Halloween Discussion Forums, Costumes, Horror!

maybe do like a prison cell party.

I'm going to throw my first party this year as well and am starting from scratch. In looking for cheap decorations, I found these new "Scene Setters" wallpaper, here is a link to where I bought mine.
http://www.partyadventure.com/search_pr ... ter&page=3
This place had the best prices I could find, plus shipping was free. Anyway, I bought the old looking wallpaper and plan on going with the haunted house theme. It arrived in the mail yesterday and it is awesome! I also ordered some "Haunted Art" from ebay to hang on the wall to add to the haunted house theme. We then went to a second hand store and bought a bunch of old looking candlebra's and candles. We are also going to try and find some more old books, dishes, furntiture etc to add to the old haunted house theme. Here are a couple more links for the
wallpaper:

http://www.hauntedfog.com/Scene%20Setters%201.htm
http://www.hauntedfog.com/Scene%20Setter%20Guide1.htm

I would start with the wallpaper because it will totally transform your apartment, and then get some cheap decorations or make your own from stuff you find from a second hand store. Well that's my suggestion for decorations!

wow that is nice.

Okay, you don't have a lot of money, or room, but you have the back yard. Get lots of sheets from Goodwill. White ones. Then get some carboad tubes that carpet places and joints like that have. You are going to use the tubes to make the sheets look like sails. You are making your place into a pirate ship. You'll be able to borrow some rope, probably, to make it look like rigging. (folks are always happy to lend stuff so THEY don't have to host the party.) Some coach lights from the dollar store or Goodwill will help out. Tikki torches go for practically nothing after Labor Day at some gardening stores.
Get a hunk of old beat up wood and paint PIRATES COVE on it and hang it over the door. Your little cousin might even be able to use his wood burning set to make it look really boss. Everybody dresses like pirates.
Now, for the evening, a scavenger hunt. I used to do it 2 ways, when i had a lot of room, have them go for stuff. If you are stuck for space, have them put together a treasure map that points to the last clue..
Also tell everybody invited that they have to come with a song, a magic trick, or a story...
Have old pots or jars at the entrance to the pirate cove that collect change. donate it each jar or whatever to a different charity. Also, hold folks for ransom in a back room JAIL..they can be ransomed OUT or the loved ones can HOLD THEM IN ..money to favorite charity..
polaroids are easy to find now with digitial cameras taking over. take everybodies pic when the come and give them their picture when the go home. You can also video tape the acts for practically nothing with the old Vhs camera your folks probably have hanging around..I just KNOW they still have a VCR you could hook up to it...
Background music is easy..most libraries have sea chantys on tape or CD ..if there are kids around, you can put on some stuff like Popeye cartoons or the original PotC.

In our appartment we made good use of streamers. there cheep and when done right they look good. We would start in the center of the room and mave them come out towards the edge like spider legs you can get really creative with them. Just DON'T hang them up as if your having a birthaday party...thats just dull!!!! Use those basic paper pumkin shapes, you know those classic looking ones they are cheap and can look good. Also use the those black and orange string lights and hang them from the ceiling in your kitchen, like a night sky. And last but not least autumn garland, put this around the tops of your doors and every wear else. These are the most expensive, the streamers can run around a $1 or 2 and the pumkins should be a few cents or a buck but the garland can run around $7 per strand but they are worth it because you can use them over again. They really give off the Halloweeny feeling. And of course pumpin, apple, and cinnimon scented candles.

At our last halloween party I had a bunch of skulls that we had borrowed or were given to my husband for his birthday. I used those and a lot of candles all around the table with the food and drinks. gave an eerie look to it. Just be careful, fire is fire no matter what way you look at it.

In regards to uncletor's suggestions--
GREAT ideas!! I'm so impressed, a party like that sounds super fun!! But instead of going to goodwill to get some sheets, try asking hotels if they have any they're about to discard, that'll save even more money. I have a cousin who works at a hotel and I guess that they cycle through their sheets pretty fast, so when they're ready to discard some he takes them home to my grandma for her crafts. I bet you could find plenty of white sheets for free that way. It's a good idea if anyone wants to make ghost decorations or anything like that too.

