How to Create Your Own Haunted House

No Halloween is complete without a Haunted House. With a dark eerie space, some spooky music, and some scary screams, you can create your very own Haunted House that will frighten and delight your guests. After all, everybody enjoys being scared on Halloween.

The first step will be to select your location. I think that basements work the best, but any space that you can get completely dark will work.

Next, plan a path for your guests to follow. I like to start at the basement stairs, go around the basement in a loop, and return back at the basement stairs. If you have an outside door you can also choose that as your starting or ending location.

Once your path has been selected, hang black plastic table cloths from the ceiling to create hanging walls. Basically you are creating a maze for your guests to walk through. You can purchase individual black plastic table cloths cheaply from a party store or you can sometimes get them in large rolls that you can cut to size. You can attach the plastic table cloth to the ceiling with tacks or nails and cut to size so that it just reaches the floor. You do not need to attach the table cloth to the floor. You can just let it hang. Hang the next table cloth overlapping the first one a little bit so that there will be no gaps in your wall. Continue hanging the table cloths all around from the start to the end of your maze. This sets the perfect stage for a Haunted House. Your guests will feel as though they are walking through a tunnel and will forget that they are in your basement.

Also, unless you will only be operating your Haunted House during the nighttime, be sure to cover any windows with black construction paper to ensure complete darkness.

Next, plan some spooky scenes that will scare your guests. Be sure to incorporate some dummies in the plans. To make a dummy, simply fill some dark clothes with blankets and pillows, add a scary mask, a wig or a hood, some shoes, and a dark cape. Make a witch, a vampire, a monster, whatever you can think of or whatever masks and costumes you have on hand.

Then, set up some scenes. You could have a ghoul sitting at a table that is covered with body parts. You can purchase many props at the party store or be creative and make your own. Make hands from some latex gloves. Add some ketchup to look like blood. Be really creative and make the table out of card board with a hole cut in the middle. Have a friend wear a mask and stick his head through the hole. He will look like a dummy until the appropriate moment when he moves and shrieks surprising all your guests.

Make a coffin out of a large cardboard box. Fill it with a dummy or a helper in a costume. The idea is to have a mix of dummies and real people so that your guests will never know when something might jump out at them.

Hang pieces of the black plastic table cloth between your scenes so that your guests will focus on one spooky scene at a time.

You will need a leader with a small flashlight to lead your guests through the Haunted House and narrate a spooky tale that interlinks all your spooky scenes. Something simple like a murderer that escaped from a local prison works well. Or the tale of how you found out that someone was murdered in your basement years ago and how they continue to haunt your house today is also fun.

Some other important suggestions are to be sure to have a CD of scary music playing in the background. Have at least one costumed person jump out and scare the guests with a fake knife. Invest in a fog machine for a very eerie and spooky effect. Cover the walls with fake spiders and spider webs. Visit your local party store for huge selection of props and ideas. The possibilities are endless.

With a little creativity your Haunted House will make this a Halloween to remember!