I have a very special interview for lovers of horror AND Sesame Street. I know, it sounds like two things that wouldn’t go together but trust me when I say they do. And extremely amazingly!
Hal Hefner was kick ass awesome to sit down and answer some questions that I had to be nosy about. After reading, the article - check him out on BlueSky, Facebook, and he has a beautifully done and extensive website.
Thank you to Hal for being such a sport for us!
CP: How did the idea of Muppets as horror movie characters come about? How involved with the process was the Henson Company?
HH: As a pop artist, my “schtick” has always been mashing up different properties. Whether it was the CONSUME series inspired by They Live or the Charlie Brown + Stephen King series or the G.I. Joe series, or this new Muppets one. I just love to smash pieces of pop culture together to make people happy. It all comes from a very nerd driven perspective because I am a nerd and like to make things for other nerds. That's why I chose the Muppets.
So many of us grew up on Sesame Street that the Muppets are a part of our core DNA just as much as horror films, so this is a love letter to Jim Henson and all of the horror films and genres I love, and hope others do too. I feel like if Jim were alive, he’d have approved of this but as of now, we haven’t heard from the Henson company.
CP: What was it about the movies you selected for “The Crypt of Muppet Horrors”? And how long did this project take you from inception to completion?
HH: Selecting the films to include in the series was actually a very fun part of the project because it was fun to match characters with movies and movies with characters. Sometimes the initial muppet I had planned for a film didn't work out so I had to pivot but it was so fun, laughing all the way through finding the right roles for our beloved muppets. From start to finish these pieces took about 5 days to make them all. I think I did 9 in one day as my record and there were a total of 38-40. Some I didn’t release with this bunch.
My goal was to first go after the movies I loved but I really wanted to balance it with new, current, upcoming and classic films. So I started with the Nightmare on Elm Street, the Shining then Late Night With the Devil and Mandy, then I got on a roll after that. It then became very easy to find a film or a character that worked in the right picture.
CP: I have a few favorites from this series: Big Bird - Mandy, Gonzo - I Saw the TV Glow, Kermit - The Exorcist, and Beaker - Re-Animator. Do you have particular favorites?
HH: I love that you love Big Bird as Mandy. That’s one of my favorites. Mandy is one of my favorite horror films and I was lucky to get to do some marketing/merch concept art and strategy for the film. I also hung out with Panos Cosmatos at the premier here in LA and got to hold Nicolas Cage’s custom axe/weapon “the Beast” at it too. So, the film holds a special place in my heart which is why I made the one with Big Bird holding it and had to add in Cookie Monster as Jerimiah Sand.
I love these types of weird horror movies and as an artist color is such an important part of my work, so I needed to make sure Mandy got at least two images. Longlegs, as well. Yes, there’s definitely a Nick Cage theme here, LOL. But Longlegs was also one of my favorites. Turning Miss Piggy into “Pigolas Cage” was so much fun, especially drawing her chapped lips. But I truly love them all. Late Night With the Devil, I think made me laugh the most, and then an American Werewolf in London is another favorite. I can’t forget Elmo inside the Overlook hotel on his Big Wheel or Gonzo as the Shining twins either, I laughed through those too. I have more to make because the list is never ending.
CP: Movies are a strong foundation in your art. What about literary inspiration? Are there novels that feed the furnace for your horror inspiration?
HH: Oh yes. Frankenstein, Dracula and all of the classic horror novels inspire me and I will always love the work of Phillip K. Dick, Stephen King and HP Lovecraft who scared the shit out of me as a kid growing up. I had no business reading Stephen King’s Nightshift in 3rd grade but my Dad was an English teacher so he would get books for free a lot and I found it on the kitchen table just a few days before my birthday and couldn’t put it down. But there are some fantastic writers today whose work I am inspired by, such as Canadian Author Craig Davidson aka “Nick Cutter” whose book, The Troop literally bore a hole into my mind creatively. This has helped to inspire a whole cosmic horror themed project that I am working on that includes a game, called the Gateway Project and a film called God Hates Heavy Metal currently in production.
