It's Halloween, the devil's holiday, and 10,000 screaming fans are watching as you strut across the stage in your high black boots, your cape furling around you, Alice Cooper music blasting in the background. You're in a dark mood, Lestat on a bad year, and you are about to show the audience that this is no Kid Show Matinee. You choose to either:

(A) Sever your lovely assistant's arm with a buzz saw

(B) Set the poor girl ablaze until all that is left are her charred bones

or

(C) Visually transform a shy audience member into a raging gorilla

The answer is (D), All of the Above, if you are the owner of Paul Osborne's new collection, Haunted Illusions, and you've gone to the trouble to build and rehearse these chillingly theatrical illusions. As Ghostmaster Phillip Morris points out in the Introduction to this timely book, "the theater-going public has had a love affair with the macabre." Citing the long history of theater midnight ghost shows, the ghost show items featured by David Copperfield both on television and in his road show, and the explosion of the commercial haunted house, Morris makes the case that Halloween attractions, often presented year round, constitute an extremely lucrative market. To meet the creative demands of that market, Haunted Illusions is the first full-scale collection of illusions that can either be performed on stage a la David Copperfield or as fixed attractions in a haunted house setting. The book is appropriately full of spooky drawings and of photos of various stage and haunted house productions, many of them produced by Paul Osborne himself.

Paul Osborne has long been known to Genii readers and others for producing illusion shows in some of the nation's largest theme parks. It's interesting to learn in this brief chapter that many of these were Halloween themed. Paul lays out what worked and what didn't work for him in these family-oriented attractions. You also learn, from this chapter as well as from the photos distributed through the book, that Paul really has built and used the illusions he later describes and illustrates. I've no idea who Dr. Blood really is (or his design and consultation company, VORTA Inc.), but he provides a 30-page chapter on presenting a commercial haunted house that is full of knowing, entertaining, and sober advice. His 13 points cover Safety, Theme & Host, Room Concepts, Location, Layout, Props & Decor, Lighting, Sound, Costuming, Make-up, Casting & Acting, Show Management, and Promotion. The chapter is a strong adjunct to some of the complete books on the subject (see below), with recurrent themes of keeping things practical and legal, and with an emphasis on common sense and safety. The points are illustrated with numerous photos that persuade you that the doctor knows whereof he speaks.

