Thread: Monsters of the Silver Screen...ideas?

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Everyone seems to be settling in on their themes and getting some ideas going for 2010. I want to do a Classic Horror Monster party; knowing that my guests don't to 'classic' horror, I will include all monsters in movies. I would love any help to brainstorm more ideas and finetune detail. I think I have seen mention of parties like this...but I guess I am not finding those threads.
Here is what I have so far:
*Husband and I will host as Sweeney Todd and Ms. Lovett from the Fleet Street Catering Company. Would like to fill the kitchen with old antique anatomy pictures and....what else? Help please as I am at a complete loss. *My food will be all edible body part - panna cotta brain, ribs, witch fingers, lychee eyeballs and the like. Any other fun body part foods?
*Front yard will be a cemetery theme (as always) with movie themed tombstones. Want to have a Marilyn Monroe bucky posed over a fan that blows up her dress. Dracula tombstone, Jason or Freddy tombstone...I need more clever ideas. As guests walk up the blood red carpet I will have pumpkinrot type paparazzi snapping pictures (strobe lights) in the pumpkin patch. Maybe a real person in costume amongst them to actually get some fun pics. Upon entering the house, an information booth with bucky skelly welcoming them. There will be the guest book to sign and the computer to sign in your costumes on survey monkey for costume contest voting throughout the evening. Thought I would use the Karloff awards for this theme...seemed appropriate.
*Front room - other than a cabinet of curiosities...I have no idea.
*Staircase - I would decorate with enormous spiderwebs...spiders, eggsacks, etc.
*Playroom upstairs - was going to cover everything with white sheets...like when rich people move away for an extended period of time. I have a 3 foot antique doll that has a motor...she moves her head and one arm...she would get half covered with a sheet and i would have children laughing/playing sound effects throughout. I saw at spirit a white sheet ghost prop....haven't seen it lately...thought that would be fun if there was something amongst all the sheets that actually was a scare prop. anything easy i could make?
*Media room off of playroom - I would be playing classic horror movies...any ideas on decor?
*bathroom - I like the stalker idea for this...I have a tiny bathroom that the majority of the guest will use...sink, toilet, and standing shower stall (glass front). I could take pictures of the guests prior to the party and hang them with strange, obsessive poetry covering the walls. maybe underwear or toeclippings in spots...you know, stalker style. other thoughts?
*backyard - this is my setup for next year's theme "Faerie Tales" where for the past two years I have eluded to dead faeries getting loose in the house and recking havoc. They have grown in size and are about about to be full blown bucky size. A few teenage faeries will be perched about the back patio.

As I look over all of this, it seems I have a good start....but I am stuck, need help...there is like one good idea for each room. Definately need help with the cemetery. Also, I saw someone mention a game where they had set up clues of movies throughout their home and guest had to find them and decipher them. I thought that would be an excellent thought to force people into paying attention to my details...yes, I am that person...my haunt has to look great in the daylight too!

Anyway, any help would be greatly appreciated!

Sounds like you have things well in hand!! Great theme, BTW. And already lots of great ideas.

To add to the food/drink ideas: I served cocktails one year with "eyeballs" frozen in ice cubes. Peel a radish so that it is mostly white, but leave a few red streaks to look like blood vessels. Carve out a shallow crater in one side, and cut a pimento-stuffed olive in half and place it in crater to resemble an iris/pupil. Place radish in ice cube tray, cover with water and freeze. Sort of labor intensive, but a big impact, looks very creepy.

And there are scads of websites that have Victorian-era anatomy/botany/zoology prints that you can simply print and frame. Just google victorian anatomy prints, you'll find some.

Have fun, sounds like it'll be great!!!

MHooch,
Thanks for the compliment and I do feel it is a good start. Love the frozen eyeball idea - will use that! i will see if i can't find some of those printable anatomy sites.

Thanks for your help!

FREE amazing graphics- historical, skeletal, etc...

That site in my post has literally thousands of high res images of just about anything you can think of. As long as you're not putting them in something to sell or distribute (personal usage/educational use only) then you can use them.

I printed off several and put them in black frames just as decor, (there's a pic in that thread a few posts down) but there are so many cool decorations you could make with this art - book covers, invites, decoupage a piece of cheapy furniture like an end table or the like...

Otherwise, your ideas sound great! I'd do a few searches on this forum (try keywords like party theme, witch kitchen, etc... )

Thanks for that link, FG! Great stuff, my husband will love the Civil War category.

I would have Igor or Dr. Frankenstein greet guests at the door & take pics.

Keeping with the classics theme...
in the main area where food is served, theme as the good Dr.'s Lab, complete with test tubes, bubbling beakers, flickering lights, & strobe lights (aimed at the ceiling). For the movie room- rent a popcorn popper & serve fresh popcorn, drinks, & mini candies, etc. Have a variety of movies to choose from- Dracula, Frankenstein, Wolf Man, Blob, .....

Fun frightful foods-
chocolate spiders (melted chocate & chowmein noodles), Jello brains of various colors & flavors, meat head skull on a platter (wrap with cling wrap first, then place various slices meats over the skull), blood red punch with a frozen hand / ice to chill it, gummy worms & spiders

Sounds like you are going to have a great party!
If you are going with the Sweeney Todd theme in the kitchen, maybe you could have a few meat grinders with meat hanging out of them, blood on the table and counters. You could have a couple of pies sitting out.. (maybe one could have something sound activiated under the uncooked crust so that it moves around a little.) You could also have a collection of unusable bones etc in buckets.. dont forget liver pate..
I'm doing a gothic Vampire's lair in my living room this year. Caskets, red velvet curtains and lots of black nick knacks.. You could do something similar like the old Bela Lugosi movies..

Frankie's Girl, fabulous link! Well, that does it for the photos in the kitchen, thanks...and so many more uses!
Haunty, Of course...the Dr. Lab! That is exactly what I need to fill that area! Perfect...and oh so perfect for the theme. Also, I like the popcorn popper idea with the movie theatre. I was going to make a montage of movies -those classics that you mentioned- to play. I am afraid not too may would actually sit with me and watch any one movie in its entirety.Also, great food ideas that I will use! Thanks.
Kymmm,
I have always stayed away from the gore for the most part...but i do like the pie idea and bones. The vampire lair would be awesome...do you have caskets...or are you making them?
Thanks to all of you for some great ideas to tie things together.

Also you could have classic movie monster trivia, between movies to get guests involved.
Some small prizes from the dollar store to winners. A pond mister will create small amounts of fog, when placed just below water surface. Use velcro dots to place spider webbing where ever you want- over an archway, ceiling, doorway, etc. Don't forget music & sound effects to go with some of the themed rooms.

If you are planning to be Sweeney Todd and Ms. Lovett from the Fleet Street Catering Company, be sure to include some kind of mice meat pie base on the movie. For the bathroom, make it bloody, dirty with blood on the walls and murder-ish poems for the stalker theme with bugs and body parts.