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Welcome to our ongoing series spotlighting original horror creations. This time we have is an illustration titled “The Night Begins” by Director and Illustrator David Hartman, also known as SideshowMonkey on DeviantArt. Be sure to read out exclusive interview with the artist as well.

The Night Begins” by David Hartman
What was your inspiration for “The Night Begins”?

I really love doing groups of monsters reminiscent of the old horror magazine covers seen on “Witches Tales,” “VooDoo” and others like them. This piece also has a bit of influence from the old Hammer films with the seductive female vampire surrounded by her horde. I really like the classic monsters and tend to draw them frequently.

What sort of tools did you use for the piece?

This piece was done completely digital on the iPad Pro using the Procreate app. I also did a time-lapse video on the creation of this piece which can be seen on my youtube channel.

Do you have any projects you are working on?

I always have too many going on. I have a comic series called “the adventures of Rite” that is available on Amazon that is a mix of horror, comedy and adventure. I also have a project with Rob Zombie going on as well as currently directing for a Netflix animated series that really delves into horror and the supernatural.

Do you have any particular horror themes you like to explore in your art?

I tend to go to the malformed, the Frankenstein monster and other man-made creatures as well as humanoid monsters. I like the creatures that are considered evil and horrible but actually have a sympathetic side to them. I also do a lot of damsel in distress type art but where the damsel has a weapon or some other device to actually have a strong chance of fighting back.

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Do you have any particular horror films/books/movies you particularly love?

Tons and tons! As far as movies I love Jaws, The Shining, Hammer films and ALL 1980’s horror films good or bad. For books, I tend to read a lot of non-fiction cryptozoology books on creatures living among us as well as most of H.P. Lovecraft’s many stories. I also go back a lot to Clive Barker’s Books of Blood and King’s Night Shift collection. Two of my favorites.

Have you ever experienced something supernatural? Anything you would like to experience?

I’ve had the “shadow figure out of the corner of your eye” and the “strange object in the sky” that a lot of people have experienced but one memory really stands out. Not sure if this is considered supernatural or not but it definitely influenced my path into horror and the strange.

I was probably about 7 or 8 years old and my parents took me to the Ohio State fair. This was right before they got rid of all the freakshows and strange animal exhibits seen at fairs. We were walking through the midway surrounded by banners for two-faced goats and gorilla women when I saw a trailer with a painting on the side showing a bigfoot frozen in ice. I had to see this! I asked my parents for some quarters to go to the arcade while they watched a show. Instead, I snuck to the trailer to see the weirdness inside.

I paid my fifty-cents to get in and walked into the trailer. It was freezing, and I was standing before a block of ice with a bigfoot inside it. I later found out this was the “Minnesota ice-man” that traveled from fair to fair. ( if you are into bigfoot and weird stories you should definitely look this one up.) That day I was instantly hooked on the supernatural and finding out more about bigfoot and other creatures supposedly living amongst us.

I think this is one of the moments that hooked me onto drawing monsters. When I drew the story “Carnival Kill Ride” for the “Devil’s Rejects” comic book for Rob Zombie I put myself as a kid in the background seeing that trailer for the first time.

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Did you enjoy David’s illustration and our interview with him? Please check him out on the web. You can learn all about projects he has worked on on IMDB and you can also follow him on social media such as Twitter and DeviantArt. You can also watch Phantasm: Ravager on Amazon.

If you have an original creation you would like us to spotlight here on Haunted MTL please let us know!

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David Davis is a writer, cartoonist, and educator in Southern California with an M.A. in literature and writing studies.

Original Creations

Repaint Porcelain Figs Plus by Jennifer Weigel

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So I just keep on going… Here are some more repaint porcelain figurines and other madcap painting. OK maybe some of them aren’t porcelain, but still totally redone.

Pennywise It Clown repaint by Jennifer Weigel
Pennywise It Clown repaint by Jennifer Weigel

This Pennywise clown started as some plastic figurine from Italy. I was drawn to this because of the pretty marble base. It’s a nice touch, don’t you think? I’ve seen others in this series and honestly they’re all kind of creepy to start with, so they really lend themselves towards repaint prospects. Perhaps I’ll pick up more to redo in similar ways later on… Oh, and the eyes are blacklight sensitive, in case he wasn’t creepy enough already.

