I LOVE Halloween, so the blog entries for this month are going to be devoted to the lovely holiday!

In this town, we call home, everybody hail to the pumpkin song!

Life’s no fun without a good scare…

Today is October first and this entire month is devoted to Halloween, the best holiday of the year! This year, we start out with a bright look into the last half of the best ride in Disneyworld: The Haunted Mansion! Haunted Mansion Backstage had these photos of the Haunted Mansion in Disneyworld. Here’s what they said about it:

Not exactly backstage, but here’s a cool lights-on peek near the end of the Graveyard scene after a ride stop and evacuation at the WDW Mansion. Every time I ride the Mansion I wish for this to happen to me! Ride stops, eventually lights come on and a CM has to escort us out. Please! :)

Via: WIL WHEATON dot TUMBLR, hauntedmansionbackstage: Not exactly backstage,…

Last year, I won a prize for Scariest Costume for my Raiders of the Lost Ark Melting Nazi Costume.

After the break is a tutorial for how I made the mask… (Continue Reading…)

This year at Comic Con, Felicia Day went with a comic book look for her makeup that really knocked my socks off.

It reminds me of the makeup that M.A.C Cosmetics did back in 2010:

More pictures of that here:

• Pick Me! – Roy Lichtenstein Costume

Last year, my sister, Stacey, came as Effie Trinket from The Hunger Games. She won for Beast of Show, meaning that she got 3-4 votes in EVERY category, giving her the most votes anyone received last year. It’s not surprising, because her costume was PERFECT!

We worked long and hard on her clothes, turning a horrendous pantsuit from the 80s into the jacket. A overly frilly t-shirt from the 90s became her skirt. She went to extra effort on her flowery headpiece and choker as well.

And her HAIR!! That is HER hair (not a wig), curled, backcombed and sprayed white and pink! She said she had to take a TWO hour shower to get all the coloring out of her hair.

You can barely see it, but we even were completely authentic with her finger nails.

After gluing on artificial nails that were the proper length, I used Sally Hansen’s Gem Crush in Lady Luck for the base.

Using a makeup sponge, I dabbed on China Glaze’s Cleopatra glitter polish on the tips.

I followed this YouTube tutorial:

It’s surprising how little details like your manicure can make or break a costume. Stacey went all out last year and she ended up with the Beast of Show prize for it!

I found these awesome pictures on Haunted Mansion Backstage. Here is the description:

At Walt Disney World’s Haunted Mansion, they removed the classic Hitchhiking Ghosts mirror effect (where the ghosts follow you home) and replaced it with a 3D computer animated, interactive effect. Phineas, Ezra and Gus now have a little fun with you, the Doombuggy riders. They’ll switch your heads, or blow your heads up like balloons, or shine a lantern and make your heads disappear. It’s pretty impressive.

Haunted Mansion Head Removal Lantern

Haunted Mansion Head Switching

Haunted Mansion Roof Rider

Haunted Mansion Head Blowup

Backstage Photos:

If you’re trying to think of some easy and silly ideas for your Halloween costume, Troye Sivan had some good ones last year.

Some of the ideas are kind of dorky, but they gave me a chuckle.

Why do things scare us?

He found a lot of the images here:

• Creepy – Imgur

If you were able to sleep well last night, just imagine living here:

It’s a spider colony in Brazil.

If you can’t watch the video right now, here is a glimpse of it from Señor Gif:

The next time you feel like we are safe here on this little planet, remember there are huge colonies of spiders just waiting to take over the world.

I love this video of the song, Grim Grinning Ghosts, sung by the Dapper Dans in Disneyland.

This song just makes me excited for Halloween!

This tutorial for how to make monster skin is AWESOME!

I love how it looks like he is an alien from the miniseries, V!

It’s a complicated process, using Sculpey clay for a mold for the reptilian skin and lots of liquid latex. If you have an allergy to latex, then this isn’t for you, but if you don’t this is a terrific way to make your costume SO believable!

I love this comic from The Ideal Cat! Click on the image to see the whole comic.

