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WILLMAN: It all starts now,
the final battle of "Halloween Wars."
It's time to get crazy, people, come on.
These two teams made up of a pumpkin-carving expert...
GABRIEL: Go big, or go home empty-handed.
WILLMAN: A sugar artist...
I'm having a major freak-out here.
And a renowned cake artist...
This is so awesome.
...will work together to make Halloween-themed creations
that will blow your mind.
I'm afraid to let this touch me.
Just nasty.
This is your best piece, by far.
I want to win this competition so bad, I can taste it.
WILLMAN: As the competition fell, one-by-one,
both teams have proven that they have what it takes to win.
Make it quick, Jeff.
JEFF: I know. I know, I know.
TERESA: Oh, and I broke it again.
What the hell?
Come on, guys, let's go!
WILLMAN: But they're about to face off for one last time,
where one team walks away with nothing...
JEFF: Oh [bleep]
...one team walks away with $50,000.
I'm not gonna be able to stand up there.
We're never gonna be able to do this.
Sarah can't even reach the top.
I think you bit off more than you can chew.
Shut your mouth, and let's get to work.
TERESA: Are you gonna kill him, or am I?
The end is near 'cause this...
is "Halloween Wars."
-- Captions by VITAC --
Closed Captions provided by Scripps Networks, LLC.
[ Laughs evilly ]
What's up, guys?
I'm Justin Willman,
and tonight is the moment you have all been waiting for.
The final face-off to see who can create
the most gruesomely fantastical food creations.
Judging them will be
award-winning cake artist Shinmin Li
and Emmy-nominated special-effects makeup artist
Brian Kinney,
whose work has been featured in horror hits,
such as "Insidious" and "Dark Skies."
The "Halloween Wars" championship begins right now.
This is it. It's the final battle.
Psychotic Misfits have back to back wins.
Congratulations, Psychotic Misfits.
Bam!
You're the winner of the Spine Chiller. Nice work, guys.
JEFF: They're hot right now.
They're on a winning streak, and we got to stop 'em.
I want to win this so bad.
I need to prove that I'm the best of the best.
Even though we won, we still have some tension within our team
that we got to work on.
It seems like it's the same old, same old.
DAVE: Why don't we just fondant it, man?
'Cause fondant doesn't float in air!
We really have to come together and work as a team
to have a chance to win the $50,000.
Teams!
Join me at the judges' table one last time.
This is the moment we've all been waiting for,
the final battle of "Halloween Wars."
You two teams have scared the rest of your competition away,
so now you find yourself here,
one battle away from being crowned
the "Halloween Wars" champion
and leaving this kitchen with $50,000.
Tonight, there will be two rounds of competition --
a Small Scare challenge,
the winner of which will get a special advantage
in the second round, the Spine Chiller challenge.
Our judges, Shinmin Li and Brian Kinney, are clearly ready,
so let's meet our guest jud--
Hmm.
Do you guys feel a menace in the air?
You feel that?
Like, death?
Death itself is lurking right over one's should--
Oh, what's up, Derek?
Hey, man, what's going on?
How's it going, buddy?
Hey, I found this back there, if you want that.
Thank you, very nice of you.
Such a good guy.
My friends, this is our guest judge,
star of such horror hits
as "Friday the 13th" and "Hatchet III,"
actor Derek Mears.
This is Jason from "Friday the 13th."
I'm a fan of all of his movies. The pressure is on.
You know, guys, when the pressure is this high,
everybody could use a friend, am I right?
And there is no friend more loyal, more dependable,
than a trusted pet.
[ Dog barks ]
Come here, buddy. Yeah, yeah. Come here.
You know, but sometimes...
a favorite pet becomes possessed by an evil spirit
and suddenly transforms into an unrecognizable little demon,
hell-bent on your destruction.
Isn't that right, puppy?
So, now, each of you must combine
your skills in pumpkin, cake, and candy
to give us your most jaw-dropping vision
of what happens when man's best friend
becomes man's worst nightmare.
[ Barks ]
The winner of this challenge gets the extra-special bonus
of first pick of the pumpkin patch in the Spine Chiller.
JEFF: First pick of the pumpkins.
We have to win this. That's a huge advantage.
You got 45 minutes.
You want to say it?
I'll say it. Starting now!
Go, go, go, go, go, go! Go, go, go!
All right, guys. It's time.
Killer, killer.
Possessed pets. What are you thinking?
All right, well, we got to go big,
and it's got to be really iconic.
Ooh, all right, all right.
Bunny rabbit, bunny rabbit. Its feet got lopped off.
What's cooler about making a bunny rabbit
than to have him seeking revenge
on all the little kids who had a lucky rabbit's foot?
He's got to look possessed, full of crazy evil.
This has to be perfect.
This is so important because...
let's face it, we need to win the Small Scare.
All right, you guys ready?
I'm ready.
Let's do this, man.
$50,000. Let's go.
We've made it this far. If we don't bring it today, it'll be for nothing.
We lost the last Small Scare, so this one,
we wanted to focus on something that wasn't so common.
We've seen the dog.
Like a snake or something like that?
Pet snake?
Let's do a pet pig.
I think a pig could look terrifying.
What if he had, like, more than one head?
Yeah.
Really awesome.
