Links to Like-Minded Ghoulies

Currently my favourite Haunter's website. It's a polished, informative site that offers tips on corpsing, lighting and making distressed clothing for your gruesome goodies. The webmaster shares his authentic love of Halloween in each post, has an interesting gallery of props and haunt builds, and has links to videos of his haunt. Top marks.

Ray is an artist. He writes short fiction, has a gallery of his art, some videos and horror-themed online games...but that's not what gets him in my top picks. Ray has free, beautifully crafted paper toys that you can download, print out and fold into existence. They are awesome. So take a stroll in Ravens Blight, and be sure to pop into his Toy Shop.

I feel a certain affinity toward Arana Muerta, or "Dead Spider", though I have never met her. I find it rare to see websites that highlight the talented, artistic Halloween creations of women. Even rarer do I find fellow Canadians online who share their creative approach to paper mache creatures. The thing I respect about her work is her attention to detail. While haunters often pour their efforts into large displays, they tend to overlook (or completely ignore) finer details (mainly the little props). I'm all about small details. And so is Dead Spider. Check out her very detailed how-to's.

A friendly bunch of very talented people sharing ideas, how-to instructions and pictures of their haunts and props on an active forum.

This website is one of the first I ever found when I started looking online years ago for Halloween prop ideas. Most of the forums offered projects that were too complex at the time (wire the what to the compression who?) and just intimidating. Then I found the King family's website.

What I dig about this site isn't necessarily the end product they deliver, but the ideas they came up with and their obvious love for the holiday. The King family is the perfect example of your average clan who love Halloween and who don't let anything stop them from decorating. Their site could be described as somewhat cheesy, but I love the King family website. I'd like to scoop'em all up in my arms and give them a big bear hug. And I'm not a huggie person.

It's an informative collection of tutorials on how to get started, tools you need, and as posted on the actual website, you will find "an assortment of ghoulish projects and ideas you can try for your next Halloween Haunt".

Another vixen of darkness is the Howloween Queen, or "Ghostess Deanna" as she has named herself. She does brilliant things with papermache, has some spectacular how-to's, and gives her readers answers to Frequently Asked Questions. My favourite quote of hers was at the end of a how-to post, and she commented "Of course, the mouth didn't look right either. The good thing is, it'll be dark.. so who cares? I'm the only one who knows what I had in my head, so if he doesn't look right.. whatever." I've thought the exact same thing at the end of a project.

Canadian cartoonist Jay Stephens has a really fun blog about all things monster when it comes to cartoons, classic movies, toys, actors, and more. He's a big fan of Boris Karloff and has a great website of his professional work as well. If you go to his blog, be sure to visit his friend Doktor Viktor Von Kreep too.

Part Disney's Haunted Mansion, part Martha Stewart, the Love Manor is a home haunt worthy of the envy of Halloween lovers everywhere. Not only are the displays sophisticated and beautiful, the photography is stunning. If you like eerie elegance and creepy chic, this is the blog is for you.