- In this special edition of "Arteffects," visit the horrifying house of Harrelloween.

- [Jason] We put out an increasing number of creatures and props, just all the magic that kind of encompasses Halloween.

(spooky music) - [Beth] Take an interdisciplinary look into the macabre.

- That's essentially a story about a memory come to life through art.

(upbeat music) - [Beth] The grizzly art of moulage.

(upbeat music) - [Lynzie] People are realizing that it's worth their while to actually go out and do this moulage and make people look like they're realistic injuries.

- [Beth] And go behind the scenes into a haunted house.

- [Holly] You will encounter monsters jumping out at every corner to give you a Halloween experience.

- It's all ahead on this Halloween edition of "Arteffects."

(upbeat music) - [Announcer] Funding for "Arteffects" is made possible by Sandy Raffealli with Bill Pearce Motors.

Meg and Dillard Myers.

In memory of Sue McDowell.

The Carol Franc Buck Foundation.

And by the annual contributions of PBS Reno members.

- Hello, I'm Beth MacMillan, and welcome to this special edition of "Arteffects."

In this episode, you're in for a wickedly good time.

We've dusted off the cobwebs and summoned the spirits of our past segments that feature spooky or Halloween-esque art.

For our first segment, we meet a couple who goes all out for this haunting holiday, with giant spiders, skeletons, witches, and more, Jason and Sarah Harrell of Sparks choose each creature with care and artistry.

(spooky music) (wolf howling) - I'm Jason.

- I'm Sarah.

- [Both] And together, and together we're Harrelloween.

- As a kid, my family didn't, they celebrated Halloween differently, and we didn't get to go trick or treating.

We had harvest parties and things like that, so I didn't get to get into the spooky creepy stuff of Halloween.

Couldn't even carve pumpkins for a while.

So just as I grew up and know you can't do something the way you want to do it or the way the rest of of the world does it kind of was motivation of why I've always liked Halloween.

And then when we met, we both loved Halloween, and it kind of evolved and blossomed from there.

- I've loved horror movies my entire life, so that kind of goes hand in hand oftentimes with Halloween.

And I've always loved Halloween and I grew up in the sticks of North Carolina where Halloween wasn't really much of a thing.

Missed out on a lot of that growing up, and I think I'm just making up for it now in adulthood.

- It's like we found somebody that we could really make something cool and grow our love of Halloween.

A true partner that has the same fun things about Halloween that we'd like to do.

- [Jason] Plus we love just being creative together, and I think we work together very well.

I'm very fortunate that I found her to grow that with.

- Yeah, and I think because it's been such a passion for both of us, it's really evolved immensely into what we do today.

And it's fun to have somebody who has that same passion as you.

It's fun.

- To say the very least.

(bright music) - [Sarah] Come August is when we really kind of start getting into gear and thinking about building ideas that we found throughout the year.

- [Jason] And then everything on the outside has to be done by October.

That's always our number one mission is to have the outside ready to go for October.

We put out an increasing number of creatures and props, tons and tons and tons of lights, sounds, just all the magic that kind of encompasses Halloween, we really try to just get our personalities out there.

- [Sarah] We got a family of spiders out there, Charlotte, Webster, Spencer, and Cobb is the newest one.

We got a 12 foot skeleton, got a family of witches, lots of ghosts and almost 300 pumpkins out there.

- [Jason] Roughly 300 pumpkins, the majority of which are on the roof line and sprinkled all throughout the property.

- What we build out there is our ideas in our head where we wanna create something and you bring it to life and it has our own touch on it too, you know?

Yeah, I made a a 10 foot sand worm out there from "Beetlejuice," but I made it my own, or put these spiderwebs with these giant spiders, it's all a form of art.

I mean it's not your typical Picasso that you'd see in the museum, but it's just our own interpretation on things that we love and making them in real life.

Absolutely.

(spooky music) We do have cameras on all everything outside, so we're checking that for what we call looky-boos instead of looky-loos, just to see how many people come in and enjoy it.

And so it goes by so fast on Halloween, but leading up to it, I mean every night we take a walk out there and bask in the Halloween glow and see things that we need to tweak the next day.

So that's what is a good feeling throughout the month and not just on Halloween.

- Especially in times of the world where things may not be the happiest, and it can be stressful, people are pretty appreciative of just trying to flood the neighborhood with that spirit and that happiness.

- [Sarah] We love what we do, it's so fun for us, and it's really cool to see other people enjoying it too.

