March 2006 Archives

Hey everyone, just wanted to introduce myself. My name is HorrorBiZz and i'm the newest addition to The Haunted Report. I'll be blogging on here weekly so hope you like. I'm a full time college student @ Depaul University and an actor for Dream Reapers Haunted House in Melrose Park, IL. In addition, I'm an editor for a haunt actors database called Haunted Connection. I guess I'll start out by shamelessly plugging the other site I write for. Check it out:

Haunted Connection- a community dedicated to supporting individuals who work in an entertainment genre fittingly referred to as the “haunt industry.” Our primary goal at HC is to provide a venue in which actors and fellow industry personnel have a place to share such things as information, ideas, and designs with the click of a button. Open to anyone with a year-round obsession with the obscure, Haunted Connection strives to help better the quality of haunted house production through a number of helpful features:

Hey All,
One of our faithfull readers "Chris" sent this in. So maybe we can help him out. Here is the question:

If any one of you know where we can find Halloween, Haunt and Horror forums please let us know where to visit there because we would love to post and reply the message boards. Your help to us will be more appreciated.

Thank you, Chris aka Halloween Master

Just leave your suggestion in the comments field! Thanks,

- iamlegend

Mike from Horrorfind sent this over to us:
Horrorfind Weekend Six is slated to be our biggest and best convention ever with more top guests, more great events, GIGANTIC costume contest, live entertainment and more SCARY FUN than ever. We are proud to announce the start of what will be a celebrity guest list to die for. Celebrities like RUTGER HAUER, GEORGE ROMERO, EDWARD LEE, BRIAN LUMLEY and many more. Vendors: there are a few tables left don't delay. Attendees: weekend passes are on sale now!

For more information logon to: http://www.horrorfindweekend.com

Any of our readers planning on going to this?

- iamlegend

Tags: Halloween:Horror

Continuing on with my take on the Transworld event I will now shift my focus into the direction of the make
up contest and costume contest.

These events were held by "Crazy" Bob Turner as part of the Haunters Pavillion and the Social Events that took place at Transworld. To start, the Make-Up competition was great to see. THis event was sponsored by "Bloody Mary," who we did have on R.F.R. a while back. The participants had to utilize the contects, make-up, prostectics and such that were given to them (and everyone's was the same) and put it to use to create the best Make-Up job out of everyone in a 90 minute time slot. The participants were really excited to do this and the crowd loving watching them in the process.

To see the start of the competition and watch it unfold before our eyes was great to see. Each person started out differently. Some on the make-up, some with the adheasives, and some just stood there thinking. It was unique how each person began.

During this part of the event as well, Bob Turner asked me to talk to the crowd about Rotting Flesh Radio and how he invited us to the Transworld Event and how Rotting Flesh Radio is something that has never been done in the Industry before. It was a nice moment for us to tell people about R.F.R. who didn't know about us and also to watch as these contestants worked away.

In the end, Bobbie Weiner (aka Bloody Mary) came around and selected a winner. The winner was well deserving and did a great job on the make-up. That was it for the social events in the Haunters Pavillion on Saturday but up next on Sunday was the Costume Competition.

On Sunday "Crazy" Bob returned with the costume competition. The contestants had 90 minutes to create
a costume out of what was provided for them. Each team needed a minimum of a seamstress and a model. The items the contestants had to use were donated clothes from a Goodwill Type store. They were spread out all over the Haunters Pavillion and once the event began it was shuffle through to create a costume.

Now that may sound easy, but no. It wasn't just taking these clothes to create a costume....they had to cut,
tears, sew, and creat a ALL-NEW Costume out of these old clothes and it was amazing what people came up
with. My overall favorite did win, so I was pleased. There was a team who did a Swamp Thing type costume that was "awesome." Some of the other entries turned out to be a Space Alien of some kind, A Winged Angelic Creature and the favorite...Swamp Thing. They even went to Sinister Scents to get that "Fresh" Swamp thing smell
to add the realism to the costume.

Overall, the events from Saturday and Sunday were great to see and watch. It's always amazing how
different people tackle a problem and create something for that season we all love....Halloween.