glad you dug it. I used to do halloween with my family on a farm, and with the distance between the places, you learned to make a big deal of it and to have lots of fun for the guests...we had something like that during the power black out here in Canada and on the American east coast..some friends called me over..they were inviting as many people as possible for the night to eat the food in the freezer..after it was done, i got to tell the kids ghost stories in the back yard..the one I had the most fun with was a silent film my Gramma told me...The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari...she had seen it back in the day, when a bunch of girls going by themselves to a horror film, (this was, like, 1918) was seen as really independent..she had told me the story of the film, scene by scene, as a kid, but think how STUNNED I was when I was grown up to find out it was this German Expressionist classic.
the idea of the hotel sheets is very cool..I'll have to remember that one..this year, I'm duplicating an old MAD magazine cover piece for addition to the lawn..the baby buggy that has shrunken heads instead of a moblie out front, and an IV unit going into it, and a hand holding a bone..there will also be a pair of red eyes peering out of it...

Ooohh! What a cool idea for the buggy! You sound like you have great decorations and party ideas. I'm always too intimidated to throw a Halloween party because I did once and it bombed. It was just a huge mess. Halloween's funny because I love everything about it, but I usually build it up so much beforehand that the big night doesn't usually live up to it. Oh well, I still love Halloween. Some day maybe I'll suck it up and throw a Halloween party again. When I do I'll come to you for advice. hehe

Start out small. Pick a really loopy movie to show while you have a friend or two around to eat a pizza and help out with the trick or treaters. Horror comedy, say. Or, I usually find trailer collections are good way to start. (Trailer collections are tapes or DVD's of 'trailers': the coming features atractions they show before movie..places like the Mars Collective on ebay can sell you a whole DVD for around 10 bucks.)
Now, after THAT, turn up the juice a bit and have a TRICK for the OLDER folks, the teens who come late, DON'T dress up, and want candy. (Go ahead. Ask what I do..)
After THAT, it's pretty much clear sailing..also get OTHERS to help you will invite..you will have LESS chance of bombing if they have ponied up time and effort for you.
As for the disappointment, I know where you're coming from. My usual method is to treat it the same way they do Mardi Gras in the Big Easy. At midnight, it all goes DOWN and you start off November, All Saints Day refreshed and clean..especially if you wind up washing off a ton of makeup and sweat from working like a Spartan at the whole thing. You have your Thanksgiving just around the corner, and then the Christmas season, which must, in my house, open with SANTA CLAUS..by K. Gordon Murray..go ahead, check THAT out..

Oh man, what do you do for the older kids who come around later in the night?
I'm always really bad about taking down my halloween decorations. One usually gets left up year round, usually a candy dish.

Rather then describe the full amount of work that goes into this, we shall skip to the final result. But, first..
Remember that this is done ONLY to the OLDER kids who DO NOT DRESS UP...the late coming teenagers. ONLY them. Little children, the small, the impressionable, the easily scared, sickened, or defenseless are LEFT OUT.
We have a microwave set up by the door. The kids come. We say in a low lows gruff voice:"Would you like a microwave treat??
They are, believe it or not, usually stupid enough to say yes.
I open the door, and there inside the microwave is a severed head. Complete with real teeth,(dentures) veins, arterial stuff and gore coming out the neck, and blood, blood, blood, everywhere..(it's Dick Smith's reciepe from THE GODFATHER)
You can imagine how their attention is immediately drawn to this.
Then they usually notice, the EYEBALL has exploded. They notice because my right index finger is slowly, going towards it. Then I stick the finger IN the eyeball, and come out with that brown plumb sauce you get from Chinese take out. Three packs are usually enough. It hold it in front of them. Just to let them see.
Then I lick it off the finger.
Why, I've seen the turn white, gasp, nearly pass out when I do this.
Usually, you get the same expression you find when a kid bites into his first sour garlic pickle..
The trick is done by disconnecting the microwave of EVERYTHING except the light. The blood mix is splattered on the inside, and the head is made from paper mache and using tube and strings for the veins and arteries around the neck, and a real set of detures that I found..the eyeball is the time honored ping pong ball..real hair..my own, is used for the eye brows .

So, you can see, how just a BIT of money but lots of planning and pride in your work can make the holidays SO memorable for EVERYONE...
And think of the memories you will make.
Oh, yeah. The teenagers will probably carry it around for a while too.

SHEESH!!! That's CRAZY!!! I would LOVE to see you pull that trick on some kid. That's HILARIOUS! So after you put them through that, do you then give them some candy? I certainly hope so! LOL!

Odldly enough, THAT has never come up.
They usally leave so quick I don't even get to offer..that, or just stagger away, slack jawed...