It’s been a while since the last Zombie Friday, but I’ve got a handful of news that will satiate your hunger for the undead. Spanning film, design, zombie walks and more, it’s been a good week for zombie fans…
First up is an incredibly useful roundup of Photoshop tutorials for those of us with a darker artistic sense. 70 Horror, Blood and Gore Photoshop Effects and Brushes covers everything you’ll need to know to transform even the prettiest of photos into a decaying mess… but in a good way.
If you’ve been following the progress of George A. Romero’s latest zombie movie, you know that a release date for Diary of the Dead was uncertain until January. For a while it looked like it would be a direct to DVD release, but thankfully it will have a wide release on February 15, 2008. W00t! (As if that weren’t enough, Zombie Honeymoon will also be playing on Showtime around the same time. Talk about a bloody Valentine’s Day.)
There’s a new entry into the world of niche social networking websites, and this one’s actually useful. Crawl of the Dead has a section that lists Zombie Walks, allowing the undead hordes to better plan their attack. If you know of a local Walk/Crawl going on, please list it here. If you’ve never attended one, now you know where to look!
And because zombies and bad jokes were made for each other, I have a bit of cheesy humor for you, in Photoshop form: What do vegan zombies eat? LAWLS!!1
Know of a website that zombie fans would devour? Tell us about your online zombie finds in the comments below.
Wahoo! We did it, Halloweenies! The wait is over and we made it to Halloween 2007. However you celebrate this magical day- in costume, watching scary movies, eating candy, scaring the kids, partying til’ dawn- have fun and stay safe! Remember to take millions of pictures and come back tomorrow to share your stories and photos. On Thursday the calendar will say November, but it’s always October 31st at 365Halloween.com!
Before you head out, send some Halloween love to your favorite boils and ghouls via ShaktiWeb, Care2 or Hipster Cards. (Hey, you could even send one to us. We love mail!) And if you see anyone looking a little down today, wish them a happy Halloween, too!
There are countless rites of passage that we experience during our transition to adulthood. Always educational, sometimes quite embarrassing, these are the times we recall years down the road. An event that inevitably happens for every little Trick or Treater is the Halloween you ask yourself “am I too old to go out this year?” What will your friends think? Will they laugh at your costume? Should you be at home watching scary movies or out TP-ing and egging houses that are giving out crappy treats? Perhaps you even wanted to show just how mature you’d gotten since last Halloween and chaperon your younger siblings while they get sacks full of candy. Or maybe it just got boring?
When did you know it was time to stop Trick or Treating? How did you spend your Halloween nights after that fateful year?
When did you stop trick-or-treating?
You’ve been toiling away on your costume (or pumpkin, prop, spooky art, whatever the case may be) to freak out the impending trick-or-treaters. Your creation can win you a handful of treats, too! Some of these contests are frightfully simple to enter, while the rest require varying degrees of participation. Whether you only have a moment to join a mailing list, or have set aside months to create a fantastic costume or prop, you’ll find a contest perfect for you.
MAKE/CRAFT DIY Halloween Contest: Submit images of your homemade Halloween creations to the flickr pool. Categories include pumpkins, costumes, decorations or gadgets, and food.
Prizes: A trip to Maker Faire San Francisco and a bunch of other TBA prizes
Deadline: November 4, 2007
Curbly Candy Corn Challenge: To enter, transform these syrupy wedges into something seasonally superior for your home. Or, take a cue from its traditional three color stripes, and use it as an aesthetic for you next creation.
Prize: $75 gift card to Amazon.com
Deadline: October 29, 2007 (extended!)
Etsy Costume Contest: To enter, make a handmade costume or accessory and put it for sale in your Etsy shop. Categories include Pet, Kid & Baby, T-Shirt Costume, Sci-Fi, Green, and General Awesomeness.
Prizes: 18 winners will share over $2,000 worth of goods and prizes including $150 shopping sprees at Etsy & Threadless
Deadline: October 26, 2007
BloodSucking Cinema Halloween Contest: Send them an email with your name, age, address and the subject line HALLOWEEN CONTEST! Include your USERNAME from the boards. As always new members are always welcome to enter, but they will check to see if you registered and are a member posting on the site.
Prizes: Portable DVD Player, horror DVDs, and tons of various (mostly zombie themed) items
Deadline: Not stated
Penelope Illustration Monster Mash: Create a monster by any means you prefer: drawing, sculpture, design, textile, etc. and submit a picture.
Prizes: 3 winners get a $20 certificate to Amazon
Deadline: October 31, 2007
October Oddness Drawing: Leave a voicemail (or e-mail a recorded submission) related to Halloween, ghosts, goblins, news and any other October related subject matter.