The next time I’m bugged because Lucy is crawling under the covers with me, I’m going to remember this and know that she will protect me from lurking vampires.

Via: WIL WHEATON dot TUMBLR, hassavocado: What’s Michael by Makoto…

I’ve been playing Animal Crossing New Leaf constantly for four months now. I am so excited that they have brought Halloween back to the game. On the first of the month, Jack visited me and asked if I wanted to be one of his loyal subjects.

Since it’s my favorite holiday, I agreed and I am eagerly collecting candy and Halloween masks to wear on that wonderful night!

So excited!

If you would like to visit my town, my Dream Address is 4000-2185-7855.

I love this billboard! It’s great for Halloween time!

It reads:

Haunted French pancakes give me the crepes!

Via: WIL WHEATON dot TUMBLR

I had a wave of nostalgia when I saw this poster on Flicker.

• Dynamite Magazine – Count Morbida insert poster – by Arthur Friedman – 1976

I must have looked at that poster a million times when I was a child. Dynamite Magazine was sold through my school when I was a kid and I bought EVERY one of them for my entire grade school career. Here are a couple more issues that were dedicated to monsters. (Continue Reading…)

I ADORE R. K. Milholland’s work on Something Positive and read it every day, but his yearly tribute to Halloween is my favorite. Every year on Rhymes with Witch, he posts these entries showing trick-or-treaters meeting their final demise. Here is a list of the entries so far:

• The Last Trick-Or-Treaters: September 30, 2013
• The Last Trick-Or-Treaters: October 1, 2013
• The Last Trick-Or-Treaters: October 2, 2013
• The Last Trick-Or-Treaters: October 3, 2013
• The Last Trick-Or-Treaters: October 7, 2013
• The Last Trick-Or-Treaters: October 8, 2013

Here is a glimpse of my favorite so far. It’s from October 2nd. Click the photo to see the full story.

Simply Brilliant!

This photo from Retronaut reminds me that this day and age doesn’t have a monopoly on creepy.

I think I find this bust so disturbing because that appears to be a REAL human skull embedded in the marble. Were they trying to immortalize a loved one or a leader?

I couldn’t find anything online about it, so I am left with my own morbid imagination and the haunting image of this bust.

This video is an advertisement for Carrie, but it is amazing. A team set up a coffee shop to make it appear that a woman with telekinesis is losing her control.

The fear on the faces of the customers is real, but I’m surprised that more of them just didn’t run away. I think I would have turned tail and run if I saw that. Real or not, I don’t want to be around.

Via: Geek Culture: Coffee Shop Carrie!

Last year, Underwire at Wired.com had these vintage pictures that had been animated to make them spooky. Here are my favorites.

This one is called, “Clearing Away Debris from the Bangkok Fire.”

Ghost Cannon Kills Soldier

Mother Jones Turns Into Starlings

These photos remind me of one of my favorite books of 2011, called Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs. I absolutely ADORED that book. Here’s a trailer describing it.

It looks like it might become a movie, which I would go see in a second. Please let it come to pass!

I haven’t seen Blades of Glory, but Jenna Marbles’ costume last year was totally awesome.

Here is her video showing you how she made it.

Jenna loves Halloween and has another video about Sluts on Halloween here:

I love this!

What you are doing is taking away from the spirit of the best holiday ever, Halloween. Halloween is the one night of the year that you get to be whatever you want to be! When you see these girls dressed as sexy cops, nurses, animals, I don’t know… It’s not that they’re such a huge fan of cops and nurses and animals. It’s just that they want to be a slut for Halloween, because they’re probably not sluts in real life.

People want to be perceived as attractive and hot. Halloween is the one night to do it. So what I want to say to all the girls out there is that I challenge you. I dare you to go out on Halloween, see a girl who looks cute, and just go up to her and go like, “You know what? You look hot! I appreciate the fact that you probably went on a diet and exercised your tiny little butt off to fit into that costume. Congratulations! It worked!”

If you’re not the type of girl who wants to dress up like a slut, that’s your choice. No one hatin’ on you for being a toothbrush.

