Halloween World

Spooky Halloween home decorations are a must for the holiday. They really help create the atmosphere that makes the day fun. But don’t forget to complete the job by adding sound effects.

Thanks to the Internet, you have hundreds of Halloween sound effects at your disposal. You can download MP3s, wav files and more that cover the entire range of options.

Suppose you plan to build a graveyard scene in your front yard. You’ve lit the scene and now you’re ready for the final touch. Just think of all those camp horror movies with the about-to-be victims skulking through a darkened cemetery. What do they play in the background? A loop of ghoulish organ music would be the perfect choice.

For candy-seeking visitors to the front door, your options are broad. One great way to make a selection is to comb through old movie soundtracks. Hollywood filmmakers of the 1940s made tons of silly, spooky films. The background tracks featured everything from light-hearted ghostbusters themes to cheesy dramatic music ala Dracula.

Apart from background music, there are lots of sound effects that can add just the right atmosphere to your Halloween holiday.

Breaking window sounds of shattering glass are a great auditory ‘decoration’. Everyone jumps whenever they hear that. After the initial ‘crash’ you can follow it with the tinkling sounds of shards falling to the ground. Then, play a little ghostly cackling combined with the sounds of the departed walking over the pieces. Punctuate the effect with some “ouch, ouch, aye my foot!” ghostly voices.

Compilation CDs are an easy way to get all the Halloween sound effects you need. They offer evil laughs, screams, booming thunder and a whole host of other useful sounds.

Creaking doors are a must, of course. They’re easy to find and you can put a speaker near the front door to play the sound every time you greet the trick-or-treaters. Or, navigate to the track that plays a crash of thunder just as you flash the ‘lightning’ (a strobe light) when you open the door.

Animal sounds always make for excellent additions to the sound effects toolkit. Hooting owls are standard. But snarling wolves are a good idea, too. Add some bears growling in the forest, swarms of bats on the wing, and a few howling hyenas and you’re ready to go.

Add a wide range of music and sound effects to your Halloween scene and you’ll create a fun time for all.

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Technorati Tags: background music, ghostly voices, graveyard scene, halloween sound effects, Spooky Sound Effects for Halloween

Tags: background music, ghostly voices, graveyard scene, halloween sound effects, Spooky Sound Effects for Halloween

Make Halloween Coffins For Fun

Coffins are associated with the dead and feature in scary movies old and new. So, they make for great Halloween props to complete your holiday decorating scheme. There are many ways to do that and they’re all easy to carry out. Here are two simple-to-make options.

Miniature Coffins

As tiny props around the candy bowl, hung on the front door frame or sitting in a window sill, coffins only six inches long makes a great decoration. They can be filled with flowers, candy or dolls to complete the picture.

They’re also super easy to make. Just use your favorite drawing program on the computer and make the classic coffin shape. This is the ‘toe pincher’ style in which the overall shape narrows at the bottom and top, with a wider section in the middle.

Use the software to help you get the angles right (slightly larger than 90 degrees at the base and top, about 150 degrees at the ‘elbow’ section). The sides, foot and head section are rectangles.

Then just print out the results on stiff, black cardstock, using bright lines for the outline of the pieces. Cut out the shapes and use ice cream sticks or toothpicks with a little household glue to put the coffin together.

Full-sized Coffins

For a life-size prop the effort is a little greater, but the plans are basically the same. Acquire a few slats of plywood for the base, top, sides, foot and head sections. With careful planning three 4′ x 8′ pieces of plywood will be plenty.

Here, a protractor can help you get the angles right. Or, you can use large sheets of plain wrapping paper or blank newsprint to make a template. You could draw lines directly onto the plywood, using a protractor and tape measure. Or, you can make an outline of the piece on these large sheets of paper then tape them onto the wood.

Then, just use a standard power saw to cut out the pieces you need. A handsaw would do, but that’s a lot of work for eight sections. To assemble the result into a safe, sturdy prop L-braces and hinges are the easiest way to go.

With a power screwdriver/drill you can attach L-braces to the base in a few minutes. Then attach the foot, head and sides by using screws to connect those parts to the base. Now all you have to do is attach the lid or top.

Standard, kitchen cabinet hinges work best. Screw four of them along one side on the inside of the coffin, near the top. The hinge center should protrude just above the rim of the side piece. Then flip the hinge ‘open’. Get someone to hold the lid above the ground or benchtop and insert screws into the lid through the hinge flange.

Paint the coffin black using standard black primer. Spray paint would work, but that method takes a long time and a lot of paint.

Go to your favorite Halloween site and decorate your coffin with a skeleton, or a stuffed dummy, blow-up doll, or whatever ghoulish figure you can dream up!

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Best Halloween Masks Ever

Which makes for the best Halloween mask may be a matter of personal taste. But the following categories keep coming back year after year.

Scary

Scary works, for sure. But gross works even better. Make it grotesque, make that mask really creepy, crawly and otherwise disgusting and you’ve got a hit.

Once-popular monsters like Frankenstein are pass

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