Posted in: Review, Trailer, TV | Tagged: baking, bleeding cool, Burned at the Cake, Buttercream Beats, cable, cooking, Cooking Channel, Episode 1, Food, Food Network, Frosted Freak Show, halloween, halloween wars, Hangry Hunters, Malicious Mavens, opinion, Review, season 9, streaming, television, Trio of Terror, tv

"Halloween Wars" Season 9: "Trapped in a Nightmare" Filled with Twisted Unicorns, Evil Giraffes & Elvira [SPOILER REVIEW]

In honor of the ninth season premier of Food Network's Halloween Wars, I sat down with my daughter to carve a pumpkin – and to be completely transparent, our "cat" came out looking more like "possum roadkill". Regardless, every year I look forward to being shocked and frightened by the imagination of the contestants. My mind is blown by their ability to create grandiose ghastly sculptures out of essentially thin air.

Halloween Wars (hosted by Jonathan Bennett) follows six teams tasked with representing our biggest fears during the spooky season. Our judges this year are Shinmin Li and Todd Tucker, with Elvira, Mistress of the Dark this episode's guest judge… how does the woman still look so fantastic? She has to be undead.

"Trapped in a Nightmare" brought us twisted unicorns, evil giraffes, the rebirth of Cujo, and a slew of nightmares come to life – but let's start with a look at the "guts" of Halloween Wars:

● Round #1 – Small Scare: Contestants are given an hour to create a small, spooky sculpture out of pumpkin, cake, and sugar.

● Round #2 – Spine Chiller: Competitors are given five hours to create a deranged display guaranteed to scare our socks off. They must also incorporate a delicious treat into their creation.

At the end of each episode, a team is eliminated – with the remaining teams competing for a chance to win $50,000.

Our 6 teams this season are as follows: Trio of Terror, Hangry Hunters, Malicious Mavens, Burned at the Cake, Buttercream Beats, and Frosted Freak Show – and here are some of highlights from episode 1 "Trapped in a Nightmare":

Round #1 "Stuffed Animal Evil Twin Challenge": As a child, I always wondered whether my stuffies come to life while I'm asleep. After seeing unicorn and giraffes heads ripped off, a psychotic teddy bear wearing a devils face, and limbs, limbs, and more limbs, I'm not sure I want to know.

In fact, I might just welcome Chucky into my home instead of being witness to a cuddly bear with bloodshot eyes staring down at me.

The winner of the first challenge (not surprisingly) was Malicious Mavens and their insane take on hypnotic cult leader-like teddy.

Round #2 "Trapped in a Nightmare": Contestants were asked to create a display of their worst, most demented nightmares – including a Chamomile treat. Arachnophobia, anyone? Hands down one of my favorite sets was the oversized spider hovering over a little boy covered in a web – absolutely spectacular. I myself do not have a fear of spiders – in fact two regularly visit my home and have become members of the family during the last year – but if you do, it would inspire nightmares to come.

Team 'Burned at the Cake' were very innovative with their depiction of what happens when a child wakes up from a nightmare and seeks out their mommy only to find out that "mommy" is the monster – gruesome concept and pumpkin sculpting. They were unsurprisingly crowned the winner.

Others included alien abductions, a little girl caught in a vortex, and a child lost in a swamp.

Team Hangry Hunters' girl on a bed in a vortex being sucked down by hands seemed to belong more in a scene from Scary Movie and lacked both in fright-finish and creativity. Not surprisingly, they were the team sent home.

Overall, not a bad start to the season, I want to see the contestants show off more skill, scare, and get wildly imaginative with their depictions. So bring on the morbid clowns (my personal worst nightmare), the possessed Disney princesses, and repulsive zombies – the scarier the better heading into next episode "Zombie Dating Show".

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