Halloween Decorations: Props

July 17th, 2009 · No Comments

As Halloween decorations, props like life-size zombies, ghouls, and machete-wielding horror movie characters are hard to beat. Halloween and haunted house props add a lot to your party decor, but it takes a little know-how to choose the best ones and use them for the scariest effect.

Choosing Your Halloween Props

The only down side of a lot of Halloween props is the price. Some of the better haunted house props go for $200 or more. It’s not unusual to find professional quality animated props priced at over a thousand dollars. In the upper price range, they typically have very realistic detail and look good close up.

Some of the cheaper Halloween decorations, props, and supplies look fine from a distance, but when you get within a few feet in decent lighting, you can tell it’s “a fake.” That means if you’re looking for outdoor decorations, you really don’t need to spend a lot. For indoor or haunted house props, though, the more realistic the better. Still, you can get some excellent props for less than $50. Even $25 can get you something fairly nice.

The quality you need also depends on how often you’re planning to use the props. Although you can use Halloween props year after year, they may only be worth the investment if you’re having a fairly large Halloween party, setting up a yard display for a steady stream of trick-or-treaters or designing a whole haunted house.

Animated Halloween Props

The best animated Halloween decorations, props and models provide an element of surprise. They move or talk when your guests–or even you–least expect it. Most work with a motion sensor, but others turn on at random or are switch activated.

Remember that scary props don’t necessarily have to look like Halloween decorations. When there’s a zombie standing by the door, you kind of expect it to do something. It’s a lot scarier when a seemingly normal object starts acting like it’s possessed. The elegant chandelier starts shaking, the radio switches itself on and starts dialing through stations, something jumps out of the trash can, an antique on the mantel piece starts starts talking or a face in old portrait morphs into a skull.

The Creep Factor

One of the cheapest and easiest ways to get scary Halloween decorations is to use “normal,” yet creep-looking objects. An antique doll or mannequin, a pine box coffin used as a table, a Ouija board just laying around, and realistic looking plastic spiders or other bugs scattered somewhere can all be rather disturbing.

It sounds simple, but it works. My grandmother kept one of her childhood dolls in a doll-sized rocking chair in her bed room. Everyone but her felt the thing was creepy even on a bright summer’s day.

The “thing in a jar” in another cheap, yet creepy prop. Just get a big Mason jar, put a life-like doll, ghoul or alien inside, and fill the jar with water tinted with blue or green food coloring.

Setting up Your Props

Set up is “it” when it comes to using Halloween decorations, props and other trappings. After all, no mater how realistic that rubber disembodied head looks, it won’t be very impressive if you just leave it lying on the sofa in broad daylight. Props work best when you create a scene around them. Drop that head in the bath tube and splash some fake blood around the tub and wall. Put a ghoul in a cage with a disembodied hand followed by a trail of fake blood. Place a head with glowing eyes

Lighting is another way to add to the effect. Black light creates an eerie feeling and, of course, makes white objects glow. Lights in “creepy” colors like red, green and purple lights are disorienting. Strobe have an even stronger disorienting effect. Flicker bulbs work for “haunted” lights. Throw in a fog machine for that extra touch of spookiness, too.

So, before you buy a prop, think about how your going to use it.

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