We have a small, yet terrifying piglet
whose older brother was killed at the slaughterhouse,
and his soul has come back to inhabit the body
of the living brother.
Also, we decided to add an element of vomit.
How could you not like it?
All right, I'm gonna go get my big pumpkin.
All right, let's go!
BRIAN: That works. That works, dude.
That's good. I think I found the perfect area.
Gabriel's going to sculpt the body of this pig
out of one piece of pumpkin.
Oh, my gosh, that's enormous.
Need a big knife.
It had a crook in it, a fold,
but it was perfect for the back end of this pig.
Guys, what do you think about this chunk for the pig body?
That's perfect.
DAVE: Let's get this done, guys -- A lot of money today.
We've won the last two challenges,
and it's never been more important
to keep that momentum going in order to win the whole thing.
Man, these are small pumpkins, guys.
Dave is gonna stack two small pumpkins
in order to make the torso, and what's cool
is that he's gonna be carving out these rib cages,
so it looks like he has some exposed bones,
just to make him a little more menacing.
Teresa's gonna make the rabbit's ears out of blown sugar.
Can his ears be about yea big?
Maybe a little bigger.
A little bigger, got it.
Teresa's also gonna basically pour sugar into an eye mold
that has one of our LED lights in it.
That the top, or is that the bottom?
That will be the top.
This rabbit's head is really, really important
to kind of selling the overall look of this design.
I got to work way faster now.
Possessed pets attack...
in 30 minutes.
30 minutes.
30 minutes?
We got to pick it up, got to pick it up.
How big is the head gonna be, Sarah? I need to make some eyes.
For this two-headed pig,
I'm gonna make sugar eyeballs, sugar teeth,
a squiggly sugar tail,
and now, I'm gonna make this huge puddle of vomit
out of green sugar and chunks of vending-machine candy.
We got to bring our A-game this time.
I know. I definitely think we're the underdogs
in this competition.
The biggest risk we're taking with this piece
is that Sarah has to sculpt 2 heads in 45 minutes.
Both of the heads, not just one, have to be perfect.
I don't know if she can pull this off.
It's not even covered yet.
SARAH: I know it's not covered yet.
I'm working as fast as I can.
Guys, it is absolutely imperative
we get that first choice of pumpkin.
We got to win this challenge.
BRIAN: I have the teeth on.
GABRIEL: We want to go really realistic with this pig.
We don't want anything funny or comical.
JEFF: Look at this vomit I'm pouring out. [ Laughs ]
What's in it?
Nuts.
It's gonna be airbrush ready in 6 to 7 minutes.
That's gonna be pushing it.
DAVE: What do you think?
TERESA: Wow. That looks great.
[ High-pitched voice ] We got this.
I'm about to get done with this arm here,
then start the other arm,
and then we can start airbrushing once Sarah's ready.
SARAH: All right.
This is the tail, all right? Something like that squiggle?
If I stick this in the pumpkin, all the water from the pumpkin
is gonna break the sugar down.
Okay.
And it's not gonna last.
So, I'm gonna take some white chocolate.
I'm gonna dip it in the bottom.
When that sets,
it'll create a barrier between the sugar and the pumpkin,
and it'll be fine.
Brilliant.
Great.
Brilliant idea.
Teams! 15 minutes.
15 minutes, guys!
Teresa, how long before those eyes are done?
TERESA: Give me a second!
I just broke the ear.
I got to do it again.
We just don't have time for things to be breaking.
I'm having a major freak-out here.
BRIAN: You just worry about the ears. We got to have the ears.
TERESA: Hopefully, I can --
'Cause I can do it.
Oh, and I broke it again.
It's not easy to blow sugar, but if she keeps breaking it,
we're not gonna be able to finish this.
I mean, you can't have a bunny rabbit
without the ears right.
I have one big ear
and one small ear at this point.
We were all really ambitious on this one.
Sarah has to make two heads,
but, fortunately, we're right on schedule
with where I need to be in this competition.
Oh, no!
JEFF: Sarah has dropped the head.
This is bad!
His face looks smashed right there.
13 minutes left.
Oh, no!
JEFF: Oh, my gosh!
Sarah has dropped the head. This is bad!
His face looks smashed right there.
Can you fix it?
Yes.
Fix it!
I know, I know.
I'm gonna try. I'm gonna try.
Oh, my gosh.
She picked it up, fumbled with it,
and tried to get it back to where it was.
Gabe, I know you're a good sculptor.
Will you come over here and help me with these heads
for a minute?
GABRIEL: Sure.
This set us way back in time.
She just has to fix a few spots, and we're back on track.
Is there enough detail on the body?
Yeah.
10 minutes!
Brian, I'll get you the eyes right now.
And I'm just sculpting as fast as I possibly can.
And this rabbit has to have just this crazy look on its face.
One eye is bigger than the other,
and this really gnarly mouth.
One tooth's bigger than the other.
Dave is gonna carve out this exposed rib cage
in order just to make the rabbit look even more gruesome.
B., I think I got you a good place
to mount your feet and your ear -- or your head.
Get it on there!
Go, go, go!
Get it right here,
'cause all of that is crease.
Hold on. Let me shove this in here.
Bigger hole, bigger hole.