I love that she was able to address the Sluts on Halloween issue for what it really is, which is girls hating on other girls. We should all just get along!

So many sitcoms forget about Halloween, but not Big Bang Theory. Ever since the beginning, they have enjoyed the holiday. I really believe that Chuck Lorre must love Halloween. Here is Sheldon playing a Halloween prank on Leonard.

And the guys play a Halloween prank on Sheldon.

Last year’s Halloween Party, however, was the best.

I remember the first sitcom that I ever remember really going all out for Halloween and it was Roseanne. Considering that Chuck Lorre was a writer for Roseanne, it’s not surprising to me. Here is a playlist of the best of Roseanne’s Halloween episodes.

Thanks, Chuck, for years of delightful Halloween episodes for those of us who enjoy the holiday far more than Christmas!

I love the REALLY scary costumes that The Joy of Tech came up with last year. They always make me laugh and I love the inside jokes they make (like the one with the Chinese chips with a HUGE back door).

• The Joy of Tech: Truly Scary Halloween Costumes

I love this one, Trans Fat Molecule, but if you want to see a REALLY good (and scary) costume, click on over and look at the costume called Sedentary Lifestyle. THAT would be a funny AND scary costume. Of course, it would be one of those costumes where people are asking all night, “What are you supposed to be?”

If you’re racking your brain, trying to figure out what to be for Halloween, here is a big list of funny and scary costumes.

Happy Haunting!

Last year, diesel sweeties put all their Halloween comics in one place. Now, you can read them all to get in the mood for the holiday and get some good ideas.

• diesel sweeties : Halloween comics

I love it when comics, TV shows and even fiction books depict Halloween. It’s such an important holiday to me and I love it when it’s just as important in the fiction world.

I love the look of this mask for a Halloween costume from kongorilla. A black turtleneck and jeans with this mask printed up on black cardstock would be perfect.

In fact, they have made a version with that black cardstock and some glow-in-the-dark tape.

So cool!

Via DIY low-poly mask, now with glowing edges! – Boing Boing

This little video about how to trade Halloween candy with your siblings is funny. I found it on Boing Boing last year after the Halloween season, so I thought I’d save it until now.

To do this properly, you really need a copy of The Candy Hierarchy.

I love the suggestion to find someone with allergies to trade with, but the idea that Smarties and Twizzlers are your “workhorses” makes absolutely NO sense to me. I HATED Smarties and saved them until the very last.

Oh, and apples? I can’t believe anyone gives those out anymore. Do they?

I love this zombie sculpture that I found on MTV Geek.

I am always so amazed at how talented people are. I have a hard enough time just cutting out a couple of triangles and teeth, much less creating something as scary and beautiful as this!

Happy Haunting!

I love this old photo posted by Todd Franklin on Neato Coolville.

It’s just a picture of a little girl dressed up for the holiday in front of a cardboard skeleton, the likes of which graced every house in my neighborhood when I was a child. It’s funny how that well-known skeleton makes the that unknown girl seem familiar. Do I know her? No, but she represents every little girl at Halloween when I was a kid to me.

Happy Haunting!

This is a pretty good video showing you how to do zombie makeup:

The only problem I have with it is I’m super allergic to latex, so if you are trying this, put a tiny bit of latex on a sensitive spot on your face, like a small drop under your eyes. Leave it there for about a half hour and see if you have a reaction. I did a test spot of liquid latex on my arm a couple of years ago with no reaction, but the minute I put it on my face, it started burning.

The most realistic wound that I’ve ever made was using gelatin and corn syrup back in 2003:

• Pick Me! » How To Make A Realistic Wound

I can’t believe it has been ten years since that photo was taken! I have been haunting for far too long!

Via: DIY Zombie Makeup: How to Make Hideous Wounds That Last for Hours | Underwire | Wired.com

I love this manicure from honeymunchkin.

Using China Glaze’s Ghoulish Glow, glow-in-the-dark nail polish, she created some ghosts who will shine all night at the Halloween Party.

