But to scare someone takes things to a whole other level.

Startles are cheap scares. I won’t say that they are not effective scares, just that they are cheap ones. 9 out of 10 people will jump at a sudden movement. Its the easiest form of scare. When a prop pops up suddenly as you pass and you jump and you feel your breath get caught in your throat only to breath a sigh of relief and move on you have been startled. But when your mind starts wondering what is next, your eyes start tracing through the darkness looking for what is next (even if there is nothing next) and that feeling builds over time to the point where every step is met with anxiety you have created a true scare.

Both tactics to get a rise out of people during your haunts have their merits. If you do not want to create a truly terrifying experience you are content with a startle or two where everyone walks out at the end and has a good laugh at their expense. But if you are like me you like to get a good scare. You like to see the kids running out of the house and down the drive way and when you get their parents or older siblings to do the same you know you have achieved something.

Now you might think that scaring people out of their wits on Halloween is just not fun. Well let me tell you this, the people that visit my house year after year love it! They come back each year and tell me they love it. Because no one else does it around here.

It is easy to get startles. But to get scares takes work and practice. It requires you to know when to move and when to act. It requires you to know when to ignore taunts by children as they poke you standing in the corner and sure as the night is long this time of year that there is someone in that costume.

One of the easiest ways to get a scare is to actually string together a series of startles. These actions tend to build on one another and with each well performed startle you can easily build unease in the mind of those entering your haunted house. You can also get a scare by just going so over the top that whoever is watching unwillingly suspends disbelief and screams. You know how that works. Even though you know damn well that the actor whirling the chainsaw over his head has no chain on the weapon you still scream. But it is the boldness of the act that scares even though often once it occurs reason tells you not to be scared. Yet you still are.

Really though the first thing you have to do before you set up your haunt is decide what you want to do and that can often depend on the crowd that comes by on Halloween. If all you have are very young kids going for hard core, all out scares may not work out. If your crowd is older you can get away with more. And getting it right, regardless of which path your take, takes practice and often years of testing and trial runs.

Of course you have to have room to store these things you keep. I like Halloween, but I am not going to save something that I have to store in a living area or that is going to keep my garage unusable during the rest of the year. So you might say I am a responsible packrat.

Here are a couple items that I have kept over the years specifically to use for Halloween:

Old china cabinet:

This is a china cabinet my wife an I bought for $100 when we lived in an appartment in Philadelphia. We had a lot of china from our wedding and needed somewhere to store it. It came back with us to Pittsburgh and we used it while we rented an appartment. Then when we bought our house we eventually bought a new dining room set and this was going to go out to the curb. But I was a little lazy and the next year it became part of our Halloween haunt.

Old dining room table:

Again, when we had our apparetment in Philly we needed a table. We actually bought it in Wheeling, WV where my wife is from and threw it in the U-Haul the day we moved her out there after college. It also came back with us and got stored when we bought that new dining room set. We bought it for $50 from a second hand furniture store and the legs come off to make storage easy. It is pretty beat up but PERFECT for Halloween!

Old panel boards:

When we bought our new house I needed something to keep me busy on the weekends. The game room had these hideous white panels on the wall and I decided to redo the walls because there was no insulation behind the walls. These panels were the walls from the first remodel. I say the first remodel because they were so flimsy that it just did not work out. Two years later I tore them off and put up some really solid pine planking. These were stashed because I was going to use them to wall the laundryroom which was just cinderblock wall. Unfortunately, over the years of storage they have gotten pretty beaten up and not suitable for that purpose. I have never really used them to wall up garage on Halloween but this year they are going to get used to hide all the walls, electrical boxes, tools, etc. on the walls.

Old dining room chair:

I made my wife a deal when we got rid of the old dining room set in that I would keep just one chair because it was actually useable. The other five where just plain junk. That chair, which used to be used for guests is now part of our yearly haunt.

Old screen door:

This is the old screen door that was on the garage door entry to the house when we moved in. I took it off to fit our washer and dryer inside and never put it back on. It has been a part of our garage haunt every year serving one purpose or another. It looks old, because I think it is from when the house was built in the 50’s so that helps me keep it around.

It had a good run but now it is time to retire it, at least temporarily I think.

