Ghost Burger Prologue
Claymation animator Lee Hardcastle is working on a video for Halloween that will eventually be a half-hour long. This is the opening sequence, which he offers to us as a teaser. I'm looking forward to the whole story! -via b3ta
Human Lung Calzones
No, these calzones aren't made with human lungs--although I suppose that you could make them that way. Rather, Beth Jackson Klosterboer just made them in the shape of human lungs. It's one of her many wonderful food crafts from Halloweens past. You can view more at the link.
Limecat Halloween Costume
It's bound to happen: someone created a Halloween costume inspired by the Melon Hat Cat (AKA Limecat) Internet meme. Our very own Jill Harness wrote about this and many more weird Halloween costumes at Inventor Spot blog: http://inventorspot.com/articles/8_weirdest_halloween_costumes_2009_33736
Pumpkin Face Illusion
Here's a fine and seasonally-appropriate example of the Hollow Face Illusion, created by Tony Bailey. Also in this category, Three Figurines is not to be missed!
Humans Skulls Recreated in Chocolate
Link - via cakeheadlovesevil
From the Upcoming 
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This Snake Calzone Is Ssssseriously Satisfying
Looking for something a little spooky to serve at your Halloween party that still won't creep out the youngsters too much? Then look no further than this fantastic snake-bite calzone by Kraft foods. It's not only a great-looking Halloween party food, it's also a great food to serve to a large group of guests, just slice up the snake and plate up the pieces with a little tomato sauce.
Five Hospitals You Don't Want to Check Into
Avid I Met a Possum readers (Hi mom and Jennifer!) already know that a few friends and I took it upon ourselves to investigate the Lizzie Borden house in Fall River, Mass., last weekend. We had such a blast that we've decided to return to the area in the fall (preferably October) to do a whole Haunted New England kind of thing. So I was doing a little research on what is in the area and found a handy little list of paranormal locations in the States. I was pretty surprised to see how many hospitals made the list. I guess I shouldn't be – it's very House on Haunted Hill (the 1999 version with Geoffrey Rush, not the 1959 Vincent Price film). Obviously some terrible things were done to patients before modern medicine intervened, so it's not too off-base to think that some tortured spirits are still lurking about. Below are a few of the (allegedly) haunted hospitals I found most intriguing – hopefully you will too.
Fairfield State Hospital (AKA Fairfield Hills)
(Image credit: Flickr user G F)
Despite their best efforts, the city of Newtown, Connecticut has been unable to squelch Fairfield State Hospital's eerie reputation. Then again, they have allowed it to be used for several decidedly spooky shoots, including Sleepers and MTV's Fear. The asylum has been in Newtown since 1931, but most of its buildings have been standing empty for the past 13 years. At its peak period of operations, it housed almost 4,000 patients. Fueling the scary stories is the fact that its numerous buildings are all connected by underground tunnels. Were these simply for transporting patients during bad weather, or was it an easier way to dispose of dead bodies?
Glenn Dale Hospital
(Image credit: Ladyb695)
Glenn Dale opened in the same era as Fairfield State – the 1930s was a popular time for mental institutes, apparently. Well, actually, Glenn Dale wasn't originally used for that purpose – it was a tuberculosis hospital with one building for adults and one for children. Eventually the tuberculosis problem died down and Glenn Dale was repurposed. It closed in 1982 due to asbestos and structural problems, but before it closed it was (supposedly) home to the criminally insane. As with Fairfield State, the buildings are connected via underground passageways, which people have been exploring since the day Glenn Dale officially closed its doors. Exploration might not be the best idea, though, and not just because of the asbestos (although that should be an obvious deterrent).
One rumor says that when the hospital closed, the remaining patients were just turned loose. Having nowhere else to go, many of them simply broke back into the abandoned buildings and lurk there even today. Another story goes that a police officer went to check out the buildings himself after getting a call that the buildings were being vandalized by a bunch of kids. After he went in, someone in the vicinity heard gun shots and called the police. When the police arrived, they found the first officer standing in one of the rooms, staring straight ahead at nothing. He had emptied his gun firing at something that no one ever found.
Norwich State hospital
Halloween Food Ideas
Super Punch blog has a neat round up of spooky Halloween food you can make.
