‘Tis the season for creative gourd art, and this week, the folks over at Dangerous Minds clued us in to these incredibly detailed carved pumpkins by renowned sand and pumpkin sculptor Ray Villafane. We’re blown away by the detail of these pumpkins, and even more so by how he almost makes the hard pumpkin flesh look soft and malleable, like a real human face. If you’ve got upwards of $400 that you are willing to spend on the best pumpkin you will ever own, you can even purchase custom carvings to guarantee yourself a wickedly wonderful Halloween. Click through to see some of our favorites of Villafane’s “gordgeous” carvings, and then be sure to head over to his website for even more.
With All Hallows’ Eve around the bend, a select series of crafters and artisans have decided to pay homage to our favorite novels, authors, poems, and fairy tales through the art of pumpkin carving. But the specimens below aren’t your regular, run-of-the-mill, home-carved jack-o’-lanterns. Replacing canvas with pumpkin and paint brushes with lino cutters, each piece presents a glowing portrait of an influential writer or a scene ripped from the pages of their works.Check out our gallery of mesmerizing jack-o’-lanterns that honor literary greats like Edgar Alan Poe, William Shakespeare, and the Brothers Grimm after the jump.
Amongst the abundance of saccharine animal costumes overflowing from party store shelves, there’s a select group of pet owners who have taken matters into their own hands. These innovative animal lovers have looked to literature, art, and history for costumes to create for their four-legged critters for All Hallows’ Eve, with results that are not only adorable, but inspiring. We’ve rounded up the best highbrow pet costumes you’ll see this Halloween, with appearances by doggy Romeo and Juliet, a headless Marie Antoinette, and even Andy Warhol.
Let’s be honest: Halloween is usually a time of year that women’s fashion becomes the focus of everyone’s attention. Sadly there are sexy, slutty costumes versions of just about everything, while men’s costumes are relegated to something reminiscent of the stereotypical, blood-soaked madman. And fashionable costumes? Forget it. Store-bought versions of men’s costumes are nearly non-existent, and not everyone has the talent to go DIY. This got us thinking about the scary style mavens of the horror cinema universe. Who are the best dressed men, and who has the most unique fashion sense? Hit the jump to find out, and let us know who gets your vote below.
So Halloween is coming up, and if you’re like us, you’re probably starting to think about putting together a mixtape for a Halloween party. If so, you’ve come to the right place, because we’ve put together a selection of some of the gore-filled masterworks that’ll be vying for a place on our playlist in a couple of weeks’ time. (Note: as much as we’re all for blood and gore, we’re generally less enchanted by songs that involve misogyny, rape, and/or other such unpleasantness — and anyway, these are party songs, and we don’t figure the likes of Mayhem’s “Chainsaw Gutsfuck” or Cannibal Corpse’s “Fucked with a Knife” are particularly laden with festive spirit. Sorry, death metal fans.) But anyway, disclaimers aside, here’s what we’ve come up with — what’s gonna be playing at your party?
Halloween: It’s always more complicated than you want it to be. Even if you’ve got your plans set, it’s a struggle to find the perfect costume — without resorting to the same crappy, overpriced, pre-packaged getups everyone else will be wearing. Thankfully, just as we did last October, Flavorpill is helping you out with a series of easy DIY costume guides tackling various pop-culture realms. Don’t worry — there’s no sewing involved.
In our new installment, we’ve taken on some of this year’s most memorable screen characters. Whether they demand our attention with fire (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), light up the celluloid with their gorgeousness (Brad Pitt, Marion Cotillard), or bear an eerie resemblance to their real-life persona (Mel Gibson), these Halloween costumes are sure to be conversation starters and win you the praise of spooky celebrators everywhere.
Are you a victim of society’s silly implication that Halloween is the only appropriate holiday for rejoicing in cheesy horror films? Have you been scrambling to watch as many outlandish scary flicks as possible before this spooky season’s end? Slow down, freak-loving folks, we have a solution that will keep your Halloween hunger satiated all year round. That’s right — horror films for every holiday! Can’t decide what to watch with your extended family after Thanksgiving football? ThanksKilling will be a great after-supper snack. Bought a whole king cake for your mouth but nothing for your eyes? Mardi Gras Massacre should do the trick. We’ve got something for all your New Year’s, Hanukkah, and Memorial Day horror needs after the jump.
If you’re not über crafty, fashioning a unique Halloween costume that sets you apart from the pack of party-store drones could pose a problem. Thankfully, there’s an army of skilled crafters and artisans who are willing and able to bring your fantasy Haunting Season ensemble to life — for a price. In case you have some extra dough lying around, we’ve followed up last year’s incredible list of high-end Halloween costumes with a gallery featuring extravagant Beetlejuice, My Little Pony, and Muppets-inspired outfits of the hand-crafted variety after the jump.
For film fans who are not entirely obsessed with the horror genre, October can be a long and lonely month indeed, since we’re seemingly expected to spend our every spare movie-viewing moment consuming horror movies as a kind of extended Halloween celebration. The trouble is, some of us just aren’t that nuts about horror movies — but there’s all of these “31 Days of Horror” and “October Horror Movie Challenge” threads, and nobody wants to be the killjoy who spoils the party. But remember this, fellow indifferent film fanatics: the nice thing about the horror genre is that it’s adaptable. Elements of the scary movie not only can be easily combined with those forms you’re more at home with, but have been. After the jump, we’ll take a look at a few of our favorite horror hybrid movies.
We’ve seen Mick Jagger’s name in the news a lot lately — and the funny thing is, the items we’ve been reading have nothing to do with his mediocre, new supergroup, SuperHeavy, who released their first album last month. First, there was Maroon 5′s inescapable (and dreadful hit, “Moves Like Jagger.” Then there’s Marc Spitz’s biography, Jagger: Rebel, Rock Star, Rambler, Rogue, which came out last month. And now, Gothamist reports that a group is trying to hijack New York City’s annual Halloween parade with a gaggle of marchers dressed as Jagger. But they’re not just going to slip into Mick’s leggings; they’re also planning to perform such hits as “Emotional Rescue,” “Dancing in the Street,” “Satisfaction,” “Time Is on My Side,” “Paint It Black,” Miss You,” “She’s So Cold,” “Start Me Up, and “Beast of Burden.” We would love to see this happen but have one additional suggestion: Please also enlist a gang of ’80s-era David Bowies to truly make “Dancing in the Street” worth everyone’s while.
