In this haunting short by Oury Atlan, puppets come to terms with their creator’s death.

(via The Presurfer)

The intrepid pdq recently pointed me to this splendid wreath of snakes from Grandin Road, made especially fabulous by being motion-sensitive.

If you don’t care about the motion aspect, you can make a similar wreath at a fraction of the cost. Grapevine wreaths are widely available at craft stores or online, and if you have access to grapevines you can also make your own. Rubber snakes are common novelties, especially around Halloween, so you should be able to find them at party or craft suppliers or at online retailers like Oriental Trading. Put the two together, and you’ve got yourself a wreath.

The wreath at the Grandin Road site appears to be black, so you can spray-paint the wreath or leave it natural as desired. If the snakes are particularly lurid colors, you can spray-paint them black or various shades of tan and brown (make sure you use paint that won’t deteriorate the rubber). You can also get artsy and add detailing with metallic paint, hot-glue rhinestones into their eyes (or down their backs), or twine them with ribbon.

The snakes can be attached with hot glue, but a good way to fasten them more securely is to impale them on a bit of floral wire: Run a couple inches of wire inside the snake, secure the entry point with a dot of hot glue, then bend out the rest of the wire and wrap it around the vines in the wreath. Finish with a big ribbon bow or a few black silk roses.

You could also expand beyond snakes and use rubber insects, fake eyeballs, or any other weird novelty item that strikes your fancy. Putting it up at Halloween is entirely optional; I see no reason why it couldn’t be left up year ’round.

Honk for Grandma – I don’t know who the driver is, but I want to shake his or her hand.

Infinity Mushroom – “Bioartist” Jae Rhim Lee is culturing fungi to rapidly decompose human tissue. She intends to be the first test subject once she dies.

72 Demons – A crowdsourcing project is looking for graphic artists to illustrate all the demons in the Ars Goetia.

Beetlejuice 2 in the Works – Noooooooooooooo….

Spiced Pumpkin Chutney – Easy, yummy way to use up extra pumpkins. (Hat tip to Linda)

Artsi Bitsi – Etsy shop that sells messenger bags and backpacks decorated with things like spiders and Deaths Head moths.

Abbot & Hast – Publications and tchotchkes for funerary professionals. They sell cute little model hearses and lapel pins with legends like “Embalming Artistry Professional.”

Zombie Invitations – Astoundingly detailed zombie-themed bridal shower invitations by artist Emily Brawn. I had no idea chainsaws and severed limbs could look so refined and formal. (Hat tip to Empress Pam)

Anatomy Ensemble – I have no information about this outfit other than that the designer is apparently Jean Paul Gaultier, but it’s pretty amazing. I particularly like how the ruched bodice looks like striated muscle tissue.

If you planted pumpkins (and you’re in the Northern Hemisphere) they should be ready to harvest pretty soon. If you’ve got more than you need for jack-o’-lanterns, a fun and tasty way to use the extras is to serve stew in a pumpkin shell.

Obviously, the best pumpkins to cook with are the kinds meant for cooking, such as Cinderella, cheese, or sugar varieties. A home-grown field pumpkin (which is the kind usually used for jack-o’-lanterns) would probably also have enough flavor to be worthwhile, but a commercially-grown one is going to be pretty bland. If that’s the only kind you can find, you may want to skip cooking the pumpkin and just use it as a serving container instead of part of the meal (put it on a baking sheet and warm it in a 200F oven for about 20 minutes before putting the stew in it).

For the Pumpkin:

10-lb (approx.) pumpkin with no soft spots
2 Tbsp melted butter
Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 375F.

Rinse any surface dirt off of pumpkin. Cut a lid in the top as you would for a jack-o’-lantern, angling the sides in a bit to keep it from falling in. Scrape out the seeds (save for toasting) and guts, making sure to get rid of any stringy bits.

If you want to get fancy, you can “carve” a face on the side by scraping features very shallowly into the skin. Make sure not to poke any deep holes. (You can also incise a pretty pattern if a jack-o’-lantern face isn’t your thing.)

Brush the insides of the pumpkin with the melted butter and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Put the lid back on and place it on a sturdy baking sheet. Bake about 45-60 minutes or until just tender when pierced with a fork (remove the lid and poke it on the inside to avoid marring the skin).

You can also use smaller pumpkins as individual bowls if you prefer; prepare as for the large pumpkin but reduce the baking time to 20-30 minutes.

You can bake the pumpkin(s) whilst the stew is cooking, or do it a few hours in advance and re-warm it in a 350F oven for 20 minutes.

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I’m a little fuzzy on who Count Tarakan (The Bad Ass Russian) is, but it’s clear that he likes to punch things. His cover of “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)” is glorious in its sheer, unbridled weirdosity.

(via Topless Robot, from whence the title was also filched)

(No prizes, but if you can answer them all without googling you get bragging rights.)