SARAH: Clean that fondant out, if you have the --
Be careful of this tail, guys. I don't want this to break.
All right.
All right.
Where are those eyes?
'Cause we got to really hurry.
B., your white is working beautiful, man. That's awesome, I was worried.
BRIAN: Glad it works.
I'm ready to put the head on, David.
One second. I'm trying to give you some hair.
Come on, David. Come on, dude.
You can't crush this, man. You got to be real --
I know, I know.
You got to be real careful.
The real risk in this piece
is the fact that it can topple over.
We're stacking two small pumpkins,
then a head, and then ears.
Is that gonna hold?
Yeah, buddy. Yeah, yeah.
I was expecting a much bigger skewer, dude.
We got to -- Teresa, where are the ears?
Let's get the ears on.
Okay.
DAVE: All right. So, you don't want me to put a little divot for you?
TERESA: No, I got it.
I made 'em strong.
We got 6 minutes, guys.
We really got to get this.
Tell me when you're ready for this vomit
and this collar I'm about to give you.
JEFF: We're scrambling around.
Sarah's trying to finish the final details
on the airbrushing.
This pig has to look realistic.
We're not going for a Saturday-morning cartoon show.
We're going for real and gross.
Is there any way you could position it over here?
JEFF: I have to put it right here,
because his head's facing that way.
He can't be vomiting that way.
We've got a lot at stake right now.
Everything has to be perfect.
It has to be scary.
Guys, it's a white pig.
You need to get that pink going.
WILLMAN: 1 minute!
BRIAN: 1 minute. Come on, come on, come on, come on!
I need some blood.
Get the blood, get the blood, get the blood.
BRIAN: Back up, back up, back up.
I got to put little arms on him, what's left of 'em.
Oh, they're tight.
DAVE: Very, very gentle, guys.
That is the most tender part of the pumpkin right there, B.
You are the queen of blood.
Here, here, here, here.
Go.
Don't go crazy.
WILLMAN: 10...
9...
8...
7...
6...
5...
Watch out, watch out.
4...
3...
2...
1. Time's up!
DAVE: It's the last one. This is -- we got to get this, man.
It's awesome.
I'm actually feeling really good.
This is the best work that we've done in a Small Scare
up to this point.
Teams, for this final Small Scare,
we asked you to do the impossible, yet again,
and imagine what it would be like
if your lovable, cherished pet
suddenly turned evil.
Remember, the winning team in this round
gets a special advantage
in the upcoming Spine Chiller challenge --
first pick of the pumpkins.
Let's unleash some possessed pets.
Psychotic Misfits, who do we have?
We decided to take the cute and fuzzy bunny
and turn it into a possessed pet.
He's actually coming back to seek revenge
on all the people who have collected rabbits' feet
in the past. And you can see,
the head is actually made out of rice-cereal treats
with modeling chocolate.
The ears are blown sugar.
The body and torso is pumpkin.
So, Shinmin, what do you think?
LI: I love the story.
I think it's really funny and scary at the same time,
and he's got so much character.
The snarl on the face is really great.
The eyes have real fright in them.
They're really well done.
And, actually, I really like the paint job.
Even though they're different mediums,
and the bottom reads a little bit more blue,
it's quite cohesive, in my opinion.
Brian?
This speaks to me.
I definitely see the possession.
I like the asymmetry of this.
I like the ears, the eyes, and the teeth,
all a little bit skewed.
And sort of the deflated tail worked for me.
I think it adds to the overall zombie look of this.
But one of the problems I had --
and this is something that I deal with
in doing effects makeup.
When you're painting different media,
each media takes paint a different way.
So, I'm seeing the color discrepancies
in the paint on the pumpkin
versus the paint on the modeling chocolate,
and also the ears.
I think I would have compensated for that a little bit more,
but very nice, creepy piece.
Thank you.
Derek, what do you think?
One thing as an actor, like myself, what I strive for
is tying in and connecting with an audience.
And what I like about --
You've captured with the expression of this character --
is the scowl that's coming through.
You can feel that energy of anger.
I connect to it.
Thank you, Psychotic Misfits.
Thank you.
Team Black Magic,
hello, again.
Hello.
Tell us about your pet.
Well, what we have for you today
is a small, yet terrifying little piglet,
and he's been possessed by the spirit of his older brother
that got sent to the slaughterhouse,
and that's what sprouted the second head.
And to pay homage to classic horror films,
we added the vomit.
[ Laughing ]
And the vomit is made out of sugar.
The heads are rice-cereal treats with fondant,
and the body is pumpkin.
Overall, the sculpting's pretty fantastic.
There's a uniform coloring.
The highlight and shadow is great
from the cake to the pumpkin to the tail.
I like the vomit element here.
I like that it sort of leapt out of the environment.
It's a little more animated,
leaking off the side, coming towards us.
The problem I have with the vomit is,
it looks as though one of your pigs has a nut allergy.
Maybe he's drunk.
He sort of... upchucked there.
I think I wanted to see,
maybe he'd ingested something else that was alive.
But I can definitely see the menace,
so, well done.
The pumpkin sculpting is great.
It's amazing that you were able to create this body
out of one pumpkin.
I love the sugar tail.
I mean, just the little curl
adds definite character and personality.
