Our Muddier Nightmare at the Summit of Horror Month

The month of October has once again been a mile-a-minute thrill ride filled with too many sleepless nights. We hit the haunts hard (and we’re not done yet) but its also been a huge month for the Mud Puppets. Ryan and I embarked on a bold concept entitled Horror Month — wherein everything we produced throughout October was both humorous and horrifying.

This all came about due to the resounding success of Our Muddy Nightmare, our 2012 Halloween Special. This year we followed that up with a sequel, Our Muddier Nightmare. I’m very proud of everything we produced during Horror Month and I hope all you continue to follow the Mud Puppets long after the candle inside the last jack-o’-lantern has been snuffed out.

I’ll invite you once more to check out the Mud Puppets on YouTube and subscribe; the Halloween Specials are particularly close to my heart and I encourage all to share it with your friends, family, and fellow bloggers.

Our Muddy Nightmare was done in the spirit of a horror anthology with individual sketches tied into the overarching story.

Our Muddier Nightmare utilized existing Mud Puppets’ characters to form the basis of a slasher flick.

Temperatures Drop as Haunt Season Heats Up

Friday turned out to be a well rounded and fun night of haunting. Our trip to Purgatory’s Revenge in New Haven was the highlight of the night. There we witnessed a solid show that put us in mind of the excellent gang at Sinister, and we had a great conversation with the minds behind the madness at this second year effort.

Once we departed we were off to Blake’s which impressed us with it’s size and scope. The 3-Story Haunted Barn offered a few enjoyable scenes but on the whole left much to be desired, but the Nighttime Spooky Hayride lived up to it’s billing.

Lastly, we made our way to Slaughtered at Sundown where we enjoyed a blend of elaborate scenery and haunting fundamentals. Full reviews coming soon as well as a look ahead at the final week of the season!

Now I’m off to finish up the Mud Puppets Halloween Special! I hope you’ll all give it a chance, until then you can enjoy last year’s special Our Muddy Nightmare or check out our Horror Month collection!

Slaughtered, Terrified, and Muddy

It was a long and enjoyable night of haunting for John, Cikalo, and I. We’d like to offer our thanks to Ken and his crew at Slaughter House for being such gracious hosts — it was there that we completed the haunted hat trick with trips through Slaughter House Barn, Haunted Maze, and Bloodbath and Beyond Hayride!

We marveled at the cornstalks which we estimated to be somewhere between twelve and thirteen feet tall; easily the biggest we’ve ever witnessed. We’ve saw some big ones before too, in 2010 The Haunted Farm in Pleasantville, Ohio sported stalks of corn so large we swore that they’d been gorged on the blood of innocents. Indeed, even that beastly crop was topped by the maize afforded at Slaughter House. We even watched as one middle-aged woman shambled drunkenly into the dense corn to urinate, and when she reemerged the cornstalks shifted and swayed violently as if a Sasquatch or a pack of wolves was about to emerge; a comical feast for the eyes!

When we had disembarked from the Bloodbath and Beyond Hayride we cut a swift path to the car, the hour had grown late and we still had a date with the Terrorfied Forest and Manor in Pinckney. In our haste I failed to notice a large trailer hitch that jutted out from the rear of a pickup truck — my shin took the full force of the impact and I hit the ground like a ton of bricks. My cohorts could only laugh at my plight as I rolled about on the ground and spat curses, but there was another haunt to get to so I bucked up and hobbled my way to the vehicle despite the fact that Cikalo believed my leg to be broken (it wasn’t).

Terrorfied Forest and Manor turned out to be an interesting and fun haunted attraction despite its’ various shortcomings. The Manor itself was all to brief for my liking but the Terrorfied Forest proved to be longer than expected and offered a few surprises as well. As with every attraction we visit I’ll have full reviews posted in the days and weeks to come.

