Dapper Cadaver Blog » Gothic, Horror & Halloween Oh My!

The following are some of the suggestions we give anyone setting up a Halloween Party or Haunted House. Props we can provide are linked. All Halloween props are available for sale or rental. Email BJ at BJ@Dapppercadaver.com for a quote or more Haunt scenarios and suggestions. Note the importance of actors, timing, drama, and atmosphere as well as props and effects. Be sure to add eerie lighting and sounds!

Scene 1: The Dinning Room:
A long table is set with piles of bloody body parts and partial human corpses. Gothic tabletop candelabras sit on the table and 5 foot tall floor candelabras are around the sides. On the walls are hung changing portraits, grotesque taxidermy and bloody curtains. A vulture perches on one chair, a decomposed skeleton in another. Platters are covered in small bits, eyes, fingers, tongues. Other plates are piled with intestines, hearts and livers. Two actors sit at the table in costume feasting on edible brains, hands, hearts, and faces, instead of silverware they use dissection instruments. Another actor or animatronic is on the table moving and screaming.

Scene 2: Butcher shop
The butcher is an actor in a long white butchers coat with a black butchers apron over top. His apron is strung with a variety of wicked looking steel autopsy instruments. In his hands he has a real chainsaw which still works, but the chain has been removed so it cannot cut. Hanging in chains from the ceiling are several hooks, skinned animals, a half pig, a skinned goat, a half person, a skinned person, a full corpse, and several human limbs. The walls are hung with blood splattered plastic curtains. On a chopping block is a meat grinder with a human hand sticking out the top and ground beef coming out the front. He menaces the crowd as actors behind the plastic curtains reach bloody hands out through slits and beg for help. A row of axes hangs on the wall. Animated heads rotate in torture boxes.

Scene 3: Old Hospital/ Asylum
A Mad Doctor experimenting on patients. The doctor is an actor in a long white lab coat. He holds a steel pistol syringe with a retractable fake needle and has a reflector on his head. Another actor is bound in chains and cuffs to a vintage insane asylum bed. An equally vintage autopsy pump sits beside the patient. Shelves around the scene hold several specimen jars which glow under blacklight. Also on the shelves are plasma balls flickering with lightning effects, human skulls, and the mounted skeletons and mummies of strange creatures. A full size 2 headed skeleton stands beside them. An IV bag filled with blacklight responsive fluid hangs from an IV stand. An large x ray light box covered in x rays glows in the background.

Scene 4: Tribal Headhunters
Scene is a jungle with hut. Head hunter is an actor with a headdress made of lightweight skulls and feathers. His necklace is a variety of small skulls and bones. He holds a large plastic machete and a spiked club. Shrunken heads, severed heads, chickens and skulls hang everywhere. Heads on stakes dot the background. Bright Indonesian devils sit on pedestals. In the foreground a charred body rotates on a spit.

Scene 5: Graveyard
Scene is a graveyard, a few dozen tombstones rise from the ground, amid them a large angel, and 3 large obelisks stand. On the ground is an old wooden coffin, and a pile of dirt and a shovel. In the dirt several bones and body parts can be seen sticking out. A grave digger stands, with a steel bonesaw in his hands. His belt is strung with human hands, rotted hands, and skeletal hands all wearing gawdy jewelry. He opens the casket and inside is the mummy-like corpse of an old woman, decked out in pearls, gold and rings. This would be a good scene to work in an animatronic coffin popper. Grave digger can also interact with the crowd by trying to sell rings with the fingers still inside. Crows and vultures perch on the stones and in the trees. Rats are on the ground. Low lying fog creeps over everything. Moss hangs from everything.

laboratory essentials, originally uploaded by Boju.

WARNING: This article contains images and material that may be upsetting to some readers. While Dr. Victor Frankenstein is the epitome of the movie Mad Scientist, his experiments in reanimating the dead are positively tame compared to some of the real life beaker jockeys who earn the title. For starters, Dr. Frankenstein’s victims were already dead, and were criminals to boot. The most common victims of mad science are innocent animals.