Some of the things that I would have done differently --
I would have rolled, like, a silicone mat
at the edge of the vomit and have it dry coming forward.
And it would just look like the vomit is really spewing at us.
But otherwise, terrifying.
I really enjoy this piece.
Minor little details for a story tells so much.
It's almost like this still frame of what this pig is.
You walk in in the middle of the action.
Black magic, thanks, guys.
Thank you.
Well, teams, as you know, this is an important call,
so our judges need a little time to think it over.
We'll meet back here in a few.
Thank you both very much.
JEFF: I want to win this so bad.
Not just for the advantage of choosing the pumpkin,
but we have to stop the momentum of the Psychotic Misfits.
BRIAN: Hopefully, the judges will finally see
that Black Magic has really been playing things safe,
and we've taken so many risks,
and I just really hope that we get rewarded for that this time.
Teams, we asked you each to deliver a possessed pet.
Both of you showcased the extraordinary talent
that got you to the finals,
but the judges thought that only one of you was able to seamlessly tell
a completely gruesome story from head to tail.
Congratulations...
Team Black Magic.
You guys are the winner of the Small Scare,
and you earn the extra special advantage
of having first pick of the pumpkins.
JEFF: We're pumped.
And we've got the win under our belt,
and we're ready to go to the next round.
WILLMAN: All right, teams...
the time has come.
One last fright-filled face-off.
When it's over,
one of you will win the "Halloween Wars" championship
and $50,000.
Our last challenge is going to be the most personal
of all the challenges.
We want you to breathe life
into your own nightmares.
BRIAN: Everybody has nightmares,
but everybody has different nightmares.
How do you hone that in to something
that has a really tight vision between three people?
We also want you to whip up treats
that look as horrifying as the nightmares you just woke from,
but have a taste as delicious as a dream.
To help you with this final challenge,
you will each get one assistant, and Black Magic,
you can take first pick of these beautiful pumpkins.
You've got just five hours
to make your nightmares a reality.
Clock starts now!
All right, great. You guys, we just won.
We got momentum, let's keep it going.
It's all or nothing.
We have any of those pumpkins to work with, so, let's go big.
We want that money.
Well, you know, what about, like a -- like a monster?
Like, maybe a bogeyman?
'Cause the bogeyman comes and gets you, you know?
When I was a little girl,
I was always scared of being in the bed,
and something crawling up.
Maybe the bogeyman could have, like, minions
that are coming out with him?
Oh, I like that.
And maybe the bogeyman can be really, really huge?
JEFF: We want to have this massively huge pumpkin bogeyman.
The idea being that, when someone's sleeping,
and they have a nightmare, the bogeyman shows up,
and he's bursting through the floorboards,
about to attack and eat their soul.
GABRIEL: I'm gonna go get that pumpkin.
I got to start pulling some sugar, for sure -- it's a lot.
All right, let's go.
Let's go, do it!
Let's go iconic.
Like, sandman.
The sandman. He brings dreams.
We can make him bring the nightmare.
We have, like, a bed,
and maybe we have a kid that's just scared.
He's grabbing a dream catcher,
just gripping onto that dream catcher.
No protection at all.
Can we just come up with big teeth
that are consuming the bed?
It really kind of depends on the pumpkin.
So, I'm gonna try to get the biggest pumpkin available.
BRIAN: Our goal is to have this elevated bed
with this kid trying to climb out
and reach for his dream catcher,
this really menacing sandman looming over that kid,
all these broken boards coming out from under the bed,
and then these really gnarly teeth
breaking up through the floor,
like the sandman's bringing Hell with him to devour this child.
50 grand, this is for all the -- Let's do it!
Huddle.
All right.
Okay.
Good!
Guys, I'm gonna go get the perfect pumpkin.
All right, get a good one.
JEFF: We have this advantage.
We can pick any pumpkin we want.
This is the one I need.
Gabriel goes to the pumpkin patch,
and he picks out the biggest one.
It's 1,500 pounds.
Guys, he picked the biggest one!
BRIAN: You can't deny the fact that this makes a statement.
You're taking the biggest thing they got,
and you're gonna turn that into a piece of art.
We're already at a disadvantage right here.
DAVE: Guys, we're almost as big!
Now it's David's turn to pick,
and he picks this other big pumpkin,
but it's nowhere near as big as Gabriel's.
It's definitely two different classes of pumpkin.
JEFF: I think our pumpkin is two times the size of theirs.
The big challenge for Gabriel
is that he has to do four to eight faces of souls
in this one pumpkin,
and each wanted out of that belly.
And they all have to have their own personality.
Oh, my gosh.
JEFF: With a pumpkin this size,
I expected Gabriel to break out a jigsaw
or some kind of power tool,
but he broke out this little thing
that looked like a potato peeler,
and I thought, "Oh, my gosh, this is the end of us."
That is insane.
Look at that!
SARAH: Gabriel, that tool seems really small.
Precision is key.
BRIAN: This may not be the biggest pumpkin that David's ever used,
but he has to carve this thing out into different pieces.
He's got to carve this up into, like, four teeth,
and then all these wooden planks.
It's actually a lot of work.
DAVE: Guys, I'm gonna try to size up this first plank.
