It’s a real honor to be asked to participate in this show. I decided to create Hellvis which is based off of a custom Halloween costume I had made (it’s my alter ego)Thank you, thank you very much.

Here are some of the other entries…pretty amazing work!

Here are the details… Be sure to tune in, or better yet, come on down!

Join us as we broadcast for 24 hours straight from the Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Museum in St. Augustine, FL. Can you believe it? We can’t but it is sure to be a huge event whether you will be listening via the live internet stream or joining us on location!

April 18th is the Day to Mark!

It’s all taking place on April 18th starting at Midnight ET (Fri/Sat) and ending Midnight ET (Sat/Sun). 24 Hours of great radio and entertainment. Mark your calendars or plan your trip to St. Augustine. This is sure to be one of the biggest events of the year!

It’s Free!

If you are anything like us, in today’s economy if it’s not free we can’t afford it. All events, entertainment by Shadows in the Dark will be free to the public. Admission to the Ripley’s Museum and Ghost Train will still apply.

Some of the Biggest Names!

We will be having some of the biggest names from all fields of the strange and unusual joining us on-air and live on-site. The discussions will include UFOs, Ghost, Cryptozoology, Conspiracies, Art, Adventures and various aspects of the weird and strange. Many of these guests hanging out with us during the day for you to meet and greet. Click Here to view the On-Air Schedule!

More Than Just an Internet Broadcast!

As if that wasn’t enough we will also be having on-site entertainment and attractions through out the day. You will be able to have Aura photographed, join in a drum circle, see the haunted Rosewell Brick, take part in a scavenger hunt through St. Augustine, visit the Ripley’s museum or even ride their famous Ghost Train if you dare. To see a complete list of On-Site Entertainment Click Here.

Thousands of Dollars of Stuff to Giveaway!

Last year we gave away over $2500 worth of merchandise that included t-shirts, signed books, DVDs, CDs, and so much more. We are going to top that this year and give away a larger variety of items. Win a Swamp Ape Expedition or Cast! Or maybe you will be one of the lucky winners who will get a Ripley’s display item! There will be giveaways every hour and even some more scattered through out the 24 Hour Anniversary Bash. Click Here for a complete list of giveaways.

On-Site Entertainment!

Not only will there be a 24 Hour Broadcast going on but there will also be lots of entertainment happening live at the Ripley’s Museum in St. Augustine, FL. Below you will see exactly what we have going on and what time if applicable. Don’t forget that many of our on-air guest will also be appearing live.

Ripley’s Believe It or Not Museum

 If you haven’t heard of Ripley’s there is a good chance you have been stuck under a rock for the past 90 years. Even so, you can take the opportunity to visit their museum that is filled with the strange and unusual. Visit their site by Clicking Here for admission prices.

Ripley’s Ghost Train Adventure

 Ride the famous Ripley’s Ghost Train if you dare! There will also be a first ever 3am Ghost Train on the April 18th, where Charlie Carlson and Robert Damon Schneck will be among the riders. We hope you return safely or at least RETURN!

The Professor Slim King

The Professor Slim King will be leaving jaws dropped wide open as he performs for the first time live and in person for Shadows in the Dark fans. Come hear his amazing predictions, see his mind boggling mentalism and quicker than the eye illusions. Slim King will be on site through out most of the day performing. For Slim King’s bio Click Here.

The Great Escape

The Amazing Professor Lester will demonstrates his great escape from Steel Chains! In Houdini Style, the professor’s body will be bound and locked in steel chains by a member of the audience and in less than a minute he will escape his bondage! Can he do it? What is his secret?

Your Picture with a Genuine Fake Swamp Ape

Three genuine fake Swamp Apes will be joining in the festivities and you can have your picture taken with them. Being that they are also known as the Skunk Ape, we are not responsible for any odors that may cling you.

The Haunted Rosewell Brick

The infamous Rosewell Brick, as featured in the film, The Seance, will be exhibited between 10 am and 3 pm on Saturday April 18th, at Ripley’s Believe It or Not in St. Augustine. The present owner will lecture about its history and haunted qualities. Some things are best left along…even a brick in this case. Therefore, insurance precautions as well as the safety of the public, preclude observers from coming in contact with the Rosewell Brick.

Drum Circles

Drums circles will kick off each hour for about 15 minutes during the middle part of the day and be led by primitive instrument expert Karl Miranda. There will be enough instruments for approximately 50 people and will include drums, bells, chimes, shakers and more. For Karl’s bio Click Here.

