It’s that time of year again! Everyone’s favorite haunted holiday is here and you know what that means? HAUNTED HOUSES! Going to a haunted house with your friends is one of the many ways to celebrate Halloween but what’s even more fun is making your very own haunted house. So for all you Halloween lovers that want to bring a little fright to your school or neighborhood here are 5 tips to making your own haunted house.

1. Find a location that is already creepy!

You know when you walk by that one house that has been abandoned for years and you get the little tingle up your spine? That’s the feeling you want in the space where your haunted house is going to be. It’s a lot easier to make a creepy room even creeper than it is to make a nice room look creepy. A good place to start is rooms that are not used very often if at all. Good examples are a garage, storage room or even a creepy back porch. My university has an entire second floor of a building that is never used so it looks old and run down.

2. Pick a simple theme!

Your theme of your haunted house is always important. It’s easier to come up with what you want inside your haunted house and how to decorate if you pick your theme first. The simpler the theme the better. For example a hospital theme is a good go to because there is so much you can do with it. It could be a real hospital where everyone is a zombie from being sick with a virus or it could be a psyche ward and everyone is insane, ready to kill the next person they see. Whatever you decided to make your theme the simpler the better!

3. Less is more!

You don’t need to go out and spend a fortune on haunted house supplies to make it scary. Black lights, strobe lights, some streamers, caution tape, spider webs and some tarps is usually what I stick to when making my haunted houses. The black lights can get expensive at times but you can find strobe lights and everything else for pretty cheap. The more things hanging from the ceiling and in people’s faces the better! A few strobe lights in the corners of the rooms or placed to distract visitors from what’s actually going on works well too.

4. Creepy Music Everywhere!

There isn’t much to say for this tip but really find music that creeps people out! YouTube is a great source to find that music and if you look up haunted house music for your theme you get pretty good results. Sometimes you don’t even need music just ambience that gives a suspenseful effect through the haunted house. Dripping water, creaking doors, and wind are just a few of the sounds that will easily scare anyone.

5. Scary people are good people!

Last but not least and the most important part of your haunted house is the people you have in it! It’s always a good time when you can get your friends to join in on the fun but if your friends can’t turn on the creep factor, it might be time to let them go. The louder they can scream the better they will be in a haunted house. One thing to keep in mind is to not control what everyone does in their roll. Let your haunted house members find what works best for them and let them roll with it! It will be much scarier if they find their own niche.

Haunted houses can be scary but fun at the same time. When you have the right people and the supplies you can make quite a few people pee their pants. No matter what you decide to do just have fun while doing it and you can't go wrong.