Halloween Decoration Upgrade
Maybe I should post this under a heading of “things I can do now that I work from home”. Because I spend more time at home, I could think about what would look best for the kids trick or treating. I did lots of research and found some props I liked, but the supply chain crisis kept all of those from arriving at my home before October 31st. Since Halloween fell on Sunday this year, I found some time to set up a better display and test out the best setup for them.
A lot of what I discovered about making a scary house I cribbed from Kings Island Halloween Haunt and staging effects. I knew I didn’t want to cram my house with cheap Wal-Mart plastic monsters or skeletons, and I found that lighting and sound provided an outsized return on investment. If I could light the house effectively and team it up with a creepy sound landscape I could punch a little outside of my weight class. I chose a pair of flood lights and a pair of fog production machines to provide the feeling I wanted to convey.
The coolest part of the night involved children who seemed to love my setup and older people who took selfies in the lighted fog machine. I just got a real kick out of it honestly and it makes me want to make my display for next year more involved. I eventually paired it up with a fold up table and black tablecloth where I could give candy. On the table I added three battery powered lanterns for added effect. Between that table and the garage door I placed my fire ring and built a nice fire. Between all of it and the scary sound it looked like hell almost.
Looking forward I want to add some props that go in a theme together. I now have three LED plastic masks that I want to put on dummy heads and stage together in the yard. One other idea involved ghosts and ghouls. My centerpiece would be Chester Skellington, which is the first prop I every purchased for my home. It is a large plastic skeleton head that I hang with magnets on the garage door. I’d like to surround it with identical ghosts on each side so it looks like he is the leader of a phantom army. On the side of the house I am considering a trio of life like witches that Grandin Road sells. I’d stagger them in the yard with fog billowing underneath them and more lighting to showcase them. It doesn’t go with my ghost and ghoul theme though.
I have some work to do on the theme obviously. First and foremost, I do not want it so scary that children are afraid to pass by. I also do not want it to be so funny that it is a joke. I think with Halloween setups you kind of choose between the two – funny or scary. I’d prefer scary but need to lay out the severity of it. My first idea is nothing gruesome – no blood and gore, severed body parts, or hacked up zombies. I did consider latex masks on dummies as an effect but I am curious if I lay out a lot of money for those if they break down at some point so I am not committed to that yet. I don’t want $500 in masks in open up my storage crate to find them completely broken down.
My biggest idea is making it comic book themed. I would accomplish this by placing my favorite characters around the yard. Batman and Hellboy would both have places. That is a bigger financial investment though as I am finding anything that would look good in the yard is hard to store and a few thousand dollars. I have some time to think about it though and I hope next year all of it is figured out well in advance so I can just set it up.