This one is a spider cake by Megan of Not Martha blog (the "legs" are Pockys - yum!)
Six Seriously Spooky Cemetery Stories
It’s that time of year, when we look to graveyards for tales that scare the Dickens out of us. You've read about 9 Creepy Places to Visit for a Good Scare and you've seen lists of haunted houses. Now how about cemeteries? These six stories don't all contain ghosts -some are about vampires, poltergeists, and unidentified flying objects! Shown here is Chesnut Hill Cemetery in Rhode Island, the site of a vampire exhumation in 1892.
Chesnut Hill Baptist Church Cemetery in Exeter, Rhode Island is reported to be haunted by a vampire named Mercy Lena Brown. She was preceded in death by her mother and sister, victims of tuberculosis, and Mercy would often visit their graves. In January 1892, 19-year-old Mercy herself fell to tuberculosis and was interred with her family members. Mercy’s father George claimed she haunted him every night, complaining of hunger. His son Edwin fell sick, also with tuberculosis, but as he experienced visits from Mercy, the family and townspeople considered the cause of his illness to be the restless dead. George Brown, with the help of others, dug up the graves of his wife and two daughters on March 17, 1892. Only Mercy, who died in January, was free of decomposition. This led George to believe she was a vampire.
Read what happened then, and other tales, at mental_floss. Link
Spooky Skeleton Sangria
Sangria is always a great party drink, but if you're planning to serve it up on Halloween, it's pretty easy to spruce it up to make a great vampire-inspired cocktail complete with bones and eyes floating along with the classic orange and apple slices.
The Curse of Dracula
The following is an article from Bathroom Readers' Institute 13th edition Uncle John's All-Purpose Extra Strength Bathroom Reader.
Image Credit: Spiff 27 [Flickr]In every film about Dracula, there's a curse. But did the curse extend beyond the screen ... and actually affect the people involved with bringing the character to life? Don't dismiss the idea. Read these stories ... and then decide.  Horace Liveright. The stage producer who brought Dracula - and later Frankenstein - to America made a fortune doing it. But he was a terrible businessman and spent money as fast as it came in. He made more than $2 million on Dracula alone, but was so slow to pay author Bram Stoker's widow, Florence, the royalties she was due that he lost control of the stage rights in a dispute over a delinquent payment ... of a mere $678.01. He died drunk, broke, and alone in New York in September 1933. Helen Chandler. She was only 20 when she signed on to play the female lead Mina Murray in the 1931 film version of Dracula, but she was already close to the end of her film career. It was tragically shortened by a bad marriage and addictions to alcohol and sleeping pills. By the mid-1930s she was no longer able to find work in Hollywood, and in 1940 she was committed to a sanitarium. Ten years later she was severely burned after smoking and drinking in bed, in what may have been a suicide attempt. She died in 1965. Dwight Frye. In the 1931 film, Frye played Renfield, the character who goes insane after meeting Dracula and spends the rest of the movie as Dracula's slave. He performed so well in that part that he was offered a similar role in the movie version of Frankenstein, As Dr. Frankenstein's hunchbacked assistant, Fritz.Unfortunately for him, he took it - and was promptly typecast as the monster's/mad scientist's assistant for the rest of his career. He didn't get a chance to play any other type of role until 1944, when he was cast as the secretary of war in the film Wilson. Not long after he won the part, Frye had a heart attack on a Los Angeles bus and died before he was able to appear in the film.  Carl Laemmle, Jr. As president of Universal Pictures, he did more than anyone else to establish Universal as the horror movie studio of the 1930s. He left the studio after it was sold in 1936 and tried to establish himself as an independent producer. He never succeeded. A notorious hypochondriac, Laemmle eventually did come down with a debilitating disease - multiple sclerosis - in the early 1960s. He died in 1979 - 40 years to the day after the death of his father. Bela Lugosi. Worn out by years of playing Dracula in New York and on the road, Lugosi was already sick of the vampire character by the time he began work on the film version; the indignity of being paid less than his supporting cast only made things worse. Reporter Lillian Shirley recounted one incident that took place in Lugosi's dressing room between scenes:I was with him when a telegram arrived. It was from Henry Duffy, the Pacific Coast theatre impresario, who wanted Mr Lugosi to play Dracula for sixteen weeks. "No! Not at any