This creepy nail salon is right by my house. It totally gives me the willies. I took a picture of the front window. There are tons of hands with nasty, nasty nails. EW!!

Savannah Ghost Tour

I recently went on vacation to Savannah, Georgia. I’ve been there a bunch of times, but never at night, since I always return to the tourist hell known as Hilton Head. I think Savannah is wonderfully freaky and creepy during the day, so I took advantage of the graveyards, haunted stories and moss hanging from the OLD live oaks and went on a late night ghost tour. Savannah’s a very Southern gothic town with a ton of history including murder, piracy, ghosts, hauntings and voodoo. If I could figure out how to make a living there, I’d fit right in with all the resident weirdos.

Big thumbs up on the ghost tour. It was actually recommended to me by Bob Hunnicutt who is the Director of The Georgia Ghost Society (and a friend of socreepy). The tour we took was this one. I especially enjoyed the stories about all the citizens of Savannah that died, and kinda died, of yellow fever. Apparently there were at least thirty cases of people being buried alive. Apparently, we were standing right over them as she told the story. Apparently, I pissed my pants (just kidding).

If you ever make it to that part of the country, check out the old civil war cemetaries and be sure to take an after-dark ghost tour. My friend was sure she was poked by a ghost. Hey, at least someone was getting some action.

Throwing an Adult Halloween Party
And by the way, I don’t mean “adult” as in XXX, although given enough alcohol . . .Frankenstein could love your Mummy!

Atmosphere is critical for any Halloween party. Find a space at your house - the living room, basement, porch, shed, garage - and concentrate your efforts on making that your haunted party area. I’ll consider outdoors and indoors in our advice. Just remember that Halloween decorations and effects are an investment and having an annual Halloween party is an excellent way to begin a tradition and get people really excited about the season.

Halloween decorations and Halloween props
I’m all about the extremes when it comes to decorating for Halloween. Too much is never enough and that goes for home or the office. For instance, a hanging skeleton or 5 pound bag of bones will never go out of “Halloween style”. Keep and collect these types of Halloween items year after year, just like Christmas decorations. Always scour the stores right after Halloween to take advantage of their 75% off sales. I have my best luck at giant retail discount chains and drugstores. In fact, I heart Big Lots! However, Target TOTALLY sucked last Halloween. I don’t know what the hell they were thinking.

Remember that Halloween isn’t just for your friends, but you’ll likely have trick-or-treaters and maybe some neighborhood gawkers if you decorate right (or wrong). Starting with the yard, you can do the traditional Halloween thing with lit, carved pumpkins. Over the past few years, there has been a huge growth in pumpkin carving kits as well as online resources with AMAZING pumpkin carving patterns and ideas. Unfortunately, the pumpkins are always at risk of rot, adverse weather conditions and neighborhood punks that like to smash your efforts into pieces. Keeping that in mind, throw your pumpkin carving party about a week before Halloween so they will be beautiful and glowing for your guests. Make sure you rub the carved pumpkins with vaseline (sounds dirrrty, doesn’t it?) to help preserve them. In the Midwest, bundles of hay are sold everywhere and they look great in the front yard surrounded by pumpkins, headstones and fake graveyard fencing. Even a lame scarecrow looks somewhat cool at this time of year.

Speaking of corpses, ghouls and headstones . . . I recommend you go Halloween creepy in the front yard instead of traditional (FrightCatalog is a good source for indoor or outdoor stuff). The headstones sold at most stores suck - they are too light and too small for most yards. However, you can spend a little more for a sturdier headstone to keep using them year after year. I suggest modifying their design for your own purposes. Use glow-in-the dark paint and yard stakes to doctor up the design and make sure the headstones don’t blow over. For a few bucks, you can buy a big bag of potting soil to spread around the headstones for that freshly buried look. If you can find a severed limb or skeletal hand to emerge from the dirt, all the better. It looked awesome in my yard last year and made me laugh every morning as I pulled out of the driveway.

As recommended before, replace your outdoor bulbs with colored ones. I’ve seen a few of those giant, inflatable Halloween decorations and we suppose they are okay if you are 1) totally lame and 2) have no imagination whatsoever. It’s fun to hang a few fake bats from the trees so they can sway along with the wind. I had a fake reaper hanging between trees last year and using fishing line made him look like he was just floating over the graveyard. It was sweet. You could try constructing a corpse. Just stuff some clothes with hay (newspaper gets wet and nasty) and use gloves and a mask as your extremities. If you’re lucky, it might keep the kiddies from coming to your door to trick-or-treat and eating all your candy Or maybe it’ll toughen them up and let them realize the good things in life don’t come from Disneyworld.