Lydia the Beetlejuice Bride repaint by Jennifer Weigel
Lydia the Beetlejuice Bride repaint by Jennifer Weigel

With all of the new movie hype, I couldn’t resist a throwback to the classic Beetlejuice, and this little bride figurine and teddy bear were just too perfect. Featuring more blacklight sensitive accents, like her veil flowers. And I don’t know why she only has one glove, I blame it on the 1980s… Or maybe she was just that drunk (you’d have to be for that wedding)…

Zombie Apocalypse Prepper repaint by Jennifer Weigel
Zombie Apocalypse Prepper repaint by Jennifer Weigel

So yeah, all those preppers ready for the zombie apocalypse – you know some of them are gonna get bitten. It’s in the script, what can I say? More blacklight eyes, cause why not?

Abigail vampire ballerina repaint by Jennifer Weigel
Abigail, vampire ballerina repaint by Jennifer Weigel

I admit I haven’t seen this film, but it sure looks fun. Mathilda, eat your heart out. Literally.

Sexy Sadie by Jennifer Weigel
Sexy Sadie by Jennifer Weigel

OK so this isn’t a repaint. Nor is it porcelain. What is it even doing here? Well, she’s cool and ready for a party and kinda reminded me of Abigail, so she sort of just tagged along. Sexy Sadie started as an Avon perfume bottle with a fragrance I didn’t care for (I think it was called Head Over Heels). Because honestly the bottle topper was all that mattered. And now she has her own disco dancing platform. What more could a vampish vixen want?

Portrait of myself with dark makeup and crow skull headdress, backlit by the sun.
Portrait of myself with dark makeup and crow skull headdress, backlit by the sun.

And feel free to check out more of Jennifer Weigel’s work here on Haunted MTL or here on her website.

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Original Creations

Beyond the Veil: Video Script by Jennifer Weigel

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I wrote this script for Beyond the Veil awhile back, exploring the bond between two twin sisters, Edith and Edna, who had lived their lives together. There was a terrible car crash and someone didn’t make it.  The other is trying to contact them beyond the veil…

Spirit Witch altered doll sculpture by Jennifer Weigel
Spirit Witch altered doll sculpture by Jennifer Weigel

Beyond the Veil Setting:

Two women reach out to one another individually in a séance setting.

One sits on one side of a dining table.  The other sits at the other side.  Each studies a candle just beyond her reach; there is darkness between the two candles.  The long table is barely hinted at in the interstice between the two but it is clearly present.

The camera is stationary showing both in profile staring through each other.

The women are both portrayed by the same actress who is also the voice of the narrator, who is unseen.  All three voices are identical so that it is impossible to tell which of the two women the narrator is supposed to represent.

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Both women are spliced into the same scene.  They are together but apart.  The two candles remain for the duration of filming so that the two halves of the film can either be overlapped (so that both women appear incorporeal) or cut and sandwiched in the middle between the candles (so both women appear physically present).  It is possible to set the scene thusly using both methods in different parts of the story, with both women seemingly flickering in and out of being, both individually and apart.

Script:

I. Black, audio only.

Narrator:

I was riding with my twin sister.

We were in a terrible car crash.

The car drove over the median and rolled.

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It spun off the road where it caught fire.

There was smoke everywhere.

My sister didn’t make it.

II. Fade in to the long table with two lit candles; flames flickering.

Two women are just sitting at either end.

They stare blankly through each other.

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Call and Response

                        Edith: Now I’m trying to contact her…

                        Edna: …beyond the veil.

Simultaneous:

                        Edith: Edna, do you hear me?

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                        Edna: Edith, do you hear me?

Together (In Unison):

                        If you hear me, knock three times.

Narrator:

Knock.

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Knock.

Knock.

Call and Response:

                        Edith: I miss you terribly.

                        Edna: I miss you so much.

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                        Edith: Do you remember…

                        Edna: … the car crash?

                        Edith: We rolled…

                        Edna: … over the median.

                        Edith: There was fire.

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                        Edna: There was smoke.

                        Edith: I could hear the sirens.

                        Edna: They were coming…

                        Edith: … to rescue us.

                        Edna: But they were so far away.

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                        Edith: So far…

                        Edna: … away….

Simultaneous:

                        Edith: Are you okay?

                        Edna: Are you hurt?