Aura Photography

Tonya Sias will be on hand with a machine that can take a picture of your Aura. What color are you today?

Tarot Reader

What to know your future? Who is your next love? Tarot Reader Wally Reid will be there to tell you just that according to the cards.

Scavenger Hunt

Be prepared to wander the streets of St. Augustine and learn about its history as well as the haunted side of things. We will set you out on a scavenger hunt you will never forget. The winner will receive some great prizes as well! Click Here for more information.

Tin Foil Hat Contest

Nothing is more aggravating than having thoughts beamed into your head and what better way to reflect them than with a tin foil hat. On April 18th from 6pm to 7pm you will have the opportunity to sport your tin foil hat and have it judged. Prizes will be awarded to 1st, 2nd and 3rd best hat. Click Here for more information.

Sid is a great guy!

The FREAK SHOW Horror Film Festival is looking for the next great horror filmmaker. Is it you? Then enter your horror film on the Freak Show Horror Film site.  The second deadline is May 15th!

Barry Anderson has the coolest job on the planet or one of them anyway. He is the Director of the Art Department for Ripley’s Entertainment and Believe It Or Not! And that is his day job! He also has done a great deal of work on horror film FX as well he’ll be heading the effects of the new Sid Haig directed horror flick ‘Bubba The Redneck Werewolf’ which is still in pre-production. His additional horror credits include ‘Jeepers Creepers’ Parts 1 & 2, ‘The Unholy’ , George Romero’s ‘Day of the Dead’ , ‘Scared Stiff’ , ‘The Disturbance’ , ‘The Girl With the Hungry Eyes’ , ‘Oliver Twisted’ , etc. Recently I had a chance to catch up with Barry for this exclusive www.racksandrazors.com review and by the second or third question I had some pretty severe career envy.

Hi Barry, hope you are doing well. Let’s start this www.racksandrazors.com readers off with a graphic and describe the room where you’re answering these questions.

Hello Owen and Racks and Razors readers. I am at work at Ripley Entertainment’s Art dept, I am the Director of the Art dept. the room is filled with freaks and sideshow oddities as well as other creepy and strange wax figures. I have been with Riley’s Entertainment for almost twelve years designing and making museum figures and other interesting things to send around the world. I truly love it! Believe it or not!

First off, congrats on being named head of Special FX for Sid Haig’s horror directorial debut ‘Bubba The Redneck Werewolf’. What exactly does the job entail?

Thanks, Bubba is an exciting project and I’m fortunate to be involved. I loved Mitch Hyman’s comic long before I heard anything about a movie. The project is in pre-production. At this time I am designing the look of some of the makeup effects. I will be overseeing all of the makeup and special effects props with a crew of talented Florida artists. The effects will be old school using foam and Goo. We will use prosthetics and puppetry instead of computers.

So what is something about Sid that his fans would be shocked to discover?

Shocked to discover? I can’t tell you that Sid sits around in clown makeup at home or anything, but I can say that he’s a really great guy. I am fascinated with his long career pre Rob Zombie. He has done a ton of stuff. Some people may not know that Sid is a musician as well. I have a great love for music especially the 50’s roots of Rock and Roll. Sid was there and has some fascinating stories to tell. I could talk to him for hours just on that subject alone. I first met Sid at the Florida Scream Festival two years ago where we were both guests. It’s a great show!!! I also think that Sid is going to be a guest at Ripley’s Haunted Attraction in Gatlinburg TN. (I just thru in several plugs)

And quite seamlessly I might add. I know you do a lot of various sorts of FX work – sculpture, figure making, make-up, reconstruction, etc. What do you consider to be your strongest talent within the area of effects?

What really gets me excited is the designing of something. The rest is going through the motions to make it happen. I really enjoy working with a wide variety of materials and have been a professional artist for over 23 years. I am an illustrator, sculptor and painter as well as doing makeup work. Having mastered many of these techniques has enabled me to survive as an artist. You really should be proficient at many skills to do makeup effects.

You’ve worked with the FX in so many horror movies – ‘Jeepers Creepers’ 1 & 2, ‘Oliver Twisted, ‘Day of the Dead’, ‘Scared Stiff’, ‘The Unholy’, ‘The Disturbance’ etc. What effect that you’ve done stands out in your mind as your finest film work?

