“Chris Zephro has more practical experience applying constraint management principles to large-scale supply chains than anyone else I know,” wrote colleague Bill Dettmer in a recommendation on Linkedin. It was here where he joined corporate America working for Seagate in San Jose. He returned to Los Angeles to work for Warner Brothers but eventually found himself back in the Bay Area. It was all Irwin Yablans.”Īfter graduating high school, Zephro moved to Santa Cruz, attended and graduated UCSC. “From the concept to the poster and the whole premise. “It was his film essentially,” Zephro says of the original Halloween. As a child growing up in Los Angeles, his father was a film distributor and good friends with Irwin Yablans, producer of Halloween, Halloween II, Halloween III: Season of the Witch, and others. It was the greatest job ever because I could see movies for free.”Ī lifelong fan of “anything horror”–Zephro even drives one of the 1958 Plymouth Furys used in the 1983 killer car film, Christine–he seemed destined to be in the business. So I forged my work permit to be a projectionist at the Mann’s Village Westwood. “When I was in junior high I had the same typewriter as the school. “I shouldn’t say this,” Chris Zephro, Trick Or Treat Studios co-founder, admits. So how did a local horror memorabilia company grow to be a monster in the industry? It all started in a seemingly normal way with two not-so-ordinary horror fans. “I think we’re well known nationally but I don’t know about ,” Austin admits. Like the Slashstreet Boys–a horror satire group that parodies boy bands–whose videos all have millions of views. Their masks and props often go viral online and can be seen in TikTok and YouTube videos. All of which is sold around the world from Brazil to The Netherlands and everywhere in between. What started as a small company by two horror movie fanatics unimpressed with the replica masks on the market, has grown to a $30 million, international company.Īlong with their signature masks, TOTS also sells everything from tabletop games, action figures, enamel pins, t-shirts, air fresheners, movie prop replicas and more. “It’s probably going to be our present day Halloween or Texas Chainsaw Massacre.” “ Terrifier 2 came out and people were walking out of the theater because they couldn’t deal with the gore,” Austin says. Among them Boris Karloff’s Frankenstein, The Night King from Game of Thrones, Pennywise from IT, Michael Myers from Halloween and even a gruesome Art the Clown from the recent hit film franchise, Terrifier. Surrounding the foyer, a ghoulish collection of realistic horror masks from every decade and subgenre of spooky gazes down upon the audience and guest speakers. “So It’s a little bit weird when it’s not there, like today,” continues Austin. But TOTS–one of the premiere Halloween, horror and cult media memorabilia companies in the world–Pumpkinhead is only one villain in a rogues gallery of monsters, psycho killers and creeps. Ok, a lifesize demonic monster might be a weird piece of decor for–well–practically any office. It’s so realistic it looks as if only actor Lance Henriksen (as the vengeful Ed Harley) can kill. The creature stands in all its glory with spindly veins, sunken ribs, massive, flesh ripping claws and its signature evil grin. To his left stands a seven foot tall, lifelike replica of the demonic monster from the 1988 horror classic, Pumpkinhead. “Pumpkinhead is on display at our office,” Anthony Austin, director of sales at Trick or Treat Studios (TOTS), says to attendees at the Santa Cruz Museum of Arts and History’s Festival of Monsters.
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