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CREATING A HAUNTED HOUSE

© Jo Ann Wentzel

I'm going to devote all of October to Halloween-related articles so if you like the holiday, you will be happy with the information.

Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays, probably since it is also my birthday. Although it has become a controversial holiday, I believe it is much maligned. It is a time to pretend you are someone you are not and have a lot of fun. Innocent scares and silly, but safe pranks can add to the holiday purpose. I do not believe in anything that is too scary for little kids and nothing that goes beyond the realm of decency for anyone. The type of guests should be your guide when planning parties, haunted houses, and costumes. All events should be age appropriate and provide entertainment.

This week, we will explore the Haunted House Theme Party. We start now since it can take quite a long time to create this. Many of the props can be made ahead of time and stored until you're ready to assemble your nightmare. Once again, this party can be elaborate taking weeks or longer to prepare or it can be simple and put together in a matter of hours. Always, always keep safety in mind and the ages of guests attending your ghoulish event.

For little children a haunted house could be just mildly exciting. It can contain scary carved pumpkins, green faced witches, black cats, bats hung from ceilings, and spidery webs to catch in your hair. Keep the horror out of it, but install one or two items to startle, not frighten. The rest of your party can focus on the regular Halloween activities like bobbing for apples, painting faces on pumpkins, pinning the nose on the pumpkin, and costume judging. When judging costumes for little children, make sure you have enough categories so every one receives a small prize. To get an idea of the scary stuff appropriate for smaller kids visit the Virtual Haunted house created by kids for kids at http://longwwod.cs.ucf.edu./~Midlink/hau....

Older kids will want a few more scares. Advice from a professional haunted house designer Michael Tucker says you need "walk by scenes and short activity skits." He should know since he sets up houses to benefit charities. He also advises that you "scare your audience forward, getting behind them from behind." This keeps people moving through the house. He says to use a "focal point in every room, which draws the guests' attention." He believes your haunted house can have many different themes from ghosts and aliens to horror movie characters with chainsaws. Tucker recommends music to add to your atmosphere. The titles are Horror Sounds of the Night and Haunted Horror Sounds both on CD's. For more great ideas visit his site at http://www.mindspring.com/~haunted/.