With that said, let’s get mad!

14. Dr Jose Delgado

Dr. Delgado invented a radio controlled mind control chip he called the stimoceiver which could be used to stimulate emotions and control behavior. It produced a variety of effects, including pleasant sensations, elation, deep, thoughtful concentration, odd feelings, super relaxation, colored visions, and other responses. Delgado stated that “brain transmitters can remain in a person’s head for life. In a famous demonstration he stood in the path of a charging bull and caused it to turn away with his stimoceiver.

DIY Laboratory of Dr. Delgado: Brains, stuffed monkeys in cages, brains in jars, miscellaneous remote controls and circuitry, brain plasma ball.
13. Dr. Thomas Park.

Dr. Thomas park studies unusual sensory perception amongst mammals, which means his research is dedicated to the creepiest of creatures – Bats and Naked Mole Rats. While we all know bats are the air born form of vampires, many people have not been exposed to the shivering pink mass of flesh and teeth that live like a termite and look like an abortion.
MAD SCIENCE EXPERIMENT: Mole rats cannot be burned with acid.
“”Their insensitivity to acid was very surprising,” Park told LiveScience. “Every animal tested — from fish, frogs, reptiles, birds and all other mammals — every animal is sensitive to acid.” Was Park just throwing acid on a random assortment of creatures to test his theory that they hate it? And what did he do once he discovered mole rats couldn’t be burned? He genetically engineered a cold sore that would make them burnable again.

DIY Laboratory of Dr. Thomas Park: Laboratory glassware full of colored fluid labeled “Acid,” dry ice to make them bubble and smoke, habitrails, bats, naked mole rats.
12. Dr. Warren Thomas

Warren Thomas is a scientist who did a lot of acid in 1962. So much so that he thought it would be a good idea to dose an Elephant with LSD. The elephant, named Tusko, died almost immediately. He claimed in his defense he didn’t expect that result, saying he had done plenty of acid himself with no ill effects. What he did expect was the elephant to fly into a psychotic rage, much better right? Warren Thomas remains the only person who can positiely claim to have done enough LSD to kill an elephant.

DIY Laboratory of Dr. Warren Thomas: A video projector of “Pink Elephants on Parade” from Dumbo. Glass flasks labeled “Acid”
11. Dr. Robert Cornish

Robert Cornish is a scientist who, in Berkley, CA, 1930, managed to resurrect 2 dead dogs by placing them on a seesaw to circulate the blood and injecting them with a mixture of adrenalin and anticoagulants. Not surprising he was able to find a human volunteer for his experiments with a man condemned to be executed, and the state denied him permission for fear he could do it.

DIY laboratory of Dr. Robert Cornish: 2 dead looking stuffed dogs, a seesaw, scary large syringes, laboratory glassware, dog skeletons, dog anatomy charts and models, an electric chair.

10. Beaurieux

During the head chopy frenzy of the French revolution, Beaurieux decided to test the hypothesis that the head survived the blade for about half a minute. He discovered that immediately after decapitation the eyelids and lips of the guillotined man worked in irregularly rhythmic contractions for about five or six seconds. In another experiment he yelled at the severed head, it apparently opened it’s eyes in response to it’s name.

DIY Laboratory of Dr. Beaurieux: A guillotine, severed heads.

9. Dr. Vladimir Demikhov

In the words of Roky Erickson, “2 headed dog, 2 headed dog, I been working in the Kremlin for a 2 headed dog.” Demikhov is famous for the first successful head transplant in which he severed the head of a puppy and attached it to the neck of a full grown dog. Both heads survived and were hungry.

DIY Laboratory of Dr. Demikhov: stuffed two headed dog, two headed anything, tubes, laboratory glassware, cages, a copy of the song “Two Headed Dog” by Roky Erikson.