In other news, Horror Month continued to roar on this weekend at Mud Puppet Studios. We now have a trailer posted that chronicles everything viewers can expect from the Mud Puppets during the season of screams. Furthermore, just today we uploaded the latest cable access episode to our YouTube channel, the aptly titled Murder Mystery featured interviews with the Wyandotte Jaycees and Reverend Thaddeus Doogoody. We also showcased two sketches, a clip from 2012’s Our Muddy Nightmare, and a video from our jaunt through Bloodbath on Biddle!

The Mud Puppets Present Horror Month

The wait is over, Horror Month is here! A couple of weeks ago my cousin Ryan and I announced via our YouTube Channel that all of the videos we released this month would be horror or Halloween related. We began shooting our Halloween Special in mid-September and as of now it is slated to be released in just two weeks. However, today fans can enjoy our first entry in Horror Month, Demon Seed!

We’re also heading into the cable access studio today to shoot a Halloween themed episode; Ryan and I will discuss horror movies, haunted houses, and share memories of Halloween past. The episode will also feature a murder mystery, creepy decor, and at least one off color remark about Elvira’s boobs! Our guests will include representatives from the Wyandotte Jaycees, the group responsible for Wyandotte’s 2013 haunted attraction Bloodbath on Biddle. There will even be video of Ryan and I during a recent trip to the haunted house when things went…well, not according to plan.

We’ll also welcome Reverend Thaddeus Doogoody formerly of St. Pascal’s School for Wayward Rascals. Reverend Doogoody appeared in Our Muddy Nightmare, the 2012 Halloween Special by us Mud Puppets. Reverend Doogoody will discuss Halloween traditions, his plans to picket Michigan haunted attractions, and likely damn us to hell!

It’s all a part of Horror Month and we’d be honored if you joined in the fun. It would be a great deal to me if the readers of Horrorlust became fans of the Mud Puppets as well; so let any horror and haunt fiends that you happen to know that Horror Month is here and we’re hungry for eyeballs!

This horrifying clown is down with Horror Month. Are you?

Reviews to Commence Soon, Mud Puppets

John and I successfully toured both Jackson’s Underworld and Darksyde Acres on Friday the 13th — just another notch in our belt; it’s the earliest we’ve ever visited a haunted attraction. I’ll have full reviews posted for both by the end of the week but generally speaking, we enjoyed both locations. Jackson’s Underworld has grown a lot since opening its doors in 2009 but still has a long way to go if it wants to become one of Michigan’s premiere haunted destinations. Darkysde Acres served up its usual cast of unusual characters, some of which provide the best interaction we’ve witnessed anywhere. We also had an opportunity to meet the owner of this madhouse and he was a cool guy indeed and as it turns out, a big fan of the Mud Puppets too!

The Mud Puppets, if I may indulge in a gratuitous plug for a moment, is a sketch comedy troupe that I formed with my cousin Ryan a little more than a year ago. We have a YouTube channel where we release new content each Saturday. Last year we produced a Halloween special entitled Our Muddy Nightmare and we’re currently working on this years entry, Our Muddier Nightmare. We also began a cable access show at our local station earlier this year and are in the midst of writing a Halloween themed presentation for that as well. We welcome anybody with a taste for horror and Halloween to check us out and subscribe. We’re also on Facebook, Twitter, and right here on WordPress. You can follow Ryan @MudPuppetRyan or myself @MudPuppetJoel.

August Heartstrings

The recent temperature drop has me in a fall state of mind, hell the neighbors are enjoying a bonfire as I type and the nostalgic smell is drifting through my open window.  As most of the country is set to enjoy the dog days of summer us haunt fiends eye the calendar with a quiet glee, firm in the knowledge that the haunt season creeps ever closer. With that in mind I come to you today with bits of news brought to me on the wind.

This summer I’ve delved into Ohio Valley Haunts, a website dedicated to haunted attraction reviews complete with podcasts. It always gives me a little thrill to find other people with that kind of passion for the haunt industry. Over the years I’ve stumbled across a handful of review sites but more often than not they’re poorly written and seem to disappear after a couple of seasons; it’s rare to find one with staying power that’s penned by capable writers. Ohio Valley Haunts is certainly an example of the latter, based in Cincinnati the group primarily reviews haunted attractions located in Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky. In 2012 Ohio Valley Haunts reviewed a staggering 116 haunted attractions. I would encourage anyone interested in the haunted attraction industry pay these folks a visit: Ohio Valley Haunts.

