring but a lot of people have beaten me to it. But that didn't stop me. I was trying to acquire one-way privacy film similar to the ones used for car windows but they cost too much. I settled for ordinary rolled foil from the bookstore. This type of foil is not opaque like aluminum foil. Raise it up to a light source and you can see through it! The plan was to place a scary pic on the unseen side and it will be seen when a strong light is turned on.

I got an old picture frame and applied white glue to it. I then flattened the foil onto it. In the second pic above is the mistake I made. I layered the glue on too thick and it took forever to dry. Two weeks and it still wasn't dry! I was forced to scrape off the excess glue, re-wet it, spread it on very, very thinly and re-fasten the foil.

I used old styrofoam (I think it was from a DVD player) as the base for the mirror backing. With the use of double-sided tape, I was able to fasten a blown-up photo of Samara from the North American version of The Ring onto the finished backing assembly. Between the pic and the foil I fastened a halogen spotlight on the top of the mirror. The final touch was hooking up the halogen spotlight to a motion sensor (see middle pic above). The result was that the ghastly face would pop up every time someone was looking at the mirror from three feet away. I scared a lot of kids with that one. :D

The Grim Reaper... Meowok told me a couple of days ago that Reapers only eat apples. She said it was from the Death Note anime. I used the same wire core in balloon sticks and lots of almighty duct tape to fashion the shoulder, arms and hands of the Reaper. For the fingers I wrapped old foam and newspaper on the balloon stick fingers and clothed them in disposable plastic kitchen gloves. A scary touch was PhP25.00 skeleton fingers which fit snuggly.

The resulting assembly I tied (read: duct taped) to a 5'6" tall metal pipe which was cemented to a tire. The old pipe used to have rubber wrapped around it and served as a striking dummy during our kendo days five years ago. I bought a paper mache skull and drilled a hole so that it would fit on top of the metal pipe. (hey, I was tired already, I wanted to make my own but didn't have enough time). All that was needed was a plastic reaper sword (heck, everyone does scythes, I do swords) and layers upon layers of black cloth for the reaper feel. The sword was placed on Reaper's right, the mirror he held in his left skeletal fingers.

Lights and Sounds... I used another halogen spotlight to illuminate the whole scene. I also hooked up an old guitar amp to my PC's soundcard and cranked up some halloween tunes. The bystanders reacted to the music and were drawn even more to the display. Besides the usual halloween sounds and evil laughter specifically for the Reaper, I queued up some tunes I thought would fit the display. The bystanders really liked the feel of The Omen soundtrack. My personal fave was Jane Sibbery's It Can't Rain All the Time from The Crow soundtrack. But the real crowd-draw was WWE's The Undertaker theme called Graveyard Symphony. I also used One Winged Angel from the Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children soundtrack but it proved to be too hard. But the church chorus parts really do lend well to the display. Another fave of mine was Johann Sebastian Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor (best known for it's use by the Phantom in Phantom of the Opera). I cycled Enya and Gregorian chants during dead time (pun intended).

All in all it was a fun experience being able to scare and entertain trick or treaters during this day. I took the display down at 10pm since kids don't trick or treat at that time anymore. How much did I spend? Don't ask... But I'd do it again in a heartbeat. (Maybe I'll try the Monster Mud next year... :D)

Links that served as inspirations for the project:

1. Phantasmechanics - The Flying Crank Ghost
2. Buycostumes - Skull Fountain
3. Devious Concoctions
4. HauntProject.com - Your visual source for Haunting How-Tos
5. Reaper
6. Haunter's Hangout Reaper Stone
7. Twisted Visions - Monster Mud
8. Terror Syndicate
9. Haunter's Paradise - Monster Mud
10. Monster Mud Grim Reaper
11. Crypt Keeper
12. Vile Things - Other Me
13. Vile Things - Flying Crank Ghost
14. Proptology:Papier Mache Rediscovered
15. Vile Things - Scrim Box
16. Grim Visions - Mache How-To