The cream of the book, of course, are the Paul Osborne illusion plans, many of which you may have encountered already if you've been a faithful subscriber to Genii for the past 187 issues, but which you may also, as I, enjoy consolidated here in a themed collection. This "Haunted Illusions" collection contains 39 illusions in 128 pages, served up with the dazzling artwork and encouraging remarks that will convince you that you cannot only build these showpieces yourself, but can present them as professionally as your favorite television or Las Vegas megastar. APPEARANCES -- If you'd like to make yourself, your drop dead gorgeous Vampira-like girlfriend, or some Creature of the Night appear out of nowhere, Paul provides four methods, including an imminently practical "Quick Build Modern Cabinet," a novel "Mummy's Sarcophagus," a spookily routined "The Witch's Cauldron," and my favorite, "The Dream Seat." The latter is based on the famous Tom Palmer creation, "Satan's Seat." In Paul's incarnation, a tall throne decorated with skulls and feathers and red crushed velvet is shown. Assistants briefly raise a curtain around it, dropping the curtain to reveal the Master Magician seated in the previously empty space. He rises and the show begins! Paul's method is more technically sophisticated than the original Tom Palmer version and can be performed surrounded. VANISHES -- "Executioner's Dream" is the tallest of the illusions in the book , in which the besieged wonder worker escapes the gallows and appears from the back of the theater. "The Jack O'Lantern Girl" is the cover page illusion, in which your Halloween-clad beauty vanishes into the confines of a pumpkin, her face visible through an opening in the jack o'lantern's mouth up till the last instant, among the audience. As Paul puts it: "Miraculously, slowly but surely she contorts into the seasonal vegetable." With a proper story line and buildup, this could be a reputation maker. SWITCHES -- Life occasionally demands that you switch yourself or your assistant for another individual (or, if you are Rudy Coby, for the giant killer Puppet Boy). Paul's "Switch Wall" is the most versatile of the three methods here. The second, "Assistant's Revenge," is a near instantaneous switch of your heavily manacled assistant for yourself, a sort of vertical sub trunk effect. The most directly Halloween-themed of the three is "Dracula Escapes," in which Dracula is locked into a vertical curtained chamber that cannot possibly contain any extra human beings (or human-sized flying rodents). As the magician approaches the chamber with wooden stake in hand, he whips the curtain aside to reveal himself locked in the chamber and his lovely assistant now holding the curtain. Dracula is then reproduced, safe to continue his nightly feeding, from a tipover trunk. SWORD CABINETS -- Three methods are included in which your teenaged counterpart of Nani Darnell or Irene Larsen survives being sliced and diced by various blades and swords. Although "The Blade Box" is touted as having been performed by Karrell Fox, Jack Gwynne and Mark Wilson, my favorite presentation is that described by Paul as having been performed long ago at a Texas State Fair, in which a clever bit of sexual suggestion allowed "a toothless wino magician" to take Paul's last quarter. This byplay could work most effectively today by allowing two or three boys up from the audience. VISUAL TRANSFORMATIONS -- Hollywood special effects would be hard pressed to compete with these two visual and real life illusions. "Hand of the Wolf" is a compact illusion in which your hand or that of an assistant visually transforms to the hairy, clawed, muscular hand and forearm of a wolf. (The same method could be used to change your hand to a skeleton hand.) "The Girl to Gorilla" is the most elaborate illusion in the book, in which the blue-room principle is used to transform a shy, passive young lady into a crazed, chest-beating, snarling gorilla (do gorillas snarl?). The beast escapes from its confines and charges into the audience. (If you do go to the trouble to build this exciting attraction, be sure to check Mark Walker's The Ghost Masters for a delightfully scary stunt to perform if you happen to have a gorilla loose in your audience.) HEADACHES -- Four presentations are provided in which the assistant's head becomes the object of the Horror Master's vengeance. "The Decapatarium" allows the assistant's head to be removed in a box. The point of the "Torture Chest of Burhee" eludes me: the head is twisted 360 degrees, and then a torch is applied and two doves emerge from the head box in a flash of fire. The "Chest of Nefertari" is a sword box for the head. My favorite in this grouping is "Death by Cremation," in which the volunteer's flesh burns off to reveal the skull beneath as the perpetrators roast marshmallows and steaks over the action. MENTAL/GHOST EFFECTS -- The three items in this category all employ the stratagem of a hidden assistant. "The Slate of Fate" is related to Don Wayne's "Dream Vision" popularized by David Copperfield. Paul presents it as an exhibition of ghostly writing on a large slate, although it could equally be performed as a prediction effect. "Spirit Post" is a spirit cabinet effect in which an audience member may be alone in the cabinet, and still tambourines, horns, and bells fly about. Although I've never built one, Paul's "Dreadful Little Dream House" has long been one of my favorite Paul Osborne illusions. Anything you ever wanted to achieve with The Great Leon's "Miniature Haunted House" or Stewart James's "Sefalalgia" can be achieved with this scary little doll house. SIDE SHOW EXHIBITIONS -- Reading between the lines, I suspect that the static, side show illusions ("Just your eyes versus the prop") are Paul Osborne's favorites. All of course would make wonderful displays in rooms in your haunted house walkthrough. "The Head of Urus" and the familiar "Head on Sword" allow your assistant's pretty head to converse with the patrons. If you don't think this is effective, check the popularity of the "face in the crystal ball" at Disney's Haunted Mansions. "Head-X," "The Headless Lady," and "The Reconstructed Man" produce the opposite effect, of assistants with no heads. "The Reconstructed Man" was the first Osborne illusion I attempted building, buoyed by the fact that Paul and his friend John built one at age twelve. "Ask Clara" is another "conversing" illusion in which a small psychic puppet, Clara Voyant, hurls crazy predictions and astrological reading at the customers. Her motive force is cleverly hidden by time-honored illusion principles. "Spidora" is another talking head illusion, the famous carnival effect of the curious fusion of a lady and a giant spider. As the Fly said in the old Vincent Price movie, "Help me! Help me!" "Dial 666 for Emergency" is a girl without a middle effect that strikes me as having very spooky potential, and the "The Living Half Lady" displays the live upper torso of a woman resting on a small stand atop a table. As with most of the Osborne illusions, there are convincing touches that make the effects truly mystifying, and "The Living Half Lady" is definitely a case in point. This Jim Steinmeyer designed and built illusion, which appeared on the British TV show Secret Cabaret, demonstrates how effective and contemporary an old side show illusion can be. MUTILATIONS -- Some of the most dramatic illusion moments involve life-threatening mutilation, and the effects represented in this category in Haunted Illusions are classics of the genre. "The Egyptian Table of Death" and "Shred Her Illusion" feature bed of spikes plots, threatening to aerate your vulnerable assistant. "Stocks of Peril" is a sword cabinet without the cabinet, with six swords penetrating the girl at six criss-crossing points. "The Chopping Block" is a sort of full-body "Dissecto," while "Easy Build Guillotine" is an "easy to build, easy to troup, and easy to repair" version of a Lester Lake Guillotine. "The Burned Alive Illusion" is the venerable Cremation illusion, perhaps the most appropriate illusion in the book for Halloween-type performances. What is more dramatic than a fully cremated body? (Bring back those marshmallows and steaks!) Moving into the sawing arena, "The Lumberjack's Dream" is a head chopper/guillotine performed with a hand saw rather than a falling blade. The final two sawing illusions, "The Arm Amputation" and "The Buzz Saw," are grisly and often terrifying buzz saw illusions, available here in a medium or large-scale version. These two did not appear in Genii -- I have not personally encountered them anywhere else in print -- and for the inventive, dramatic, and I hope careful performer, are the two items "worth the price of the book."

