Make a Haunted House for Halloween

First, decide whether you want this to be a fun, tongue in cheek haunted house meant for laughs or a truly macabre experience meant to scare. If you have lots of small children in your neighborhood, the lighthearted one will likely be a better option. You don’t want to terrify the little ones on what should be a fun day for them. If, however, you will be entertaining teenagers and/or adults, the more atmospheric and scary option works. In either case there should always be an element of fun. You might engineer it so your guests will jump and scream, but you always want them to leave laughing. A haunted house should be a good time.

 

Once you’ve decided what will be appropriate for your guests, you can have fun decorating. You should begin outside since that is where you will announce to people arriving that something special awaits them inside. Replace your outdoor lights with red or orange bulbs. This will create an off-kilter vibe. Then you can transform your front yard into a creepy cemetery with some cardboard or Styrofoam cut and painted to look like tombstones. Skeletons and body parts can be strewn about the yard. To make your cemetery look truly professional, go out and rent a fog machine. They only cost about $40 and it will cover your yard with an eerie layer of fog, perfect for hiding spooky surprises.

 

Inside the house should be dark, but not too dark. You want your guests to see what you have spent so much time preparing. Be creative. Start by using black garbage bags to black out your windows for complete control of the lighting inside. You can use red light bulbs or green spotlights to create the atmosphere you want. Well placed night lights and flashlights will also give off just enough light and cast just enough shadows to generate the desired effect.

 

Your haunted house should be an experience. Each room or area should have its own theme. One room can be a witch’s lair. There you can get a performer to play a witch or prop up a dummy. Inside her black cauldron add dry ice and a glow stick for an eerie effect. Another room can be a mad scientist’s lab with grotesque body parts made from food products, while another room can be a vampire’s tomb. You can construct a coffin out of cardboard and, if you really want to scare your guests, put someone in it to jump up as they pass by. Other rooms can be a torture chamber, a prison, the control room of a UFO, or whatever else you can dream up!