Halloween Wars RSVP to a Zombie Wedding Invitation
Originally published at The Preternatural Post. Please leave any comments there.
Viewers of the season finale of Halloween Wars on Food Network, which aired 28 October 2012, checked “yes” and had a front row seat to an amazing display of artistic talent.
Rutina Wesley joins the judging panel of Halloween Wars on the Food Network (image courtesy of PRNewsFoto/Food Network)
Host Justin Williams (Cupcake Wars) challenged the two remaining teams “to pull out every scare you’ve got” as they competed for the $50,000 grand prize for this season’s Halloween Wars. Judges Tom Savini (actor/director/make up artist) and Shimin Lee (award-winning cake decorator) were joined by The Vampire Diaries’ Sara Canning on the panel, who thrilled the audience by donning vampire fangs at one point.
In this week’s Small Scare Challenge teams Dead Men Walking and Morbid Mayhem were charged with creating a scene depicting “Trapped”. They were told that “true terror lies in being confined” and that their display needed to “chill to the bone” and seem claustrophobic.
Team Dead Men walking took the bone chilling guidance to heart and depicted a man trapped beneath thin, broken ice. Using carved pumpkin, fondant and sugar glass to construct their vision. Halloween Wars judge Tom Savini had a criticism for the display, which was unnoticed by all until he made the perfectly valid observation.
Morbid Mayhem, living up to their name, fashioned the scene of a foot gnawed off by a shackled prisoner to make his escape from a dismal dungeon. Bringing the Saw series to mind, the grisly display was made using carved pumpkin, sugar chains, rice krispie treats and graham cracker sand. Surprisingly detailed for the 45 minute time limit, one critical element was added during the last few seconds of the competition as a seeming afterthought.
After this challenge, the teams moved on to the main event for this week’s Halloween Wars and the title of this episode Zombie Wedding. Each team was given five hours to depict a zombie wedding. Each team was also given an assistant to help and the winner of the Small Scare Challenge was given two assistants.
Morbid Mayhem chose “Just Buried” as their theme, crafting the scene of a couple that died on their wedding night and have returned on the anniversary to renew their vows. The service was performed by a gargoyle perched on tombstone and rising dead hands offered chocolate Irish creme morsels to the wedding quests. A major mistake was made by the team in fashioning their scene, but it turned out to work as “performance art”, according to Shimin Lee.
Team Dead Men Walking named their scene “Undying Love”, with the back story of a couple having an outdoor bayou wedding when the zombie apocalypse struck. Undaunted, they carried on with their ceremony and the scene included the groom offering his dead heart to his bride. The team made sour passion fruit gummy entrails as their tasting element and did a remarkable job in carving the faces of the wedding party from pumpkin.
On judging these scenes, Halloween Wars host Justin Williams declared the conclusion to have been settled by a “razor-thin margin”. With $50,000 for the winning team at stake, viewers and competing teams alike were filled with anticipation at the results.
Will these zombie marriages last? Only time will tell. Oh, and be sure to tune in to repeats of Halloween Wars on the Food Network to see which couple has the best chance of staying intact after the ceremony.