8.Dr. Giovanni Aldini

Most famous for inventing the Galvanizing process for metals, the good Dr. also experimented on galvanizing human and animal corpses as a spectacular public show. An eyewitness reported: “Aldini, after having cut off the head of a dog, makes the current of a strong battery go through it: the mere contact triggers really terrible convulsions. The jaws open, the teeth chatter, the eyes roll in their sockets; and if reason did not stop the fired imagination, one would almost believe that the animal is suffering and alive again”. In another show, Aldini pioneered electrocuting the brains of the mentally ill as a means of supposedly helping them.

DIY Laboratory of Dr. Aldini: corpses, body parts, plasma balls, electrodes, autopsy instruments, electric chair, straight jackets.

7. Dr. Sergei Brukhonenko

Many of us owe Dr. Brukhonenko a life debt for his invention of open heart surgery procedures, but along the way to saving human life, he discovered the means to keep a dogs head alive without a body.

DIY Laboratory of Dr. Brukhonenko: Stuffed dogs head, laboratory glassware, dog skeleton, canine anatomy charts and models, open heart body, heart models.
6.Guy Ben Ary

Guy Ben Ary is a modern day creator of living and dying robots. In one, he cultured a disembodied rat brain and hooked it up to send bluetooth signals to a robot arm half a world away. The arm held colored ink markers and could watch what it was doing and the people around it. Soon, the disembodied rat brain robot learned to draw. Another project is the “Living Screen” “Which “explores what occurs when we cinematically engage with a living screen and employs film theory to understand Bio-Art as a Freak Show’. The Nano-Movies are projected on Living Screens made from skin, blood, sperm or cornea cells that transform, react and change over time and eventually die. Therefore, it contorts the projected Nano-Movie in – unknown ways, and confront the spectators with issues such as life, death, virtuality and reality.”

DIY Laboratory of Guy Ben Ary: robot arms, mice, habitrails, robots, human skin.

5. Dr. Gunther Von Hagens

Another contemporary scientist pushing the boundaries of art, science, and performance. Von Hagens invented a way of turning human corpses to plastic so he could exhibit them in surreal, statuesque dissected poses which he is currently touring the country with. He was also once arrested for doing an unauthorized pubic autopsy exhibition.

DIY Laboratory of Dr. Von Hagens: Skinned bodies, laboratory glassware, severed limbs, specimen jars, autopsy table, shovel, autopsy instruments, embalming pumps, corpses.
4.Jack Parsons

Also known as Satans rocket scientist, Parsons is a founding member of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) and follower of Occultist Aleister Crowley. He had little formal education but was instrumental in developing jet and rocket fuel. He was known to engage in bizarre orgies and invoke the great god Pan before launches. He officially died in his garage when a fuel he was mixing exploded, but conspiracy myths abound.

DIY Laboratory of Jack Parsons: Necronomicon, human skulls, occult objects, laboratory glassware, model rockets, globe, moon model, star map, pentagram, black robes, astronaut suit.
3. Johann Dippel

Lord Dippel worked in the most famous laboratory in the world, Castle Frankenstein. Yes, THE Castle Frankenstein. It’s real and so is he. His experiments in anatomy, immortality, alchemy, and alleged grave robbing may have inspired the tale of another famous resident of Castle Frankenstein.
DIY Laboratory of Lord Dippel: Autopsy tables, laboratory glassware, vintage laboratory glassware, corpses, severed body parts, gravestones, specimen jars, plasma balls, autopsy instruments, a shovel.
2. Thomas Edison

What makes a mad scientist? Some are crazy, some are angry, many are both. Thomas Edison falls into the middle category, the angry scientist. After inventing DC electricity, his rival Westinghouse came out with AC electricity (invented by Tesla see #1). Determined to show just how dangerous Westinghouse’s product was, Edison invented the electric chair and went on an electrocution tour – using Westinghouse’s AC current to kill people. That would be like Henry Ford getting into a Chrysler and running people down to show how dangerous Chryslers are. The word electrocution hadn’t been coined yet, so he called death by electricity “Westinghousing.” His finest achievement from this period was when he Westinghoused a rampaging circus elephant. with a custom elephant sized electric chair headpiece.

