Creating Monsters......

Back in May, we had one of the most successful Morose & Macabre's Atrocity Exhibitions to date. We celebrated our annual event's 5th anniversary with all of our old friends, and some awesome new friends. Every year, after the event, we reflect on how truly lucky we are to have an amazing community of people standing behind us for this production. We never knew that the Atrocity Exhibition reign would be a 5 year legacy, now heading into year 6.
To document this momentous occasion, Macabre reached out to filmmaker, Brian Cottington. For the next several weeks, Brian and his crew of camera and sound followed the Atrocity family and filmed a behind the scenes look at the chaos that goes into bringing our monster to life each year. Not only, did he film the process, he was also able to sit down with Atrocity family artists and entertainers to get an inside look at where these folks come from, how they got here, and the road suffered along the way. The documentary quickly became about the family of oddballs who found each other through a love of all that is bizarre and a lesson that family encompasses more than just blood relation. It is happy, it is sad, it is inspiring, it is a reminder to never judge a book by it's cover....because you never know what journey that book had to take to come into existence.
We are proud that this November, our story will come to life for the first time on the big screen. We will be releasing the first screening of the film here, in our home town of Pittsburgh, PA, at the Hollywood Theater in Dormont on November 23rd at 7pm. This event will not only serve as a screening of the documentary, but also as a fundraiser for both Atrocity 2014 and the Hollywood Theater (an independent community film house). Our Atrocity artists and artisans will be pulling together to create works for auction in the lobby and our Atrocity 2013 opening film maker, Rachael Deacon, will be screening 2 of her short films, "Gregor" and "A Fever and a River". Best of all, all of our Atrocity family members will be crawling in from all over to celebrate this momentous occasion. We'll have a Q&A with some of them after the film.

If you'd like to join us, we have advance ticket sales and more information at www.moroseandmacabre.com/houseofodditiesmovie.html
Check out the event on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1388619194707836/
The film's FB page: https://www.facebook.com/HouseOfOdditiesMovie

Until then, as always, Parting is such sweet sorrow,
Morose & Macabre

The One Called Harlequin....

Notes of the Wicked: April 24th, 2013: Miss Macabre:
As we get closer to the date, we realize how difficult it is to contain this monstrous cavalcade, particularly at night, and particularly the one called Harlequin.
We've set up large work lights that surround the crates and remain on at all times in the hopes to keep them in their sleep-like state. However, within the past week, it seems the pull of nightfall is too strong and we're beginning to wonder if their longer than usual slumber will have any consequence when we finally allow them to wake on May 4th.
Harlequin's crate seems to have the most activity, which isn't surprising, as he was the most difficult to crate to begin with.
Even now, we can hear his soft, maniacal laughter as if he knows something we don't. He also seems to be closely tied with the Ring Master, as the slight movements and disturbances coming from within their tightly sealed confines happen in unison.
At this point, we are both excited and slightly nervous for the night of their show. We've come so far, and have taken the utmost precautions....but it will be the strength of their audiences will that is tempted.
I, myself, have had to resist the overwhelming urge to enter the tent, but then again, I know better. I know the repercussions.

We'll Require Large Crates...

Notes of the wicked: Dr. Morose: February 18th, 2013:

"Removing them wouldn't be a problem. They wouldn't be missed because no one knew for certain that they were ever there to begin with. They were a legend. A campfire tale. Something to be spoken of in hushed whispers for fear that the very darkness surrounding you might pick up on the suggestion and bring them back.
The history is muddled, at best. The most we can put together and prove, factually, is that the carnival troupe had mysteriously disappeared during the early 1890s in their travels from one town to the next. This was long before lengthy investigations for missing people, and no one was about to bother looking for a group of misfits and freaks of nature like these. They "why" is still unknown. There are versions of the tale that blame everything from witchcraft to pacts with the Devil himself, though if you ask me, this seems like classic curse territory. So all these years have passed and all this time, they've been here, trapped between worlds. A haunting of sorts, in the routine - that they've been performing the same show every night for the last hundred and twenty years, for no one in particular. But unlike ghosts, who we've had our dealings with in the past, these... creatures... can get really physical. Over the years, they've sort of warped and mutated into something else entirely. Something not human... at least not anymore. One look at them with their soulless eyes and their beautifully broken bodies and we knew they had to be ours.
It was simple. We waited until dawn when their bodies just slowed to a halt and shut down and we packed them into crates. One by one. It isn't technically kidnapping if they're not human. Or alive, for that matter. It was a lot of work, but the payoff will be worth it. And after the.. err... "unfortunate incident" that happened at Phantasmagoria Theatre last year (where all of our guests ended up slaughtered by a slew of pissed off ghosts), we needed a new project to keep us busy. And these freaks would be perfect. Just perfect. And who doesn't love a carnival, anyway?"

Atrocity Exhibition 2013....Commedia Dell'Morte Carnivale: The Comedy of Death's Circus

Welcome to the very beginnings of this twisted tale....

"Soft music haunted the air all around us. The song hung thick, a soft and disturbing voice murmuring in our ears and telling stories of the horrors that lay ahead. It pierced through our skulls and deep into the core of our grey matter where it embedded itself, making it impossible to think clearly.
The faint glow of a dimly lit string of circus lights gave warning that we had reached the edge of the thick wooded area, we had reached our destination....
We have finally found it.....the curse and the myth.....Commedia Dell' Morte's Carnivale....The comedy of death's circus.
Behind their cracked, emotionless masks they had long past the point of humanity years ago. No telling how long they'd been performing....silently....in this empty, dilapidated tent.
Monsterous, deformed shells of what they used to be.
Who are they?
Who WERE they?
We would soon find out......and bring them home."