And then he's got to put all the wood grain into the planks,
then he has to shape and carve the details into the teeth.
Man, I'm starting to think we should be the Messy Misfits.
Hey, hey! Back in action.
Hey!
Michelle!
I am starting on the head right now,
'cause that's what I want to have the most detail.
BRIAN: For the bogeyman,
Sarah's going to be sculpting the body out of cake,
the arms out of modeling chocolate,
and the head out of rice-cereal treats,
and then covering the entire thing in fondant.
And she has to get the perfect expression
add all this blood and gore
and really bring out the folds and wrinkles in his chin
and really bring it to life.
This is what I'm thinking for the midnight snack.
I guess sometimes I like sweet, and I like salty,
so I thought I'd kind of marry the two.
JEFF: I love eating popcorn at night,
so the tasting element is going to be
a chocolate-peanut butter bar
with salted peanuts and cocoa nibs
topped with a spiced, sugared popcorn.
Sounds really great.
I want to bust this out, get this out of the way,
so I can concentrate on all the sugar minions.
TERESA: You got to check this out.
DAVE: Oh, man, that is electric blue.
Isn't that great?
That's gonna be awesome.
BRIAN: Teresa is making a dream catcher.
She actually has to pipe out the spiral design
in order to set that in the center of the dream catcher.
Then, she's actually gonna pull little leaves and feathers
to attach to the dream catcher.
I'm gonna be making the sandman,
pretty large bed, and a child, all out of cake.
So, I got to put together a structure
that's, like, 4 feet tall for the sandman,
fill it in with cake, and then cover it in fondant.
This piece totally tells a story.
I mean, you got the sandman creeping over his bed,
completely frightened look on this kid's face,
and a beautiful dream catcher,
and a little bit of Hell
just ripping out from the floorboards.
Guys, I'm starting to put the beard on.
I'm gonna start on these minions that we talked about.
I'm going to be doing the sugar minions,
which are kind of like insect creatures.
I'm going for 10 to 12 sugar minions.
Each piece has 30 to 40 smaller pieces that it's made from.
These are really delicate, and we have to be really careful.
Sarah, what do you think?
GABRIEL: Do another one! A couple more like that.
SARAH: I would hate to run into that.
Crawling up your leg at night?
Yes.
I got a nightmare scenario for you.
Four hours left!
We're an hour down, guys.
Four hours.
Four hours?
DAVE: Hey, Teresa, you doing anything special with those marshmallows?
Yes.
For our tasting element,
Teresa made this amazing deconstructed s'more.
What is your favorite flavor ever, David?
She made a peach marshmallow, a homemade graham cracker,
a strawberry-balsamic-butter ganache
with a homemade strawberry jam.
A little sour and sweet.
Before the judges even get to taste it, she's gonna set 'em on fire.
Those look cool. Those look cool.
Well, they're not done yet!
JEFF: We got this enormous pumpkin
by getting first pick of the pumpkin patch.
Our original armature idea
had this piece being 8-foot tall.
I'm not gonna be able to stand up there.
Like, I'm pretty sure that with that armature,
it's just too unsafe. I can't --
Sarah can't even reach the top.
Yeah, I can't sculpt it if I can't reach it.
Gabriel might have picked out the wrong pumpkin.
This may have been a $50,000 mistake.
With the pieces we have, we're gonna make it work.
I'm not gonna be able to stand up there,
like, I'm pretty sure...
that with that armature, I mean, it's just too unsafe.
We got this huge advantage
by getting first pick of the pumpkin patch.
This pumpkin is huge.
The way it is now, with our armature,
Sarah can't even reach the top.
Gabriel might have picked out the wrong pumpkin.
Yeah, I can't sculpt it if I can't reach it.
Yeah.
This may have been a big mistake.
I want to scrap one of the layers.
We'll just make him short.
I mean, it's still huge.
We're gonna take a tier of the top off.
We ended up adjusting the armature at the last minute.
We removed the longer pipes
and replaced them with shorter pipes
and gave him a shorter torso.
This set us way back in time.
I don't know if Sarah's gonna be able to finish this.
Things happen for a reason, my man. [ Chuckles ]
DAVE: That structure holding up for you, Brian?
BRIAN: Yeah, this thing's perfect.
Awesome.
TERESA: I'm gonna pour this sugar, so, you guys,
don't jar the table, all right?
Hey!
Three hours left!
Well done.
Three hours left!
DAVE: Oh, man.
Come on, come on, come on. I'm behind. I'm behind.
How's Gabe doing over there, guys?
What do you think?
What do you think it's even gonna be, man --
Big monster coming out of a big, monstrous pumpkin?
I think he bit off more than he can chew.
Gabe, you were supposed to pick a good pumpkin,
not one too big to finish!
We'll see in three hours.
BRIAN: So, Dave is, like, talking smack this entire competition,
and I'm, like, "We're behind."
I mean, "Shut your mouth, and let's get to work."
How do you guys think about your pumpkin carver
biting off more than he can chew?
Doesn't he just realize we won the Small Scare today?
But every time you won a Small Scare, you never win the big.
DAVE: Just like today.
I do not go anywhere to lose, guys.
Maybe my temper, but not $50,000.
The story is --
the sandman's luring over this child in his bed,
reaching for his dream catcher that's just out of reach,
and he misses salvation.
