Thread: Need your creative minds...

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to help me create one simple, effective garage haunt idea - for scaring kids. And easy...if it's possible. Like I read somewhere on this forum....less can be more!

I've thought of having a Haunted Dinner. Shindigz.com has rolls of cobblestone paper that reminds me of castle walls. We have (don't ask me how we got it!) a life size suit of armour, fog machine, and few more basic things.

But, um....what's scary about a Haunted Dinner?

I also thought about having a simple funeral room....with a coffin sittin on a table, the walls blacked with plastic, some kind of creepy lighting, fog, spooky music - and the point is for it to be so spooky that kids won't want to walk in and look inside the coffin. But I don't know if I can pull that off.

Do you have any other ideas?

If you do the dinner idea, don't forget the old, but nevertheless still effective head under the serving dish lid. You have a space under the table for a person to be kneeling, cut or have the table with a space to stick their head up through it and at a certain point, remove the lid and have the severed head scream at the audience. It's best with a slight delay in it too... where the person is playing dead...love that effect, and it's really pretty simple. You'd need a down-to-the-floor tablecloth that you wouldn't mind cutting a hole in it for the platter/head trick, but using an old bedsheet from Goodwill would probably work well.

You could have all sorts of ghoulish goodies for a table spread, "finger" foods that are real fingers, eyeballs, body parts and have the screaming head as the finish. If you had a certain line to cue the helper under the table, (after timing how long it takes them to get their head up into place, they wouldn't have to spend the entire time with their head through the hole either.

Scattered bones and splashes of blood would be nice, too.

Maybe do a nice scary story about an ogre or troll that just loves people for dinner? Literally.

A haunted dinner can be scary if the monsters sitting down to dinner (or at least one of them) that the audience previously believed were stuffed dummies came to life and lunged towards the "fresh food."

You can also put creepy stuff in the background, like a picture with glowing eyes or a painting that reveal a different, glowing image at certain times (thanks to a hidden blacklight with a rotating disc in front of it. The disc has clear parts to let the light through and dark parts to block the light. The painting merely had another image painted over it with clear-drying invisible paint).

Or...you could lure them into thinking, "Oh, it's the old Head Under the Platter Trick." Then, instead of doing THAT, lift the serving lid to reveal bloody severed FEET as someone under the table grabs their ankles with C-C-C-COLD hands.

The Haunted Dinner could be setup like Disney's Haunted Mansion ballroom scene.

This reminded me of the strangest restaurant-I remember going when I was very young and being scared because your table was in it's own "room" surrounded by dark curtains, and as I remember it, different scary characters entered from time to time, including a werewolf, and I think Frankensteins monster. This might be scary to pretty young kids, just having costumed people walking through or serving food. I also picture the Addams Family sitting down to dinner here!

Along the dinner theme...I've always wanted to recreate the dinner from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Bugs, snakes, eyeball soup, monkey brains...

The head on a platter is classic. As would be the hand in the candy bowl, which would fit in well if the candy was on the table as well.

If you have an outdoor grill you could put something (or someone) on it. Somewhere on the web someone did an effective Webber grill setup with "glowing" coals and body parts on the grill.
One comment about the head on the platter gag. Yep, its a good 'un, did it at a school Halloween party many years ago. I was the head, and we made up my face with white make up. Looking back, it was probably pretty obvious that it was a person playing dead (even though we got our share of shrieks). If I did it again I would probably put an over-the-head mask on, so that it looked as if it was an inanimate stuffed prop instead of a real person...

If you simply want to scare a kid, an unexpected loud noise is always good for a scream, and maybe even a cry and wet pants, depending on the kid. And what could be simpler. Just pounding something that makes a loud noise.

Thank you all - I think your ideas will create a great atmosphere.

I've got a perfect table for the head on a platter trick.

I'm also very intrigued with the black curtain idea. I'm thinking of setting the table with the platter, gross food, etc., I'll be dressed in costume as the "host" and we all sit down to dinner (some of the food will be edible - to keep their attention at the table). The area will be surrounded by the black curtain.

Then, they'll be execting something to happen - but nothing will...they'll start thinking "is this all there is?" I'll leave the table to bring more food, leaving them alone....waiting....maybe their anxiety will rise....and then I'll use one of those remote control recorder things to play a mysterious sound. They'll still probably think it's just trick, but then I'll turn out the lights. Hopefully they'll freak?

Or....I thought about leaving the table, turning out the lights, and then having someone start banging on the garage wall.

I don't know. Kids are pretty sophisticated these days. It's hard to scare them. Does any of this sound scary?