MYSTERY SHOOTS: HALLOWEEN EDITION (2025 Recap)

This year’s Mystery Shoots were my love letter to Halloween.Five eerie concepts. Five fearless models. Five worlds built from my brain straight into reality.

If you’re new here, Mystery Shoots are a trust fall into art: you book the date before you know the theme, and I take care of the rest; storyboards, props, wardrobe, and creative direction. When you arrive, you simply become the vision.

Every location around Asheville carried its own haunted heartbeat, and together we created something truly cinematic.

1. CAUGHT — The Siren’s Trap

📍 Creekside Location |

The season opened in cool water, where a masculine siren lured the viewer instead of the other way around. Blue mist, tangled nets, and a predator’s calm stare set the tone; beauty meeting danger in a single frame. The models presence made the mythology feel alive: soft, strong, and a little terrifying.

MOOD BOARD

2. TERROR — Rabbits in the Bath

📍 Studio bath tub | Couple Session

Two lovers in stillness. Candlelight flickered across rabbit masks and milky water, the room humming with quiet dread. “Terror” explored intimacy through anonymity; how love can feel both sacred and unsettling when hidden behind a mask. The result was hauntingly cinematic.

MOOD BOARD:

3. DIZZY — Carnival of the Unhinged

📍 Asheville Fairgrounds | Model: Lila

Cotton-candy pastels turned sinister under the carousel lights. Lila’s clown blurred the line between performer and possessed doll; laughter just a little too sharp, joy just a little too forced. “Dizzy” captured the chaos of overstimulation and the strange nostalgia of nightmares wrapped in face paint.

Mood Board:

4. SHADOWS — Projected Desire

📍 Studio Set | Model: Miss T Meaner

Inside the studio, the walls pulsed with moving light. A digital projector cast gothic shapes across models face, creating living nightmare. The images look like stills from a vampire film shot on 16 mm.... elegant, dangerous, and hypnotic. “Shadows” became a study of duality: who we are in light versus who we become in darkness.

Mood Board:

5. FINALE — The Final Girl

📍 French Broad Park | Model: Morgan

Every horror film ends with her; the survivor. Covered in fake blood, gripping an axe, refusing to die quietly. Our last shoot channeled classic slasher energy and empowerment through resilience. She wasn’t running anymore. She was the storm.

Mood Board:

Each of these shoots reminded me why I love Mystery Sessions: because vulnerability is the true special effect. When you step into a world blindfolded and trust the process, art happens.

Thank you to every model who trusted me, climbed in creeks, sat in bathtubs, wore masks, and played in fake blood. You made Halloween unforgettable.

If you didn't get a spooky shoot, I am offering $100 off any creepy concept for the rest of 2025.

boo xox

Veronica (Vee)