Working exclusively in Florida has been a challenge. Most of the projects have been B films with little budgets and me in my garage sweating bullets. I am proud of my achievements and work hard on all my projects whatever the budget is. I think one of the more shocking things was on ‘The Unholy’ when I disemboweled actor William Russ hanging upside down on a cross in a church. It was creepy! Fangoria printed the picture with the comment “is this the grossest thing we have ever printed?” that was quite a compliment.

And is there any effect you can say hands down was the most difficult or challenging to pull off?

I got the chance to make actor and kick box champion Michele Quissi into a Mongolian fighter. Besides transforming him into this character makeup it had to be repeated numerous times which is also difficult on the actor.

I want to hear about your career path. So what took you from Point A to Point B — from what I imagine to be a child with a love of horror and things to making this your livelihood?

I grew up in Jamestown N. Y. one block from a tool factory perhaps that’s how I got my blue-collar attitude. I had a strange fascination with monsters and weird stuff from a very early age. I honed my skills on making creepy crawlers and aurora monster model kits and drew monsters constantly. In high school I was headed for trouble a true rebel, fortunately my art teacher began talking to me about art school. After graduation, which did not come easy for me — summer school three years in a row, I headed off to art school. I studied advertisement and design at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. From there I came down to Fort Lauderdale during spring break. It was ten degrees in Buffalo NY to eighty degrees in Fl. I never went back. I found out about a film makeup school in Miami and that was it, I had to go. I saw that films were being made and I wanted to get my foot in the door. I found my way in after I got an agent and took a few acting workshops and began as an extra in several things. At the time I was a punk rocker and it made me standout from the crowd. This was not my big goal but it did lead to a great opportunity when I got a call to try out for a new television program I changed my look to rockabilly and landed a regular part as an extra undercover cop on the first season of Miami Vice. It was an amazing experience but I choose not to go back for the second season and wanted to pursue makeup and art. Right after Vice I got a chance to work with Tom Savini on George Romero’s Day of the Dead in Sanibel Island helping to make an army of gut munching zombies. This was my dream come true, the guys that made zombies roam the Monroeville mall in Pittsburgh were coming to Fl and I got to work with them. It was a great experience that put me in the direction I wanted to be in.

Going along with that was there any one film when you watched as a kid that made you sit up and think, “That is what I want to do!”

I was fortunate during my childhood days that they would have Fright Night on the weekends. It was like an event every weekend as kids. Dr. Frankenstein was my childhood hero — a man who could make monsters. I guess I wanted to be a mad scientist at that time. I later realized that Jack Pierce was the hero that made the monster.

Any advice to the folks out there interested in horror movie effects as an occupation?

There are some schools cranking out students. It is competitive out there so you need to really work on your art skills and original designs. You want a portfolio that stands out from the crowd. In my case living in Florida and definitely not LA. I would have starved to death had it not been for my art skills. Another thing I should mention is that I try to be the good guy, which comes easy for me. People skills are just as important as talent. There are a lot of egomaniacs out there in the business I always stay well grounded and my family always comes first.

I am also curious how you see the future of FX in films. Do you see an increase due to the resurgence of horror or do you see a decrease with the popularity of CG effects?

There is now doubt that computers are here and they are not going away. Some amazing things are being done with CGI but like most new things it is being over done. Many times I have seen computer-generated effects ruin a film. Often traditional makeup effects could have and should have been used. Some people probably love it but to me it’s like watching a cartoon. It takes away the believability of the film. I hope filmmakers will learn to balance the two. I personally love some of the 80’s makeup laden films of Stuart Gordon etc

So we’re pulling the car into the Barry Anderson Drive In. What three horror flicks are you going to be showing on the triple bill and what goodies will you be serving up at the concession stand?

The old Drive Inn, I am sad to see that part of Americana gone by the wayside. Many young people will never experience the thrill of driving up to an all night Horror-thon.

I know, that is so sad.

I think I would start off with a Roger Corman flick staring Vincent Price based on an Edgar Allen Poe story then go to early 70s sleaze probably Texas Chainsaw then top it off with Romero’s Day of the Dead.

What makes you do psycho in real life?

Politics makes my blood boil but for good fun psycho I love some good live psychobilly music!! Howl

What scares you in real life?

Watching the news scares me. Something else that has scarred me since childhood is that I do sometimes see dead people. My grandmother Mildred Anderson was a gifted psychic in NY State. She would appear on television and radio and take me with her at times. She had an amazing gift and I guess I inherited some of that. I have lived in two homes that were haunted, I sold one five years ago. It is very disturbing to wake up and see someone starring at you alive or dead.

I would imagine. Thanks Barry.

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