DIY Laboratory of Thomas Edison: electric chair, light bulbs, knobs, switches, plasma balls, human skeletons, human skulls, charred corpses.

1. Nikola Tesla

No living man has ever been closer to a comic book super scientist then Nikola Tesla. He pioneered the radio and radio control technology which seamed like magic at the time but we now take for granted. He also invented a number of things that will always seem like magic, including the spark shooting Tesla Coil, light bulbs that glow from no known power source, and a pocket sized device that could create devastating earthquakes. His eccentric mannerisms and bizarre vaguely Austrian (actually Serbian and trans-European) accent lead to the iconic german Mad Scientist of film, television and cartoons.

DIY Laboratory of Dr. Tesla: Tesla Coils, plasma balls, anything that sparks or glows, switches, knobs, wires, and tubes.

chick halloween 1, originally uploaded by Boju.

In my previous post on the History of Halloween I kind of glossed over a very important aspect of the Holiday – Trick-Or-Treating. Well, I woke up that morning and found my blog TPed, my computer screen soaped, and a smashed pumpkins in my comments. So I better clear things up or smell some feet.

There are 2 persistent myths about the origins of Trick or Treating. One is that it originated from the Druids going door to door for sacrafices (see image above) and the other is that it originated from Mischief Night in the UK. Like a good horror movie, both stories make great spooky stories to tell yourself on Halloween, but shouldn’t be taken seriously at all.

The above comic sets up the traditional Protestant Christian belief that Halloween is Satanic in origin and Druids or witches spent the night going door to door kidnapping virgins to be raped and sacrificed to Satan. Jack-O-lanterns were left with candles made of human flesh.

Note that I’m drawing a distinction between Protestant Christians and Catholic Christians. Part of the anti-Halloween vibe stems from the conflicts between Catholic Ireland which celebrated Samhain and Halloween and Protestant England which liked neither Catholics nor the Irish and celebrated Guy Fawkes day. Catholics tend to see the connection between All Souls Eve, The Day of the Dead, and Halloween without too much of a fuss.

As for Halloween, it was never celebrated by the druids. The druids of Ireland celebrated Samhain. When Ireland went Catholic they started celebrating Halloween. But names and religions aside, there is also no record of druids going door to door on Samhain or collecting sacrifices. The celebration of Samhain involved bonfires, fortune telling, dancing, apple bobbing, and a harvest feast. The druids were pagans and part of their culture had some witchcraft elements, but they did not worship Satan, who is part of the Christian cosmology. Jack-o-lanterns came with the switch to Halloween, but they were carved turnips, not pumpkins, and were lit with ordinary candles or coal.

According to legend, there was an Irishman named Jack, who was renown for his drunkenness and meanness. When it came time to die, the Devil came to collect his soul. Jack begged him for one last drink and tricked the Devil into turning into the coin to pay for it. Instead of going into a bar with his Satanic coin, Jack put it in his wallet, which bore a cross on it, trapping the Devil. Desperate, the Devil offered Jack one more year of life if he let him out.

One year latter the Devil came for Jack again. This time Jack begged the devil for one last apple, and tricked the Devil into climbing an apple tree. While the Devil was in the tree, Jack drew a cross on the tree, trapping the Devil. Furious, the Devil offered Jack 10 more year of life if he let him down.

When Jack finally died, Jesus wouldn’t let him into Heaven because he was such a mean, drunken man. So, at the gates of Hell, the Devil refused him as well, saying “I want nothing to do with you ever again!”
So Jack was forced to wander in limbo between earth and the afterlife. He asked the Devil how he could light his way, and the Devil gave him a coal of hellfire, which Jack put into a turnip and carved a face on. Since the Devil wanted nothing to do with Jack, the Jack-o-lantern was placed at doors and windows to welcome in lost souls and scare away devils and demons.

So the original Jack O Lantern did burn hellfire, but aside from that was pretty anti-satanic. Plus, the devil in that story is so stupid.

The Irish brought Halloween to America in the late 1800’s, but Trick-or-Treating didn’t appear until the 1930’s. Until then, the two were completely unrelated, and above all else, Halloween and Trick-or-Treating are not Satanic.