Last year I found skeleton candle torches at Big Lots that lit the driveway, so if you see them, grab them or something similar. They were super cool and stayed lit until the wee hours of haunting had passed. On Halloween night or the night of your Halloween party, make sure you play creepy sound effects and music outdoors. It just adds to the atmosphere of such a special evening.

Halloween Lights, Halloween Candles and Fake Spider Webs
Let’s talk about your indoor space. Think of the details first - things that can make the room appear creepy and ghoulish. Start by changing your lighting in the parts of the house your freaky friends will be visiting. Hang fake Halloween torches or a creepy chandelier. Pick up some colored light bulbs and replace all your standard ones. From experience, we find that red works well (particularly in the bathroom). Buy a couple packages of fake spider webs, starting from corner to corner and on various items in the room such as light fixtures, picture frames, etc. Here are a couple thoughts about using fake spider webs as Halloween decorations . . . a little goes a long way, so be sure and stretch as much as possible. They are kind of annoying, so don’t put them up until a day or two before your Halloween party. Also, unless you have powerful black lights everywhere, avoid the glow-in-the-dark spider webs. The regular ones work best and they are super cheap. They’re a drag to clean up, but very much worth the spooky effect they provide to any Halloween party atmosphere. Halloween candles should be everywhere (see selection below) throughout your party space as well as your house. BE CAREFUL with open flames, especially considering the spider web advice we just gave you. Tealight candles are an excellent and cheap way to set a mood and you can buy bags of at least fifty at a time. Plus, you don’t need to worry about wax dripping all over your furniture and they snuff themselves out when there isn’t anymore wax. Make sure to light them everywhere, along with Halloween themed votives and tapers.

Most people have a neighborhood Big Lots, Walmart or Target that sells Halloween lights in various shapes, styles and colors. If you don’t, e-mail me and I will give you some special craftsy and resourceful ideas. Last year, Big Lots had the cheapest Halloween lights (and other Halloween decorations), but they were limited in design. When you find the lights, buy tons - at least ten packs - and string them zig-zag across your Halloween party space. It adds just enough lighting that people can see everyone else’s Halloween costumes and make-up. Guests are also able to navigate around and find the food and drink easier when there is some sort of lighting in the room.

Halloween party supplies, Halloween music and Halloween movies
I can’t forget the staples of any good Halloween party. Obviously, there are the basics like plates, cups and all that stuff. However, Halloween affords us some crazy indulgences when it comes to throwing a party. I found that last year a small investment in glow-in-the-dark party cups was a HUGE hit! And the glow lasted for three days . . . about the time we started to finally recover from the actual Halloween party. Also, serving dishes are all about the creep. Drugstores often carry not only cheap ones, but often weird ones like skulls bowls, Frankenstein heads and witches feet. I also recommend eBay if you look early enough in October. Hopefully you can find a bargain. When serving food and drink, always remember that anything salty will make people drink more (as if they need an excuse on Halloween). Just make sure there is something to eat if you are serving alcohol. If using dry ice on the table as a presentation, do not actually put it in the punch. Put the punch bowl inside a bigger bowl that holds water and dry ice chunks. It gives a nice, foggy effect. Unfortunately, you’ll have to keep checking it throughout the Halloween party and that’s a complete drag.

The absolute best place to find alcoholic punch is at Bar None Drinks. We found a recipe last year that laid waste to the crowd. It was similar to the opening scene of Lord of the Rings, although everyone was slightly better looking. Also, be sure and provide your drunken friends a place to stay the night or take keys from those that might fight you for them later on. No one wants to see such a fun party turn into a real nightmare. As far as food goes, it’s not going to be worth your time to make intricate Halloween cupcakes or (witch) crafty dishes. Drunk adults don’t appreciate the effort. The more dips, the better. Deli trays can save your life and let you spend time where you need it - on your Halloween costume and decorating your party space. However, time spent making Jell-o shots almost ALWAYS pays off (use mostly alcohol in place of water).

It may seem obvious, but have several trash cans around the place. They fill up in no time. While I’m a big fan of creepy Halloween music in general, it doesn’t really make a Halloween party happen. Instead, keep the music upbeat with a lot of tunes that everyone knows - 80s works well and so does disco - or death metal if that’s your crowd. Towards the end of the evening, play slower songs as a cue to your lingering guests that the party is winding down. Or just tell them to get the fuck out. Also, I love to play really gory horror movies on the TV for those that are anti-social or non-drinkers. Don’t you wish every day was Halloween??

Frightening Fact:
Nearly 62 percent of Americans decorate their homes and yards with creepy themes for Halloween. It’s my personal mission to get that to at least 75%!!