Is your Mort Safe?

I learned recently that bars, stones and fences were installed on top of and around ancient grave-sites in order to protect deceased loved ones from grave robbers. These were called MORTSAFES!

A Google image search for mortsafe yields astounding results!

I'd LOVE to make one of these!

Here's the iron bar variety

How about an iron coffin!?

And here's a full-blown cage!

Many, many more pics and Halloween decorating ideas here! ( http://tinyurl.com/97l2oph )

Haunted Hot Sauce Halloween 2011

Just a few days shots of my small display this year. More than quantity, this year was about lighting and ambiance.

Click Here to see the photos.

Or Click Here to see the fancy slideshow.

OUTSIDE: The entire house was illuminated by three blue spotlights hidden in the trees.

INSIDE: Red spotlights shone through the boarded windows which made the house scream "EEEEEVIL!" I didn't have time to detail the Styrofoam "boards" but that made no difference at night as they appeared as silhouettes when lit from behind.




WITCH JARS: I made a dozen of these quickly the night before Halloween. Hung at varying heights from the huge Magnolia tree and lit with tea lights, they were VERY effective in creating interest, movement, contrast and a ghostly atmosphere.




THE COFFIN UNDER THE STAIRS: Illuminated by a hidden red spotlight from above, inside this coffin is where I hid one of those sound activated "haunted hedge" shakers. Everyone that approached it was greeted by a violent shaking, rattling sound and guttural growls coming from within the coffin. My fog machine dispersed thick fog from under this coffin at regular intervals.



I actually got to hide in here for a while to scare trick-or-treaters.


THE CEMETERY: Each tombstone was illuminated by a blue/green LED light "expertly" duct taped to a spray-painted black paint stirrer stick and shoved into the ground in front of the tombstone. A few had LED candles and others had oil lanterns hanging from them.



One of my only "night shots".




The same shot the morning after.




The wilted and faded cemetery flower urns I made can be found elsewhere in my blog.




I realize that the inside of this coffin looks too "new" but at night, illuminated by the flickering oil lamp, that goes unnoticed.


SUMMARY: This year's display was creepy and beautiful. Red light streaming through the boarded windows, blue light illuminating the entire house, each tombstone illuminated by it's own blue/green light, flickering candles and oil lamp flames and glowing witch jars swaying in the slight breeze. Haunted organ music, crows and the moans of restless undead souls were heard.

I'll use the lighting tricks I learned along with much greater detail for next year so keep an "eye out" for Moonlit Hill Cemetery - Halloween 2012!


Click Here to see a few more shots!

A corpse escapes?

Taken on a recent trip to the local cemetery.


A better photo of that amazing Celtic cross!

Halloween Cemetery Fence Reference

On a recent trip to the cemetery to shoot some product shots for HauntedHotSauce.com, I stumbled upon the following:



I was AMAZED! This is the cemetery of my Halloween dreams!!!! I shot detailed photos of 2 or 3 fenced in areas. I WILL recreate one of these areas for my home haunt this year!



View all of these photos HERE!

Halloween 2010 photos

CLICK HERE to see HauntedHotSauce.com's Halloween 2010 Flickr photo gallery

Or here's a fancy slideshow!

And below are a few "teaser" photos. I'll probably add a few more to this set soon. If you have ANY questions about ANYTHING, please feel free to comment or email me at: TheUndertaker@HauntedHotSauce.com.

That time of year...

Halloween merchandise is starting to appear in Target stores. In my opinion they usually have a pretty impressive selection. I'll be visiting them daily til just before Halloween.



A green tombstone? I think it works! (also available, pink and blue for your zombie-themed baby showers)



This bat tombstone is elaborate and just plain cool! Nice job Target!