Part 2 to come.

Happy Haunting from the Dapper Cadaver

haunt combo 2, originally uploaded by Boju.

Before I started doing film props, I was doing Haunted Houses and carnivals. They’re my first love, and I’ve learned a lot of tricks for decorating a great Halloween party or Haunt.

13 Tips for Decorating a Haunted House

1. Figure out your budget. I get a lot of people who think they can set up a haunted house for a few hundred dollars. A haunted house is an interactive environment. You can decorate a Halloween party for a few hundred no sweat, but for a haunt you absolutely need props, actors, lighting, and gimmicks. If you don’t have the budget for a a haunted house, but you want more than just a Halloween party, consider the following – A. a Tunnel of Terror: in attraction in which a small part of a larger party or event is transformed into a haunted tunnel. B. A Sideshow- set up at your Halloween party spaces for an exhibition of oddities with a host, a magician/ card trick table, a fortune teller, seance, and any other unusual performers you might want. If it’s an adult party, sideshows performances can include belly dancers or burlesque dancers as well. Also, renting haunted house props and decor is a great way to cut costs by 50% to 90% and insuring that each year will be completely different.

2. Take a Photo – It’ll last longer. You’ll need a photo op, someplace well lit where photography is encouraged (a lot of haunts are too dark or discourage photography). Preferably the photo op should be clearly pointed out and feature your name, like “Teresa’s Torture Chamber- Halloween 2008.” A souvenir like that gets shown to friends, posted on the internet, and serves as a reminder in coming years of your haunt. That’s great promotion. Popular photo ops include anything the guests can get into, like caskets, electric chairs, stocks, open graves, hearses, etc. Other great photo ops are giant monsters, celebrities, or famous stand ups that guests can pose near.

3. Give them something to talk about. Your haunt needs just one thing that really wows people to become legend, and the best haunt in town.

4.Flow – if your haunt is an attraction, people need to be able to understand where to go next. Try to avoid having guests enter a room and leave through the same door. A good haunt runs like a good carnival dark ride, with guests moving steadily along, visiting each diorama-like scene enjoying the thrills and moving on to the next one.

5. Lighting – randomly flickering lights are the best. I use plasma lamps, flicker boxes or battery powered candles. Strobe lights are migraine inducing and should be used sparingly, only where disorientation, a blow off, or stop motion effect is essential. Randomly flickering lights provide atmosphere, illuminate the area of interest, and prevent the guests eyes from adjusting to the darkness. Light and darkness is key to a haunt.

6. Go with the strengths of your space. If your building is old, go gothic or killer hillbilly. If its modern try mad science or serial killer.

7. Use actors. Make sure they’re outgoing but know where to stop (screaming kids good, crying kids bad). Also make sure they can take a punch. People can react without thinking when spooked. Actors transform Halloween decorations into an attraction. Arm them with safety weapons like a chainsaw without a chain or realistic soft foam axes.

In terms of using “plants” or “shills” with the guests, I’ve found that it often works great. A shills job can be nothing more than starting an infectious laugh, wow, or scream which helps the thrills along and diffuses the “too cool for ghouls” attitude some kids have. Once one person’s screaming it’s not long before everyone’s screaming and having fun. Shills can also be used if a gimmick involves audience participation, but be careful not to do something too transparent. For instance, say you’re doing a magic show, a poor use of a shill would be as the volunteer that picks the card. A good use of a shill would be if the trick should go horribly wrong, like sawing a guest in half and having blood and fire erupting from the box, or collecting info so your “psychic” knows his audience. I saw a haunt where a shill interrupted the performer because the gag going on was “unfunny and offensive” the atmosphere quickly became tense and everyone thought a fight was on the verge of breaking out, but instead the shill pulled off his shirt to reveal a dynamite belt that shot confetti. The whole gag went flawlessly from typical haunt gimmick to something tense and real to a genuine threat to a bizarre comedic release.