So until then Sit Back, Relax and Rot Away,

Jonathan
Haunted Report Blogger and Corpse Creator of Rotting Flesh Radio

Hey Everyone,
Hope you have been enjoying our Transworld coverage as we team up with Rotting Flesh Radio. In other news I wanted to point out a cool new feature of the Blog iteself. You can now leave us voicemail. That's right. Thanks to a cool new product called Odeo. All you need is a microphone attached to your computer. If this works out well we might start to have a weekly Q&A session. Where you leave us a voicemails and we answer your questions. Anyway good stuff. Go ahead leave us a message today!

- iamlegend

:: Editor's Note: Jonathan from R.F.R. was our main Blogger at Transworld this year. Here is his first report::
Well, Rotting Flesh Radio just got back from Transworld and it Rocked!!!! It was nice that they had the Costumes and Party Section and the Haunters all under one roof and it was open to both groups of people.

As for the event....R.F.R. did alot of public speaking courtesy of Bob Turner who with himself and Transworld
invited us to cover the event for the first time this year. It went well. We did ALOT of on the spot interviews, got R.F.R. Tags for the casts and met many of the people who have supported R.F.R. since Day one and also those who just recently discovered us. It also gave us a chance to introduce R.F.R. to many many people.

Now on to the Exhibit:
Scarefactory and the Dark Zone impressed as usual. The main thing that popped out was the Catacomb Maze and
the Headless Horseman. The Horseman you basically stopped and just watched it in motion. The Catacomb Maze was a blast to walk through and see the detail that Scarefactory put into thIs piece.

Brutal Images had a great spread as he featured hisline of Hell's Kitchen products that only Brutalb Images could bring to the table (no pun intended). He also had some great props as well with Shrunkin Heads and Skulls. We tried to interview him for R.F.R. but we kept playing tag since we were both so busy. Orders were coming in like crazy for him.

The Screamline Studios guys were awesome with Horrificus and their new line of props as well. Horrificus towered over many of the patron and people wandering around Transworld and they stood out from everyone else that was downstairs at the show. And I even picked up a Flaming White Hat from those guys to sport all summer.

Unit 70's Props were outstanding in detail and gore. The Wolf Brothers were very good. The Wolf Brothers did a great Makeup job on the Doctor making him officially a piece of Rotting Flesh.

The Fashion Show kicked butt and the eye candy around the costumes area was excelent if you know what I
mean.

that is a quick rundown of some of the exhibitors at the Transworld Event. Next up we will bring you a complete detailed report of some of the social events that took place, our favorite props for the 2006 season and some other Transworld Rotting Goodies.

- Jonathan
Tags: TransWorld:Halloween Industry:Rotting Flesh Radio

Hey All,
In small follow-up to our Haunt X coverage last week I wanted to point out a interesting thread from the HauntWorld message boards. It seems to be that were some problems with Vendors getting along before, during and after the show. Anyway the only portrait vendor that I know is Tim from the Ghoulish Gallety and he has been a saint. Check the thread out and let us know what you think....

Whew! Eventhough we didn't go to Transworld this year we are tired out! We took a nice vacation last week but are back bigger and better than ever. Although we didn't Live Blog from the event we did have several undercover reporters roving the scene who will be reporting their findings this week. One of those was our very own Jonathan from Rotting Flesh Radio. I am sure he will have some sweet stuff to report on. Keep checking in.

- iamlegend

According to Tim of the Ghoulish Gallery the CBS TV Show CSI has decided to feature several of his changing portraits in one of their future episodes. He just finished signing the lease and prop permission form and sent it in to Universal Studios this week. Pretty cool. Tim is a cool guy and delivers one awesome product. Hopefully they will do a slow pan over them on a wall instead of having them just hangning in the background. Either way I am sure it will drum up some extra business for him.

- iamlegend

Tags: CSI:Haunted House : Dark Attractions

Since I missed posting on Tuesday I figured I’d post two new items today and they are both related to movie news. I already talked about Saw III (sorry about my little ranting in the article, but sequels are a touchy issue with me) now lets switch gears to the announcement for plans to bring an 80’s horror monster back to life on the big screen. According to Fangoria and The Horror Channel the green light was given to Pumpkinhead sequels. That’s right I said sequels. It appears that the Sci-Fi channel is ultimately behind the Stan Winston creature resurrection although there is no mention that Winston’s studios will be along for the ride that Gary Tunnicliffe, who did all the effects work on the most recent Hellraiser and Prophecy sequels will be creating the demon anew. Let’s hope the creature looks similar to Winston’s since it looked so frickin’ awesome!

