Interview: Destinie Orndoff of Deranged Minds Entertainment – WiHM

First up in a series of interviews with women in the horror industry is Destinie Orndoff – someone I’ve followed for years on social media, drooled over her collection, and watched excitedly as her career in horror began. A creative, driven girl with a passion for horror that I relate to a lot myself, and a collection that anyone would envy, she’s the perfect first interview to have up!

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For the Love of Horror

I, myself, am strange and unusual.” – Lydia Deetz (Beetlejuice)

For as long as I can remember, I’ve loved monsters. My mom proudly tells people the stories: I cut teeth watching the Universal Monsters, I had a treasured Wolfman I carried around named Wolfy. One of her favorite stories involves me sitting outside with a black pot making “potions” while our new neighbors moved in. I idolized Elvira instead of pop stars. I grew up with a special place in my heart for Frankenstein’s monster and hunted for ghosts. The same year I got my first cellphone, I got my first Ouija board. It’s safe to say I started out a weirdo.

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Halloween Horror Nights 26 Prep!

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The most wonderful time of the year is upon us, boys and ghouls! Autumn is in the air, and Halloween is creeping up on us. You know what that means — Halloween Horror Nights!

Some of the houses I’m particularly excited about – The Exorcist, AHS, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Halloween – have had my happy little horror loving brain so excited that I can barely focus. I’m finalizing plans and tickets. I’m freaking out with excitement because I know I’ll be there Sunday, finally basking in the awesome which is Universal, and Halloween Horror Nights.

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I decided to pack my Blood Brothers shirt from Terror Threads to wear for the event itself. Fitting, since last year they had the Freddy vs Jason house, and this year they’ve brought Michael Myers and Leatherface back.  Plus, this shirt is ridiculously cool and comfortable, as are all of the shirts from Terror Threads. If you love horror, you’ll definitely love their products.

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We start the drive to Orlando Friday night, so there probably won’t be any new posts here until I’m back. Can’t wait to come back with loads of pictures for you guys!

~Angel

Best of 2015

There were a lot of ups and downs to 2015. Being unemployed for a few months really ruined some travel plans or me. But there were definitely a lot of great moments over all! I’d like to look back on some of my favorite things of the past year:

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Ian McDiarmid aka Emperor Palpatine

Star Wars Weekend 2015 at Walt Disney World:

While I fully plan to do an actual full post on the insane coolness which was this event, I do need to spoil it some now. In May last year, we took my nieces for their first ever trip to Disney World and Universal, and strategically planned it so the girls could go for Star Wars Weekends. Well, long story short, my nieces were picked to be in the opening parade, in which they’d be dressed as Jedi Padawans and given lightsabers and some quick training from the Jedi Academy, before leading the celebrity guests in that were riding in the parade. And they needed two adults to walk the parade with the girls… I WALKED IN THE STAR WARS PARADE WITH EMPEROR PALPATINE!

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Halloween Horror Nights 2015

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For 25 years now, Universal Studios has held an event for Halloween every year. You may know this event as Halloween Horror Nights. You may have seen various videos of Ellen DeGeneres forcing people to go through the houses and mazes at Halloween Horror Nights in Hollywood. Or maybe you saw some of the amazing promotional stuff, like the intense commercial featuring Jack the Clown and Chance (more on them later), or the Facebook ads.

But however you’ve seen it, or even if you haven’t – Halloween Horror Nights is the biggest of it’s kind.

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Halloween Horror Nights 24: Universal Orlando

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Universal Studios does something at their theme parks on select nights in September and October called Halloween Horror Nights. I had never attended this event before until 2014, their 24th year doing the event. It’s basically where they set up eight houses and, last year, four scare zones. The houses last year were Halloween, Alien vs Predator, The Walking Dead: End of the Line, Dracula Untold, and From Dusk Till Dawn. There were also three houses that were not based on a movie or television series: Dollhouse of the Damned, Giggles & Gore Inc., and Roanoke Cannibal Colony. The scare zones included Bayou of Blood, MASKerade: Unstitched, Face Off: In the Flesh, and The Purge: Anarchy. They also have a few shows special for the night: Rocky Horror Picture Show, and Bill & Ted’s Excellent Halloween Adventure.

