Halloween Memorial: John Wolfe

 

I have been very blessed to know some amazing bloggers, but one who was very dear to my heart was my good friend, John Wolfe. He ran the blog Season of Shadows and embodied all things vintage and true Halloween. He would begin early in the year designing elaborate home haunts and sharing on video how he went about designing them. He did lots of volunteer work and was always available for anyone. He sought to understand the spiritual and the other side. In fact, as he was dying, he said he would contact me through EVPs. And, he asked me to write his memorial which I did and he read it and approved of it before his passing at much too early an age in his 30s. Each Halloween, I will post his memorial here. Halloween is his season, his paradise, and I miss him something awful every October. I'd like to share him with you now -

The X-Files Episode That Was Banned

 

It's hard to believe that a TV series meant to be unsettling and scary could actually make an episode that after airing was considered too scary and not shown again. Leave it to "X-Files" to come up with just that episode!

Murder Victim Mistaken For Halloween Prop

 

Like a scene out of "Trick R Treat," in 2015, a woman's body was a victim of murder and misunderstanding on Halloween Night. 

1950s Halloween

 

Today, let's talk about those who recall the 1950s Halloweens - 

Horror Film Locations

  

You ever wonder about locations of horror movies and if they were a set, if the buildings are gone, or if you can drive by and take a pic? Well, here's just some of the biggies that still exist -

1960s Halloween

  

If you were a kid in the 1960s, your Halloween was getting some serious momentum. The 50s started the craze, the 60s fortified it, ensuring that the 70s would be the last great decade of panhandling door to door for candy.

The Mystery and Horror of Fog

 

Sure, thunder and lightning are in-your-face unsettling and snow is bleak and colorless, but nothing quite unsettles a person more than fog rolling in, eating up the landscape, one acre at a time.

Black and White Horror Films

 

Let's take a nostalgic turn toward some of the best black and white horror .

The History of Halloween Candy Tampering

 

October 31st is noted as All Hallow's Eve or Halloween.  It's believed Christians took this festival concept right from pagan origins of the Celtic Samhain celebration. There is much debate on how this holiday began, but it has become a most popular time for children to get candy and adults to put on costumes and watch scary movies. The basics are the same; scary decorations, costumes, parties, corn mazes, pumpkin patches, Jack O'Lanterns, apple bobbing, trick or treating, and horror themes. America has done Halloween up more than any other country, celebrating it full force with horror movie marathons to Haunted Attractions and huge parties.

Arizona's Abandoned Industrial Buildings

 

Two abandoned flour mills in the Greater Phoenix area had my best friend and me out photographing the historic sites. It had me thinking about abandoned industrial sites. 

How To Take Spooky Pictures

 

Scary is easy to find. It presents itself with light and dark, odd angles, and looming images taken from below. A nest of bare branches becomes something sinister - a portal to the macabre.  A dead tree and a storm sky takes on an ominous tone - 

Glow Sticks Crafts

 

Halloween 2020 and glow sticks! This is a seriously cool and economical way to take your parties and decor to a whole new level.

The Jeepers Creepers Truck

   

I knew I couldn't be the only one obsessed with dreaming of having the Creeper Truck. There is actually an awesome website devoted to it!  LINK 

My Doll Island Harvest !

 

Last fall, after leaving the dolls up all spring and summer awaiting Halloween time, I harvested the dolls on my backyard doll island and collected creepy hands, feet, and heads.... 

This year, I took special delight in putting the dolls out to set the mood as the cornstalks die back like scratchy white paper flapping in the wind and the tall overburdened sunflowers droop like faces turned down upon them. 

At nighttime they turn into something sinister and possessed by the moonlight - 

Adding a Michael Myers mask to the situation creates a hauntingly scary nighttime summer garden - 

And then there's my scarecrow, Josiah in the moonlight - 

I suggest if you want to do some nighttime spooky photography in your yard, use the natural moonlight or consider some solar lights as they add a soft eerie light at nighttime. A lantern is another great visual, as well. Don't use the flash, you lose all spookiness.

Another great technique is to move the camera back and forth quickly as you shoot. Because it's dark the shutter stays open and the subject blurs like a ghost.

Take advantage of filtered light through items to create speckling or striping. Use dead branches, crunchy leaves, and get underneath and photograph up to capture moonlight and give subjects an ominous size. 

Doll heads - from Goodwill shop dolls and aged in the garden for that lived-in look!

If the dolls have no eyes, put a glow stick inside - 

Happy photographing!

Vintage Halloween Pin-Ups

   

If you're nostalgic about Halloween, you recall the pinup poses of advertising. Enjoy these!

How To Make Fog

  

Whether you are determined to make fog for a small party or set up a huge Halloween haunt in your yard, you will want to master fog making. This post is going to help make it easier, whether you use dry ice, make your own machine, or purchase one.

What To Do On a Dark and Stormy Night

     

Nothing like a dark and stormy night to give you the atmosphere and mood to stoke the fires of mystery. Even if your power isn't out, just turn out the lights in the house and let the lightning illuminate the creepiest corners - 

Using Elmer's Glue in Many Ways For Halloween

  

2 CONTAINERS GLUE

You will be surprised how many things you can do with glue at Halloween time - oh my gosh! 

Check this out - 

How To Make Halloween Selfies

  

There is nothing better at Halloween time than updating your profile pic with a Halloween selfie.  In this photo above I am peeking around the corner of a curtain with an element of terror. If you want to amplify the look, consider using a filter on Photoshop like "poster edge" or just up the contrast. I also took a pic of a Halloween mask on a piece of black fabric and cut and pasted it to my eye's iris so you could see what I am screaming at.

Traditional Jack O'Lanterns Are Still the Best!

  

The fine art of hollowing out a pumpkin, carving a face, and lighting a candle to go inside has become a competition yearly among the most artistic, but still the only thing that truly unsettles are the jagged-toothed ones of our youth.

If You Like This Abandoned Site, You'll Like These Movies

  

An abandoned site is an ideal movie location. But, what if certain abandoned sites make you want more? Here's some great movie options depending on the type of abandoned site that catches your eye -

Gigantic Halloween Props

   

12-foot skeleton from Home Depot

also on Amazon 

I noticed at Spirit Halloween store they embraced the gigantic animatronics even more than the previous year. The previous year, local stores mentioned that the gigantic clown sold the first day they were open and they needed more. 

Does size matter when it comes to Halloween figures? 

Honor the Woobie: Take a Blanket Day

G'bye summer. Hello Halloween Month!

Why not take the day off - make it a blanket day? 

Sleepy Hollow Fans

    

When I was a child and our librarian during reading corner time read us Washington Irving's tale of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," I was perpetually in Halloween in my mind. 

It is a tale that is so full of autumnal vibe and spooky haunts that it pops up in a lot of haunted attractions. 

If you love the legend, here's some great versions to watch, music to listen to, and ways to put that vibe into your Halloween home -