Chris Zephro: The Man Behind the Trick or Treat Studios Masks

Editor’s Note: Chris Zephro, co-founder of Trick or Treat Studios, recently spoke with NCA Executive Director Ed Avis. This first-person account is based on that conversation.

            Ever since I was a kid, I loved monster and horror movies. Every day I would go to a video store and just get all the Beta and VHS horror movies, slasher movies. I loved them, always. I grew up in Los Angeles, and my father’s best friend was Irwin Yablans, who produced the movie Halloween. I remember as a kid playing at his house with his son Mickey, and Moustapha Akkad would come over and he brought his son Malek Akkad, who I work with now. We would play at Irwin’s house and get screamed at to “put that damn Myer’s mask away because we’re making a second movie!”

            Fast forward to 2009. I was working in corporate America quite successfully, but I was really not happy, disenchanted, frustrated. I was equally frustrated and disenchanted with the Halloween industry. I was a monster mask collector and I just didn't like anything that was in stores. I thought everything lacked creativity, it was all poorly, cheaply made and I knew there were a lot of collectors out there like me as evidence by the ginormous bootleg market. So I knew that there would be opportunity there if it was done correctly.

            And so I hooked up with my friend Justin Mabry, who was my favorite independent mask maker, and I asked him if he wanted to start a Halloween company with me. And he said, yes. So I walked in the next day to my high-paying corporate America job – I ran the supply chain group for Seagate Technology -- and told the CFO that I'm leaving, in the middle of a recession, no less. But I had come to the conclusion that, if you look at the clock every day and wonder if can I leave without someone noticing, it's time to do something else.

            The first thing Justin and I did was get an art team together so that we had the best designed product. Justin did 4 or 5 new masks and he had a few more already made, and our mutual friend Eric Lubitti had 12 in his existing pantheon of stuff. We were able to make a two-page catalog with 18 masks. It was a pretty clever little catalog. It was basically like a police file and all of the masked people were the suspects. It was cool.

            We had no costumes at the time. No collectibles. We started as masks, although Justin and I knew that masks would be our introduction to the world and then we would move into costuming and then ultimately collectibles and figures. But we needed to get people hooked on one thing first and prove our quality.

            About two-and-a-half months after we started the company we exhibited at the Trans World Costume Show in Chicago. It was a bust, but we decided to give it one more chance and do the Haunt and Attractions show in St. Louis. The first day I think people assumed that our stuff was more expensive than it was, so the second day I made these big signs that showed the price and then the next three days there was line all the way around the convention center to get into our booth. That's when I knew we were golden.

            I wanted to get some licenses to make masks of well-known horror characters, so I called a licensing agent at Universal, virtually every day for six months. And she finally called me and said, "I'm going to be at this expo in Las Vegas tomorrow. I'll give you 10 minutes if you promise to stop calling me." So I got on a plane and I met with her, we had an hour-long meeting and we came out with six licenses with Universal.

            One of the licenses was for Halloween II, which Universal didn’t even know they had. I told them about it. That’s a long story, but to this day, we still introduce Universal and other studios to properties that they don't know they have, or I end up helping them with their style guides.

            I'll give you a perfect example. We did the mask for Boris Karloff Frankenstein, which was insanely successful because of its accuracy. And they sent me back images going, “Well, these are from our style guide, and this is not Frankenstein from 1931. You have to make this change and that change and that change.” And I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, that is from Bride of Frankenstein, it was a totally different makeup design, this is the original and they had all sorts of problems in their style guide, so we helped them fix them.

            For example, they didn't know until my mask that Creature from the Black Lagoon has bright blue eye liner in a circle around his eyes. Because they came back and asked me, "Why are you doing that?" And I'm like, "Well, do you see these images from Life magazine and here are some of the backlot images of the original mask, you see it was there." And they were like, "Oh, wow, you’re right.”

            That’s one of the things that's made Trick or Treat Studios so successful. Justin and I are fans first and neither of us would ever release anything that we wouldn't have in our own personal collection. I think our passion comes through when you talk to us and it certainly comes through in the design of our products.

            And I think the other thing that makes us successful is that we work on the actual films. So when you buy something from us, you're literally getting the film. For example, Justin and Chris Nelson and Vince Van Dyke sculpted the last two masks for the Michael Myers movies. So we just pull them right out of the molds. Our Chucky dolls came out of Tony Gartner's molds and were finished by him. So you're actually getting the Chucky doll because they're right out of the movie masters. Our Creature from the Black Lagoon mask comes right out of the reverse positive of the movie mask. So it doesn't get any more accurate.

            Our artists come from the special effects industry or they were the best of the best of the independent team. And the independent team typically means bootleg market, but then we legitimize them by getting a license and then they can sell artist’s additions legally. So it's a win-win. We're also the highest paying company in the industry ever. The majority of my artists are all commission based. So there's a lot of passion in terms of doing an excellent job because you know, if it sells, you're golden.

            These days licensing comes to me mostly because my team of artists are usually on these films while they're shooting, i.e. while they're in production, before the world knows about them. For example, my artist Tony Gardner did all the effects for the movie Freaky. So he said, "Hey, I'm working on this new picture, Freaky, and there's a great mask in it, a really cool prop and it's a great script. I think we should get the license to it and I'll just pull it out of the masters." And then I'm on a call in with the studios and they go and find out about the mask. That's how a lot of them happen now.

            I'm also really good friends with the producers, too. Michael Dougherty, who produced and directed Trick 'r Treat and Krampus, is one of my best friends. Literally I talk to him almost every day. Justin and I are super close to Rob Zombie, really close friends. And that's another way we get licenses. For example, Rob wrote me a couple of days ago and said, "Hey, I'm working on a new movie and I need some Halloween masks for a Halloween scene." I sent him a box of 20 of them yesterday. And mark my words, that movie will probably be distributed through Lionsgate and I'll get the licensing deal on it.

            I also have very close relationships with our factories. When I first started, I couldn't meet the minimum orders to get the prices I needed to be able to sell to wholesalers. So I said, “You're going to have to take a gamble. If you give me the high minimum order quantity pricing even though I'm ordering lower right now, I promise I'll never bother you for price reductions.” They took a gamble and it paid off. Now I'm the biggest customer they have. They've had to move into a new factory because of me. I consider my factory team in Mexico my family. We literally say “I love you” on every hang-up of a call.

            The collectibles and action figures have overtaken the costuming sales. It's evergreen too, which is wonderful because it's a lot easier to run a business when all your revenue isn’t coming in the two back quarters of the year.

            I love tabletop games and we’re coming out with a couple this year. We’re making a vampire game called Blood Orders that will be coming out really soon. It’s a killer design and the artwork’s amazing.

            When I’m not working I hang out with my two dogs and my daughter and my wife, Lauren. I own one of the three screen-used cars from the movie Christine, a 1958 Plymouth Fury. I like taking her out on a sunny day and sitting in her at night to relax.