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FX artist and teacher Tyler Green’s Whiting Mills studio in Winsted.

Special effects artist and teacher Tyler Green works in his Whiting Mills studio in Winsted.

Special effects artist and teacher Tyler Green’s Whiting Mills studio in Winsted.

Special effects artist and teacher Tyler Green’s Whiting Mills studio in Winsted.

Special effects artist and teacher Tyler Green’s studio.

Special effects artist and teacher Tyler Green’s Whiting Mills studio in Winsted.

Special effects artist and teacher Tyler Green’s Whiting Mills studio in Winsted.

Special effects artist and teacher Tyler Green’s Whiting Mills studio in Winsted.

Special effects artist and teacher Tyler Green’s Whiting Mills studio in Winsted.

Special effects artist and teacher Tyler Green’s Whiting Mills studio in Winsted.

Special effects artist and teacher Tyler Green’s Whiting Mills studio in Winsted.

Special effects artist and teacher Tyler Green’s Whiting Mills studio in Winsted.

Special effects artist and teacher Tyler Green’s Whiting Mills studio in Winsted.

Special effects artist and teacher Tyler Green works in his Whiting Mills studio in Winsted.

WINSTED — Tyler Green’s skills as a special effects artist were just what was needed for The Forsaken Lands, a haunted attraction that’s opening in September in Goshen.

Green, who works in his studio at Whiting Mills, has been a horror movie enthusiast and creator of all things scary for many years, and now offers a variety of classes at his art school for children and adults.

Earlier this year, he was approached by Alex Fortuna, creator of The Forsaken Lands, to create the props for the haunted farm. Fortuna and his friends are nearly finished building the farm, which will be open in September in the picnic and pavilion area at Action Wildlife, a wildlife animal park and museum.

“I was so excited to hear about it,” Green said. “I want him to have top-of-the-line body parts, gory suff, to make the attraction really great.”

Green is owner of Creative Genius LLC and an inventor of consumer gadgets and accessories. Among many other products, he conceptualized and developed the Wonderband Systems, an intricate intelligent concept for gripping items, with applications in multiple industries.

His achievements have been featured in newspapers, magazines and on radio and television. He was named in Connecticut Magazine as one of the 40 under 40 most influential people of 2021. He also has been featured on SyFy’s “Face Off,” “The Today Show,” various news programs and “The Amber Green Show.”

Green has seen spooky haunted attraction concepts before, and liked the themes Fortuna had come up with for Action Wildlife, where the farm attraction will be. “These kinds of attractions aren’t always professional, and I wanted to provide something that was very professional and safe,” he said. “I’ve made all the props and masks the actors will wear.”

Those props include severed feet, hands and fingers, frozen corpse heads, and a full torso with injuries. Actors in The Forsaken Lands, dressed as demented farmers, ghosts, killer clowns and other characters, will leap out of dark corners as visitors make their way through the haunted village that has bedrooms, an auto repair shop, a diner, a mini-carnival and bedroom.

Green used silicone to make the body parts. “These are more expensive to make, but they’re also long-lasting,” he said. “They’re very detailed — you can see the toenails, veins, blood ... very scary, graphic and gory. They represent victims of a chainsaw attack, so they have to be very gory looking.

“It’s going to be great,” he said. “This is the first time I’ve ever been involved in anything like this from the very beginning, and I also think this is the first real haunted attraction in Litchfield County. It has the capability to be huge, statewide. Alex will attract people from Connecticut, New York and the Berkshires. The reviews are going to be amazing.”

Fortuna and his crew have created a haunted village called the Morton Farm and Estate. The story Fortuna has created is based on the idea that the Morton Farm, once a thriving agricultural estate, is now a slaughterhouse for anyone who has the misfortune to land there. The Forsaken Lands, which is the name of the attraction, is the abandoned farm and village where evil farmers now reside.

After visitors enter a maze-like collection of small buildings and rooms, they’ll encounter flashing lights and plumes of fog, with heavy metal music blasting.

“There’s people playing characters who are stranded, and they need help,” Fortuna explained. “The first room in The Forsaken Lands is a mechanics’ shop, and there’s a guy at a desk in a jumpsuit. ... The next area will have a pickup truck with a mechanic under it.”

Karen McKay, a student at Green’s art school and a New Preston resident, is working with Fortuna on administering the masks and helping the actors.

“I’ve been working on some of the larger masks and painting fingers and other body parts,” McKay said. “We’re getting together with the actors ahead of time, so they can get to know each other.

“Alex is making up a chart of all the characters we need and getting an idea of what they’d like to be,” she said. “Then he’ll pick the parts for them. We’re going to have other get-togethers before we open, so they can get into character and get a feel for what he wants them to do. Then we’ll have a dress rehearsal a week before.”

McCay has worked with Green for several years in the special effects studio. “I went to Henry Abbott Technical School to study hairdressing years ago, and when I graduated, I wanted to get into special effects makeup,” she said. “But I’m almost 60, and back then, it was very hard to get into that. Unless you went to New York City or Hollywood, it wasn’t happening. A friend of mine told me about Tyler at an open studio event in Winsted. I said, ‘Are you kidding me? There’s someone local doing this?’ and I signed up and started taking classes with him, for the fun of it.”

At the same time she began working with Green, she learned about Fortuna’s search for a property for The Forsaken Lands. “Alex is my neighbor — I’ve known him since he was a little boy,” she said. “First I told him about Tyler, and then found out he was looking for a property.”

She suggested looking at Action Wildlife. “It just sort of fell into place,” McKay said. “With Heidi and Chase Jesperson just taking over the farm, it just happened. I”m so happy to be part of this. It’s just a blast. Tyler is the greatest teacher, and we’re having so much fun.”

For tickets and information on The Forsaken Lands haunted attraction, visit www.forsakenlandshaunt.com.

Emily M. Olson is the community editor for the Torrington Register Citizen, the New Haven Register and the Middletown Press.

She is a 1997 graduate of Western Connecticut State University with a degree in English and a minor in journalism.

She started her career at the Patent Trader newspaper in Westchester County, NY in 1998. After a brief period as a reporter with the Register Citizen in Torrington in 1999, she joined the former Housatonic Publications group as a reporter. She was managing editor of the former Litchfield Enquirer and helped run the weekly newspapers at Housatonic and the Litchfield County Times. She returned to the Register Citizen in 2009.