CP: Pop culture is a constant in your art; from “Consume”, which is a scathing commentary on what you describe as: “greed, corruption, narcissism, materialism, consumerism, hatred, and bigotry”, by using actors and actresses, as well as public figures.
Now, with The Crypt of Muppet Horrors, it’s less commentary and more
light-hearted (if you could call Bert as Art the Clown light-hearted.)
How did your creativity move from social commentary to Muppet Horror?
HH: It was an effortless move creatively because even when I was making CONSUME art I never stopped drawing and creating other things. I’m a writer and filmmaker as well so my mind is always churning out creativity in many forms. As an artist, I can only do so much political art and social commentary before it “consumes” me because so many of the topics focus on negativity and bad people. My art will always have social commentary but some are more obvious than other pieces are. Aside from that I would like to reach a bigger audience of horror fans with joy and give them new content that makes them think for themselves without me having to spell it out. I also just like to have fun and this was pure fun. Focusing on creating things I love just leads to a much happier life but I will definitely never stop making pop art that calls out the real monsters in our world preying on us, like ELon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos who truly make us OBEY, CONSUME and CONFORM with their wealth and AI and algorithms.
CP: Nerd Horror has a great definition: “an overlooked genre of horror storytelling where nerds are the heroes AND villains who use their brains to either defeat or create the terror facing them.” What characters and/or movies are major examples of this?
HH: Thank you. The concept of Nerd Horror came to me after my son and I were attacked by an unhoused man, recently released from prison who was whacked out of his mind on drugs. He threatened my six year old son and I had to fight him off as he stabbed me and attacked me with garden tools he pulled out of the back of a gardener’s truck. It was at the moment when he tried to stab me with garden shears and said, “I’m gonna cut your dick off,” that I snapped into this super aware moment. He was Freddy and he was going to kill me and I had to become that “final girl”, like Nancy to survive. The whole moment slowed down and I used my brain to survive and fight back using a shovel.
Once the dust settled I realized that horror saved my life. Using brains to defeat evil is a theme I felt in my soul, and then I started to realize how all of my favorite films star nerds. Whether it’s a mean nerd like Herbert West or a greedy one like Frankenstien or Becky who kills Nazi’s with pencils and rulers or the Comic nerds, the Frog Brothers aiding Corey Haim in the Lost Boys, nerds are a quintessential part of horror and horror tropes. Horror is the one genre where the outcasts and nerds often save the day or get their comeuppance.
Justine Norton-Kertson and I were working on a bunch of Solarpunk content together when I brought up the concept to them. This immediately resonated and then we started creating this together. Horror is so important to us because it's not only an escape from the real world and the horrors that reside in it, but it has so many rabbit holes to venture down, it has something for everyone. So to us, Nerd Horror is really our life and our future.
CP: SOLARPUNK comics are an “ongoing series… that explore the changing future in radical and unconventional ways” or more simply, you ask your readers to, “Demand a Better Future”. How did this series get started and was it an expansion of the commentary we see in Consume?
HH: Yes it was definitely an expansion on CONSUME. I have been a solarpunk for quite some time so I wanted to have a little fun with comics since I haven’t really done any since I created Gates, Heavy Metal Magazine’s first webcomic. As I sit in my studio in a suburb of Los Angeles the city burns around me, ash rains down on it and the sky looks like the apocalypse, so climate change and demanding a better future are really close to home. In a time where lies and denial permeate the media landscape and politicians clearly rebuke science in the name of profit, I think that it’s so important that we make horror concepts that reflect the changing climate and the way it will impact our lives. The greatest science fiction and horror films have always carried an underlying message, warning us about the direction we’re on as humans and it has never been more important than it is now.
CP: I read Nerd Horror Media is working on a horror video game, The Gateway Project, for 2025 release. Are there any details that could be elaborated on?