- To see more Halloween decor, follow the Harrells on Instagram @harrelloween.

Up next, let's take a nostalgic journey into the macabre artwork of Meg Regelous as we immerse ourselves into "Haunted," a multidisciplinary art installation that transforms the Sierra Arts Gallery in downtown Reno into an atmosphere of calm, mystery, and sentimentality.

(dramatic music) - I am drawn to the macabre style and also content naturally.

Ever since I was very young, I've always admired it in paintings and drawings and etchings.

Growing up, I would look at art, I'd look at the world around me, animals, bird's nests, bones, my mother's anatomical books, and all of that fed my imagination.

My name is Meg Regelous, I'm an interdisciplinary artist.

I would describe my art as a little experimental, but also honoring old traditional art.

"Haunted" is a immersive installation at the Sierra Arts Gallery in Reno.

- The Sierra Arts Gallery's new mission is to bring contemporary cutting-edge art that inspires creativity and stimulates dialogue.

And this current exhibition is one that I'm very proud of.

It tells a story, which is what we want to do with all of our shows, but this one in particular tells a story about memory and sentiment, things that we've regretted in the past, how we could relate with that and move forward.

It's beauty and sadness all wrapped up in one.

- This show is very much about during a pivotal point in my youth between the ages of about 11 to 13, my family essentially disbanded, and it definitely affected me.

And so this show is specifically a very loving sort of exorcism of letting all of that go because I would really hold on to anything that represented that lost time in my life.

And it's essentially a story about a memory come to life through art.

The bathroom element in the immersive installation that is "Haunted" is made up of a Hydrocal hand and some porcelain, essentially body parts, in this case, my torso and my face.

It's also made up of a cast-iron sink stand and a found cast-iron clawfoot tub.

In the painting "Fur," there's a direct reference to the art of Maurice Sendak, specifically from his book "Where the Wild Things Are."

And the painting is very much a reference to my childhood.

I also like to meditate on mortality.

It informs my work and translates seamlessly into the macabre.

I think it's a very beautiful way of magnifying the preciousness of life and reminding me of its brevity.

To be able to share that letting go with others is a great privilege and it's helped me a lot.

- So the gallery is twofold.

One, we're bringing art to show to our community to inspire them, but we also wanna work with younger artists who are new or emerging so that we can teach them and nourish them as part of our motto.

I'm very excited that we are able to get her, and she's put a ton of work into this exhibition and it really shows and I can't wait to see that next step of what she's going to do.

- And now it's time for this week's art quiz.

The beloved jack-o'-lantern tradition started in Ireland over a century ago.

Originally, scary or funny faces would be carved into turnips or whatever vegetables were available.

But exactly what was the purpose of these jack-o'-lanterns?

Is the answer A, to honor deceased relatives, B, to light the way lost souls, C, to mark the end of the harvest season, or D, to ward off evil spirits?

Stay tuned for the answer.

This next segment is not for the faint of heart.

Moulage is the art of applying mock injuries for the purpose of training emergency response teams.

These realistic-looking wounds are made by hand, requiring talent and expertise.

Let's meet an artist in Carson City who makes these realistic and sometimes gruesome works of art.

- So the stuff I do, injury simulation makeup, can look really gory, but it's all fake.

Everything you're about to see is completely fake, fake blood and guts.

So enjoy.

(gentle music) My name is Lynzie Ruecker and I do injury simulation makeup.

I own a company called Image Perspectives here out of Carson City, Nevada.

Moulage is actually a French term meaning to make the mold of, but in nowadays terms, it means to make someone look horribly injured.

So it's injury simulation makeup.

Image Perspectives was born out of the need for realistic injury simulation makeup back about 32 or more years ago.

My grandmother started the business and she worked for the Nevada Division of Emergency Management, and she was the one who put on all the disaster exercises and they were putting together these people that were wearing like this wound on their arm that was just a strap on piece of plastic and it never looked realistic.

And so my grandmother said, "Everybody's not getting any training.

They're laughing at these injuries.

It's a total joke to them.

Let's do something better than this.

Let's actually evoke some emotion and get some actual training involved."

She was trained in theatrical makeup when she was in high school and beyond, and she got into the blood, guts, and gore stuff and just kind of developed Image Perspectives.

We were the first of its kind and we have since spawned all of the kind of stuff that's been happening around the moulage industry.

There is training involved when an actual disaster happens like 9/11.