price," he yelled. "When I am through with this picture I hope never to hear of Dracula again. I cannot stand it ... I do not intend that it shall possess me. No one knows what I suffer for this role." But like a real vampire, Lugosi was trapped in his role. Dracula was a box-office smash when it premiered in 1931 and Universal eager to repeat it success, offered Lugosi the part of the monster in Frankenstein. It was the first in a series of planned monster movie roles for Lugosi that Universal hoped would turn Lugosi into "the new Lon Chaney," man of a thousand monsters. STUBBORN KIND OF FELLOW Foolishly, Lugosi turned down the role of the Frankenstein monster because there was no dialogue - Frankenstein spoke only in grunts - and the makeup would have obscured his features, which he feared would prevent fans from knowing that he was the one under all that makeup.  The role went instead to an unknown actor names William Henry Pratt ... who changed his name to Boris Karloff [wiki] and within a year eclipsed Lugosi to become Hollywood's most famous horror star of 1930s."Thereafter," Davis Skal writes V Is for Vampire, "Lugosi was never able to negotiate a lucrative Hollywood contract. Dracula was the height of his Hollywood career, and also the beginning of its end." His last good role was as the monster keeper Ygor in the 1939 film Son of Frankenstein, considered to be the finest performance of his entire career. COUNT ON HIM  Lugosi played Count Dracula for a second and final time in 1948 Universal film Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein, his last major-studio film. After that he was reduced to appearing in a string of low-budget films, including Ed Wood [wiki] film Bride of the Monster (1956). Wood also had cast Lugosi in his film Plan 9 From Outer Space (1958), but Lugosi died on August 16, 1956 (and was buried in full Dracula costume, cape, and makeup) ... so Wood recycled some old footage of Lugosi and hired a stand-in, who covered his face with his cape so that viewers would think he was Lugosi. When he died, Lugosi left an estate valued at $2,900.... LAST, BUT NOT LEAST  Florence Stoker. Mrs. Stoker was nearly broke when she sold Universal the movie rights to Dracula, a sale that, combined with the royalties from the novel and the London and American plays, enabled her to live in modest comfort for the rest of her life. But she never did get rich off of the property that would bring wealth to so many others. When she died in 1937, she left an estate valued at £6,913.... Then again, Mrs. Stoker may have been luckier than she knew: After her death it was discovered that when Bram Stoker was issued copyright for Dracula in 1897, he or his agents neglected to turn over two copies of the work to the American copyright office as was required by law; and the Stoker estate failed to do so again in the 1920s when the copyright was renewed in the U.K. Since Stoker failed to comply with the requirements of the law, Dracula was technically in the public domain, which meant that anyone in the United States could have published the novel or adapted it into plays, movies or any other form without Mrs. Stoker's permission and without having to pay her a cent in royalties. |
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The article above is reprinted with permission from Uncle John's All-Purpose Extra Strength Bathroom Reader.
The 13th book in the series by the Bathroom Reader's Institute has 504-all new pages crammed with fun facts, including articles on the biggest movie bombs ever, the origin and unintended use of I.Q. test, and more. Since 1988, the Bathroom Reader Institute had published a series of popular books containing irresistible bits of trivia and obscure yet fascinating facts. If you like Neatorama, you'll love the Bathroom Reader Institute's books - go ahead and check 'em out!  |
Halloween Cuisine: Sweet or Savory Specimen Jars
These specimens in jars look pretty nasty, and the labels make them seem even worse. But believe it or not, they are all not only edible, but tasty! They contain unfamiliar fruits, or foods cut into odd shapes. Your Halloween guests will be delighted, if they can get over the willies and try them out. Get the recipes at Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories. Link -via Buzzfeed
Witch Kitchen Jars
It's never too early to prepare for Halloween! Aranamuerta has a tutorial on how to create "witch kitchen jars," filled with such goodies as Snake Oil, Hob Goblin Brains, and Dragon Embryos. Link
How to Make Awesome Monster Feet for Halloween
What makes a good costume great? The details! And with awesome monster feet like these, you can make any costume instantly more impressive. Surprisingly, all you need to make these are some Crocs, spray insulation foam and paint. The process is really simple too.