I’m psyched that September with feature a Friday the 13th — I’ve always viewed these days as a kind of mini-Halloween and it’s great that so many haunted attractions have indicated through social media that their doors will indeed open on this date. Last year when John, Richard, and I ventured to the Scarefest Scream Park in New Haven on September 15th it was the earliest in the season I’d ever visited a haunted attraction. The 2013 calendar represents a chance to set a new record and it’s an opportunity I just can’t pass up — I’ll be spending Friday the 13th haunting!

There’s a documentary due out later this month titled Monsters Wanted, which highlights a couples’ foray into the haunted attraction industry. I’ve watched the trailer and the documentary looks very interesting, if not inspirational. The trailer is available at this website: Monsters Wanted.

Crazy Bob Turner of the Haunted Hydro has been dropping hints on Facebook regarding the 2013 theme of Fremont’s fabled haunt and his words hold promise. He and his crew are overhauling the Hydro and are primed to put a macabre twist on famous fairy tales and other cherished childhood favorites. If at the end of the day the execution matches the ambition then it should be an exciting year at the Haunted Hydro. I’m a big fan of the Haunted Hydro — it may not be the largest or most frightening haunted attraction but there’s a presence about the place; it’s as if  the very spirit of Halloween walks the grounds. If you want more information on Crazy Bob and his twisted bunch of miscreants just click the link: Haunted Hydro.

Lastly, I’m proud to announce that the Mud Puppets, the sketch comedy troupe my cousin and I comprise, will feature another Halloween special this fall. In 2012 we released Our Muddy Nightmare which was received well by many in the haunted house industry. The script is yet to be written for our 2013 offering but the plot has already been established. We anticipate that shooting will commence early to mid September.

October slips into November

More than any other year before it the 2012 haunt season went by in a whirlwind blur. I am drained, exhausted, and spent. We ended the season last Saturday with a raucous visit to Darksyde Acres in Jonesville and the team there did not disappoint. I still have a number of reviews to write and by God they will be written — beginning with our trip to Krazy Hilda’s and return to Slaughter House Adventure for the Blood Bath and Beyond Hayride on Friday, October 26. I’m aiming to post at least one of those tomorrow evening by the latest and after that I’ll chronicle our visit to Haunt for Hunger and The Scream Machine which took place the following night. Reviews are also coming from our Halloween outing which saw us stop at Dimensions in Darkness and Terror Town, and of course I’ll record all of the outlandish nonsense that occurred at the indomitable Darksyde Acres!

In the mean time I’d like to suggest that all lovers of horror and Halloween check out the Mud Puppets Halloween Special, Our Muddy Nightmare — right here: Our Muddy Nightmare 

All Hallow’s Eve, Our Muddy Nightmare

As I mentioned last night, John and I will venture to Maumee, Ohio this evening for Dimensions in Darkness and Terror Town. If what I’ve read about Dimensions of Darkness is true then we will surely have a Halloween to remember — voices on the wind carry to me tales of frightening intensity cocooned within an old school approach. Terror Town has me excited as well, the minds behind the madness here never fail to whip up some new trick or outrageous animatronic. Oh, how the haunt season does delight with all of it’s twists and turns — this will be the fifth consecutive year that I’ve visited Mayor Worm Face’s twisted town — you have to be doing more than a couple of things right to possess that sort of draw.

In other news, I’m very proud and excited to announce that the Mud Puppets Halloween Special, titled Our Muddy Nightmare has been released! I burned the midnight oil tying up loose ends and eagerly await feedback. If you’re a reader of this blog and you aren’t familiar with the Mud Puppets, I’ll fill you in — my cousin and I produce a sketch comedy show on YouTube. We began shooting this past June and have continued ever since, Out Muddy Nightmare is our fifth episode. I welcome any and all readers of Horrorlust to check us out — oh yeah, we’re also running for President.

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Happy Halloween!