1. The actress who provided the voice for Lilo Pelekai in Disney’s Lilo and Stitch also played “the monster” in what horror movie?
2. In Jonathan Coulton’s song “Re: Your Brains,” what is the name of the zombie providing the monologue?
3. In Orson Welles’ radio adaptation of H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds, the Martians first land in Grover’s Mill, NJ. Where do the Martians in the original book first land?
   A) Horsell Common
   B) Pyford
   C) Bushey Heath
   D) Shepperton
   E) Primrose Hill
4. In the original Friday the 13th film, who was the killer?
5. “There he lay, a vast red-golden dragon, fast asleep; a thrumming came from his jaws and nostrils, and wisps of smoke, but his fires were low in slumber. Beneath him, under all his limbs and his huge coiled tail, and about him on all sides stretching away across the unseen floors, lay countless piles of precious things, gold wrought and un-wrought, gems and jewels, and silver red-stained in the ruddy light.” In which classic work of fantasy does this monster appear?
6. The most powerful alien/demon in H.P. Lovecraft’s mythos is:
   A) Nyarlathotep
   B) Shub-Niggurath
   C) Azathoth
   D) Yog-Sothoth
   E) Cthulhu
7. Cher’s son is a member of what goth band?
8. What was the name of the demons summoned by the puzzle box in Hellraiser?
9. Who wrote the story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” in which a captured Confederate soldier imagines an elaborate escape and return to his home in the brief seconds before he is hanged?
10. Stephen King wrote seven books using the pen name Richard Bachman. Two of these books were made into movies. What were their titles?

(Answers below the fold)

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It would be difficult to overstate how much I love these. The tone-on-tone look of these black “French manicured” nails are immensely striking, and could hardly be easier to do.

1. Paint your nails with your favorite shiny black nail polish. Let dry.
2. Overpaint the whole nail with a matte top coat (if your favorite polish brand doesn’t have one, Matte About You is fairly inexpensive). Let dry again.
3. Apply French Manicure Guides (or, if you have a steady hand, bits of clear tape) over everything but the tips.
4. Re-paint the tips with shiny black nail polish again.

Easy!

The image, incidentally, is from Chloe’s Nails, which has loads of other striking manicure ideas.

(via Haute Macabre)

Haunted Dollhouse – I posted about The Bloggess’ haunted dollhouse project a while back. She recently uploaded a bunch of more-detailed photos, and they are just gorgeous.

Buffy the Riveter – Sadly I missed the shirt when it was up on Teefury, but there are prints available here.

Pair’em Scare’em – Cute nail polish duo from OPI. They also have a collection of Spookette minis.

Mexican Skeletons Clutch – Pretty vinyl clutch with a sugar-skull detail. Something similar might be DIY-able.

10 Creepy, Sexy Fairy Tales That Should be Films – I agree with io9 that Snow White doesn’t need another retelling.

12 Craziest Eyeshadows – Several of these aren’t really eyeshadows, but the “Nightmare Before Christmas” makeup and the “zippers” are both worth a look.

Yep – Bwahahahaha.

Spooky Places – Google Map of strange and scary places to visit. The owner welcomes collaboration.

creepygirl – This is nothing more than one of those lifelike Japanese androids, and it does nothing more than follow your cursor around the screen, but DAMN it smacks you right in the Uncanny Valley.

Haunted Times – The magazine is re-launching and their “appetizer” issue is free online.

Naver – This Webcomic strip uses Javascript to unexpectedly animate some of the frames. It is unnerving as hell. Really. You have been warned. (Incidentally, I don’t think Naver is actually the name of the comic, but I don’t read Korean.)

This is simply brilliant.

Jen of Tatertots and Jello decided to take Ali Edwards’ lovely punch collages and make them a little darker. She used some Martha Stewart craft punches shaped like spiders and bats and some Halloween-themed paper to create a spooky (and completely humane) version of a butterfly collection.

She’s got a full tutorial with lots of photos and some great suggestions for doing this project on the cheap.

The article seems to suggest that she views these as seasonal decorations and only brings them out around Halloween, but that’s just crazy talk; these are attractive enough to leave up all year.

(via Ghoulie Girls)

After divorce, don’t burn the wedding dress. Wear it on a first date, then suggest a walk to the graveyard to “pick up the flowers.”
— emirkr

Hey actors in future horror movies: he’s right behind you.
— JordyHamrick

If you have a parrot and you don’t teach it to say,”Help, they’ve turned me into a parrot”, you are wasting everybody’s time.
— reddit

holy shit i’m filled with blood
— robdelaney

Never underestimate a person inching toward a goal out of pure, unadulterated spite.
— TheThryll

so basically the play opens with hamlet being real snippy to his stepdad
and then his pal Horatio
whose job is to stoke Hamlet’s retard fires with plenty of idiot coal
shows up all like HEY HAMLET COME HERE I SAW THE GHOST OF YOUR DAD
and hamlet is like BULLSHIT LEMME SEE
OH SHIT THAT’S TOTALLY MY DAD’S GHOST OVER THERE
HE’S TELLING ME TO KILL MY UNCLE
GOOD THING I ALWAYS LISTEN WHEN GHOSTS TELL ME TO KILL PEOPLE
guys when was the last time a ghost told you to do something constructive
like run the dishwasher or do yoga
i feel like ghosts only ever give bad advice
— Myths RETOLD

Screw peace on earth, if I had one wish it’d be for Christopher Walken to come to my house, tuck me in and tell me a bedtime story.
— Jason_maybe

Emo hipsters cut themselves with a really obscure knife you probably haven’t heard of yet.
— donni

Just once I’d like to see a girl dressed in leopard print bite the head off a girl dressed in zebra print.
— lianamaeby

I’m calling it now, Justin Bieber will star in a Back To The Future reboot where in he travels all the way back to the late 1980’s.
Line of dialogue from Bieber’s Back to The Future: “Kurt. Kurt. It’s Marvin- Your cousin, Marvin. Marvin COBAIN…. ”
— MoorishDignity