Jeremy D Brooks

Yeah…Cauldron Creep. I’m not sure who names these things, but…there ya go.

Wire frame for the cauldron

This is the biggest build I’m doing this year, and my first animatronic.

The cauldron is a wire frame form coated in my favorite Halloween junk: Monster Mud, a mix of black paint and joint compound, which is messy as hell, impossible to work with, and really fun. The bubbling goo is spray foam—Great Stuff. If you get Great Stuff on your hands, you’re stuck with it for about a week…I go through about thirty pairs of latex gloves in October.

The body is PVC pipe, burlap shroud, and a corpsed skull, much like last year’s Jerky Boy. I hit it with a light coat of UV-activated paint so it has a nice greenish glow under a black light.

The action is driven by a plain ol’ windshield wiper motor…notice how his left arm is floppy and his right arm only moves at the wrist—that’s the key to the illusion. In person, you can see the body flex at the joints just slightly, which gives it a bit more realism.

Creepy's skeleton...I used Kate Moss as inspiration.

The video is pretty detailed…I made it for the gang at HalloweenForum, they like seeing the nitty-gritty workings.

One more big prop to showcase this year, and then I’ll post some final walkthroughs around 11/2 or so.

Creepy prepares for his cucumber mask and mango scrub

Cauldron Creep, aka "Lunch Lady"

If you followed me on my old blog, you’ll know that I’m kind of insane about Halloween props.

Despite having any kind of tangible time to spend, any money to invest, or any real artistic talent, I’ve decided to continue the tradition.

The first prop this year is a quick and dirty one: take a recycled blucky skeleton, throw some clothes on it, wrap it in nylon webbing, hang it up, and drop a few dozen spiders on it.

And you get an instant Spider Victim:

Horrible fate or family picnic? All a matter of perspective.

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Also, be sure to swing by and check out my guest essay at Aaron Polson’s blog…

Amazon just released this awesome new feature this morning: online book previews. Very nice. Beta, apparently, but looks pretty darn spiffy.

So, start your day with the disturbing opening to Amity, and a big bowl of fiber-rich cereal…