Photo: Barry King/WireImage

Some of the best parts of Halloween are canceled this year due to the pandemic — like trick-or-treating and in-person costume parties — but, decorating your house, apartment, or stoop is a CDC-approved safe alternative to those higher-risk activities. And being stuck at home is as good a reason as any to step it up a notch from the usual crazy inflatables and cheap cobwebs. To help you find the best Halloween lights, yard decorations, props, and even scents, we asked five haunted-house designers and architects for advice on turning your home into a haunted house, both inside and out. They were quick to tell us that you can find plenty of tasteful-yet-spooky, and even professional-grade, Halloween décor for sale online. Plus, if you’re placing Halloween decorations outdoors — say, as a backdrop for your block’s socially distanced, outdoor costume parade — these decorations will be sturdy enough to withstand variable October weather.

Best cobwebs and wall decorations

Creepy Cloth Decoration, 80 x 400 Inch $15 $15 Leonard Pickel, a haunted-house architect with over 40 years of experience in the industry and over 300 professional haunts under his belt, and Kris Golojuch, founder of haunted-house consulting and design firm Scareventures, both recommend steering clear of the black plastic trash-bag-like material called visqueen when decorating. “It’s just a massive fire hazard,” says Golojuch. “People tend to want to build tunnels out of them, and they can be very scary if that were ever to catch on fire. It looks very cheap and tacky from the outside, anyway.” A better alternative, according to Pickel, is Creepy Cloth, which is basically loosely woven, cheeseclothlike material that you can drape over lamps, doorways, and furniture (or even use as a backdrop for your virtual Halloween-costume contest). $15 at Amazon Buy $15 at Amazon Buy

UltraSource Elastic Polyester Meat Netting, 150-Feet $20 Most of the professional haunted-house designers we spoke with also dismissed cotton cobwebs from a bag because they glob into big masses when they get wet and are difficult to work with. Their recommendation is to instead repurpose beef netting, used by butchers to keep sausages and cured meats together. According to Golojuch, this stretchy material is also used in professional haunted houses to create cobwebs. “Knott’s Berry Farm was one of the pioneers using beef netting to make big spider webs, and we still use that,” he says. “It’s just a popular look. It doesn’t always look real, but there’s a lot of fun things you can do with it. Universal used it to create the Upside Down for Stranger Things.” And because the beef netting is sturdy and will keep its shape, you can use it either inside or outside — for all of your neighbors to see from a distance. $20 at Amazon Buy $20 at Amazon Buy

Best Halloween lights

Sylvania Soft White Incandescent 15-Watt Light Bulb, 2-Pack $6 $8 now 25% off $6 Light is another easy way to create a spooky atmosphere, both indoors and out. “Darkness is your friend, but less is more,” says Pickel. When it comes to creating dimmer lighting indoors — even if it’s just for the benefit and fright of immediate members of your household — all you need to do is replace your regular bulbs with super-low-watt versions. “We’re talking 15 watts. Even a 30-watt bulb is way too bright to light your house,” says Pickel. $6 at Amazon Buy $6 at Amazon Buy

BlueX CFL Red Light Bulb, 4-Pack $20 You can also use so-called colored party bulbs to set the mood for your family. “Inside, yellows and oranges and reds is probably the direction I would go. It’s going to make you feel more on edge. Those are the kind of colors that you put in a fast-food restaurant to get people moving around.” Pickel recommends CFL bulbs over incandescent ones because they generate less heat and therefore present less of a fire hazard. $20 at Amazon Buy $20 at Amazon Buy

For effective outdoor lighting that your neighbors will be able to see from a distance, Pickel recommends pointing a purple or green light straight up at your house. “The landscapers even call the concept of shining lights up at trees or up at a building the Dracula effect because when the sun is out, all the lighting is coming from the top down, and that’s how people see their houses, even at night,” he explains. “So if you flip that, it gives the structure a completely different look and a completely different feel,” specifically a spooky one. These lights are solar-powered, so they charge all day and shine all night; to add color, simply slap on a theatrical lighting gel.

Best Halloween decorations for large spaces

AtmosFX Zombie Invasion! Halloween Digital Decorations $33 One recent trend in professional haunted houses has been the use of animations and video projectors to create an immersive experience. And though it looks quite professional, it’s an effect that easily translates to the home, especially if you already own a small projector or have limited floor space for props. “You either put it on the window so it’s seen from outside, or you put it on the wall,” inside your house, explains Brett Hays, president of the Haunted Attraction Association (HAA), a trade organization for haunted-house designers and other folks in the industry. That way, when folks walk by your house, “it looks like zombies are all clawing at the window, trying to come in, or there’s a character that shows up in the doorway.” Both Hays and Dan Hower, secretary of the HAA, recommend the animations from AtmosFX. This collection would be great for a window projection, with a looping zombie-swarm animation. $33 at Amazon Buy $30 at AtmosFX Buy

A quick way to set a mood or decorate a large outdoor area, like your yard, for Halloween is with a fog machine. Froggy’s Fog is the industry standard, used in haunted houses and in theatrical products, and even by fire departments trying to train firefighters, according to Pickel, and they make both fog machines and high-quality fog fluid — or “fog juice” — that is nontoxic and won’t gunk anything up in your home.

Froggys Fog Ground Fog Machine $66 A ground fog machine, which cools down the fog and keeps it low to the ground, is another space-effective option. “It’ll lay low and it’ll kind of cover the whole area,” says Hays. “So it covers a lot of ground and sort of brings everything into it without a lot of expensive decorations everywhere.” $66 at Amazon Buy $66 at Amazon Buy

1 oz. Swampy Marsh - Water Based Scent Additive for Fog $15 $15 If you want to take your fog one step further, Hays recommends adding scents, also manufactured by Froggy’s Fog. “We’ve been doing that for a few years, but I think that is kind of a neat thing that really completes the effect,” he says. “You can purchase every different kind of scent. If it’s a graveyard, you have a kind of a musty earth kind of smell, or if it’s a hospital setting, you have a really clinical chemical smell. There are just unlimited variations: campfire, cotton candy, forest, gun smoke, pine.” Passersby won’t have to get anywhere near you, or your home, in order to smell these effects. $15 at Amazon Buy $15 for 12 at Froggy's Fog Buy

Best Halloween props

Home Accents Holiday 5 ft. Poseable Skeleton With LED Illumination $33 If you’re looking to buy effective, cost-effective Halloween props, all of the experts recommended hitting up Home Depot, which has become a go-to source for high-quality but affordable Halloween decorations. “Some of these animatronics are almost as good as the professional-quality props,” says Hower. “I’ve seen a lot of pneumatics and moving animations that are now there that five years ago wasn’t even an option for a home haunter, but now is reasonably priced.” The best deal, however, is probably the skeletons, which are durable and well-formed, according to Golojuch. “It’s very lightweight and it accepts paint, it’s easy to age, add things to it. You can dress them up, and it doesn’t take a whole lot to stand them up if you use some rebar.” $33 at Home Depot Buy

Home Accents Holiday 19 in. Animated Skeleton Dog $22 Golojuch is also excited about the selection of animal-shaped bones at Home Depot. “There’s always new creatures. They’ve had fish, they’ve had dogs. They have full-size horses. They have dinosaurs. They had a big T-Rex last year,” he says. “They’re pretty good because they’re very anatomically correct. The sculpting department has done an awesome job with those, so if I was doing a home haunt, I would definitely be loading up on those.” Simply place a little dog skeleton by your front door and you’ll be all set to scare. $22 at Home Depot Buy

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