Do you aim for a Funny Halloween, or a Scary Halloween? Where do you draw the balance in your decorations, costumes, and parties? Do you try to send little kids screaming from your doorstep, or do you go the cutesy route?
It depends on who the audience is. If you’re talking about people coming up to the door then there are going to be a lot of young kids. What provides a 9 year old with a slight fright followed by a giggle could terrify a 4 year old. I think more fun then scary would be in order.
Marc
Are we are debating what here?
Perhaps the real trick or treat of the election two days later? Now that’s scary!
Moving to IMHO.
If I don’t make at least one small child cry; then my job has not been done.
I try to carve pumpkins so that they scare Marilyn Manson.
To quote Belle & Sebastian, “If you’re feeling sinister”:
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Inserting red cellophane panels inside the lawn lamp for that eerie blood-red glow. If you have a fake vulture or two*, with maybe a dab of fake blood on the tip o’ the beak, so much the better…
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Spider-webbing the shrubberies and around the porch, but *doing it right * – not that thickly slathered crap that most people do, but really stretching it out in a realistic way. With plastic spiders, of course – although, and this just occurred to me – a small dead bird ornament or other realistic toy/plushie would look good if enveloped in a web coccoon in a big web…
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The homicide-victim pumpkin diorama: carve a basic pumpkin face, but give it an :eek: expression only with crossed eyes, and a very neat little “bullet hole” in the lower forehead, right between the eyes, and a much larger, jagged cavity in the back of its head. Place said murdered gourd against a cardboard backdrop, with its squishy, seedy pumpkin guts splattered against the board in a convincing “CSI”-worthy splatter pattern. This display will yield fantastic reactions from young and old alike, ranging from bewilderment and confusion to disgust and/or enthusiastic approval.
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We’ve all seen the flimsy cardboard headstones that tilt, flutter in the wind, or wilt in the rain. What I’d like to see (since I just thought of this right now) is a realistic low mound of dirt in front of them… it wouldn’t have to sift down through the grass, either. Just pile some on top of a piece of cardboard and clean it up the next morning (obviously this couldn’t be part of a month-long October display without killing your grass).
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Dressing up for the kiddies, either like one of the mad monks from “Monty Python & the Holy Grail,” doing a mad old ugly hag or hunchback**, or by going the Stevie Nicks/Vampira route (no cheap shot jokes, please!).
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Cueing the shreiking strings from Bernard Hermann’s “Psycho” score when opening the door.
- Where are the cheap, realistic-looking fake vultures to be found when you want one? I detect a potential market niche just waiting to be capitalized…
** Hags, hunchbacks, prison/asylum escapees and other similar door-greeting personnae can benefit from a final ghastly touch: if you have any spare length of heavy metal link chain, or even that light stuff commonly used to hang swag lamps from ceilings (but only in the brass finish), looping some of that around one of your ankles and dragging it noisily can only help to, shall we say, sell it. A bit of incoherent grunting and moaning might work, too. 
They’re sold out!
I just finished building a coffin to go in my front yard so I’m going to go with scary. If you want cute pumpkins don’t come to my house. My front yard is now a cemetary complete with skulls and bones. It’s really neat. For the younger kids I’m passing out candy. The older kids get the fun part- scarecrows and ghosts that are ALIVE! I expect lots of screams Halloween night.
Nice link, Walloon!