And in order to have our first responders and our emergency personnel go out and not be shell-shocked for instance, it really helps to kind of de-traumatize and prepare them for what to do if the real thing were to happen.

People are realizing that it's worth their while to actually go out and do this moulage and make people look like their realistic injuries are applied to real people instead of just on a piece of paper or a card that says I'm injured.

(dramatic music) The other side to making things look as realistic as possible in this moulage business is there's definitely a Halloween kind of theme.

I definitely take into play character makeup, making anything from Frankenstein to a fantasy little fairy kind of a character or something like that.

I would say that my specialty when it comes to doing character makeup and that kind of stuff is definitely on the orient of the blood, guts, and gore.

I love zombies.

Everybody loves zombies.

It's definitely a thing.

And I can make a mean zombie.

I like to do the stuff that is a little bit more in-depth and has some feeling to it that's kind of a little creepy.

That's kind of my thing.

The product that I use is called Effects Gel or Gel Effects, it's the same kind of thing, which is actually a liquid when it's hot and a solid when it's cooled down.

When we go to pre-make an injury simulation wound, we will pour out the skin piece, let that solidify over time, maybe about a minute to a day, and then we'll cut out the center of it, make the wound itself in various different ways depending on the kind of wound you're actually looking for.

And we'll apply the wound piece to our person and stage blood and let them go out.

So when I do a realistic burn simulation, I'll take the Effects Gel, while it's warm, I'll be able to scoop it up more or less and then stick it on the skin and do this tapping motion.

And then we let that solidify and then we put another layer of Effects Gel that's a different color like blood in the center of that and wipe it clean and it looks like a realistic burn.

And it really feels like realistic skin.

When you put it on and you do a really nice skin edge, then you can powder it, and it feels just like baby butt smooth.

It's just like real skin.

(gentle music) What I get out of doing my moulage is to know that I'm helping people.

I've known, especially from things like 9/11 and disasters that happen around us, I'm very lucky to be a backend part of that and kind of provoke at least this realism and this feeling of, "Hey guys, this stuff happens.

Let's do something about this."

And I feel very lucky to be able to be a part of that in a holistic kind of a feeling.

My main inspiration for my injury simulation stuff is definitely my grandmother.

Her starting the business 32 years ago inspired everyone around her and obviously myself as growing up because I used to count inventory of bottles of blood when I was like 11 and she'd pay me five bucks and it was awesome because I didn't know any better.

But growing up with that, my inspiration was my grandmother and my mom.

Being able to work with them so closely and grow up with this has definitely been very heartfelt, and I'm very proud to have been able to do that.

- To learn more, visit moulage.net.

And now let's review this week's art quiz.

The beloved jack-o'-lantern tradition started in Ireland over a century ago.

Originally, scary or funny faces would be carved into turnips or whatever vegetables were available.

But exactly what was the purpose of these jack-o'-lanterns?

Is the answer A, to honor deceased relatives, B, to light the way lost souls, C, to mark the end of the harvest season, or D, to ward off evil spirits?

And the answer is D, to ward off evil spirits.

Every year, a team of dedicated artists work for months to put together a haunted experience in the heart of Reno.

One of these artists is artifacts producer Guinivere Clark whom you can see in the haunt as a scare actor.

Let's go behind the scenes with Guinevere and see how the Dark Corner Haunted House came about.

- The story you are about to see may contain graphic images of blood, gore, flashing lights, and sharp noises.

But hey, it's all in fun.

(upbeat music) - Hi there, my name is Guinivere Clark and I'm a PBS Reno content creator.

I'm about to go inside the Dark Corner Haunt in downtown Reno at the National Bowling Stadium.

As a scare actor for this haunt, I get to take you behind the scenes with me.

So come on, let's go.

- So we just got a tour of the place, walking around now, getting a feel for it.

It's gonna be really cool.

Like they put a ton of work into this place, it's gonna be awesome.

I'm really looking forward to opening night when we get to scare some people.

But in the meantime, let's meet the artist who organized this whole thing and put it all together.

- I'm an artist.

I went to art school at Savannah College of Art and Design for fine art sculpture.

And during college, I got involved in Netherworld Haunted House.

Little did I know I was working for one of the most wonderful and elaborate productions in the haunt industry.

This form of creativity and the people I met and the family that I got out of it and the way it helped me push my creative endeavors has always affected me as an artist.

