Homemade haunted houses are a staple of spooky Halloween fun, particularly popular throughout America. While anyone can make a bowl full of eyeballs from peeled grapes, or get Uncle Joe to jump out at visitors from behind a door, why not try taking things a step further to provide your guests with unexpected fun and scares? Using simple haunted house ideas, you can extend the fun of Halloween for days, and may find a wonderful way to bond with friends and family.
Before a single spider web or cauldron has been placed, try creating a back-story for your haunted house. Maybe you’ve discovered that your home was built on the graveyard of a mischievous warlock, or perhaps a family of tourist ghosts got lost and decided your house was their hotel for the holidays. Have a storytelling night with your co-conspirators, and invent the history behind your haunted house. Write down your spooky tale and hand it out to visitors, so they too can follow the unique story you create.
Be sure to consider your audience when coming up with haunted house ideas. Many children are somewhat hesitant about Halloween to begin with, and frequently respond to sudden scares with frantic, rather than startled, screaming. Remember, not all haunted house ideas need to be scary! Consider basing your haunted house on popular children’s Halloween films, like It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! or The Nightmare Before Christmas. Seeing familiar characters may help put younger guests at ease.
Even if you are not using your entire house for the display, be sure to decorate all visible windows. Take dark construction paper and make large cutouts of witches, ghosts and ghouls for windows, placing a lamp behind them for maximum visibility. Consider decorating with Halloween-style Christmas lights in orange, yellow or purple.
To set the atmosphere for your house, purchase or record a spooky soundtrack. Consider using movie soundtracks from suspense or horror films, or look for compilations of scary sounds such as wind, eerie laughter, and werewolf howls. If your house is more geared toward fun than scares, look for classic Halloween songs such as “Monster Mash,” “Werewolves in London,” or “Bad Moon on the Rise”.
Although your house can be as elaborate as you choose, building a haunted house doesn’t need to cost a bundle. Many haunted house ideas are quite simple to carry off and use basic household items. Cover doorways with strips cut from black trash bags or old dark sheets. Stretch out cotton stuffing to make realistic spider webs. You can even cut large cardboard boxes to make additional walls, allowing you to turn a room into a creepy maze.
Haunted house ideas can get quite fancy, but don’t forget the basics of Halloween safety. To prevent fire danger, use Christmas lights or electric candles to light jack-o‘-lanterns instead of real flames. Scatter extra-special candy for guests brave enough to open a vampire’s coffin or look inside a mummy’s tomb. The most important of all haunted house ideas is to make sure guests have safe and sane fun. Be sure to have adequate adult supervision and multiple emergency exits, should anyone get a little too overwhelmed by your spectacular haunted house.