Making a haunted house is the perfect way to celebrate Halloween and scare guests. If your circle of friends doesn't know Halloween, you can still make one for Kliwon Friday night, for example, or hold a special edition jury night. Turning your house into a bloodied haunted house does require creativity, hard work, and careful planning. Even so, your hard work will pay off when guests scream with fear mixed with enthusiasm.
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Part 1 of 3: Crafting a Ghost Plan
Step 1. Set the date
People in the United States celebrate Halloween every October 31. That day they considered the best day to make a haunted house. However, for those of us who are not familiar with the tradition, we can choose any day. It should be noted that some people in Indonesia recognize days that are considered sacred, such as Friday Night (especially Friday Kliwon). Maybe even many of us know the tradition of jurt night or even a haunted house at the night market. What is clear, be sure to inform the invited guests the date and time a few weeks before the D day.
If you still want to celebrate Halloween in Indonesia and make a haunted house for it, be sure to prepare a few weeks in advance
Step 2. Plan the details according to the age of the visitor
Think about who might be interested in entering your haunted house. Will your guests be predominately small children or adults? This information determines the details you need to put in the haunted house. If the haunted house is going to be visited by adults, it's okay to put blood-stained objects or objects that can make people jump in fear. However, if your guests are children, play with the designs a lot and avoid using items that are too scary.
For Halloween, you will also need to provide the kids with small gifts such as candy or snacks they like at the end of the event
Step 3. Plan your haunted house path
Before starting the preparation of the haunted house, you need to decide what guests will see. Will you decorate the outside of the house, or will you focus only on the inside? Will you decorate all the rooms in the house, or just the main room and corridor? The haunted house can be large or small, as you wish.
You can also create a maze in your house with existing items such as cans and painted clothes
Step 4. Plan the atmosphere you want to build your haunted house
After the path plan is ready, you can start thinking about the atmosphere that this haunted house will build. Would you like people to laugh while you're here, or scream in fear instead? You can combine them if you want the haunted house to be less scary.
- For a lighter, funnier atmosphere, ask someone to play the “crazy scientist” who acts silly while working in the lab. Or, have a terrifying monster, such as genderuwo, suddenly appear and make jokes while pretending to “chase” guests.
- For a more eerie atmosphere, prepare surprise surprises in every room. Also prepare the person on duty to shout or hit something hard when the room is quiet. Don't forget to dim the light to make the atmosphere even more sinister.
Step 5. Set a theme for your haunted house
The more detailed your haunted house is, the scarier it becomes. You'll have to decide whether to use a traditional theme, a hitman haunted house, or even a mental hospital or a long-abandoned hospital. Maybe the previous occupant had died and was now a haunting ghost. Your chosen theme will determine how best to decorate the haunted house.
- If you want a unique haunted house, present the tragic story behind it. For example, the house is haunted by the family who were brutally murdered in the basement. You can tell the story while welcoming guests.
- For an unexpected surprise, come up with a setting that looks cute and festive, but exposes spooky details, such as “corpses” or ghostly groans, as guests explore the house.
Step 6. Ask friends for help to prepare it
It's almost impossible to prepare a haunted house alone. In addition to decorating, they can help you guide or frighten your guests during your haunted house. Here are some things they can help with:
- Your friends can dress up in ghost or monster costumes and then ambush, scream, or make a noise around guests unexpectedly.
- They can "guide" guests into various haunted rooms and be in charge of managing activities or games.
- If no friends are interested in helping, try hiring the services of an actor.
Part 2 of 3: Creating a Feel of Horror
Step 1. Create a spooky effect by playing with the light
Don't use too much light for your haunted house, which makes guests more relaxed. They also need to see the hiding places of the 'ghosts'. If your house is dark, guests will feel tensed so your plan will work. Just make sure guests have enough light to explore the contents of the house safely. Here are some ways to use light to create a haunted effect:
- Consider the possibility of herding guests into a very dark room and equipping them with flashlights to find their way out.
- Replace house lights with green light bulbs.
- Hang an antique lamp complete with cobwebs and stick a number of rubber bats in the room.
- Shine a light from under a spider's web or scary toy insect to form a shadow that can make goosebumps goosebumps.
Step 2. Use special effects like strobe lights and fog machine
Try using mirrors, black light, and smoke to confuse visitors. With this special effect, guests will be more surprised and frightened at every point of the house. Fog machines and strobe lights are also classic tools for creating special haunted house effects.
- You can buy fog machines at various prices, from tens of thousands to millions of rupiah, in online stores or retail stores.
- Put a strobe light in the room for a dramatic effect.
Step 3. Make scary noises
The voices echoing in the haunted house will scare guests so much that they can't move anywhere. A powerful trick in playing scary sounds lies in choosing the right time and frequency of use in moderation. If you make scary noises too often, your guests won't be surprised. Here are some tricks for creating spooky sounds:
- Prepare scary sound recordings in every room. You can play the sound of a chainsaw, while in another room a woman's voice screams.
