TRANSWORLD 2013 - St. Louis, MO

What can I say that hasn't been said countless times already? 


Suffice it to say, if you haven't been to one of these, do so! The creme de la creme of haunting conventions. 


Aside from that, I'll let the pictures do the talking this month...


Next time around, it's a look at the recent HorrorHound Convention in Cincinatti and a whole lot of others we've been to as well... 

 The Men of HAUNTCAST

(L to R) Denhaunt, Johnny Thunder, Chris Baker, Revenant

and little old me

My Lisa "Dark Angel" and I at the HAUNTCAST booth, thanks to Chris Baker

Another nice shot of us a the booth, thanks to Terra

 Rev with Terra & her Significant Other..

My Baby and Mr. Terhune...always a gentleman...

And at long last, I got to meet the infamous Terra - and what sweetheart she is!

 The One and Only Chris Ainsworth!!!!

Our bud, Mike Jones!!!

Lisa and I with THE AMERICAN SCREAM's
Victor Bariteau

And let's hear it for some of our sponsors:

 

 

 

And a BIG "THANK YOU" to these three gentleman who sponsored the HAUNTCAST/SHOCKTAIL HOUR PARTY that Friday Night:

(L to R)

Robert Santos of Necortic Creations

Brent Ross of DC Props  and

Vince Camerano of Master Fog

(...not sure who the ugly little dude is on the far left, however...)

Many thanks, gentleman!

By way of a personal endorsement here - if you're looking for some terrific finishing touch mantle pieces, sills and corbels, head on over to Evil Architecture - there stuff is just *stunning*!  

....see what I mean...?

Quite a few of the fourth season of the ScyFy channel's FACEOFF show were there as well, and all were great to talk and hang with...

Lisa with S4 winner Anthony

Lisa with Alam

Lisa with Megan

House and I

 House and his partner Beki were there to promote their joint venture with one Robert Kurtzman...

Behold, I give you 
THE CREATURE CORPS!

Add to that, we met panel judge Glen Hetrick, who was there to promote his new company,
Royal Creature Society...

We were also very lucky to meet up with Ed and Marsha Edumunds of Distortions Unlimited and the the Travel Channel's MAKING MONSTERS...both were very kind and answered  all of our questions with genuine interest and were most helpful...great people!

Guess who else was there? 
Butch Patrick a.k.a. Eddie Munster!

Also in attendance was one Dee Wallace, who featured in so many films that I grew up on - The Howling, E.T., Cujo, Critters, The Frighteners, Rob Zombie's Halloween...one feisty lady, too, I must say!

Lisa got herself made up as a vampire during the show...nice job...of course, right afterwards, she tried to take a bite out of me!!!! Mr. Terhune seemed to approve, however!

 

Finally, here's a splattering of some of the stuff on the floor...

The lion's share of the photos are on the Hauntcast Minions page:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/212349998790705/?ref=ts

 *and* my own Facebook page as well...
https://www.facebook.com/eric.vysther

See ya' at Transworld 2014!

 

 Our very good friend and "daughter" Celeste in great form...

 

Wings don't fail me now!!!!

...words fail me...

Until next time!

THE DEVIL'S ATTIC - Louisville, KY

I've got one Hell of a haunt to tell you about...

This month, we're off to Louisville, KY to visit The Devil's Attic. In 2012, they ranked as one of Louisville's Top Must-See haunts and they are rapidly gaining a reputation as the one's to watch out there...

Their website is www.thedevilsattic.com, they have a presence on Facebook and even their own YouTube channel...search for The Devil's Attic TV.

The Devil's Attic is a text-book example of what a superb haunt should be.

Why is that? A lot of it comes down to atmospherics, lighting and prop designs. These folks get it that a lot of an attraction's effectiveness comes down to presentation and they are extremely good at it...plus the actors here are top notch, going above and beyond to make you scream your lungs out.

This is another terrific example of making the most of props and actors and limiting the CGI and animatronics. The Attic harkens back to the '70s and '80s when imagination was king and your haunt lived or died based on these.

The line actors here are hilarious - two in particular work in tandem - one, an ancient vampire, Orlock Von Killmeister - he's so old, he even has his own Facebook page! - the other, a silent demonic scarecrow,  work the crowd so well they should have their own show!

Even the Devil himself - Shaitan Baphomet, has his own Facebook page.

Several of the staff at The Devil's Attic spent many years building all variety of model kits as kids, and the skills learned from this do translate into the haunting arena.

As for myself, I've never made any secret of my love of Monster Models at an early age, and the hobby still is with me. For example, there's the recent string of classic monster kits from Moebius Models - check 'em out at www.moebiusmodels.com...

By way of a side note, I have a page on DeviantArt if anyone would like to take a look - it highlights both my model work and many of our past haunts. Feel free to stop by and have a look around -  the link is www.evysther.deviantart.com

Wrapping things up here, I'd like to extend a very special thanks to Jason Besemann, owner of The Devil's Attic, for his hospitality this past October and for his assistance with this review. Keep up the Devilish work...

Next time around, we're off to Transworld Halloween Convention in St. Louis, MO....

Until then, STAY SCARY!

 

Orlock Von Killmeister and I give the late Ronnie James Dio some respect...

 

Orlock contemplates lunching on my Lisa!!!

The Silent Scarecrow makes a new friend....