HH: Yes, in August of 2024, I became a professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology, here in their Los Angeles program. I teach Transmedia storytelling which explores the ability to blend multiple forms of media to tell a larger story that audiences can become immersed in. My students come from a variation of backgrounds of media and production and due to the studio landscape and the changing entertainment industry, they could not find internships here in Los Angeles. So Justine and I created our own internship program for my creative agency and studio, Catmonkey. With these incredible students, we created a game, based on the CIA’s Gateway program in the 1980’s that studied Transcendental meditation. This game will be released on Itch and Steam this year and we are in production on it now. It’s going to be a transmedia mix of retro 2D style game, mini games, animation, video and images that incorporate everything from puppets to short films. It’s been such a fun and amazing project. In addition we are also building an incredible world to explore in Fortnight of the town of Mohawk, NY where the game takes place.
CP: I’m especially excited about Nerd Horror Crypt, a horror zine also releasing in 2025. It states it will include trans media and “redefine what makes a magazine.” Can you explain a bit more about this project?
Justine: Nerd Horror Crypt is our attempt to create a new kind of horror magazine experience for the modern era. We’re blending traditional elements like essays, interviews, short fiction, and poetry with innovative transmedia storytelling. This means readers won’t just be flipping through pages or swiping through a digital publication—they’ll be uncovering stories that spill into multimedia formats, comics, animations and live action video, digital mini-games and other interactive elements, and eventually, hopefully even things like AR elements. Our goal is to engage not just readers but horror fans in general in ways that traditional magazines never could, creating an immersive horror experience that goes beyond the written word.
CP: Will we see a The Crypt of Muppet Horrors chapbook? Or maybe even prints to purchase? Or even an expansion of the project behind the scenes?
HH: Yes, yes you will. If anyone is interested, please sign up for our mailing list: and we’ll ensure you get first dibs on what we do.
CP: Long-term goals, what are a few you hope to accomplish or be in the planning stages of in the next five years?
HH: We have a lot we are planning because we are horror fans first and foremost. So this “for fans by fans” concept drives everything we do. Which is why we are currently in the process of making the first intentional Nerd Horror film. When horror fans love something they want to consume it well beyond the movies and so our goal is to create opportunities for fans to not only do that, but be a part of it. They can literally help produce what we make, be in it and dive in as far as they want to.
To us, everything is always better when you’re doing it with friends and fans who love the same thing you do. So we’ve come up with a new concept that allows fans to do that. However, with my experience in creating transmedia content for The Martian, The X-Men, and the newest Blade Runner series for Amazon, I know that some people just want to watch, so the deep dives and immersive experiences we create will be optional and the game, The Gateway Project is our first proof of concept and will tie into the movie we are currently in pre-production on.
Overall, our aspirations are very big, and we want to really try and innovate with new technology to give people a new horror home to enjoy. When I am not working on my own creative content, I am a Creative Director and Marketing Strategist for the Entertainment industry and after working on so many great things like Yellowjackets and Chucky, I have seen how horror fans are treated and thought of by studios, so I am trying to really do something that caters to what people want. Additionally, I learned so much about building a safe and welcoming community while I was the Strategist and the then Creative Director at the social network, DeviantArt. I watched the many missteps they took and also the good things they did, and I want to harness those things, with other lessons I’ve learned and really build a community along with the content we are creating.
Community is the one overlooked aspect the studios just don’t care about but to me time and time again I have seen how imperative it is in creating anything successful in the 21st century. We’ve found a wonderful home on BlueSky right now and we are building a community free of hate and vitriol that is filled with horror centric fun. A place where anyone who has ever felt picked on, put down an outcast, a nerd or a geek because of the way they look or the horror they love can come and find others just like them.
We’re so grateful for the support we’ve received on this new platform that is free of so many of the things that have made social media toxic for fans like us and to us it's the cornerstone of all we do and aspire to do. In all honesty, we just want to make cool shit with other horror nerds that push the boundaries of storytelling to give you a laugh then scare the shit out of you.
Comments