If you find yourself watching a horror movie this October and wanting a better look at the houses featured, a Mississippi artist is giving you the chance to do so with his dioramas of different settings from frightful flicks such as Psycho, Halloween, The Amityville Horror, and others.
Lanny Helton, a native of Pearl who attended film school in Florida, turned a childhood project into a part-time career with his company Frightful Facades. After recreating props from movies like Ghostbusters and Back to the Future, a young Helton decided to recreate Nancy’s popsicle house from A Nightmare on Elm Street.
It wasn’t until well into his adulthood when he discovered his mother had kept the replica after all those years, planting a thought into Helton’s mind that maybe he could take what was once a youthful dream and rekindle it into a form that would draw interest from film-lovers across the globe.
“This is a confession that I might not want to make, but I used to play hooky from school,” Helton laughed. “And when I was playing hooky, instead of going fishing like in ‘Andy Griffith,’ I did stay home like a good boy. No Ferris Bueller or anything like that. Anyway, I created different props from movies that I did watch like the ‘Ghostbusters’ backpack and the DeLorean from ‘Back to the Future.’
“I ended up watching ‘Nightmare on Elm Street.’ I liked the ‘Dream Warriors’ one where she put the popsicle sticks together and made the house, and I was like, ‘Man, I think I can do this.’ And I did it. Years later, I went over to my parents’ house, and I noticed that my mom kept that one. I thought to myself that if it meant something to her, then there’s probably something there.”
From there, Helton began recreating from fictional movies – first in the form of a costume. After his son wanted to get more involved with Mississippi’s annual comic con in Jackson, Helton carved out extra time over the course of five months to build a full-size Power Work Loader suit from James Cameron’s 1986 film Aliens.
“The way it worked out is my son and I went to the comic con, and he was asking about wanting to participate in it more,” Helton said. “I told him if we’re going to do this, I’m going to go all out. I made an Alien Power Loader suit for him to wear … It ended up paying off because we won best in show at the Mississippi Comic Con in 2019.”
With momentum from the win at Mississippi Comic Con, Helton began to invest in recreating homes from horror movies. Using a construction model that consists of a hardboard base followed by assorted craft sticks adhered to the surface, he painted the outside of the dioramas with various acrylics.
The process became more precise and meticulous as Helton perfected the recreations, and as people at comic cons and horror shows across Texas, Tennessee, Louisiana, Florida, and Mississippi began to notice, he launched a company called Horror House Wall Dioramas later in 2019 to start selling his art. The company has since rebranded as Frightful Facades and has sold replicas often placed on shelves or hung on walls not only in the U.S. but across the world.
“You would just be surprised when the phone call comes in and they request a custom one,” Helton said. “I get a whole lot of international sales. I’ve sold to the U.K., Australia, Spain, France, and Canada. So, I’ve had a pretty decent international market as well.”
Helton – who has also been tasked by a paranormal investigator to recreate a home in Iowa where he was hunting ghosts – might enjoy horror films as much as the next guy. However, his art isn’t confined to the genre or even to movies at all. One of the harder projects he’s ever taken on, according to him, was recreating the Ohio State Reformatory from Shawshank Redemption. He’s also taken a special interest in gothic homes that line the streets of New Orleans and rural settings that can be found throughout the American South.
“I’ll be horror conventions and people will say, ‘Man, you must be obsessed with the genre.’ Honestly, I’m all over the place with movies. It’s not 100 percent slasher shows. Yeah, I’m a horror fan, but it’s not every day,” Helton said. “I’m actually interested in a lot of gothic architecture in New Orleans, old barns, and farmhouses. Someone asked me at one point to do the house from Gone with the Wind. It’s not just limited to horror.”
Helton added that his five-year business plan is to open a storefront, possibly on Decatur or Magazine Street in New Orleans, to sell his art. For the time being, though, people can purchase Helton’s recreations or make a special request for him to build a custom one by visiting his website at frightful-facades.com.