Sometimes, all it takes is a really good manicure to top off a boring Halloween costume.

Happy Haunting!

This photo from Imgur is horrifying.

The next time you are stumped for a costume idea, remember to think outside the box. Your chin isn’t necessarily your chin. It could be painted black and become the inside of your gaping zombie mouth.

Happy Haunting!

Via: Horrifying face/throat zombie makeup – Boing Boing

I love this photo that was found by Retronaut of a young Bela Lugosi. He would go on to become the icon of a vampire for over fifty years until the Lestats and the Edwards took his place.

Even before the movies transformed him, he looked the part of the exotic vampire.

Happy Haunting!

I just finished watching the first episode of Star Trek Continues and I want MORE!!! Here is a taste of what they can achieve if they get their Kickstarter funding.

Here is a link to their Kickstarter page:

• Kickstarter – Webseries by Far From Home: Star Trek Continues

I can’t believe how well they were able to recreate the feel of the original series. Right down to the wigs, skin texture and lighting. How did they get Michael Forest, the original actor who played Apollo?! And Chris Doohan is a shining image of his father as Scotty! Seriously, I just want the show to be the Scotty Hour. Just watch this “Happy Birthday, Scotty” vignette. It’s only a couple of minutes.

The actor playing the doctor is MUCH better than the guy they had on episode one.

I absolutely ADORE this quick vignette called, “You’ve Got The Conn.”

So much of my belief that I could do anything came from Star Trek and seeing a touch of that in this little vignette makes me so happy!

This vignette is a recreation of a scene from the original episode, “Turn About Intruder.”

I didn’t like this one as much as the others, but it’s all so awesome, I’m hoping the Kickstarter funds!

• Kickstarter – Webseries by Far From Home: Star Trek Continues

I found this picture on Pinterest and I hope beyond all hope that it is actually an All Hallow’s Eve photo, like it says.

Otherwise, it’s a particularly disturbing photo of a crime…

Last year, Neato Coolville posted a bunch of photos of the old PAAS Halloween Makeup Kits from the 80s. My favorite was the animated GIF of the step-by-step instructions for the vampire.

I remember looking at those boxes, wishing I could dress up like a vampire.

Here is a commercial from the same time period.

I never realized that the company that did Easter Egg kits was the same company as these makeup kits. Now, that seems so obvious and a smart business move on PAAS’s part, but I had no idea when I was a kid.

When I was in sixth grade, I was obsessed with ghosts and read EVERY book in my school’s library about them. The stories would scare me so much, yet I was insatiable. When I see this Sheldon comic from yesterday, it reminded me of that phase of life. This comic, however, explains why ghosts make evolutionary sense in a completely logical world, which wasn’t the answer I was looking for when I was in sixth grade.

• Sheldon – 10-24-13

Click on the picture to see the whole comic in all its glory.

This photo is particularly disturbing.

When I first saw it, I had no idea what I was looking at until Theremina told me:

Damaged and melted mannequins after a fire in 1930 at Madame Tussaud’s Museum.

They looked like the dead people who were pulled from Mount Vesuvius after thousands of years encased in ash, but more realistic. I breathed a sigh of relief when I learned they were only mannequins.

Via: WIL WHEATON dot TUMBLR, theremina: Damaged and melted mannequins after a…

This is a great video of a live performance of Grim Grinning Ghosts at Disneyland.

I love Halloween at Disneyland! I wish I could be there right now!

Here is a video of a different awesome song about the Headless Horseman that was performed in Disney World.

Not quite as good as Grim Grinning Ghosts, but still cool.

I love this photo from Retronaut of an actor dressed up as the Mad Hatter.

I love how calm he looks in the photograph. He doesn’t look “mad” at all. How could an insane man sit so still and serenely? I much prefer Mike’s take on the costume.

Last year, Wired.com posted this great tutorial on how to make an origami zombie.

The final product was pretty awesome:

You can see the video here:

This is a fun little movie called, “Missing in the Mansion.”

If you ever liked the Haunted Mansion, this might dissuade you a bit.