Setting the Mood

• Select Halloween-themed wall rolls and window silhouettes that you can use to transform your living area into an eerie, haunted house. There are many commercial selections available, including haunted forest landscapes, Freddy Krueger cinder-block and pipe backdrops, and "Friday the 13th" window scenes. You also can make your own backdrops by drawing, painting or stenciling spooky scenes onto blank newspaper rolls and cutting them to fit your walls, windows, doors and entryways.
  
  

Novelty Items

• Place scary decorations randomly inside and outside your home to startle unsuspecting guests. Some corner-turning ideas are blood-covered body bags, battery-operated beating hearts and life-size animated dummies, skeletons and witches. Position a few key novelty items in heavily trafficked areas, such as your kitchen and bathrooms. Human-like finger candles, plastic skulls, slimy organs, wobbling eyeballs and eyeball doorknob covers are all gruesome ideas to consider.
  
  

Sound and Effect

• Choose bone-chilling sounds and tantalizing special effects to bring your scary Halloween decorations to life and tie in your overall theme. Program your CD player to randomly play scary music and sound-effect CDs. Purchase an inexpensive fog machine with a remote that can you can use to intensify the atmosphere or to surprise your trick-or-treaters. Finally, position black lights above glow-in-the-dark decorations and props to accentuate their effects.