Thanks to the crew over at Spirit Halloween at the Allendale Shops in Pittsfield, the Geeks and I had an absolutely phenomenal Halloween episode. With a little creative lighting, and Rob’s fog machine, we were able to really make the basement haunted. In a gesture of thanks, I wanted to do a little informational piece on the items that you’ll see in the episode. Please note that this is not technically an advertisement – I imagine that our viewers might be curious about some of the items that you’ll see in that episode. After all, Halloween has quickly become a geek’s holiday, and it is always good to have costume references. If you are inspired by what your Geeks are wearing, you can hunt down costumes like these (or make your own!) to make your own Halloween awesome. And we’d honestly be flattered if you wore the same things Trick or Treating that we did on the show.

Costumes:

Jen’s hunter costume cannon be found as a package – that lovely number was on loan from her husband, an avid woodsman. However, the other two costumes were packaged pieces.
I was wearing a varriant of the Hooded Reaper – the version I had wearing was a store-only piece, with a separate faceless mask. It looked really nice under the lights at the studio, but was a cheap number. It came with a set of battery-powered glowing eyes that came broken. If you’re excited about the effect of the eyes, look for another costume. Otherwise, it wasn’t terrible, especially on set.
Trevor’s Red Ranger was one of the better classic Power Rangers costumes he and I had ever seen – the mask was a two piece, and looked really nice. The one downside was the one-piece suit was made for someone slimmer than Trevor, making for an interesting silhouette that we jokingly called a “Middle-Aged Power Ranger.” It also made using the toilet quite interesting.
Chris was clad, of course, in the Notre Dame blue and gold. The jersey was an authentic merch straight from Indiana.

The Set:

This is where Spirit Halloween really helped us out – all of the spooky decor pieces came from them.
The most striking pieces on the set were the two floating spirits. A white spirit, with skull and more amorphous body, hung behind Trevor and Jen. The grey ghost, with the skull, eyes and bare chest, was behind me. I personally liked the grey ghost – and, come to find out, it makes noises and lights up! Huh…the one we had was damaged, and didn’t do any of it’s special effects…a factor which was preferred for our set, honestly.
We had two birds on set – a crow, wings spread, was perched on the left-side avocado table, and a vulture watched over the plasma TV astride the game consoles. Both were excellent accents, which added a touch of life to the undead look of the set.
There were also two skulls - one of the center table, and one on the right avocado table. Of course, you can only expect the Shakespeare jokes that few once the skulls came out of our props box. In fact, at one point, I dual wielded the dead heads and intoned “Alas, poor Yorriks, I know them Horatio.” Because, after all, that is the correct way to quote that line.
Then, on the floor was one of my favorites – the animated crawling girl zombie. Like the rest of the electronics, we had no power provided to her, but she was one of the coolest floor pieces at the Allendale store. Her eyes light up, and she’d roll back and forth across the floor, scaring the hell out of people. I knew, as I looked for my costume, that she would most definitely be part of the Haunted Basement from the first moment I heard a tweenage scream. It was fantastic.
Finally, but certainly not least, there was the ubiquitous spider webbing. Because who can have a haunted anything without spider webbing? I mean, honestly.

So there you have it – the pieces that made our Haunted Basement special look really awesome. I hope all of you have found some inspiration from these suggestions. And remember – always, ALWAYS, purchase high quality items from your local costume, novelty and Halloween specialty stores. Supporting these stores keep money in your community, and lets these business know that we geeks appreciate their fine work.