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.

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: