What A Blast

Last night was my first night working at Oblivion Haunted House and by the end of the night I was beat. Harry Warden terrified everyone in true form. What a rush! I worked as a roamer and the staff said patrons were truly freaked out. Harry Warden is pretty easy to get into character for. I've watched the movie so many times to study his movements that it comes pretty natural now. I'm looking forward to later in the month when the crowds will be much bigger.

The one criticism I picked up on throughout the night was my headlamp light. Patrons were saying it was too bright and they couldn't see me when I was looking at them. Upon hearing this honest feedback, I began deliberately not shining it directly at their faces. After that I didn't hear any more "ahh that light is too bright!" talk.

That was the longest I've been in that costume at one time and I learned a few things. After 4 hours the gas mask starts to get really tight and heavy on your face. I put 1 inch lifts in my boots to boost me up to about 6ft. 3" which is really cool but again after that long my heels were getting pretty sore. With tinted lenses on the mask my vision is already limited and when they fog up it's becomes even more difficult to see. I put an anti fog solution on the lenses but over time it doesn't work as well. I don't like to take the mask on and off because there is a lot of repositioning to get it to look right again so I only took one break to relax.

Wearing this costume can be a pain, but it doesn't change the fact that it is one of my favorite characters. It is 100% worth the headaches : )

It Has Arrived!

Finally, my copy of Dark Night of the Scarecrow came in the mail on...you bet, October 1st. Oh how long I have impatiently waited for this. Going to watch it tonight in all it's restored beauty.

Almost time...

to play. One more day until the haunted house opens. I'm making some slight adjustments to my Harry Warden costume. Doing some extra weathering in a few spots.

Costume Update

You just gotta love thrift stores. There's always something I find there that I could use. I found a trenchcoat there and except for the tan color the look is good. I broke out the rit dye and gave it a good soak of blue. The color turned out pretty good. Then raffia was glued to a few spots on the sleeves. The last step was weathering. I may do some more on it yet. I don't want to go overboard since the coat in the movie doesn't appear to have much weathering it.

Sorry, I forgot to take a before shot. The flash washed out alot of the weathering but here is what I did so far.

Mask Update

I've been punching straw through parts of the mask. Still need to do some more but it's coming along nicely.

Costume Progress - Mask Screening

Here is how the mask looked before I started screening. For those who want to know, I got this mask at a Horrorhound con last year. It was sculpted for the publicity of Dark Night of the Scarecrow's upcoming dvd release.
























First I had to cut the latex out of the mouth and eyes. Then I took two layers of window screen and hot glued them to the inside of the mask. The second layer is glued on offset to the first layer. A fellow mask aficionado told me of this technique. Thanks Travis!
The nice thing about using hot glue is that if you ever want to take it off, it just peels off and doesn't damage the mask.
Note: Do not use hot glue on the outside of a mask unless it is a mask you don't care about. If you try to peel off the glue it will take paint with it!

Here is how it looks screened. From a distance you won't see the screen, it will look like empty black holes.

Idea For This Years Costume

After thinking long and hard about it, I think I'm going to make a Bubba scarecrow from Dark Night of the Scarecrow. It's such a classic movie and the costume is so simple yet very creepy. One of the major factors for my decision is the dvd that to be released end of September. I adore this movie and feel compelled to honor its release.

Items needed: mask, trenchcoat, flannel shirt, blue jeans, boots, gloves, straw, rope and pitchfork.

Fortunately I already have the mask, which would have been the most difficult piece to acquire. My plan is to start screening the mouth and eye holes on the mask tomorrow. I'm going to try real hard to post pics as I make progress on this project.