The people you can meet and the friendships you can make and really the family environment that I have had working in the hunt industry is something I want to bring to Reno.

Junkee's Dark Corner Haunt is an elaborate immersive walkthrough experience for Halloween lovers.

It will be a theatrical production where you walk through sets and fabricated environments where you will encounter theatrical trained actors and monsters jumping out at every corner to give you a thrill and a Halloween experience.

- This year, we will be located in the National Bowling Stadium downtown Reno.

It's a great location, it's in a building that a lot of people know about but drive by and have never been in.

- The plot of Junkee's Dark Corner Haunt takes place in a haunted antique mall.

So the audience will go through an antique mall, reach some tragedy in the storyline, and wake up in the hospital where Dr. Stain will bring them back to life and the audience will escape the hospital to get out of the haunted house.

In this show, everything you're gonna see was created or fabricated by us.

We made the walls, we've fabricated the props, we've built the pneumatics, we've distressed the deco.

I think we decided to do it in February of 2022 and we hit the gas pedal in March.

- I've been hard at this since June with them nonstop, pretty much every weekend, every available time that I get, I've helped out with building, fabricating.

I've helped design one of the major scenes here.

I've also helped with wiring, electronics, speakers.

Yeah, everything.

- Guin, who's gonna edit this video that you're watching now, has been on the team since the middle of the summer as well.

And as a scare actor, you're gonna see her implanting some of the storyline into your head at the beginning of the haunt.

We learned from hollywood set design how to make walls.

So they're built in a panel construction that's lightweight and bolted together where they can move in any placement we need them to.

So in following years, we could redesign this haunt with a different wall layout.

Since spring, we've been working on fabricating props so we could decorate in between the walls.

And quickly after that, we knew because we wanted to be an actor-driven show, we would need an amazing cast.

So we quickly started calling out for anyone interested in being a scare actor.

- Well, downtown Reno is literally buzzing with street vibrations.

We are at the National Bowling Stadium today for the first official day of training.

Very excited, very excited to see how the hunt goes, and yeah, should be fun.

- What makes a good scare actor is somebody who's willing to just wait for the perfect moment, who's willing to sit there and watch the crowds and learn from the reactions and know that, "Oh, I scared the front of the group this time, didn't quite work."

And wait, scares the middle of the group next time.

"Oh, that worked a little better."

Learns and grows and adapts.

At the end of season, that final walkthrough, when you go through and you see it all together, it's really magical.

You can transport people and take them to a different place.

You can suspend their disbelief for 20 minutes and scare the crap out of them.

(gentle music) Some people haunt one day a year.

And some of us, we haunt 365 days a year, just one day a little bit more.

Getting a bunch of people who come together and they have a collective goal to make something cool and fun and an experience for other people.

And watching all of these people come together to make this is just absolutely the best part to me.

- Being here, I want it to be a safe place and a family environment and where people that feel like maybe they're weirdos or outcasts or artists or just not like everyone else can come and meet people the same and different as them and be accepted.

- Some people are more actors, some people are more makeup, some people are more design and build.

Some people are more deco.

There's all these different facets though that bring everybody together.

And by the end of the season, you always walk away with a friend or two, if not a family of a whole bunch of people who love you for the creativeness that you are, the acting that you do, or the, you know, something that makes you you.

I want everybody to know that like this is just year one and it only gets better from here.

So I have high hopes that all of us in the future are gonna keep scaring Reno's pants off.

- It's really incredible what we've pulled off this year.

We've all worked so hard and I can't say thank you enough to my team who's helped me put this together and has really seen the vision and helped make it a reality.

- This experience has been way more creative than I ever would've imagined.

I hope the special behind the scenes look has made you wanna check it out for yourself.

Thank you Dark Corner Haunt for the spooky time.

And here's to a spooky future.

- Learn more at darkcornerhaunt.com.

And that wraps it up for this Halloween edition of "Arteffects."

If you want to watch new "Arteffects" segments early, make sure you subscribe to the PBS Reno YouTube channel, and don't forget to keep visiting pbsreno.org to watch complete episodes of "Arteffects."

Until next week, I'm Beth MacMillan.

Thanks for watching.

- [Announcer] Funding for "Arteffects" is made possible by Sandy Raffealli with Bill Pearce Motors.

Meg and Dillard Meyers.

In memory of Sue McDowell.

The Carol Franc Buck Foundation.

And by the annual contributions of PBS Reno members.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues)