Shut Up!

Shut Up! was one of the HEDZ props that was designed specifically for mass production. The original idea for this prop came from a Shell Scott paperback where the villain was trying to impale the hero with a length of pipe that was hanging off the back of the villain's truck. He stopped quickly, the pipe went through the front windshield of the hero's car and that was the plan to kill him. (The hero escaped, of course. Otherwise it would have been a short-lived series.)

The actual production was pretty simple on this piece. He is a combination of MOdel Magic and Liquid Latex/Toilet Paper. (MM to build up the recesses and L/TP to give the skin a mottled look.) My friend Randy and I were becoming quite good at sculpting ears, as you can see in the side views (Shut Up! Left - Shut Up! Right) of the prop. (Well, I think we were.)

Since I had a pipe in mind when I created this particular prop, I used a piece of fence post when I created the initial piece. When I actually started considering the production cost of this particular HEDZ, I found out just how much round wood poles were! They were quite a bit more expensive than 2x4's. Not really needing the intruding object to be round for any particular reason, Shut Up! was re-sculpted using a 2x4 by the time he arrived at the 1996 Halloween Show in Chicago. Unfortunately for the flyer, which was done in advance of the pricing, the photos all showed the round wood post.

Speaking of the flyer, this was actually the toughest piece to name. I should explain that although all of the HEDZ are nicely branded and labeled here on my web site, I hadn't really considered naming them when I was creating them to stick in some room in a Haunted House. So we had to name everything. Horror being what it is, you tend to try and lighten the effect of the gore by giving things like this (allegedly) funny names. My cousin Bob, who was also helping me with the marketing aspect of this venture, suggested Shut Up! and it stuck.

Click the images above to view photos of this prop in the window.