8. Stay away from animatronics unless your a geek or a gear head. You know if you are. If you have a hard time hooking up your computer to your printer, get someone technical to run the vortex tunnel and synchronize the robots. Also, tech is expensive, and haunts are dark, chaotic, and sometimes wet places. You’ll need to be able to repair things on the spot or be left with a 3K paperweight.

9. Don’t neglect the details. Things like cobwebs, drapery, bloody plastic, and chains can inexpensively help set a scene. Also set a few surprises just beyond the normal obvious spot of interest. It’s always great when people see different things in a haunt (and it encourages repeat trips). Also subtle “is it or isn’t it part of the show” kind of things can be very unnerving.

10. Mix distraction and surprises. Gather peoples attention on one large piece that seams to be about to do something. While everyone is watching in anticipation, hit them from the side with a totally unexpected gag. I’ve done this trick in a spooky doll room where while a giant doll rises and begins to lurch towards the guests, previously unseen doll people swoop in from the sides.

11. Theme is important. It’s great if you can tie everything together along a common thread.

12. Decorate your food area too. If you have a bar with bottles on display, mix specimen jars between them. Get a brain jello mold and make salmon pate in it to really look like brains. The Dapper Cadaver edible stage blood is actually a delicious butterscotch flavor, so try mixing it into your drinks or over deserts. Pour it over ice cream for what I call a Sundae Bloody Sundae. Add red food coloring to drinks at the blood bar.

13. Go big. If you’re doing a graveyard, remember headstones are at least 4″ thick and average between 2 and 4 feet tall, with monuments as big as 12 feet. Caskets are 80″ long, and cages should be large enough to fit a person in. A lot of Halloween stores sell scaled down merchandise to cut cost. If something looks too small to be real, it’s not going to read as anything but party decor.

Thats 13 Spooky tips for putting together a Haunted House, and keep checking the blog, as there will be plenty more helpful tips coming up.

unearthed skeleton 2, originally uploaded by Boju.

As part of Dapper Cadaver’s on going quest to answer all the strange questions we receive, today I tackle a biggie. The selling of real human remains.
You might think it odd, but I get asked for human remains a couple times a day, and every couple of months someone asks if I’m interested in buying some human remains that they have, for some reason.

Here’s the short answer: No. No I don’t sell, No I don’t buy and No I can’t help anyone find anyone who does. The laws on who can legally buy and sell human remains are fairly complex, so the rule of thumb to go by is this – buying, selling, or owning human remains is illegal

That’s pretty easy. “Why is it illegal?” I’m often asked. Well, because the sources of human remains are, at some point, living humans. The vast majority of bones “on the market” don’t come from organ donors, they come from China and Indian, where even licensed sources are under frequent allegations of grave robbing and dealing in prisoner remains. The rest of the bones that are being sold are archaeological theft, contemporary grave robbing, war trophies, criminal evidence, and a mixed bag of specimens passed from hand to hand for so long the origins, legitimate or not, are long since lost. The burden of proof is on the owner – if you can prove you bought your bones from a licensed medical supply house great, if not, you’re looking at a range of allegations up to and including accessory to murder. Even the famous Gunther Von Hagens of Body Worlds fame has gotten in trouble with the law for having illegal cadavers

Other anatomy stores have gotten in trouble with the law and heavily finedfor dealing in endangered animal remains and/or human bones. At Dapper Cadaver we only sell animal skulls of common livestock like pig, sheep, and steer, and US game animals, like deer. All other animal bones, both pet and exotic, are replica. Even our exotic taxidermy is synthetic. All our human remains are replica. We divide skulls into 3 categories – Halloween or budget is the lowest quality, medical quality is anatomically correct standard quality. Museum quality is the closest you can get to legally owning a human skull. These are props that have been molded off of real human skull specimens on loan from museums. The anatomical detail and realism is amazing.

I have been a bone collector and a nature lover all my life. I urge anyone who’s interested in buying bones to buy replicas. It’s the only ethical choice. Otherwise you are supporting or encouraging a black market in endangered species, fossil and archaeological treasures, and human life.

