Frankenstein

I really had my heart set on either building or buying a life size coffin for my display. I found a few different plans for the construction of my own, but those were a little too difficult for me to tackle, and I was limited on time as well. Real coffins go for about $500 at the cheapest, and I was not willing to shell out that much on a coffin for the display. Therefore, I settled on a cardboard coffin that I bought from the Halloween Store for about $30. It was not the spectacular coffin I had panned on, but it served its purpose. I decided to stuff a dummy to put inside it and stand it up on our front porch.

Once I had my cardboard coffin I needed something to put in it. My first thought was to put another skeleton into the coffin, and stand it up against the front porch wall. However, my display was a little heavy on skeletons. For Halloween 2000, I bought a really cool Frankenstein mask. It looked very realistic, and all the kids were instantly frightened of me when I put it on. I came up with an idea to stuff some of my old clothes, of which I have many, and pop the Frank mask on top to make a Frankenstein Monster inside the coffin. The addition of a couple of Monster Hands from the Halloween USA store (yeah, I spend A LOT there, believe me!) and a pair of my old shoes made the monster complete.

I stuffed the dummy with newspapers in the legs and arms, with a cheap pillow for the torso. Getting Frank to stand up in the coffin was difficult, and if I had more time I would have created a frame for him for better posture. In the end I resorted to tying him to the coffin with fishing line. I propped his arms up straight out with the fishing line as well, and secured the hands with safety pins. For the mask, I had a large piece of black irrigation pipe cut to a foot in length, one end stuffed in the dummy, on which I placed the mask. The monster filled the coffin out nicely, with the black sides of the coffin acting as a frame against the red interior, which brightly contrasted against the dark monster.

When he was all finished he was rather delicate, but lifelike in appearance. I held Frank out of the display until Halloween day in order to minimize any wind damage, and as a secret weapon/finishing touch to my display. I had many positive comments about Frank, and he packed a lot of punch, especially being as cheap as he was to construct.

I also added a creepy guy I jury-rigged together with a robe and hanger. I bought a centerpiece for a table that consisted of a cardboard plate with a head popping out of it. I took that centerpiece, tacked it inside of an old black robe, and added a fake hand pinned to the cuff of the robe to create one of the creepiest props. The head is very scary, with a nice bluish gray color and open mouth. I stuck a hanger inside the robe, and hung it from our porch light next to Frank. I affectionately call this thing the Creepy Hang Guy.

Check out my improvements I made to Frank and the Creepy guy for 2002 over in the Monster Dummies page in the 2002 section. Big improvements over 2001, and much scarier, too!

Frankenstein