- You can assign someone to run around in an empty room and make scary noises.
- Play a special song to get a soft sound but can make the hair on your neck goosebumps.
- Take advantage of silence. Take certain moments to keep the house quiet so that guests will be more surprised when they hear the next sound.
Step 4. Create a maze inside the house
The maze is a fun way to guide guests into your haunted house, whether it's in your house, apartment, or even the garage. You can stack the cardboard and cover it with black cloth to make it look like a wall. Plan your maze in advance by sketching it out, then start building it a week before the haunted house opens. Decorate the maze with spooky props, lights and ghost figures.
Make sure the exit of the maze lay out clearly for guests
Step 5. Decorate the haunted house according to the shades and theme of your choice
If you want a theme that's cute and kid-friendly, stay away from themes that indulge in bloody violence and try putting up decorations that are fun without being too scary. For example, use decorative bats, cute ghosts, or funny monsters. However, if you want a more eerie theme for adult visitors, use embellishments such as toy blood, skulls, capes, heads in jars, or shrouds.
Part 3 of 3: Using Properties and Actors
Step 1. Scare the guests by involving your colleagues
Property is important, but it is the presence of creatures with scary figures that can make a haunted house feel scary. There are a number of ways your friends can play to scare guests. Here's what they can do:
- After a moment of silence, a spooky ghost can jump out and frighten guests. Try asking the ghost to suddenly come out of the closet.
- Ask your friend to grip the guest's shoulder. Ask him to do it slowly so that at first the guest will think it's another guest's hand.
- Take your guests to a dark room. Have your friend shine a flashlight from under his chin and laugh like a crazy maniac.
- Ask your partner to stand behind the guest and wait for them to notice their presence.
- Have one of the guests dress up as famous horror movie characters like Jason, Freddy Krueger, kuntilanak, or pocong.
Step 2. Add a little bit of ground spices
Sometimes the presence of gore in a haunted house can feel overwhelming. However, its use becomes effective when done properly. For example, place a "victim" pretending to be dead next to a pool of blood. Or, make up the "victim" to look seriously infected. You can also place the bloodied brain on a table or near the "victim's body".
Step 3. Invite guests to do a spooky activity
If you want a haunted house that's less scary and fun for your guests, especially the little ones, you can plan a number of spooky activities in different rooms. Some activities worth trying include:
- Prepare a tub of cold water with a fake snake crawling in it. Put some change in the bottom of the tub. Tell guests that they can't switch to another room until they put their hands in the tub and collect change.
- Instead of just picking up an apple in a barrel with your teeth, as is typical Halloween tradition, it's better to carve the apple into a skull and put it in a barrel filled with water. Then, ask guests to pick it up by biting it.
- Place the peeled grapes in a bowl. Cover the bowl and ask guests to reach into it to say how they feel. Tell them the correct answer, which is eyeballs!
Step 4. Try the mirror trick
Ask guests to open a room that only contains a large mirror full of cobwebs. Give them a few minutes to look in the mirror. Then, have a monster or ghost jump from behind the guest or from behind a mirror.
Step 5. Play jump scare
Jump scares are most effective if they are able to make people scream during their visit to the haunted house. Set up a room with a closed chest in the middle. Provide some activities or surprises to keep visitors busy in the room. Then, just before the guest leaves the room, have the "skeleton" or human skeleton jump out of the crate.
- You can have other characters suddenly appear at some point in the house as guests pass by.
- If your guest is an adult, have an “actor” chase him down with a toothless chainsaw.
Step 6. Prepare some dolls or puppets and scatter them in various places in the haunted house
Guests will get used to it as they walk through it. Then, have your friend mingle with the dolls and jump out suddenly. This method will be very effective if done at the entrance or exit of the haunted house.
You can make a doll or a puppet by tucking newspaper into a shirt and applying a mask to the balloon
Tips
- Create a bloody effect by putting fake blood on the glass or dripping blood-red wax all over the glass or white candles.
- If you want an "abandoned" haunted house look, cover your furniture with white and glue fake "boards" to the windows to make them look like they're covered in wood.
- Before buying property or decorations from a specialty store, check your nearest store for high-quality and affordable materials.
Warning
- Avoid lighting real candles in the haunted house. Remember, haunted houses cannot be separated from the element of surprise. If your guests are surprised, they can run away, dropping the candles and setting your haunted house on fire.
- Avoid scaring pregnant women, the elderly, young children, people with heart problems, or people with claustrophobia or fears. Your haunted house should still be a fun event, not a panic or torment.
- Make sure the neighbors of the house or apartment don't mind your haunted house plans because of course this event will cause noise.
