How to Build a Haunted House

A haunted house is one of the most exciting party themes, and is a welcome change from the mundane music and dance parties.

By knowing how to build a haunted house, you can have some serious fun. Whether you decide to trick your guests into spooky domains, or treat them to a plethora of spine-chilling experiences, there are a few steps that need to be followed, and certain requirements to be met, while building a haunted house:

• Average Age of the Crowd: Determine the age group you are building the haunted house for. If it is for children or teenagers, you do not want to scare them out of their wits. However, you can do that with an older age group, like your colleagues.

• A Respectable Budget:
  Before you lay down the plans for your haunted house, remember to chart out a budget. Localize the event to one particular area rather than going overboard and utilizing all the available space, as it will leave a hole in your pocket.

• Locale:
  Identify a locale that will live up to your perfect idea of a haunted house. For instance, it could be your own yard, or garage, or the entire premises of your house. If you are not on a strict budget, you could rent out a spooky, lonesome house that would give your guests the creeps. Also keep in mind the number of attendees.

• An Unknown Entryway:
  Lead your guests inside through an unusual entryway, especially if the party is in your own house, as most guests would already be aware of how to go around the house. You can use the entrance to the basement or the garage as the main entryway to the party, to heighten that eerie feeling.

• Prop it Up:
  What is a haunted house without some gruesome props? Depending on your budget, you may want to splurge on mechanized props such as fog, robot vampires, fluttering bats, etc. However, if your budget is restricted, you can get creative and make your own props at home.

• Bring out those old sheets, and drape them all over the furniture. Hang old scarves from the ceiling in a single line, and create the element of mystery with your guests having to find their way around.

Suspend bats cut out of black paper and plastic spiders from the roof. Color your windows black. Create narrow passageways to intensify the feeling of being trapped in a haunted house. Splatter some red ink on the walls to highlight the deaths-that-took-place-here-years-ago look.

• (Un)Decorate:
  To give your haunted house a desolate appearance, it is important to get rid of all the knick-knacks that prettify your house, and leave the place looking exactly how it is meant to be - like an abandoned ghost house!

On the other hand, adding flash lights in strategic corners will enhance the ghostly appearance. Leave your music system around though to play shrill screams coming from a distance!

• Theme Aloud:
  Be it Frankenstein or Dracula, let your haunted house scream a theme with all the related props around. You could even involve some friends to dress up as vampires to add authenticity to the theme.

Have floating plastic brains in jars or eyeballs made from peeled grapes in places where people will have to touch them, and complete the Frankenstein theme.

Give your guests the heebie-jeebies, and terrify the daylights out of them with your haunted house. Even if one suffers from a memory lapse, this is one party, birthday, theme, or Halloween that will never be forgotten!

Warning: Do keep in mind, before investing in spooky props, the age group of the guests. Be sensitive towards kids, and do not use props that will cause them to break down, and scar their memories for life.