Skeletons are so white and beautiful, but usually they come with all this carcass stuck to them. What’s a person to do? That’s why Dapper Cadaver’s Strange Answers is here.

Well, you could bury the bones and let nature do it’s thing. This works quite well actually, but it takes time. And you run the risk of detritovores and scavengers making off with the remains.

A commonly held notion is that you can boil bones clean. Let me warn you, boiling rotting carcasses is a great way to make rotting carcass soup and a terrible way to clean a skeleton. You know how chicken soup on the stove fills a house with it’s deliscious smell? Imagine that’s a dead raccoon in there. That’ll cure the common cold.

Beetles are the best way to clean a corpse. The beetle in particular is called the Dermestid officially, but goes by many other names like the hide beetle, the carpet beetle, the larder beetle, and the flesh-eating beetle, because of what they eat – everything except glass, steel, and bone. Throw a buffalo sized head in to a container with a thousand or more dermestids, and they’ll leave nothing but the bones in a matter of weeks. Not overnight, but still the fastest game around. Dermestids are handy because they can crawl into eye sockets and nasal passages and get all the meat, and brains, from those hard to reach nooks and crannies.

Dermestids eat cartilage too, which is why you never see a real museum skeleton with the nose bones, ear bones, or it’s chest plate in tact. All of those parts are cartilege. Usually the sternum and center ribs are replaced with synthetics for display purpose. It’s also why you’ve never seen a shark skeleton, despite seeing shark jaws at every corner cabana.

If you want to start cleaning bones you’re going to need thousands of these little buggers. Many taxidermy shops sell guides to raising and using them, and many sell the bugs themselves. Just don’t let them get away. Eating everything is what dermestids do best. Just like the flesh eating beetles in The Mummy movie.

There are essentially two schools to making great cobwebs. Cobwebbing guns and stretch webbing. There’s a third technique I’ve devised I call Pro 90 Webbing, which I kept secret for years. Now that I’m working in the shop more than on set, I’m not doing cobwebs so much, and I’ll share my secrets in this article.

I find a lot of people when the want to go pro with awesome spider webs get the cob webbing gun without really knowing a lot about them. Cob webbing guns are great, but they’re no magic wand. I rarely use them because I find them to be a hassle to use, except for under certain circumstances. First, a cob webbing gun is basically a hot glue gun attached to an air compressor, so be aware that anything you spray down with these guns you’re spraying with hot glue, and there’s a good chance you will not be able to clean it off. The air compressor itself is noisy, expensive, heavy, and needs time to build up pressure. The final issue I have with cob webbing guns is the cheap ones and the homemade ones have a tendency to clog alot, and with most hot glue guns, it’s almost inevitable you will burn yourself if you do it enough. For these reasons I find the cobwebbing guns are best used on pro jobs like sets and haunted houses, things where you’ve got a lot of ground to cover, you never plan on cleaning it up, you’ve got some assistance, and you’ve got the cash to invest in a top quality gun and an air compressor. For doing home haunts, cobwebbing props, or cobwebbing areas you have to clean later, they don’t make the most since.

Stretch cotton webbing has a bad rap, but it’s actually pretty good if you’re patient with it. It’s also pretty much the only kind of cobwebbing that cleans up okay and doesn’t stain or stick to things.

HOW TO DO PRO 90 WEBBING
For really excellent, realistic webs, try the Pro 90 technique.
1. Start with ordinary stretch webbing, pull it tight and thin, but don’t worry about over working it at first.
2.Once the stretch webbing looks okay (not great), spray it with 3M 90 spray. This aerosol adhesive forms tiny strands that create cross webs. The glue also reinforces the cotton, so the strands are more visible. WARNING- this is glue, so it is difficult to clean up. Also keep away from open flames.
3. Now that the spider web is sprayed with glue you can sculpt the web even more. While it’s tacky, you can stretch out clumps of web, stick it to other parts of your set or prop, create holes in the web and more.
4. If you need the web to be more visible, try misting it with spray paint or dry brushing it once the glue has dried.
5. Use scissors to trim any excess.