So, David's gonna make these floorboards,
and he's also gonna make these really large teeth.
In this piece, the teeth represent
the Hell that the sandman's bringing with him.
All right, guys. I'm gonna take that thing out of the vinyl
so I can start putting these feathers on it.
Teresa -- she's making a dream catcher
out of pulled sugar and poured sugar.
She actually has to cut the tubing off
and break it free without breaking the ring,
so that's really risky.
I'm nervous about this, David, a little bit.
Every time I do this, though, I usually break it.
Then why did we plan this technique for this event?
'Cause it looks so good.
BRIAN: There's so many different ways this thing can break,
and it's really time-consuming.
That's our focal point. No dream catcher, no nightmare.
What the hell?
Teresa breaks the sugar
trying to cut it out of the tube,
and I just get these visions
of $50,000 just, like, slipping away from us.
You gonna make another one?
I'll try, I'll try.
See what's gonna happen over there?
They're gonna explode from within.
We don't have to beat them. They're gonna beat themselves.
We'll create pleats like this.
TERESA: Got to redo this.
Get it down, get it on, get it on.
Maybe I should put it on.
You think I should put it on now or later?
GABRIEL: Make it face this way.
Sarah can sculpt monsters like nobody's business.
The torso is gonna be all splotched with age
and have all these folds and wrinkles and rolls,
and he's gonna have boils and pus coming out.
Who's not afraid of the bogeyman?
You didn't come this far to lose!
Well, I guess one of them did.
One hour!
TERESA: One hour!
Oh, God. We only got an hour, guys. Come on!
GABRIEL: An hour for $50,000, guys!
50 grand!
B., your riser's looking really bleak.
You coming through?
Well, I can't put anything on until I airbrush this.
This thing has to have cloth on it.
Well, you got to, man.
We don't have choices here.
I know, I'm well aware.
No kidding, man.
I hear you, I hear you.
We got to get this done.
I hear you.
Shut up and work!
All right.
I don't want to hear it, man!
Well, we might as well just walk out the door now,
and I'm not trying to do that.
Dude, shut up.
Oh, man, there's so much to do, guys. So much to do.
Are you gonna kill him, or am I?
We are seriously behind.
He's jabbing at me, and I am so worried
that we're not even gonna finish this piece this time.
Yeah, just shut up, David. Just get it done.
We don't need this again, man. We don't need this again.
You work yours. I'll work mine.
We'll meet in the middle. Fair enough?
David and I just don't get along.
No matter what I tried, I couldn't get that resolved.
There's $50,000 on the line.
Shut your mouth, and let's get to work.
Brian, damn it, there's a half-hour left.
There's nothing on the riser. What's going on?
Shut up, David. Just get it done.
We don't need this again, man. We don't need this again.
David and I just don't get along.
What's going on?
Shut up! Get over here.
Can't put it down until you're done, man.
There's $50,000 on the line.
We don't have time for arguing. We need to focus and finish.
All right, David, you want to help me put this bed on?
Yeah, yeah, I'm coming.
And then you can put your stuff on.
WILLMAN: Teams, 30 minutes!
JEFF: I'm piping pus coming out of these boils
and these holes in his body.
Blaze him with red, like, especially the yellow areas.
Don't break the fondant.
You got to lift it up to get over that.
There you go, just like that.
There you go.
DAVE: Boom.
TERESA: Done.
SARAH: Ooh, I wouldn't want to run into this guy, you guys.
We are going for a realistic effect,
using shading and contouring,
to really make this guy look like he's alive.
All right, can I put him right here?
Time's winding down,
and none of my sugar is even on the bogeyman yet.
Is he good?
GABRIEL: Is it? Tell me.
Is he moving?
No.
Then he's good.
It's time to get crazy, people, come on!
Okay, I'm getting crazy.
BRIAN: Here we are in the final moments,
trying to get something done,
and we are seriously behind.
Come on, guys, come on. We can get it done. We can get it done.
You know what? We're the Psychotic Misfits.
We always dig deep somehow,
and we pull ourselves out of that hole.
We can do this. We can do this, come on.
SARAH: Do you think it's gonna hold?
Cross your fingers. I don't know.
This is the final push for the $50,000.
Last-minute touches are being made.
It's all about the bogeyman.
He has to be perfect.
Watch out for the sugar. You almost hit it.
Your hand, your elbow.
Oh.
Teams, 10 minutes!
GABRIEL: Guys, let's get these last bugs on here!
I got to put that dream catcher on.
You guys, we have to be careful.
This is the big one. The big ones matter in this.
Yeah, man. Good white and pink teeth.
BRIAN: Yeah, just get 'em on, dude.
All right, I know, I know.
Be really careful. We don't want to lose this one.
I know.
DAVE: B., I'll be there in less than 2 minutes
with this last tooth.
Oh [bleep]
SARAH: Oh, my gosh.
What just happened?
With minutes left,
one of the creatures fell.
All that work for nothing, all that time wasted.
Guys, be careful. I can't drop another one of these guys.
It's all I have left.
This is it! One minute!
Final run! Let's do it, $50,000!
Come on, guys! Let's go!
GABRIEL: Blood. Blood. Put some blood on there.