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Together (In Unison):

                        Knock three times for yes.  Knock once for no.

Narrator:

Knock

– pause –

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Knock

  – pause –

 Together (Syncopated):

                        What’s it like, on the other side?

– long pause –

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   Simultaneous:

                        Edith: I miss you, Edna.

                        Edna: I miss you, Edith.

  Together (Syncopated):

                        It’s so lonely here.

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 Call and Response:

                        Edith: There’s no one here.

                        Edna: I’m all alone.

                        Edith: Without you…

                        Edna: …the spark of life…

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                        Edith: …is gone…

                        Edna: … so far away.

                        – pause –

Together (Entirely Out of Sync):

                        It’s so dark.

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III. Fade out to black

Narrator:

I was riding with my twin sister.

We were in a terrible car crash.

The car drove over the median and rolled.

It spun off the road where it caught fire.

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There was smoke everywhere.

I didn’t make it.

Close up of sculpture
Close Up of sculpture

I had planned to actually turn this into the video for which it was written, but quickly discovered that my plans for recording required a space that was too drastically different from my new house (and new large gaming table) and that my vision for filming could not be well-fully executed or realized. So now it exists as a script only.

Portrait of myself with dark makeup and crow skull headdress, backlit by the sun.
Portrait of myself with dark makeup and crow skull headdress, backlit by the sun.

And feel free to check out more of Jennifer Weigel’s work here on Haunted MTL or here on her website.

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Original Series

Nightmarish Nature: Screwed Up Screwworms

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Yeah yeah, the insects tend to get ALL the attention here on Nightmarish Nature. But honestly, this one takes the beefcake. It’s the New World Screwworm Fly, and it’s as terrifying as the name suggests. And they aren’t limited to the Americas, there is an Old World version as well, as they can be found pretty much anywhere tropical or seasonably suited.

Warm weather woes...  Screwworm fly sipping a boat drink out of a coconut with a text bubble "Take me to the tropics."
Warm weather woes…

Revolting Little Buggers

The Screwworm Fly is a parasitic fly larvae that burrows into its host to feed, named because it seems to screw deeper and deeper into the flesh over time. This process is called myiasis and do NOT look it up online, you WILL regret it. They blur those images out for very valid reasons, trust me (and not because of pornographic content). And these maggots will continue to burrow en masse, rather than staying put as a botfly larvae would.

Do Not Do an Image Search on Screwworm Myiasis, Like Seriously – You Will NEVER Unsee That

The female Screwworm fly lays her eggs on an open wound or orifice of her chosen host… And not just one egg or a couple of eggs, no – hundreds, even thousands of them. Let’s let that sink in a bit, shall we? Or screw in as it were. Although any warm-blooded animal is a prime target, cattle are a fly favorite, costing millions of head of cattle to this sick and disgusting horror annually. And if beef isn’t on the menu, Fido or even yourself might be.

Too many maggots...  Showing one is maddening enough.  One screwfly larva with text bubble "I just keep on digging" and caption Multiply this by at least two orders of magnitude (regarding quantity not size).
Too many maggots… Showing one is maddening enough.

The Great American Worm Wall

In fact, this particular feature here on Nightmarish Nature is so terrifying that the United States has made agreements with all of Central America, even including countries that do not generally share its interests, in order to create a “Great American Worm Wall” to prevent them from spreading back into the United States. I’m not going to go into all of the creepy and juicy details of this bizarre science fiction freak fact, you’ll just have to watch it here on Half As Interesting’s YouTube channel.

Essentially, the Worm Wall is a complicated byproduct of scientists studying radioactivity on the flies’ maturity as well as the flies’ sexual lives and using this information against them to nearly eradicate the species and banish it from much of its former range. So, Peter Parker, if you thought everyone was messing with your love life before, be glad you weren’t bitten by a radioactive Screwworm.

If you’ve enjoyed this segment of Nightmarish Nature, feel free to check out some previous here:

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Vampires Among Us

Perilous Parenting

Freaky Fungus

Worrisome Wasps

Cannibalism

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Terrifying Tardigrades

Reindeer Give Pause

Komodo Dragons

Zombie Snails

Horrifying Humans

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Giants Among Spiders

Flesh in Flowers

Assassin Fashion

Baby Bomb

Orca Antics

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Creepy Spider Facts

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