Lagoon – Page 2 – An Unorthodox Halloween

FRIGHTMARES!!!

If you’ve been reading for a while, you know Lagoon is the local amusement park.

Frightmares opened tonight and…well, what follows is why Lagoon should skip the summer, and just host Frightmares ALL YEAR LONG. Period, end of story. It is head and shoulders above their ‘normal’ stuff.

First, we are greeted with thumping music booming out of the HEARSE.

From Halloween buildup 09

NORMALLY, there is NOTHING there.

From Halloween buildup 09

During summer, just in the gates, there’s a rather ordinary flower bed…not a photo op.

From Halloween buildup 09

Don’t like ghosts? here’s some scarecrows.

From Halloween buildup 09

Who doesn’t appreciate a pumpkin tree?

From Halloween buildup 09

More photo ops.

From Halloween buildup 09

A rather bland little area in the summer has been transformed into a very New Orleans styled villa.

From Halloween buildup 09

Complete with a more classic hearse.

From Halloween buildup 09

Unfortunately, the Beach is closed for Frightmares…or rather, according to the sign, filled to capacity, you’ll have to wait for some of the patrons to exit, but feel free to form a line to the right….

From Halloween buildup 09

But, that’s more due to weather than anything else. The real MEAT of the matter lies in the fact there is entertainment EVERYWHERE at Frightmares.

This junkyard is typically just an empty lot. That’s it. Empty space. WHY is it not up year round?

There are 5 different shows to go watch. Singing, dancing, a hypnotist, etc. There is something hilarious about dancing chainsaw maniacs…

And everywhere you turn there are monsters wandering, ready to take a photo with you. Providing Lagoon with an IDENTITY it just does not have the rest of the year.

From Halloween buildup 09

All this, with the rides normally associated with Lagoon.

From Halloween buildup 09

To be honest, the haunted houses at Frightmares are nothing earth shattering, and there are better to be had out there. But, the ATMOSPHERE, and the FUN of the season, Frightmares dishes up in spades.

From Halloween buildup 09

And, for all you tombstone people looking for one more epitaph….Here’s a tombstone slideshow:

News and reviews.

The Jacob’s Ladder is getting it’s final touches.

From Lab

Of course, it will look much better once the gorgeous clear tube is in place.

From Lab

Then, Monday night, we headed out to Lagoon, yet again. I got some flash photos on the Terror Ride. I got the ‘no pictures’ moan from the dark. (really, a moan, the guy was trying to stay in character as they sometimes walk behind cars to scare them) So, we’ll get a few more at a later time.

First is this great wall.

From An UnOrthOdOx Halloween

The gate creaks back and forth, and a couple of the spines move around as you drive by. THIS is something relatively simple to re-create for a home haunt.

Second are these guys (there’s actually 3 of them)

From An UnOrthOdOx Halloween

These guys are perplexing, as they are opposite a lit display and hard to see, but their head turns as you pass. Turns the WRONG way, too. Instead of their gaze following you, they turn to look behind you. ??? Easy to see the mechanism with the flash.

ON TO TONIGHTS REVIEW.

RUSTOLEUM UNIVERSAL HAMMERED FINISH SPRAY PAINT.

From An UnOrthOdOx Halloween

As you might be aware, I’m painting quite a bit of ye olde plastic these days. And, anyone who has tried to spray paint plastic knows it doesn’t like to stick well. Well, having been pleased with the Krylon Fusion hammered finish on the generator, but it didn’t QUITE cover the whole thing. And, Lowes doesn’t carry Krylon, and this Rustoleum was the only hammered finish rated for plastic in the store. I bought 2 cans, one copper, one black.

The Rustoleum cans have a nice spray trigger, and spray out in a very nice narrow fan that makes application easy and controlled.

I sprayed the copper into the inside of the cat-sand buckets on the generator to give a nice finish for the lights to reflect off. And…it looked like crap. The ‘hammered’ finish was more like pock-marked as any dimples just showed the white of the bucket. A second coat did little to help matters. But, it was INSIDE the thing, no one was going to be noticing.

It DID adhere exremely well. And makes a nice, tough coating on the plastic. I figured the color issues must be from the plastic, however, and a standard color would probably be fine on plastic, just avoid the textured finishes. So, I decided since the Jacob’s ladder is WOOD, we’ll use the black THERE instead of finishing the generator with it.

Again, the hammered finish pock-marks show the white through.

From An UnOrthOdOx Halloween

Sure, they’re TINY on the wood, and no one is going to notice, but it bugs me. Also, these cans really don’t seem to go quite as far as the Krylon cans do. Overall, I’ld suggest avoiding the Rustoleum Universal hammered finishes.

For a comparison, this is the Krylon fusion hammered finish over the red wine barrel of my generator.

From An UnOrthOdOx Halloween

Ignorance is bliss.

I’ve been designing Halloween since I was 8 years old.

Along the way has been a long and storied history of researching different styles and means of going about that.