The photos in this post show the same candelabra decorated with both stretch webbing and stretch webbing that’s been given the Pro 90 treatment. 3M 90 is available at most hardware stores and currently costs $9 – $15 per can.

This one was harder than I thought. A fetal skeleton should have all the same bones as an adult skeleton, right?

Well no, actually, and it depends. It depends on when you check. A human fetus has no bones at all until the 7th week. Two bones come in during the 7th week. The femur, which is not surprising as it’s the largest, hardest single bone in the adult body. The second bone is the clavicle, also known as the collar bone, an oddly shaped little bone that holds up the neck. It’s small, but think of how important it’s job is.

The rest of the bones develop from the 8th to 15th week (2nd to 4th month). So by the 5th month a fetal skeleton is complete. Well almost complete. As we all know the teeth come in after birth, as does the knee cap (patella) which grows in between the 3rd and 6th year. That’s why baby legs have such a smooth taper from thigh to ankle – no knobby knee in the middle.

The last bone that the fetus grows is the hyoid bone, also known as the lingual bone or voice box. It’s the only bone in the human body not rooted against another bone, and it’s the one that makes articulate speech possible. In animals the hyoid bone is simply another part of the neck, not the floating wonder it is in humans. In fetal development the hyoid bone doesn’t grow until the 36th week, the 9th month. Then a baby is ready to be born.

A complete chart of fetal bones and their developments is available here

Of all the causes of death I’ve recreated over the years none raises more questions than the case of poor Harry (Henry) Eastlack.

I created the Henry skeleton for a set based on the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia, where the real Harry Eastlack resides. Harry was born normal except for a big toe only slightly too large and irregular.

At age ten the muscle and flesh around his bones began turning to bone, a process called “Ossification” and sometimes poetically referred to as flesh turning to stone. Ossification is a normal process for growing and healing bones, but in Harry’s case it was running amok. The disease Harry had was named Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva. The first symptom was bony nodules on his neck and shoulders, which when removed, triggered the growth of large nodules. Shortly after the onset of Ossification, Harry was unable to move any part of his body except his lips.

Harry died 43 years later of pneumonia and willed his unique body to the Mutter Museum. Here’s the real Harry’s skeleton

FOP Ossification remains with us today and still has not been cured

The question of the day here at Dapper Cadaver was “How do you make fake human sashimi?”

It’s a familiar horror movie set up, knife wielding maniac slices some choice parts off their victim, nothing unusual there, but the part two of this gruesome torture involves slicing the bits and pieces thin. There will be close ups. And the budget is practically non existent.

If budget allows, pieces can be custom fabricated so there’s meat and bone looking material built right in, but budget didn’t allow this time so we need to go with off the shelf pieces.

One of the pieces getting cut off is the thumb. Now the detail on our thumbs is great, you can see the pores and even take a fingerprint. Add a nail, and you got a close up ready piece. Skin tone is going to be repainted to match their actor. The problem though is the thumb is hollow vinyl. How do you cut it thin without spoiling the illusion.

We came up with 2 possible solutions.

The first involves stuffing the thumb with meat and bone so you can cut into it and see the gore inside. It’s good because you can maintain a steady shot, but you’ll have to hold it carefully so the skin doesn’t slip and spoil the illusion.

The more classic effect is the old switcheroo. Knife maniac goes for actor and the first switch is pulling off the fake thumb for the real thumb. The maniac slams the thumb down on a table – close up on bloody thumb – then cut to close up of the knife coming down. Switch the fake thumb for a similar piece of meat, say a raw chicken wing, the fat part with the single bone inside and a thumbnail glued on, but don’t do a close up. The maniac starts cutting, you can go as thin as you want and it will look real because it is real. Leave the damaged nail for even more impact.

Here’s a tip, if your character is female, give her a noticeable nail polish, then match the nail polish on the fake finger. It keeps it clear whose parts your dealing with. Worked in The Big Lebowski.