Putting up Halloween decorations is the absolute best part of every year! While some people may just throw up a few obligatory bats and pumpkins, others choose to create a more involved Halloween experience by constructing a home haunt or even what we call a “half-haunt.”
Home haunters build immersive Halloween experiences, like mini-haunted attractions, using decorations, animatronics, actors, costumes, music, and lighting. Half-haunts are impressive and immersive Halloween displays for any home or apartment, even if they don’t involve actors. Whatever kind of house you live in, check out our 9 perfect haunt themes to make any Halloween home terrifying!
Clowns
If there’s one thing most of us can agree on, it’s that clowns are scary. Once thought entertaining, clowns now instill fear in almost everyone, so leverage this into your home haunt carnival nightmare. You can embrace a full-on circus theme or just incorporate some clowns into your existing home haunting decor, but you are guaranteed to scare everyone in your neighborhood.
Scarecrows
Whether it’s the terrifying sight of these weather-worn, human-shaped monsters in real life or their frequent presence in horror movies, something about scarecrows perfectly bridges the gap between summer and Halloween. This haunt theme is perfect for houses with front yards and small front porches. Get some hay bales and cornstalks from a local grocery store, and you’re good to go. We’ve got a great blog to help you make your own spooky scarecrows that you can combine with animatronics and costumed actors to make your own immersive cornfield of terror.
Cemetery
This is a classic approach to Halloween decorating, especially for people with front yards. But, you can elevate simple headstones to a home haunt by using portions of fence, a variety of gravestones, animatronics, skeletons, and even a fog machine with lights to complete the scene. Add as many ghosts and ghouls as your Halloween heart desires.
Swamp
This home haunt theme works well for homes with front yards and homes near water. You can successfully create the look of a swamp with a fog machine, some green lights, and bonus points if you have a canoe lying around. Find some spooky, swampy sound effects to pair with the right animatronics and you can create a unique front yard haunt experience that’s sure to impress!
Dolls
Whether it’s because they look like us or because we keep expecting them to move, dolls are just creepy. Use this innate fear to your advantage and create a truly unsettling home haunt theme. You can also create a specific conceptual theme, like a haunted doll house or a house where the dolls have taken over. And because a doll theme doesn’t require much space, you can pull it off in a smaller house or apartment.
This theme will probably require as many actor-volunteers as it does props, so it’s crucial to find the right costumes and masks. Luckily, we’ve got the perfect selection of doll masks and costumes to create your haunted dollhouse of horror.
Vampires
A vampire-themed home haunt doesn’t need lots of space and you can achieve it with some props and decorations that evoke a gothic castle or even a cemetery. Bats, spider webs, skeletons, flame lights, and coffins all help set the scene, while the sound of wolves howling in the background and some good costumes bring it to life.
This is another theme that you can really sell with the right costumes. Check out our extensive selection of vampire costumes for all ages, as well as makeup, fake blood, vampire teeth, and even jewelry to turn yourself into an undead child of the night.
Skeletons
Though this theme can overlap with the cemetery theme mentioned above, a skeleton theme also works well in a small home. As the title implies, this requires all things bone-related. Hanging skeletons, skeleton lights, skeletons in windows, and skeletons climbing up the front of your house will help create your spooky skeletal world. Even if yours isn’t as elaborate as this house, you can still use some cool costumes to make yours scary and interactive.
The Woman in White
This home haunt theme plays on a supernatural figure who seems to appear in ghostly legends all over the world. You can incorporate your ghostly female figures into windows or hang them in front of your home. Throw in some pieces of loose weave fabric, a fog machine, and an animatronic to finish off this mysterious and creepy aesthetic.
Witches
Conjure up your best cackle as you bring this classic theme to life. This requires a cauldron, a broom, some black cats, assorted animals and animal skeletons, dried herbs, and it can overlap slightly with the swamp theme aesthetic. Crystal balls, bats, and skulls also work with this theme. To make it more immersive, use a fog machine and loop sounds of a forest, swamp, or bubbling brew.
Make sure and check out our blog to get started on creating the perfect haunted house and tag us @spirithalloween on social to let us know what your home haunt theme will be this year!