It started long ago, I don’t remember just how young I was, but mom found some documentaries on how commercials were made. And, she promptly made us watch them. Attempting to drill into us not to believe what you see, or ask for every toy out there…

I watched them SEVERAL times. I WISH I still HAD that documentary somewhere. It opened the door in my mind. The heck with the intended message, it opened the doors of HOW one goes about creating those illusions!

And, as I sit here tonight watching the Pitchmen marathon (RIP Billy), I realize I’m going to miss this show. It was as close to those old documentaries as there is on TV. All the behind the scenes stuff, all the magic…And what’s more, for the eventual creation of the snake oil salesman, you HAVE to have Billy Mays in mind for the character.

From those first documentaries, it was Raiders of the Lost Ark, reading and watching everything I could on how they went about actually making the effects. Making those bugs do what they did. At one time, I actually wanted to be a bug wrangler…(not that there’s much market for that these days when they just CGI everything) And again with Arachniphobia.

As I’ve grown older, and more sophisticated in my ability to actually make these things I’ve only been researching, my understanding of all of this has only expanded to where now, I no longer see as others see.

I was watching America’s Got Talent the other night, and this magician was on. I recognised the contraption from the very get go, having built a model of a similar one before determining it would be too costly to make a full size one for Halloween. The judges were amazed, I could only chuckle.

Haunted houses, and the like are no different. I’m more interested in seeing how they do everything that sometimes the experience is lost.

A curious thing this year, though. Going into the year with our season passes at Lagoon, I enjoyed Dracula’s Castle more. However, now having been on both it and the Terroride about 50 times this year (they are among Talia’s favorites), I’ve come to REALLY appreciate the Terroride.

While Dracula’s Castle is filled with BIG props and animatronics, the Terroride is filled with TONS of SMALL things. All things us home haunt folks can build. A simple head turn, and people jump. A head turn…back to my roots…

Lagoon…

We made it down to Lagoon, and Talia got her first taste of the Dark Rides…

First was Terror Ride.

Now, Terror Ride…there is just something WRONG about it. From the beginning. The sign tilts off kilter with it’s skull and blood dripped letters…

From Halloween buildup 09

Then, there is THOSE THINGS. A witch, and a skeleton, that open and close shutters leaning out to stare at the patrons.

From Halloween buildup 09

To the two year old, this is enough to overpower even the comfort of a chocolate chip cookie…

From Halloween buildup 09

Then there is THE MURAL.

From Halloween buildup 09

There is something…OFF…about that mural. Always has been.

From Halloween buildup 09

The odd skulls, the wierd dancing guy in the background, the illogical combination of characters…something.

From Halloween buildup 09

UNFORTUNATELY. I was still learning the camera operation at this point, and we didn’t get a good video of the Terroride. They’ve changed most EVERYTHING in this one since I’ve last been, and things were coming fast and furious on sides differing from the past. The thing is even more chaotic and fast hitting than before now. We’ll get a good video next time.

Talia got off of the Terroride wanting to go find mommy, most definately not wanting to ride again. However, she happily called “bye-bye monsters” as we left, and got really upset later in the evening when I had told her we were going to go ride some monsters (Dracula’s Castle), but walked BY the Terroride. “Monsters!!!”

Next was Dracula’s Castle.

Dracula’s Castle has this darn owl out front that makes REALLY bad jokes…

And, while some of it has changed since I’ve been here, things were in the same places, so the video was easier to take.

Talia’s review:

"Aren’t you starting a little early?"

One would think that, by now, the neighbors would be used to seeing me out working on Halloween stuff.

Apparantly not.

Having been chipping away on Bob this week has seen me out in the garage with the door open, music playing, and lamps shining on bob for about an hour each night after the kids have been tucked in.

Somewhat limited in my ability to do everything at once due to the delicate nature of that ribcage, it’s been a bit here, a bit there, mix a bit of clay, work a bit, do a bit of mache, let it dry, etc.

And, the parade of neighbors to pass on by cannot fail to ask.

“Starting already?”

“Little early isn’t it?”

“Why?”

“What is that?”

And etc.

As my wife says. Some people hunt, some fish, some golf. I Halloween. Not that anyone around here understands that.

So, progress on Bob?

Nothing blatantly amazing. The ribs are all mache and sturdy now. And, it wouldn’t be right to be talking to a ribcage all this time, so we had to give him a head. Oh, sure, it’ll all be covered up, but it will always crack me up knowing that grin is underneath. And, we’ve begun on adding the clay. This is a slow process, but, I think it’s coming along quite nicely.

From bob

In other news, we picked up our season passes to Lagoon (local amusement park) yesterday. We’ll try to get down there today. I’ll certainly be getting some pictures of Dracula’s Castle (1974) and the Terroride (1964), if not video… 2 traditional darkrides (a disappearing breed) right here in Utah that most assuredly shaped much of my obsession with this kind of stuff. And, of course, later in the year, we’ll be getting plenty of stuff from Frightmares…