It’s pretty simple, and cheap to make (although some of the components I used were a little hard to come by) and I will be posting a how to later this week or early next on how to put it together under the props and costumes section.

I needed something to do with my motorcycle last year and it was sort of in the way due to the nice weather that was still happening in the area right up until Halloween so the Phantom rider was born. As I reconstruct him this year I will post a how to under the props and costumes section.

I limit myself to $200 a year for several reasons.

First is that if I didn’t I would buy too much stuff each year to even use and I know it!

Second is because since I have been doing this for going on eight years now, I have a lot of props that I have been picking up or making over the years already and since we only do our garage up for the occasion, there is no real need to buy much more than that.

Third is because $200 can go a long … long way if you shop smart.

While I have already discussed a couple items that I have ordered for specific props (see this post here) I also picked up a couple more props. I know that some haunters really frown upon buying store props but I don’t see a problem doing that as long as they are well made. Quite honestly I do not have the equipment to make a lot of the stuff that I want for my sets and when I can spend $25 at the Halloween store that is preferable to investing $100’s of dollars in equipment.

One of the items I picked up this year were a set of these fake flame hanging cauldrons:

They were on sale and will help add some light which has been a problem in recent years with my set designs. While dark is good, too dark is bad. I know some people hate these things but the effect is good and I want to knock down the number of candles and open flames because of my plans for the central table this year. It is going to be impossible to put the candles on the table where they normally are when I have an anamatronic going off every time the kids come up to it. Just too many opportunities for bad things to happen.

I also picked up this little fella which is a disembodied head:

He’ll get used somewhere in the setup I am sure.

And of course nothing goes as far for as little money and the ever useful, all purpose fake spider webs.

These three bags will be more than enough to go up and down the driveway and all throughout the garage as anyone that has every used this stuff knows.

Total cost for this stuff was about $65. When you add in those other props that I have ordered the total is going to be close to $200 total. But I have a little left over from last year too (about $35) so I used it to buy this mask:

It’s a very inexpensive scarecrow but the mask doesn’t have to be great. It might look cheesy but once the lights are out, the fog machine is on and the other props are going off it will more than do its job.

Here’s a look at the garage BEFORE I do anything to it just for reference:

We added a couple extra skulls and some fake cobwebs to complete the effect.

This sign will be part of our 2009 display as well.

I have plans for this year that require adding some animated props to the layout and while I had planned to build the rigs myself I found a couple prebuilt rigs at the local Spirit store that I am buying (as soon as they come in on Monday) and which I will be able to cannibalize for the parts I need to make better because, quite frankly, they are not quite up to the snuff that I would use as is given the choice.

The first task this year is to do a pop up on the main table. The plan is a foot pad activated rig that will trigger a corpse to sit up under a blood covered sheet that will scare the kiddies when they go for the candy. The second will be a rising spirit coming out of the grave.

I am also looking at changing up my costume this year as the trick or treaters are getting a little wise to the Ring Wraith outfit. The plan this year is to put that costume on a dummy that will distract visitors who are used to me being in it. We will see how that works as I am still looking for a mask to use.

I post some plans and layouts as the days go by as well as pictures of the process and the eventual layout too. I know I promised pics last year but my ADD set in and prevented that plan.

Halloween is quickly becoming a favorite holiday for both children and adults. Halloween parties are a lovely way to celebrate the season, and there is a party for every style and group of people.

1. Night Garden Party – If you have a patio or deck, you can set up a party for after dark with lanterns or strung outdoor lights. This is great for any number of people.

2. Ouija Seance – Contact the dead and spirits from the beyond with a small group of friends.

3. Scary Movie Marathon – Choose several favorite scary movies to share with each other. Prepare the viewing room for atmosphere and comfortable viewing.

4. Murder Mystery Dinner – Boxed games are available for parties of eight to ten adults. Each person comes in character and you spend the evening detecting “who done it” over a pleasant dinner.

5. Paranormal Party – Set up experiments for your guests to test their paranormal abilities and E. S. P.

6. Monster Bash / Costume Party – What better way to have fun on Halloween than to ask people to come in costumes for dancing and fun.

7. Bonfire and Ghost Stories – Good for all ages. Ask each of your guests or families to come with one ghost story to tell. If someone plays a guitar, ask them to bring it, too.

