Theme is Important, Even for a Home Halloween Haunted House

Theme creates atmosphere, which sets the mood you are out to create. For a Halloween haunted house, theme is just as important as it is for those professional haunted houses, and atmosphere is exactly why most of the pros use theme.
To create a theme, you should first create some type of back-story for your Halloween haunt. If you have ever gone to a pro haunt, the one thing you probably noticed is that most all of them have some type of back-story that goes with the attraction.
One example is the Haunted Circus attraction; the back-story goes something like this.
“Many years ago, whenever the circus came to town people would start disappearing; when the police finally find out what was happening, it turns out that it was a crazed clown who was abducting the people, and turning them into zombies. The clown disappeared before the police could apprehend him, and to this day, he is said to haunt the circus, along with his unfortunate victims.”
Now you would take this back-story, and build your Halloween haunted attraction around it, as well as your props.
Any spooky story will work, as long as you keep your haunt within the boundaries of the story, it should flow smoothly; providing many chills and screams for your visitors.

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When to Start Planning Your Halloween Haunt

Basically the short answer to this is, “The sooner, the better.” This is especially true for those who have never put together a Halloween haunted house. These are really a lot of work, and it will take months of planning, and Halloween prop making in order to pull it off.
If you have done a haunted house before, then you’ll already have some props, and Halloween supplies, as well as some idea of what you will be doing. For the sake of simplicity, we’ll assume that you have never put together a Halloween haunted house before.
The first thing you need to do is decide on what your haunted house will consist of. Will it simply be a yard haunt, or will it be more elaborate, with a temporary construction in your yard, or garage? The larger your haunt, the earlier you will have to start on it.
Most people, who have been doing home haunts for years, actually begin their planning phase as soon as winter is over, if not sooner. This is a good rule to follow because it will give you plenty of time to get your supplies; start building props, and laying out your floor plan.
Warm, mild weather is somewhat important because much of your prop construction will have to be done outdoors, unless you are fortunate enough to have a workshop, or garage. Even though your Halloween prop building will have to wait until warmer weather, you can start the planning phase at anytime, though you should plan to be finished, and ready to go by at least the first week in October.
The first year you put on your own Halloween haunted house, out of necessity it may be smaller, but don’t be too surprised if it grows each year, and one day you find you have this monstrosity of a haunted house, that takes you a month to put up. Storage can also be a problem; half our basement is filled with Halloween props.
To start planning, write down exactly what your theme will be; once you have this, you can decide what the layout of your haunt will be, and what props you will need to create the perfect home haunt.
Researching, or buying your Halloween props will take some time; so keep this in mind. A good rule of thumb is to work on one room at a time. For example, if you plan to have a crypt room, get all the props prepared for this room, and then move on to another.
I have always started my planning phase in about March, and began the actual construction of props in late April or early May, but of course much of this depends on what the climate is like where you live.

About Halloween Home Haunts

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, and every year we go all out to create a spooky and festive atmosphere. Some years we put up a neighborhood haunt, and other years we simply throw a Halloween party, but even these require a lot of planning and preparations.
Halloween home haunts have become more popular over the years; today you are likely to find at least one in every neighborhood. Some people wonder why on earth a grown adult would waste so much time and energy, on what they conceive to be a children’s holiday; the answer is easy. It’s fun!
Constructing the props and preparing for that spookiest of all nights is nearly as fun as Halloween itself. Yes, it is a lot of work, but the end result is well worth it, especially for those of us that are still a kid at heart, which is the funniest way to be.
This blog is really about all things Halloween, from preparing your home haunt, to costumes, as well as old Halloween stories and legends. I can almost guarantee that after your first Halloween home haunt you’ll be hooked.