Thread: Last minute, low-budget party tricks?

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Hey y'all,
I'm going to see if I can throw together a small, low-budget, get together with a few people from my High School. My plan is to show two movies, (one horror, one horror comedy), play creepy Nox Arcana music, and serve tasty desserts. Here's my dilemma: I don't have much in the way of props in Ohio where I live with my dad, 'cause I set up my haunt at my Mom's house in PA (better location to haunt). So I thought why not just use some lighting tricks and small-scale decor to set a spooky mood. So, what I'm asking is this: do anyone know some simple indoor lighting tricks to make a suburban house look creepy? Thanks guys!

I've always heard that lighting totally sets the mood for anything, so I think you're on the right track with that. I'm sure there are a lot of things you could do depending on the type of lighting you have. String lights in purple and orange always look fantastic and give that Halloween feel without a lot of other decor needed.

Cob webs also work really well....AND you can get a decent amount of them cheap. Some spot lights in a blue or green pointed strategically at cobwebbed corners could look pretty cool. You could cover some of the furniture with sheets to give it that old haunted house kind of feel. Another idea is grabbing some tree branches, setting them in a pot or larger vase and wrapping them with some lights.

There are definitely others on the board that can give you more in depth lighting ideas...but I think once you get started you'll come up with something awesome!! And of course...we'll need to see pictures

Do you have Dollar Tree or any other $ store in your area? My party is being done on an extremely low budget as well and other than making most of my stuff with paper mache (as it is pretty much free) I have been casing my Dollar Tree store. I have been lucky to find creepy cloth, crows, rats, mini spot light (these are not colored but you can cover them with a gel or add color easy enough), and so much more. I would do Trinity1 trick and cover the furniture with sheets if you have them maybe sprinkle flour on the coffee/end tables to look like dust, **** the pictures on the walls so they look crooked, you could even plint black and white images off the internet and change out the pics...cover everything in spider webs (cheap,cheap,cheap) maybe add some candles or spot lights (I prefer red and green)...just remember it doesnt take alot of money to have a great party and Im sure your friends will appreciate anything you come up with

Black garbage bags on windows & walls are a super cheap trick to darken any area. Add lighting & other effects mentioned & it easily turns any room into a dungeon. You can also shred a garbage bag long ways & hang it in the door way for guests to walk through. It divides the rooms & makes it seem more intriguing. In the bathroom, a red light, Fake blood splattered on shower walls or inside bathtub, include butcher knife for a murder scene effect. Hide a cd/mp3 player somewhere inside the bathroom with haunting & eerie sounds playing continuously. In a dark hallway hang various lengths/strands of fishing line from the ceiling. The strands should be long enough to touch the tops of your guests heads as they walk down the hallway. This is fun because they cant see the fishing line, but can feel it & it feels creepy. For an "alien" effect, aluminum foil on walls or ceiling complete with a strobe light is actually a decently cool effect. Creepy cloth hung on mirrors. Those are a few extremely cheap but effective ideas.....I will post more as I think of them.

Happy Haunting!
~Rya

I, too, am kind of a low budget gal. Take a look at some of my favorite ideas here: http://pinterest.com/runawayoctober/halloween/

Some stuff that comes to mind:
- cobwebs, stretch them properly though.
- drop cloths/old sheets.
- Haunt (teehee) your local thrift store. Find odd things, spray paint black/gray.
- Print off old pictures from the Interwebz, add black construction paper masks to current pictures.
- Sign up for Michaels and JoAnns email. They send out 45-50% off coupons. You could pick up your "big item" for fairly cheap.
- Witch/potion jars are cheap and easy.
- Paint dead branches black, tack to the ceiling with fishing line. Add some dollar tree crows.
- Make spider sacs from wadding up fiberfill and white panty hose. Cover with spider webs.
- Decorate the bathroom. Plastic shower curtains and white towels can be found for about a $1. Spatter with blood. Black light bulbs in your light fixtures. Michaels has a strobe/black light that plays spooky noises for about $10, should be on sale soon, would work well for a small bathroom.
- If you have "sconce" type light fixtures, blank white masks look creepy over them.
- Do a search for "halloween printables". There's a lot of cool stuff out there. And if you have even tiny photo editing skills, there's vintage illustrations to you can make into awesome art.
- Spanish moss and cheesecloth/creepy cloth on everything. Doorframes, pictures, chandeliers, table surfaces, bookcases, etc.
- Pack away most of your everyday stuff. Clean off your dresser/desk/counters. Try and fill it with spookyish stuff, if possible.
- If you have time (only 62 days!), paper mache is great. I just made a whole slew of bones. It's taken a week, but when the temps reach 100* in my garage, I give up after an hour.
- Remove light bulbs, or strategically place lamps around gathering areas. Candles are best, but only if you trust your guests. Dollar Tree sells "emergency candles" in a box of 6/$1, they last about 4-5 hours each.
- Also, borrow! My favorite is to hit up the women my mom works with. Most of them are empty nesters and no longer decorate, so sometimes just tell me to keep it.

