Well folks, we settled into our new/old job pretty quickly… And Halloween was right around the corner…

#TheTravelingMac and Tracey have already been to a horror double feature at the Drive-in and we had already toured a really impressive #HauntedHouse in #Wamego,KS…

And now I find out that #StovepipeWellsVillage is having a #HalloweenDecorationCompetition… Well this spook is up for the challenge! This may just be the best Halloween yet!

I started simple folks… Just a regular #jack-o-lantern paying homage to the old #JohnCarpenter #Halloween movies…

With a knife stuck in his skull, of course…

For where is a better place to celebrate Halloween than in a place that has a name that is meant to scare… #DeathValley…  Muhahahahaha!

Even clouds were forming into mysterious looking #ufos to add to the #spookiness of the #holiday… The #creepy atmosphere seemed to be forming all by itself… All I had to do is add to it…

Then I found this guy at #Walmart… He only cost me like $20 and I had many ideas for this scary little lost soul… Our friend Robert was over the night before and he was quite loaded… So we put his hat he left behind and his bag on the skeleton, claiming Robert never left the vehicle last night… Lol!

So, with a #skeleton to play with, I decided to go with the #Zombie theme… I was having #WalkingDead viewing parties at #TheFalcon every week… So why not add to that theme…

The #Ravens were extra animated around this time… It’s almost like they sense the #macabre of Death Valley as this #deadly holiday inches closer…

I got this piece of Zombie skin from Walmart… I just used spirit gum to put the prosthetic in place… Then I cut some of my own hair and stuck it randomly on his head…

The great thing about #zombies who are clawing out of the ground is, they shouldn’t have eyeballs… Actually, any zombie dead more than a few weeks wouldn’t have eye balls at all… The eye balls are a delicacy for insects and rodents… It’s the first thing they eat and the eyeballs are the first thing to dry up and rot away…

So when you see rotted zombie corpses with their flesh hanging off and they still have eyeballs…. The director is not doing his/her proper research… Well, my zombie is going to stick to the natural order of this world and will not have eyeballs…  And as you can see, he doesn’t need them… I think he looks a lot #scarier without…

So what I did here was unbolt the lower half of my friend and took his legs off… So I could give the appearance that he is digging his way out of his own #grave…

I splattered blood all around him and loosely put silicon all over his hands and neck to give the appearance of ripped off, hanging skin…

I put claw marks in the dirt and dropped blood all around the claw marks for an extra horrible effect…

Then I chained my dear zombie friend to his own grave… A new, safe practice I have picked up in the #ApocalypticWorld…

I sprinkled dirt all over his bony body and shirt to take away the shiny shimmer of the plastic bones… The silicon I dripped all over his body helped collect the dirt, making the skeleton look more realistic, like he has been clawing his way out of his own grave for days…

Then I placed lighting to not only show this ugly monster but to also show shadowing, making the image that more creepy and realistic…

Then I put on the strobe and the rest just all fell into place… With the strobe blinking rapidly, it made the zombie appear as if he was moving and clawing… It turned out a lot better than I predicted…

But I certainly was not done there… What is a #HalloweenDisplay without the famous #GrimReaper?

And this is where I used the lower part of the Skeleton I bought… to give my grim reaper some bony feet…

The rest of him is just two pieces of wood nailed into a cross… You can see I have him mounted to The Millennium Falcon so he won’t blow away in the wind…

This grim reaper cost me next to nothing… I took an old sheet and spread black body paint all over it… And the lantern was something I had stashed away in the #RV…

You definitely don’t want to wake up and see this guy clawing at you…

Or this strange reaper hovering over you…

My main competition is shown above… He had a screaming grim reaper hanging from the porch, which screamed every time you walked by it… And he had this cool mirror hanging on his door, which showed images of ghosts and made creepy noises…

But the advantage I held during this competition was the fact I created everything myself… The only things bought are the skeleton, makeup, cobwebs, some pumpkins and lights… Everything is basically created from scratch, which is a huge plus when it comes to the judging…

And with all of the strobes and orange lighting, this #haunted Millennium Falcon was a #petrifying sight to see!

I arranged the lights so you wouldn’t only just see the horrific monsters I had created… You would also catch shadows which make the horrors look larger than they really are…

We even had an employee campfire to welcome in the #TorturedSouls… And boy did they visit Death Valley this year…

This image reminds me of the Original #TexasChainsawMasacre opening…One of my favorite films of all time created by the infamous film director, #TobeHooper…

And with just a little light, this creepy cadaver becomes quite a bit more ominous… For what you don’t see is just left there for your imagination…

The Grim Reaper almost looked like it was floating when the wind caught it perfectly…

The day of the competition, Tracey and I had to go out and reassemble the display because a huge #sandstorm blew it all down…

It was a last minute disaster which took us a couple of hours to correct but the result the second time was even more impressive…

There ain’t no rest for the wicked, as they say… When you create this level of horribleness, it pays you back with even more horribleness… Just one of the few setbacks to being a creator of evil… lol…

The judges came around and were impressed… I don’t think they were expecting such a horrible, god awful Halloween display…

I even created a pumpkin eating another pumpkin to add to this #cannibalistic holiday…

And #StovepipeWells even had a pumpkin carving competition which I think everyone was thankful I didn’t take part in…

Pick the one you like the most and let me know what you think…

They selected one person from each department to represent…

And some got really creative…

With wolves howling at the moon…

And creepy cat like looking jack-o-lanterns…

Everyone knows #ANigtmareBeforeChristmas…

This pumpkin was my favorite pick… I love that there is no carving and no light to be seen… Just metal and darkness… Very creative!

And here it is folks! Yes… The Millennium Falcon won! And for a prize, I am giving you a live video feed of the actual display below! Enjoy and Happy Halloween!