I was lucky enough to have a VIP pass to get into three of last years houses before the event itself for photos. The houses I visited: Halloween, Dollhouse of the Damned, and From Dusk Till Dawn.

 

Halloween: This is, indeed, based off oh John Carpenter’s horror movie, Halloween, about Michael Myers. It’s specifically focused on the first film, though there are nods to the other movies in the series – including Halloween 3, surprisingly enough.

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This seems like a random weird image, but it's from a section of the house that makes you feel like you're in the closet being attacked by Myers, and there are two shirts hanging in the closet paying homage to two former Halloween Horror Nights houses: Freddy Krueger's sweater, and to the right of that, Leatherface's white shirt.

This seems like a random weird image, but it’s from a section of the house that makes you feel like you’re in the closet being attacked by Myers, and there are two shirts hanging in the closet paying homage to two former Halloween Horror Nights houses: Freddy Krueger’s sweater, and to the right of that, Leatherface’s white shirt.

I was having a horror-movie-junkie fan girl moment in the entire Halloween house, but the next house – Dollhouse of the Damned – was probably my favorite house, because it was so visually stimulating. This house was a concept house rather than a house based off of a film.

Also: enjoy Universal's dumpsters.

Also: enjoy Universal’s trash cans.

 

This is probably my favorite picture I took on the entire trip.

This is probably my favorite picture I took on the entire trip.

 

I should probably take a moment to acknowledge my awesome guides through the houses: Alex (left) and Kyle (right). I adored these two, and it was such a blast to wander around behind the scenes with them. I wanna write their bosses and tell them they did a fabulous job.

I should probably take a moment to acknowledge my awesome guides through the houses: Alex (left) and Kyle (right). I adored these two, and it was such a blast to wander around behind the scenes with them. I wanna write their bosses and tell them they did a fabulous job.

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Alex and Kyle demonstrating a scare.

Alex and Kyle demonstrating a scare.

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There was another special guest from a former Halloween Horror Nights house hidden in Dollhouse of the Damned. Chucky from Child's Play.

There was another special guest from a former Halloween Horror Nights house hidden in Dollhouse of the Damned. Chucky from Child’s Play.

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The last house we visited behind-the-scenes that day was From Dusk Till Dawn, based off of both the original movie, but also very heavily inspired by the newer TV series. While it was a very cool house, it was probably my least favorite of the three.

Obviously, the bar was a bit censored from the original name.

Obviously, the bar was a bit censored from the original name.

I have less blurry pictures of her, but for some reason I really like the slightly blurry feel of this.

I have less blurry pictures of her, but for some reason I really like the slightly blurry feel of this.

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Someone isn't having a good birthday.

Someone isn’t having a good birthday.

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So, that night, after all the house photo-taking goodness, my mother and I got to attend Halloween Horror Nights 24. There are two shows, one is a Bill & Ted Halloween show, which we didn’t attend. But I did go to the Rocky Horror Picture Show live, and it was AMAZING. I love RHPS and the show was incredible. Probably one of my all time favorites I’ve seen.

Not the most incredible shot on my part, but I was way too distracted by the awesome.

Not the most incredible shot on my part, but I was way too distracted by the awesome.

There were also the four scare zones set up in the streets:

The Purge: Anarchy

The Purge zone

The Purge zone

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The Bayou of Blood:

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FACE OFF: In The Flesh (Make-up looks from the show, recreated by some of the artists from the show!)

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One of my favorite parts of Halloween Horror Nights was the MASKerade: Unstitched zone.

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I think it’s super underrated, because a lot of people were claiming it was boring. But I loved it. Yeah, I wasn’t shaking in my Stormtrooper Vans over people in gowns, on stilts, wearing masks. BUT it was so beautiful and eerie at night in such a fantastic way. It sent my artsy brain into overdrive. I was sketching a day or two later when I was doing laundry:

This will eventually be a super awesome spooky painting.

This will eventually be a super awesome spooky painting.

 

I’ll have more pictures up on my Flikr account eventually if you want to check them out! I can’t WAIT to attend this year, if everything aligns just right. Have you ever been to Halloween Horror Nights?

~Angel