At $52.50 for a plastic comb bound book, this is an expensive book, especially compared to the slickly produced hardbacks by Richard Kaufman, Stephen Minch, etc. Many of the illusions originally appeared in Paul's astonishing Genii series (up to 187 illusions as of this writing!), and the drawings that were faint in Genii, almost to the point of illegibility, are similarly faint here. On the other hand, Paul's principle product for the serious illusion performer is full-scale blueprints that retail for $25 apiece. Looked at that way, this fat book of illusion plans offers $800 worth of ideas for only a fraction of that price. The book is laid out in a sort of scrapbook format, with numerous photos from Halloween attractions produced by Paul and his friends. Although I would have preferred a bit more attention to production values, the information contained in this book is well worth the asking price to anyone interested in actually building some of these scary effects. Even for longtime Genii readers, as I am, it is valuable to have familiar illusions (along with some significant new illusions) consolidated into a single, themed collection.

As long-time Genii readers know, Paul Osborne illusion plans are the stuff of dreams. The girls he sketches are of the mold that pubescent boys linger over in modern comic books, and the magicians are always drawn handsome and dynamic, the illusion props themselves looking like a million dollars (a substantial fraction of which you will have to pay to have them built by today's top illusion builders). The girls he sketches are of the mold that pubescent boys linger over . . ." In real life, it's hard to get things to look this good. If you think what David Copperfield and Siegfried and Roy and Lance Burton do is easy, take a drive out in the hinterlands and watch a few David wanna-bes. Without the craftsmanship and packaging skills of a John Gaughan, your sword box may not look quite as good as that Origami box you saw on a recent television special. Without David's semi with his eyes painted on it, or without Siegfried and Roy's chartered 747, it's going to get harder to lug your expanding illusion repertoire to the next venue in your brother's pickup. Without Joanie Spina choreographing your every move, it's going to be hard to even walk across the stage and look like you belong there. But you can do it if you keep your sights realistic and don't try to compete against a look that the television public knows all too well. Melinda became a Las Vegas headliner with props she and her mother built themselves, and Lance Burton expanded from a manipulator/dove man to one of the world's hottest illusionists with props he first built himself. If this is the direction you are headed in, the Paul Osborne books are an excellent starting point.

I note that the book is actually titled Haunted Illusions 1, suggesting that more may follow. Of the several Osborne illusions I've personally built for Halloween functions, two are not included in this book, so I know that more stuff is out there. We built a Super-X from one of Paul's full-scale blueprints, floating the girl in a Ghostbusters scenario, which was popular that year. We also performed his DeKolta Chair Vanish Jr., first piercing the subject's covered head with ice picks before the vanish. As with card tricks, most illusions can be adapted to a Halloween format with a little slightly demented thought. Until Volume 2 appears, Volume 1 will serve you well as a source of material. A Paul Osborne chair vanish transformed into a deadly plot

For the record, I bought my copy of Haunted Illusions from Joe Stevens for $52.50 pp, but the book is of course available directly from the author, along with most of those in the following list, at Illusion Systems, P.O. Box 36155, Dallas, Texas 75235. Please add postage. The Books Illusion Systems Book One $37.50 Illusion Systems' Book Two $40 Illusion Systems' Book Three $40 Illusion Systems' Book Four $42 Illusion Systems' The First Collection $125 -- A limited edition book of 300 pages featuring Paul's first 10 years of Genii illusion plans. Illusion Planning -- Don't know the current price or availability, but this one-time $5 book is one of my favorite books on creating a stage magic show. The Plans Won't list them all here, but Paul is currently advertising 64 plans at $25 each. Illusion Systems' Catalogue $6 The Magazines Genii, 187 monthly illusions to date Magic Manuscript, various illusion tips

