[ Updated November 26, 2023 ]
Here we have an instructions manual for the Ghost Maker Kit by the Alterian Ghost Factory c. 1991. Their kits included a plastic face, glue, and some paint to customize and attach your own bed sheet at home. It's an interesting arts & crafts project with a special effects twist on the classic Halloween sheet ghost costume, and later inspired the most iconic ghost mask of all time.
Tony Gardner of Alterian, now a well known movie fx studio, opened the Ghost Factory with a team of industry artists seeking to compete in the emerging Halloween mask market with high end movie quality pieces. Though the Ghost Factory did not last long, Alterian Inc. is known for their work on the big screen in such features as Return of the Living Dead, The Blob, Army of Darkness, Hocus Pocus, Darkman, and Zombieland.
The story is perhaps best told by Loren Gitthens, the designer of the Ghost Maker product, in his own words during an interview shared by Huffpost:
Another account of the story was told by his Ghost Factory colleague Chet Zar by Fangoria in 2001:
In recent news, Ryan Hills (admin of the Scream & Ghostface Collectors group on Facebook) investigated the story with new interviews and images from Tony Gardner. You can read Ryan's article on Fangoria's website.
The story begins around 1990 when Loren Gitthens was working in the special fx industry, before he contributed to the Ghost Factory. He created a costume for a Hollywood Halloween party that was attended by industry artists who likewise took creative initiatives for their costumes. He formed buckram ghost faces that he glued to bedsheets and finished with haunting airbrushed shadowing. This costume served as the precursor for developing the Ghost Maker Kit when he joined Alterian's Ghost Factory team, and is similar to the 'Wailer' character they would later release.
When Gitthens joined the Ghost Factory team, he and his colleagues designed many masks for Alterian's catalog, including his costume reimagined as plastic DIY kits. The line featured six unique ghost designs ('Lovey Tate', 'Wailer', 'Screech', 'Lil' Boo Boo', 'Lil' Sara Spook', and 'Lil' Ghost Dude') and was first released in 1991.
Alterian toured Halloween trade shows throughout the early 90s to showcase their products to potential retailers and distributors. Here is an example of a swap meet in Irwindale, California shared by former employee Royman Ceballos from his time working for the Ghost Factory.
Alterian handed out catalog brochures at these trade shows featuring a variety of high end latex masks and their plastic Ghost Maker kits.
Presumably, Fun World may have been in attendance of one of these trade shows in 1991. They soon released their own variation of the Ghost Maker kits for their #9206 Glow-in-Dark Ghost Mask with Shroud assortment launched for retail by 1992.
"When this project was given to me, I was given a picture of something similar to what the finished masks would eventually look like. I was asked if I thought these could be made as masks and to do some drawings with a similar look and feel. So I did a bunch of sketches of different faces with that same white, melty face with simplistic black facial feature shapes. The drawings were done to take the original concept and change them a bit to make it into a different enough item to call our own." - Brigitte Sleiertin-Linden, former designer at Fun World
Many believe Alterian's trade show pamphlet may have been the "picture" Sleiertin-Linden was asked to adapt. The face design similarities are most apparent in Fun World's first four ghost masks ('Silly', 'Weeping', 'Goofy', and 'Happy'). Instead of plastic faces you customize at home, Fun World reimagined them as rubber glow-in-dark masks with shrouds already attached instead of bed sheets. Fun World's version of the masks are perhaps a "different enough item to call their own" though the face designs were evidently copied from Alterian's kits. The concept of a plastic face you paint and glue to a bedsheet was soon a distant past. As the small independent company that the Ghost Factory was, the two products were never really competing. Fun World was one of the top Halloween manufacturers who's masks retailed in most big block chains, department stores, pharmacies, and costume shops and experienced explosive popularity after the release of Scream (1996). The Ghost Factory on the other hand closed by the end of the decade.
Of the Ghost Maker kits that currently remain, the first we were aware of is a 'Screech' preserved by Gitthens himself. He found it in storage with other Ghost Factory items from his time with the company. He shared his surviving kit in collector groups while detailing more of the story from his perspective. Here are photos of his kit including the original packaging with artwork by his longtime friend Bill Boes:
The second Ghost Maker we are aware of is a prepainted 'Lovey Tate' found by collector Caleb Durham on eBay. This was a monumental discovery since it was the first kit to enter collector's hands.
Another kit surfaced only one week later from collector Douglas Little. It was a 'Lil Sara Spook' still in package. Collectors have been looking for these masks for almost a decade, so it was astonishing to have the only known copies in collector's hands to have appeared so close in time. Watch Doug showcase and discuss his score on his YouTube channel, Drowned Boy Productions:
Previous rumors that the Ghost Makers never retailed have now been confirmed false. Jo Nobile, co-admin of It's Fun Tyme, even discovered an entire box of kits in a brief moment of a YouTube video surveying the inventory a private thrift store warehouse acquired from a magic shop's liquidation sale. After years of trying to secure them from the owner, collector Jack Ashton was able to visit the store. We can unfortunately confirm the box of kits is long gone.
More evidence of the Ghost Maker's in action was found in a promotional VHS for a horror themed amusement park called Spooky World. The footage demonstrates finished and displayed kits used in their attraction, including the coveted 'Wailer' front and center. A full rip of the VHS can be watched on Vimeo. It features familiar faces like Kane Hodder, Tom Savini, Elvira, Linda Blair, and a live rendition of The Monster Mash by Bobby Picket himself.
Another sighting of Ghost Makers can obscurely be seen on Alterian's workbench in a 1991 news segment on the Ghost Factory. Though hard to make out you can see the original tag, bag, and plastic masks lined up.
The story of the Ghost Makers is still somewhat unknown to many in the Fun World & Scream collecting community, but it is growing in popularity. A few artists have made replicas and fan art to share the history. Here are two YouTube videos from Drowned Boy Productions that provide a balanced overview and DIY demonstration on his channel:
We view Alterian's Ghost Maker kits as an interesting anecdote that lead to the development of some of our favorite Halloween masks. Though the Ghost Factory's designs were clearly adapted for Fun World's assortment of ghost masks, the products are quite different and uniquely distinguished despite their similarities. We celebrate both and acknowledge the large role Alterian played in mask history.