As a hostess, I always believe what makes a party great are the small things. Sure, anyone can set an inflatable witch in their yard, crave some pumpkins and gob spiderwebs on everything, but what people remember most is that awesome portraits you printed out or the potion bottles set around, or that thing that made them jump. Have fun!!


Also, Rya, totally stealing your fishing line idea. The hallway to the most common bathroom will be perfect for that!

Another tip - stay away from the cheapy "blacklight" bulbs that are sold everywhere. If it costs less than $4 and isn't a florescent (curly or U shaped) bulb, then it's a fake blacklight. They can call them that because they use the glass coating that a real blacklight uses (wood's glass if you need useless info ) and it does emit REALLY weak UV - so weak you can't really see anything, but it lacks the main element that makes real blacklights work. AND IT GETS SUPER DANGEROUSLY HOT.

Watch out using real candles. Put them in containers where they can't be brushed against and place them in safe areas where they won't be a danger.

Agree with the other suggestions... I love getting stuff from thrift stores and spraypainting them. Pick up some old white sheets to throw over the furniture and another biggie - if at all possible, put away the normal decorations and knick-knacks that are in the main rooms you'll be gathering in. Family portraits, the sports memorabilia, the junk that is normally out on the surfaces and walls... they are not scary and will be a jarring note in your "haunted house" look.

As far as setting the mood with lighting, those colored light bulbs work wonders! You can get them in green, blue, orange or red. I got a green one last year and used it above my kitchen sink. I was surprised at how bright it was! I thought it would be quite dim, like the black light bulbs Frankie's Girl mentioned. But it was perfect! Made my entire kitchen glow a spooky green This year I plan to get a bunch and make each room a different color. At 2.99 each, ya can't go wrong.

Originally Posted by RunawayOctober

I, too, am kind of a low budget gal. Take a look at some of my favorite ideas here: http://pinterest.com/runawayoctober/halloween/

Some stuff that comes to mind:
- cobwebs, stretch them properly though.
- drop cloths/old sheets.
- Haunt (teehee) your local thrift store. Find odd things, spray paint black/gray.
- Print off old pictures from the Interwebz, add black construction paper masks to current pictures.
- Sign up for Michaels and JoAnns email. They send out 45-50% off coupons. You could pick up your "big item" for fairly cheap.
- Witch/potion jars are cheap and easy.
- Paint dead branches black, tack to the ceiling with fishing line. Add some dollar tree crows.
- Make spider sacs from wadding up fiberfill and white panty hose. Cover with spider webs.
- Decorate the bathroom. Plastic shower curtains and white towels can be found for about a $1. Spatter with blood. Black light bulbs in your light fixtures. Michaels has a strobe/black light that plays spooky noises for about $10, should be on sale soon, would work well for a small bathroom.
- If you have "sconce" type light fixtures, blank white masks look creepy over them.
- Do a search for "halloween printables". There's a lot of cool stuff out there. And if you have even tiny photo editing skills, there's vintage illustrations to you can make into awesome art.
- Spanish moss and cheesecloth/creepy cloth on everything. Doorframes, pictures, chandeliers, table surfaces, bookcases, etc.
- Pack away most of your everyday stuff. Clean off your dresser/desk/counters. Try and fill it with spookyish stuff, if possible.
- If you have time (only 62 days!), paper mache is great. I just made a whole slew of bones. It's taken a week, but when the temps reach 100* in my garage, I give up after an hour.
- Remove light bulbs, or strategically place lamps around gathering areas. Candles are best, but only if you trust your guests. Dollar Tree sells "emergency candles" in a box of 6/$1, they last about 4-5 hours each.
- Also, borrow! My favorite is to hit up the women my mom works with. Most of them are empty nesters and no longer decorate, so sometimes just tell me to keep it.

As a hostess, I always believe what makes a party great are the small things. Sure, anyone can set an inflatable witch in their yard, crave some pumpkins and gob spiderwebs on everything, but what people remember most is that awesome portraits you printed out or the potion bottles set around, or that thing that made them jump. Have fun!!


Also, Rya, totally stealing your fishing line idea. The hallway to the most common bathroom will be perfect for that!

Holy moly!! I don't know what that website is, but I just took a look and I loved it! It's gonna take me hours to peruse!!!

If you have a willing friend with a chainsaw, I can suggest a great scare. At a pre arranged time (maybe when the scary movie is on), have your friend remove the chain from the chainsaw. Wearing a mask and overcoat or blood spattered costume, have your friend burst through the front door with the chainsaw roaring. He can safely run amok for about 10 to 15 seconds then abruptly leave. Any longer than 15 seconds, and you risk carbon monoxide poisoning and smelling up your house with the exhaust. The initial shock and scare are priceless. We did that once and people still talk about it years later. We try to incorporate a startle scare every few years.

Eric

Thanks everyone for your great advice! Wolfbeard, that'd be really funny, but my Dad would have a fit if I tried to do something like that. He can be a bit of a killjoy, sometimes.