Halloween Wars Is BACK!!!!

The premise:
A Pumpkin Carver, a Candy Craftsman and a Master Cake Artist (AKA rice Cereal Treat Artist) team together to create a cohesive show piece that wows the judges and keeps them in the game. It’s a 4 part series of AWESOME and my all-time favorite thing on the earth. This is the 4^th year of this series and I hope It NEVER ENDS!!!!! Each episode, each year is so different because the competitors are different. Even those who are returning they come with a new team and thus add a different dynamic.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/shows/halloween-wars.html

A quick rundown of the show ….

There are 5 teams. As I previously stated each team has a has a pumpkin carver, candy maker, and a cake decorator, tho they often use rice cereal treats instead of cake which bugs me more than I'm sure you care to know. At the end each episode one team is sent home and the rest live to fight another week. There are 4 weeks of competition with an eventual champion crowned in an epic $50,000 battle.

The 2014 Teams:

Orange –Dead Reckoning
Blue –Spooktacular
Green –Malicious Intent
Purple –Sweet Nightmares
Yellow – Corpse Crushers

The setup:

The show has 2 rounds. Round 1 - is the Small Scare challenge (45 minutes) in which the winner gets an advantage going into Round 2 - the Spine Chiller challenge (usually about 5 hours) which includes a tasting element that the judges will taste and will factor into their score. Unlike other shows he hosts on the network Justin gets to taste the treats as well tho he gets no say in who goes home!

There are two main judges, who remain through all the competitions, and a guest judge, who is a fresh pair of eyes every week, which dictate the fate of these teams. The main judges include Shinmin Li a pastry chef, and Brian Kinney a make up artist known for the movie Dark Skies. Guest judges for this season includes: Episode 1: Naomi Grossman, known as Pepper on American Horror Story: Asylum. Episode 2: Adi Shankar, known for producing The Grey and Killing Them Softly. Episode 3: Francia Raisa known from The Secret Life of the American Teenager. Episode 4: Lew Temple from The Walking Dead.

Justin announces the theme of the challenge and the teams get to work. They have a few moments where they talk strategy and come up with the "design" then they all get to work. It’s fascinating seeing these guys take these highly different mediums and get them to all work together to create a fantastic show piece. The successful teams are the ones who make it all look like a single piece and it's hard to tell which medium was used for which piece. Seamless integration of all mediums is a must. Sometimes they have EPIC wins and other times epic fails, but watching the steps it took to get there is great. Getting to see their creativity come to life and how working as a team or not working as a team as is sometimes the case ends up hurting them in the end. One wrong move from one of them could ruin them all and send a qualified and creative team home.

2014 Spine Chiller Challenge Themes:

Week 1 – The Haunted Farm
Week 2 – Don’t Go Into The Forest
Week 3 – Mummies VS Werewolves
Week 4 – Haunted Carnival

Each team has a “leader” but all 4 have to come together to make it to the next week. Some of the contestants have been on previous years of Halloween Wars yet so far haven’t learned from their past mistakes. It's interesting to see dynamic of the team especially when things are NOT going well and who steps up and who melts down.
 

 

It does not hurt that the show is hosted by Justin Willman who is my all-time favorite person on earth. Seriously guys Justin is fantastic. He’s a magician who also hosts things to help pay the bills. I talked Golden into going to see him a few years back (she took the picture above) and it was a fantastic night. I can't wait until the next time. If he comes anywhere near your house you need to check him out. Here’s a link to his website and his tour schedule. Upcoming shows include the states of California, Arizona, Florida, Indiana, and Missouri.

http://www.justinwillman.com/#home

Episode one is in the can and a team has been sent home, did you agree? I think they were just over ambitious about what they could do in the timeframe they had. That’s the key, you can have the greatest concept but if you can’t deliver it then it’s just a sketch on the page. This is definitely a show where “go big or go home” usually means you are going home.

If you missed this week’s episode check it out in repeats then meet back on twitter for next week, it’s on every Sunday 9/8 central but only for 4 weeks so jump on the Halloween Wars bandwagon now!

There is a ton of chatter on Twitter about this episode so join the conversation by Tweeting #HalloweenWars and also hit @FoodNetwork so they will continue this yearly event next year.

 

-Marcy  @beaslma

 

By the way we just celebrated our 2nd month Blogaversary !! :D We also recently passed 1,000 views and Golden (AKA @theonlygolden ) and I thank you all for joining us on this trip, hopefully we have entertained you and made you smile.