Copyright © 2000 - 2006 Dana Cormaney. Not to be used/reprinted without permission.
Party Ideas
Late night hay rides in small towns can be spooky.
Have everyone bring a gutted pumpkin or gourd & have a carving contest.
Hire a tarot card reader.
Plan a Scavenger Haunt or take a haunted cruise or boat ride.
Party Themes
"Haunted Sleep-over"! Keep lights out & be sure to have plenty of popcorn and horror movies on hand. Block light from windows, decorate, light candles, tell everyone to bring pillows, blankets, flashlights and their favorite ghost story or scary movies. If you have a fireplace and it is cold out, make a fire. Don't forget your Ouija board!
Plan a Scavenger Haunt or take a haunted cruise or boat ride.
Have a "Post Trick Or Treat Party" for the kids in your neighborhood or block. Plan ahead and get all parents involved! Have everyone meet at a specified time (in a spruced up garage perhaps?) and offer a costume contest, treat inspection, candy trade, and goofy games.
"Till Death Do Us Part" - Celebrate famous couple in history! Dress up as your favorite star (only dead) and offer fun wedding games with a morbid twist.
Plan a murder Mystery and host from behind the scenes! Fabulous way to freak friends out.
Home Haunt Ideas
Remember that as the guide, you will want your entire group to gather into the room before you reveal your scare.
Make sure your spooky music is loud enough to drown out behind-the-scenes production noise.
Clearly mark all exits and have plenty of them.
Keep lighting and electric chords off the floor so no one trips.
Make eye-catching vignettes of horror with plenty of places for actors to hide and run between rooms behind the scenes. Blackness and low lighting causes people to have to gather close to look at a scene, allowing for the potential of a big scare.
Strobe lights can be very effective if used sparingly. Try setting up a gory death scene with ghouls at work, who scatter when the strobe light is flashing.
Do not use candles for fire safety reasons. Low watt lighting is available. Be creative!
Moistness and dampness is always creepy, especially when used with fog machines in graveyard settings.
Putting small holes on the walls at about knee level will allow actors in the next room the chance to know when the tour is coming through and lets them get in place.
Confining spaces are spooky. Consider low ceilings that make people crawl. Pad the floor with egg crate foam or packing "popcorn". Let people know at the door that you do have confining spaces for those with phobias.
Slanted floors are fun too.
Ghoulish horror characters such as Micheal Myers, Freedy Krueger, and Jason Voorhees are all good to place in the shadows of rooms. People tend not to see them till their eyes adjust. Having one of them step across the tours path with a flashlight under his chin would definitely be scary!
Hang a maze of shredded trash bags with horror characters prowling around.
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