I haven't worked on a Halloween prop for myself in months years. Between building haunted houses professionally, the pursuing other artistic avenues, and the shortcomings of apartment living (namely, having no yard to haunt) I haven't felt that Halloween urge to make stuff for a couple of years now.
But this week... I don't know, something just shifted. I'll probably investigate this further in a post down the road, but in short, I finally resolved myself to just make something, damnit! I challenged myself to make even one (1) prop, just for myself. After I made it, I could hang it on my wall, or give it to a friend for their yard, or leave it in the woods--the point is I will have made something, finally, after so long.
I decided to make a scarecrow. I'm still working on it. I'll share once I'm done, I'm sure.
As I worked, I decided to switch on a film very dear to me: Mr. Jones. In brief, it's a found footage horror movie shot from the perspective of a young couple attempting to film a documentary about a mysterious, infamous, and reclusive artist known only as Mr. Jones. He creates these "scarecrows"--unsettling sculptures that serve an unknown purpose.
By any objective metric, the movie is.... fine. I think the acting is good. The exposition is a bit clunky and heavy-handed at times. The pacing is weird. I really dig the concept and ultimately enjoy the story. But my favorite part of this movie is the scarecrows. Check out the clip (1:30) below to see what I mean:
The scarecrows were created by Pumpkinrot. Karl Mueller (the director) says Rot made about 18 scarecrows for the production.
When I saw this movie, I was just beginning my yard haunter/Halloween prop journey. This film inspired me to pursue my craft; to make creepy things and tell a spooky story by doing so. It seemed like the obvious choice for me to put on the TV as I busted out the branches and the paper mache.
I highly recommend giving this movie a shot. CriterionCast's James McCormick described it as "something like David Lynch directing a Lovecraftian film," and I think that's a pretty good description. Plus, it's free on YouTube (with ads, but ad-free with YouTube Premium [or an ad-blocker])
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