Man, sand is done.
We got all the tasting elements on?
Is this where you want 'em, Teresa?
I need to get that --
Make it quick, Jeff!
JEFF: I know. I know, I know.
SARAH: We don't have a lot of time.
I got to cover that sugar hose.
Airbrush it.
What? What, what, what?
Airbrush this.
I need black. I need black because --
Just, whatever color you want.
Pull it around, pull it around, pull it around.
DAVE: I got you. I got you.
Put some orange right here, please.
Where?
Around the purple area.
WILLMAN: 10...
9...
8...
7...
6...
5...
4...
3...
2...
1.
Time is up!
JEFF: We're done. We're done.
Good job, guys. Good job.
BRIAN: Black Magic's piece really is amazing,
but at the same time, it could be almost any story,
and I'm really interested
in hearing what the judges have to say.
Well, guys, with a team name like Psychotic Misfits,
we expect one messed-up nightmare,
so tell us about it.
So, the sandman, actually,
is hanging over the top of the child,
who's in the bed,
and the kid is trying to grip onto the dream catcher.
He didn't quite get there.
His bed is being consumed by these huge teeth
that are made out of pumpkin.
The bed, and, of course, the sandman is made out of cake.
Child is made out of a mixture of modeling chocolate
and some rice-cereal treats.
Dream catcher is made out of sugar.
And what's better than a s'more?
It is a homemade graham cracker
with a strawberry-balsamic- butter ganache
with a homemade peach marshmallow on top.
Teresa, you are always so ambitious
with the tasting treats,
so I really applaud you for that.
I wish that I can actually just eat the whole piece
in one bite,
but I can't believe you made this
while doing everything else. So, that's amazing.
You have come so far as a team.
You started off with the loosely shaped figures,
and now you have this perfectly sculpted skull
with a gap between the teeth.
This child with an obviously frightened look on his face,
and the blue veins in the hands and throughout the face,
that's such a nice detail.
And your sugar work, Teresa.
Creating a piece like that in this perfect round shape
is so difficult.
When I design characters,
I want the design of the character
to tell the story,
and here, the characters definitely tell the story.
There's a lot of very expressive characters
that move this along.
I think we could have made the skeleton
a little more anatomical.
I wanted to see just a little more bulk there.
Using a potentially 1,200-pound pumpkin
is quite ambitious,
and I think I'd like to see a little more
of the overall pumpkin shape tied in.
By portraying different monsters myself,
there's always got to be that focus of that character,
so the focus -- though he's trying to get the child --
is up this way.
I would like it more, like, aimed at the child
so the danger is aimed at that person,
so it tells more of the story --
like, that's why they're reaching for the dream catcher.
Thank you, judges.
Psychotic Misfits, thank you.
Thank you.
BRIAN: They liked the expression in the faces.
They loved the story,
and they really liked the dream catcher,
so, you know what?
I think we actually have a shot at winning the championship.
Team Black Magic.
So, tell us what evil lurks in your nightmares.
When you're sleeping, and you have a nightmare,
and you feel that little tingle in the back of your neck,
the bogeyman shows up with his minions.
He's busting through the floorboards.
He has a belly full of souls.
His minions are running all over him.
The body, the torso, arms, and head of the character
is rice-cereal treats, cake,
and modeling chocolate and fondant.
The belly, of course, is all carved pumpkin.
And then we have the minions,
which are all pulled and blown sugar.
The treat we have for you today
is a chocolate-peanut butter bar
with salted peanuts, cocoa nibs,
and it's topped with a spiced, sugared popcorn.
It is really good.
I love the peanuts in here.
I wasn't quite sure if I was gonna like the spiced sugar,
but it really worked,
and the popcorn added a really good crunch.
When I'm creating a creature, I'm rarely creeped out.
This creeps me out.
I'm afraid to let this touch me.
I see a whole -- a life-form with life-forms on it.
All kinds of ooze.
Just nasty.
You've clearly layered your colors
so it looks like decay and mold coming from within.
But I would like to see
that it's reaching out for me a little bit.
This creature looks like it's a bit passive.
I want to see a little more, "I'm gonna get you."
The shape of the body is so great.
I love the folds and the flesh
and how it's speckled with age.
And when I was watching you paint the face, Sarah --
I'm sure Brian would agree with me --
you looked like a makeup artist
creating special-effects makeup.
When I was watching you work on this,
I was like, "Where the hell is Jeff?"
And then you come out with these sugar minions.
Each one could be in a museum.
When you work with a pumpkin that's, like, over 1,600 pounds,
it could either work for you or against you.
And in this case...
it resulted in a disproportion
between the body and the base.
I mean, he looks like he's sitting on
a giant, bulbous base.
I would've just shaved off a little bit
from either side of the pumpkin
to create more of a gradual shape.
When I play monsters that are built out of latex,
my job is to bring them to life, to give them this energy.
When I look at this, I'm really, really impressed
because just sitting there,
there's an energy that comes off of it
that says life to me.
Thank you, judges.
Black Magic, thanks, guys.
Thank you.
All right, teams, this is a huge decision.
WILLMAN: Everything is on the line,
so we're gonna give our judges a chance
to make sure they get it right.
They'll have a chat.
We'll meet back here in a few.