8. Witches Night – Celebrate the night with magic spells. Ask your friends to bring items they wish to burn.

9. Harvest Party – Have an elegant sit down feast for eight to twelve to celebrate good foods of the season and good conversation.

10. Scavenger Hunt – For adults or children, roaming near or far, for small groups or large ones, scavenger hunts are fun.

11. Haunted House – Get your whole household involved in spookifying your home for guests and playing the roles of vampires, headless murderers, and ghosts.

12. Pumpkin Carving Party – This is a fun activity for families to come together and enjoy.

13. Film a Horror – Have fun with amateur cinematography. If you feel creative, write a short script or borrow loosely from a film you like. Make even shy guests be extras in the film.

This was the sign that we put up outside the garage this year and making it is rather simple and cheap.

First, I took some scrap pine planking that I had laying around from some work that I am doing on the game room:

This planking runs about $15 a pack (6 8ft pieces) at Home Depot if you need to buy it.

I took the table saw to the edges to jagged them up a bit:

Just ram the edges of the plank against the blade and it will chop up nicely!

Then you just nail them to a 2×4 or other piece of wood with a single nail per plank.

Then you use just some red paint like this to make the lettering:

I used washable paint because 1) it was handy and 2) it is easy to get off your fingers which is how I applied it to the wood.

Then I took a plastic skull like this one:

It is cheap and I bought itat Wal-Mart for $5.00. In the base of the skull I carved out a hole and a notch in the base:

The purpose of this is so that it can be attached (and removed) from the top of the post where I inserted a small screw:

You just place the larger end of the hole over the screw head and then slide it into the narrower part to lock it in place.

And there you have it! A simple haunted sign for under $25.

But didn’t Halloween just come by a couple days ago? Yes, it did. So why on Earth would I suggest starting to plan your next year’s haunt now?

Simple. If you don’t start planning now how you are going to lay out your own haunted house for next year you probably won’t do it at all. You might even get in a rut and do the exact same thing and the kiddies will know exactly what to expect. Haunts are not as spooky when people know what to expect. And what is worse is you will probably put off starting to think about it until next October and be rushing around to get your plans done. Planning now however means that you are going to get ahead of the curve.

How about this for a reason to start planning now? You know all those fly by night, up for six weeks and then gone costume and prop stores? Well, they are liquidating their stock to make as much money as they can. A lot of these stores are completely torn apart by the end of business on November 1st. So if you are looking for bargains on props the first couple days right after Halloween is the time to get just that. You can stretch your dollars a lot further when things are 40-75% off.

But aside from saving money, anyone that has ever done a house haunt knows that you do have to really think about what you are doing. You have a finite amount of space and probably more props than you know what to do with. Also starting to plan now, in those first couple days after Halloween, gives you a leg up by making you think twice about pitching some of that old junk in your basement (i.e. new potential props). You would be surprised how quick and easy setting up a house haunt is when you have a bunch of old junk you’ve saved that looks like it belongs in a haunted house.

But if you are not thinking about how to use that junk in your own house haunt I guarantee you that you will be kicking yourself later saying, “AH! I should have saved that!” On that same note, starting now gives you a whole year to look for things other people are throwing away or selling cheap at places like flea markets too.

Now is the time to re-evaluate what you did this year while it is fresh in your mind, just like the professional haunted houses do. If you wait until July next year, your memory is going to be a little bit fuzzier and you will forget some things that really made the Trick or Treaters scream and panic. In addition, as you are taking your props down and putting them into storage, anything that was damaged and either needs repair or needs replaced will be at the top of your mind. Don’t put anything that is damaged away without fixing it first!

Also if you are into building your own props then why not start drawing up the plans now and get to building them early? Wait until the week before Halloween next year and there is a good chance you won’t get to it or will not have it working and looking the way you want it to look and work.

Now is also the time when everyone that did a house haunt is blogging about what they did! Cruise the internet looking for ideas. You can also start squirreling away money for next year to buy props that you cannot afford right now.

If you put the time and effort into doing something to set your home apart from the others on the block where people are just giving out candy by making your house into a real haunted attraction then really put the effort into it! It doesn’t take that much time to think about how to do it better next year if you start now.