According to several sources Jigsaw fans have either their wildest dream or worst nightmare come true as Twisted Pictures officially confirmed recently that Saw III will happen and will be in theaters by Halloween making the Saw films a tradition almost as big as trick or treating. Now I said their wildest dreams, who wouldn’t want two kick ass horror films to have yet another sequel. Worst nightmare is that the excellent Saw franchise will have another sequel. History proved itself time and time again in the horror industry that making a sequel to a top grossing film like Saw almost always leads to disaster. Unless you come up with a twist that no one saw (no pun intended) coming. They did that with part two, but anything after that runs dangerously close to sucking little by little as the numbers go up. In my personal opinion Saw I and II are one big movie like Halloween I and II. There is no need to have a sequel. We all knew it was coming, but it did look doubtful when the Twisted Pictures big wig and "Saw" producer Greg Hoffman died at age 42 about a month after the second film was released. Another thing that makes me kind of uneasy is the fact that it’s already March and they are pushing for an October release. Films that are rushed in any genre never come out being very good. To much has to be jammed in to too little time and everything isn’t planned out very well. But enough about my opinion lets get to the facts.

Hey all with Transworld looming ahead of us and Haunt-X a memory, I thought I would catch you up on some cool photos from Haunt-X. Wil from Haunt-X sent this over:

A really cool thing came out of having "Lurch" from the Adam's Family film (Carel Struycken) sign autographs at the show. Apparently he is into creating virtual tours of his tradeshows he attends and he did three such views of the primary vendors show floor over Haunt X Weekend.

With Transworld coming up fast and furious be sure to check out this cool little Web Site. The graphics are a bit cheesy but the content is good. Contests, competitions, tours, parties and more! The Saturday make-up competition looks pretty intense.This competition features a $2,500 grand prize of a 7-day cruise vacation package for 2 including airfare! Win National Titles for yourself or your haunt. Check all this out and more here.

- iamlegend

Disregard the date. I forgot to reset the date when I replaced the batteries. This was taken in 2006.

So we are still doing storyboards and developing our final names and designs for Ruby Falls.

We also met a little regarding the Memphis Haunt. Depending on our location - we may have some major changes - or simply maintain the same design as last year but w/ a few minor tweaks and changes. So that will all play out as we work w/ landlords on leases.

Spirit Store - I'm in negotiations on several locations. I'm securing billboards and working w/ a local radio station for advertising. I'm also looking at doing a coupon book to promote the Store and all Local Haunted Attractions within the Chattanooga Market. So time and effort is spread amongst all three projects - but Ruby Falls will jump back as primary for the rest of this month.

Anyone else get this email on Friday? Looks like HauntedHouse.com has been sold to a consortium of Haunted Attraction Vendors. These include the Majka brothers, Steve Kopleman and Christopher Brielmaier. When we here a the Haunted Report emailed them for comment we didn't get a reply. Strange. So why would Michael Cruz want to sell HauntedHouse.com? It's the number one site when you google Haunted Houses and I am sure he made a ton of money on his google ads every month. Or maybe they want to run their own set of vendor ads?

We did some investigating on our own and there are close to 500 Haunted Houses listed on the site. That is quite a good email list. Could they have bought it to have access to the email list? If so we can understand why the Majka brothers and Brielmaier (of Rogue's Hollow) are in on the deal, but why Steve Kopleman? What's his connection? How much did they pay Cruz for the site? Why did they buy it? Page views, google ads, email lists? What are your thoughts?

- iamlegend

Tags:Haunted House:Hauntedhouse.com:Halloween Industry

March 10-13 marks Transworld’s 11th Haunted Attraction Show in Rosemont, Ill. at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center. For most of us haunters this is the must attend show of the year where everyone from costume makers to corpse builders get together and showcase the new items for the year. The Haunted Attractions Show is a haunter's extravaganza that takes up over 60,000 sq. ft. and has something for everyone, from the smallest haunter to the haunt industry's biggest attractions. To take a direct quote from their website:

TWE's Haunted Attractions Show is THE place to:
• Find the latest products, designers, services and trends
• Compare suppliers and negotiate prices
• Attend seminars and learn money-making tips from the pros
• Network with colleagues and enjoy Chicago's nightlife

I have attend this show quite a bit in the past and let me tell you the site is right…this is THE place to be if you are a professional in the haunted attraction industry. Personally the contacts and networking I have done at Transworld alone has paid off time and time again! This year they have added even more special events to make the show an even bigger success.