Thanks.
JEFF: My heart was pounding. It was in my throat.
Did I make stupid mistakes? Did I airbrush correctly?
Was it enough? We have to win!
BRIAN: I want to win this competition so bad,
I can taste it.
[ Laughs evilly ]
So, guys, this was the first time
in a "Halloween Wars" competition
that we just let them have free rein --
"Give us your most creepy nightmare."
Let's evaluate how they did.
Team Psychotic Misfits,
their most demonic nightmare was the sandman.
I think this is the best storytelling they've done yet.
It had a very haunted quality to it.
This piece really does say nightmare.
LI: Yeah.
We have these really well-defined faces.
The child, to me, is really speaking terror.
They just added some really nice detail,
like the draping of the fondant, the great sugar work.
I think the environment's there,
but I want to see a little more anatomy.
I mean, you have a skeleton there.
There's a very obvious anatomical reference
they can look at.
I feel like the arms are just kind of thin pipes.
I appreciate the detail.
I love the wood grain of the floorboards
and the fangs,
but it could have been done with a number of pumpkins,
rather than one.
MEARS: I think they captured the feel of fun.
Like, when we were children,
and you hear a ghost story,
like, "Ooh, I want to be scared."
I think we all kind of relate to that.
They captured the child-scare side of us.
Well, to accompany their sandman scene,
they gave us very tasty s'mores.
LI: When Teresa torched the top of the marshmallow,
she could have melted the chocolate layer
in the middle, but I have to give it to her.
She does so much more with her tasting elements
than anyone else.
The balsamic reduction was a nice touch.
I expected a s'more and got so much more.
WILLMAN: So, Team Black Magic
chose as their inspiration -- the bogeyman.
Everybody has their own version what they think the bogeyman is,
and I feel they threw the creativity dart
and nailed it right in the bull's-eye.
It's creepy. It's gross.
I wouldn't want it to touch me.
It's morbidly obese.
It made fantastic use of the biggest pumpkin they could find.
Gabriel carved five faces in this pumpkin
in this short amount of time,
and Sarah was able to create
this really believable body and amazing head.
And, oh, my God, the sugar work!
Jeff was smart to just color it
with a bit of a brownish earth tone,
but not completely lose that translucency in the body.
This rotting from within bogeyman
was terrifying in itself,
but to have it infected and infested on top of that,
it was perfect.
The character has so much energy already,
that you don't need to do the,
"I'm gonna get you," or the bogeyman pose.
I actually disagree.
Because this bogeyman is not self-explanatory,
I need him to move
and perhaps sort of come at me with his arms.
Let's talk about their treat.
He said there was peanut butter in the chocolate,
and I wish that I was able to taste that more.
I lost some of the intricacies.
I was tasting chocolate and popcorn.
It was a nice combination that I haven't done before,
but otherwise, some of the subtle flavors were lost.
Compared to Teresa's tasting,
I feel like this is just not as developed or sophisticated.
So, is this a $50,000 creation?
Judges...
do we know who's gonna win?
[ Sighs ] Yeah.
We do.
Yeah.
Okay, let's bring 'em back.
Teams, we now come to the moment
that you have all been waiting for.
In this final championship challenge,
your task was both simple, yet incredibly difficult,
and that was to present a vision of the nightmares
that have haunted you your entire lives.
Today has been a true test of all of your skills.
You should all be proud of what you've accomplished
here on "Halloween Wars."
Team Black Magic, once again,
you were able to claim the Small Scare advantage,
but was getting first pick of the pumpkins
more of a curse than a blessing...
as your 1,500-pound giant proved to be a lot to handle.
In this final challenge,
your bulbous and revolting bogeyman
was filled with a remarkable amount
of oozing, crawling, disgusting details,
each more ghastly than the last.
The judges also thought
that each and every one of those sugared minions
deserved its own place in a museum.
Team Psychotic Misfits, once again today,
you suffered adversity and team tension.
Shut up and work!
But despite your crumbling sugar,
you managed to come together
and create a scene that would give anyone nightmares.
And the judges agreed, you delivered a piece
that clearly and instantly told the horrifying story
of a sandman bursting through the floorboards
to capture yet another victim.
And they were especially blown away
by the near perfection of your sugar dream catcher.
These are two remarkable displays
filled with masterful artistry that shows you all have earned
a right to compete in this final battle.
As you know,
only one team can be crowned champion.
And the judges felt there was one team
that blended pumpkin, cake, and candy
into such a seamless, shocking,
yet more importantly, original piece,
and that is what determines a champion.
So, congratulations...
...Team Black Magic!
You guys are the winners of "Halloween Wars"!
JEFF: We got it. We did it.
We just won!
It was a roller coaster --
up and down -- but we finally did it.
We won $50,000!
BRIAN: I don't know what to say. I mean...
I'm incredibly proud of my team
for the journey that we've been on and how hard we've worked,
but this piece just didn't live up
to the visions that I have in my head.
[ Applause ]
JEFF: My team was amazing
throughout this whole competition.
We worked well together under immense pressure,
competing against some of the best in the industry.
Probably the hardest thing I've ever done.
All the blood, sweat, and tears was worth it.
In the end, we came through. We did it.
We won "Halloween Wars."