Prizes: Podcast related swag
Deadline: October 25 & 30, 2007 (depending on which prize you’re aiming for)
Raven’s Barrow Halloween Prize Pack: Just sign up for the e-mail newsletter for a chance to win.
Prizes: A whole bunch of prizes
Deadline: October 20, 2007
Halloween Photo Spell Contest: Take photos of letters or things that look like letters to spell out the word “Halloween” in one image.
Prize: a gift card or some other small token
Deadline: October 21, 2007
Fujifilm Picture Perfect Halloween Contest: Categories include Best Pumpkins, Cutest Baby Costumes, Best Pets, Best Kid’s Costumes, Best Teens and Adult Costumes.
Prizes: A trip for 4 to PA for the HERSHEY Trick or Treat Adventure in October 2008, Digital Photography course, $50.00 Visa debit card, or a sheet of customized stamps
Deadline: November 3, 2007
Disney Halloween Costume Contest: Upload a photo of your homemade costume and instructions. Doesn’t have to be 100% homemade, but costumes must consist of some homemade elements. Categories include Most Unique, Family Costumes, & Easy to Make.
Prizes: All inclusive trip for 4 to Walt Disney World, digital camera, or “picnic basket” of goodies.
Deadline: October 31, 2007
Do you know of any Halloween contests that we missed? Leave a comment so we can add it to the list.
There are many milestones that usher in the Halloween season, and depending on your interests, some will be decidedly more exciting than others. The changing colors of the leaves and new flavors of candy corn are nice, but one sure sign that October 31st is nigh is the X-Entertainment Halloween Countdown. Its kickoff means a near daily dose of the unadulterated celebration of our beloved holiday. Every weekday Matt, the Man Behind the Curtain at X-E, writes about “new-for-2007 Halloween stuff and tons of ghoulish goodies from yesteryear.” Some highlights from last year include a review of the new Jones Soda Halloween flavors, The 3D effects of Friday the 13th: Part 3, the tale of his best Halloween costume ever, and a 3 part series on the best new candy of the season. Matt is a huge Halloween fan (obviously) and to set aside enough time to write those hilarious articles is a kind of dedication that few of us know first-hand. Oh, and did I mention that he’s been doing these countdowns for FIVE years now? If there was a Halloween Badass Award, he would certainly deserve one. Needless to say, if you weren’t sufficiently motivated to click away by now, go have fun in the 4 years of Halloween archives on X-E.
They say that necessity is the mother of invention. Nothing proves that point better than this video of a home haunter scaring trick-or-treaters with a stilt-wearing Predator costume. If you’re looking for something to freak out your Halloween visitors, few things garner the explosive response that “spring stilts” do. Their construction gives the wearer a surreal, monstrous walk that can transform any good costume into a terrifyingly great one. Imagine a scary costume idea- evil clown, Predator, bloody corpse, werewolf, nameless creature- whatever freaks you out. Now imagine it towering 3 feet above your head. Your costume just went from unsettling to scream-worthy with the addition of one item.
The only real catch is the price. Homemade stilts are dirt cheap and will still give you a great affect, but the “jumping stilts” (aka: poweriser or powerizer stilts) cost considerably more. We’ll start with the more economical option first, then move onto the more expensive alternative.
To make your own “pole stilts”, there are 2 main options: hands-free or hands-required. There are free plans online to make your own hands-required adjustable stilts, but these aren’t ideal for costume usage since your hands will be occupied holding the stilts. If you’re brand new to stilt walking, these would be a good beginner pair to learn construction and actual stilt walking techniques. After you get comfortable with that model, you can more safely move onto the hands-free type. Here is an incredibly detailed tutorial for hands-free stilts.
Now it’s time for the really cool ones: spring stilts! These are generally in the $300-$500 price range for adults, made of either fiberglass or carbon fiber. They allow for some inhuman physical feats, such as jumping up to 6 feet in the air and running strides of up to 9 feet in length! I was a little skeptical of those numbers, but according to GJS, “Jumping Stilts have been considered for military application. One particular set of stilts was tested by the US Air Force. The user maintained an average speed of 23 MPH over ΒΌ mile distance, while chasing a military quad.” Imagine the terrified screams as you go hauling down your street on Halloween night at 20 MPH, chasing naughty trick-or-treaters.
Apparently spring stilts are also a really good workout, so you can better justify purchasing them if you use them for fitness purposes, too. Then again, I think scaring the bejesus out of people is justification enough, but you may have different priorities.
CAUTION: Remember that stilt walking is potentially dangerous, so prepare accordingly. Read up, wear well-padded wrist guards and knee pads, use proper stilts, put lots of practice time in, and don’t put yourself or others in danger by performing stunts that you haven’t mastered yet. Stay safe, daredevils!
RELATED PRODUCTS: “Grabber” or “Reacher” costumes have crazy long arms and give the same creepy, inhuman affect as stilts…
