A Visit to Tom Devlin’s MONSTER MUSEUM

Tom Devlin’s career, as he puts it, has happened in reverse–at least as far as most people would see it. He’s worked on over a hundred movies, doing special effects work. He started on big-budget A-listers, “Hollywood” movies, like THE SCORPION KING and TERMINATOR 3. His dream, though, was always to work on the B-movies that he loved so much, and that’s what he’s doing now. When he moved from LA to begin teaching FX techniques at L Makeup Institute in Las Vegas and moved into a home in nearby Boulder City, he also opened up his “Monster Museum.” The Museum is both a place to show off props from films on which he has worked–he has “screen-used” props from the upcoming PUPPETMASTER: AXIS TERMINATION (that’s his “weremacht” the Nazi werewolf puppet, pictured above), Troma favorites like POULTRYGEIST, and Full Moon franchises such as GINGERDEAD MAN and EVIL BONG–as well as to display items from his own sizeable personal collection.

(I’m the bald guy in the above photograph. The other guy Is Tom Devlin. And that’s Wes Craven hovering over us. As it should be.)

The Museum is relatively small (although Tom says he plans to expand it soon), but makes use of every available inch. The place is stuffed to bursting with so many cool things, it’d be impossible to name them all here. There are life-size mannequins of famous slashers like Jason, Freddy, and Michael, as well as Universal Monsters Frankenstein, the Mummy, and the Wolfman. He has facemasks of Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney, Jr., and Boris Karloff. He has a little shrine to Ed Wood’s PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE. He has an actual size Critter. He has his He-man and the Masters of the Universe figures from his childhood displayed proudly. (Devlin credits a Skeletor action figure he received as a small child with sparking his love for all things Monsters.) Honestly, walking through the place was like a walkthrough of the inside of my head, minus the really bizarre stuff. It was a close approximation of my idea of Heaven.

The Museum has only been open for a couple of months, and Devlin says business has thus far been good. By all means, if you are anywhere near the area, make it a point to drop by TOM DEVLIN’S MONSTER MUSEUM for a visit. And if you aren’t anywhere near the area, plan a trip. It’s worth the effort.

By The Evil Cheezman

WAYNE MILLER is the owner and creative director of EVIL CHEEZ PRODUCTIONS (www.evilcheezproductions.blogspot.com, www.facebook.com/evilcheezproductions), specializing in theatrical performances and haunted attractions. He has written, produced and directed (and occasionally acted in) over a dozen plays, most of them in the Horror and Crime genres. His first novel, THE CONFESSIONS OF SAINT CHRISTOPHER: WEREWOLF, is available for purchase at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/734763 MORTUI VELOCES SUNT!

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