If you do want your haunted house to be on Halloween, make sure to start preparations a few weeks before Halloween.
You could give out a little prize at the end for children, like some candy, goody bag, or some other Halloween treat.
It’s also an option to create a maze in your home out of supplies such as painted boxes and cloth.
For a lighter, funnier tone, have an actor play a “mad scientist” that acts silly as he works around his lab. Or, have typical scary monsters, like Frankenstein, bump into things and joke around as they try to “haunt” your guests. For a scarier tone, have jump scares in every room, have an actor scream or bang on something when it gets quiet, and tone down the lighting to make the setting spookier.
If you really want your haunted house to be authentic, come up with a story for why the house is haunted. For example, the house could be haunted by a family that was brutally murdered in the basement. You can tell your guests the haunted story as they enter the haunted house. For an unexpected twist, have a setting that look cute and cheery, but reveal sinister details, like “dead” bodies or spooky noises, as the guests travel through the house.
Your friends can dress up as ghosts or goblins and grab, shout at, or make noise around your guests when they least expect it. They can help “guide” the guests through the different haunted rooms, and can be in charge of different activities or games. If you don’t have any friends who want to participate, consider hiring actors.
Consider putting your guests in a very dark room and giving them flashlights to try to find the way out. Replace your lamps with dim, green bulbs around the house. Drape traditional lamps with cobwebs and tape rubber bats to the insides. Light a spotlight under a spider web or fake creepy insect to create a spooky shadow.
You can find fog machines for around $30 at a party or Halloween store. Put strobe lights in a room to create a dramatic effect.
Have a recording of a different spooky sound in every room. One room can have the sound of a chainsaw, while another can have the sound of a woman screaming. Your volunteers can scamper from one side of an empty room to another to create a scary sound. Put on a soundtrack made up of soft, creepy music. Use silence to your advantage. Pick some key moments to keep the house silent so your guests will be even more startled by the next sound.
Make sure the way out of the maze is clear to guests.
After a bout of silence, a spooky ghost can jump out and scare your guests. Try having the ghost pop out of a closet. Have a volunteer grip guests’ shoulders. Have them do this slowly so the guest thinks it’s just another guest at first. Bring your guests in a dark room. Have your volunteer turn on a flashlight under his face and laugh maniacally. Have one of your volunteers get in line behind a pack of guests, and wait for them to slowly realize that he is there. Have one of your guests dress up like a famous horror film character, such as Jason, or Freddy.
Have a tub of cold water with fake snakes slithering in them. Place some coins on the bottom. Tell your guests they can’t move on until they reach down and find a coin. Instead of bobbing for apples, carve apples to look like skulls and play bobbing for skulls! Peel the skin off a bunch of grapes and put them in a bowl. Cover the bowl and tell your guests to put their hands inside and tell you what they feel. Correct answer: eyeballs!
You can also have characters jump out during certain sections of the house as the visitors walk through. If your guests will be older, have an “actor” chase them with a chainsaw that no longer has a chain.
You can make a dummy by stuffing clothes with newspaper, and putting a mask over a balloon.