Back in the June 1996 issue, while reviewing the new book Seance by Scott Moore-Davis, we included a Seance Lover's Book List. We are going to run that list again here, because Haunted Illusions automatically earns a valued spot on that list. Also, it's almost Halloween, and you might want to pick out a book or two from the list for your reading pleasure. Spirit Theater (Eugene Burger) -- So beautifully and relevantly designed by Richard Kaufman that this book even looks scary. If you can afford only one book on spirit magic, or only one book by Eugene on any subject, this is the one to buy. Practical Mental Effects (Annemann) -- One of the two best books on mentalism ever written, and containing many spooky effects. Try Arthur Monroe's "Voodoo" on your friends some dark night. 13 Steps to Mentalism (Corinda) -- The second of the two best books on mentalism. Also contains spooky effects throughout, but especially check Step 9, "Mediumistic Stunts." Mind, Myth & Magick (T.A. Waters) -- A monster collection of great material by Waters. I particularly enjoy the section called "Grymwyr." Ghost Book of Dark Secrets (Bob Nelson) -- My first book on the subject and therefore one of my favorites. The teaser at the top of the Seance review was written for this book. Hands down the best title for any of these books. Encyclopedia of Mentalism (Bob Nelson) -- Along with the above book, this one served as my early introduction to the field, with chapters on "Spiritualistic Table Lifting," "Office Clairvoyance," "The Seance Room," and "Midnight Ghost Shows." Capricornian Tales (Christian Chelman) -- Creepy and baffling routines. One of my favorites is a fortunetelling effect in which you proceed to tell a spectator when she will die. (And don't worry -- the effect ends happily.) Max Maven's Book of Fortunetelling (Max Maven) -- A thorough resource on this popular topic. Telling someone's fortune is often the scariest thing you can do for them. Making Manifestations (Lee Earle) -- Subtitled "Building the Commercial Seance," a generous text on how to actually conduct seances for profit. Ghostmasters (Mark Walker) -- A hardcover and vastly expanded version of Walker's earlier Spook Shows on Parade. A complete history of American midnight ghost shows. Contains numerous ideas you could resurrect and frighten people with. Algonquin McDuff's Spirit Cloth Book (Rhett Bryson, Jr., and Dexter Cleveland) -- A small but information-packed treatise on the full-light seance cloth. The Phoenix (Bruce Elliott/Jay Marshall) -- Back issues of this magazine offer many hours of reading pleasure, and hardcover reprints are very reasonably priced. For seance type material, check the excellent items by Don Tanner. The Pallbearers Review (Karl Fulves) -- Numerous effects in the ten-year run of this magazine are excellent for seance work. To cite only one, check Stanley Jaks' "Dim the Lights," on p. 316. Geek Magic (Dr. Doom) -- A sick little pamphlet, not for the squeamish. Check out the Splatter Puppet Show, in which Ken and Barbie go to Crystal Lake. King of the Cold Readers (Basom Jones) -- Excellent Herb Dewey material on this subject. One of a trilogy. Willard the Wizard (Bev Bergeron) -- Details on the famous Willard spirit cabinet. Bob Blau's World of Magic and the Secret of the Spirit Cabinet and Spirits on Stage (Bob Blau) -- Nice work on the Dr. Q slates and on the spirit cabinet. Bizarre (Tony Doc' Shiels) -- Strange routines, but be warned: some of the props will have to come from your local butcher shop. The Cantrip Codex (Tony Doc' Shiels) -- More strange routines from this bizarre Scot. Also contains stunning nude photos of his daughter. This is not the kind of stuff you'll find in The Linking Ring. The Magic of Alan Wakeling (Jim Steinmeyer) -- Check "Psychic Blackjack, " an awesome mental routine, and the illusions "The Mark Wilson Spirit Cabinet," "The Spirits Return," and "The Seance Post." How to Operate a Financially Successful Haunted House (Philip Morris and Dennis Phillips) -- Complete details on setting up and running an elaborate Halloween haunted house. How to Haunt a House (Dan Witkowski) -- Written for kids but full of useful ideas. Probably available now in the children's department of your nearest mega-bookstore. Tales from the Talking Board (Jim Magus) -- Subtitled "A Treatise on the Ouija Board." Full of performance routines with a Ouija board. Seance (Scott Moore-Davis) -- This is Scott's magnum opus, the complete run of his 12-issue quarterly magazine of the same title. A must for any practicioner of spooky entertainment. Medium Rare (Scott Davis and friends) -- I almost passed this by, thinking it was a reprint of the material in Seance. Not so. All new material consisting of interviews with the top seance workers. A great complement to Seance.