Horrifying Halloween Event Themes

With less than 30 days left until Halloween, it's time to start finalizing the details of your big Halloween event! 

Halloween is already a great theme for a party. It has its own color scheme (orange and black), atmosphere (dark and spooky), and attire (costumes). You can give your party more of a focus with a theme that will narrow your ideas for invitations, food, decorations, and activities. Here are our suggestions for Halloween event themes that will terrify your guests and ensure a spooktacular time:

Haunted Circus

A clown entryway used at the 2012
ezEvent staff Halloween party

Why it's scary: A circus theme takes fun memories from your childhood and turns them on their side. Clowns, by nature, are terrifying to many people. Who knows what kind of person is hiding under that makeup? The music from the calliope sounds like it's calling on Death to come take the souls of everyone in attendance. Let's not forget how circuses used to have sideshows where people would come to gawk at real life "freaks."

 

Decorating tips: Any kind of clown prop you could put around the event space will be sure to bring out everyone's coulrophobia, especially if the clowns are wielding bloody knives or have glowing eyes. Have guests walk through a clown entryway as they enter the event space so that they're anxious right off the bat. Hang table cloth roll in orange and black stripes around the event space to bring the tent feeling inside. Play the film "Freaks" silently against the wall to fill wall space and have eerie moving images of the olden days of the circus. If you have the budget, hire entertainers such as a sword swallower or fire juggler to amaze guests.

Anything Based on a Movie/TV series

Why it's scary: When people watch horror movies and scary television shows, they get scared but they're comforted by the fact that the villains and creatures they're seeing are safely confined in their screens. Bringing those fears to reality will always make for a terrifying experience! It's also fun to take a movie or show that's not meant to be scary, like The Wizard of Oz, and turn it into something horrifying. Something about seeing nice things gone bad that really creeps people out.

 

ezEvent party decorations!

Decorating tips: Have guests dress up as their favorite scary character so they're forced to interact with their fears embodied. Set up animatronics of famous villains like Michael Myers or zombies from The Walking Dead that move and talk. Have props around the room that go with your chosen movie/show, like Freddy Krueger's long creepy hand in the middle of the punch bowl just waiting for someone brave enough to get close. For ezEvent's 2013 staff party, we're having a twisted Wizard of Oz party. For party decor, we'll be having an entryway that goes from black and white Kansas to colorful Oz, creepy directional signs, including one for a haunted forest containing apple cider donuts and candy apples, a mini house with witch feet sticking out, and death certificates around the room for the film's main characters.

Asylum

Why it's scary: Abandoned asylums are places that everyone assumes are haunted. Everyone has heard the horror stories of people getting thrown into asylums and doctors doing horrible experiments or painful procedures on them. There are bound to be some vengeful spirits hanging around! Let's not forget that some of the patients themselves were dangerous. Asylums are not a place any sane person would want to be, so forcing guests to be in that environment will be sure to mess with their mind!

 

Decorating tips: Create condemned signs and post them all over the entrance to your event space. Put together zombie/ghostly patients and doctor figures holding torture devices. Print out old patient files and scatter them all over the floor. Break up an old mirror and cover it with polyurethane so it look like the patients broke out and caused damage. If you can find old, rusty wheelchairs or cots it would make a nice addition to your space!

Masquerade Ball

Why it's scary: Masquerade balls are all about hiding something. Do you really know who or what lies behind the mask? The fear of the unknown can be extremely unsettling. Also, have you seen Venetian masks? Just looking at some of them will send a chill down your spine, especially when they're paired with an elaborate outfit.

 

Decorating tips: Have guests come wearing the scariest mask they can find! You may not think about it, but the masks themselves are a great decoration. Holding your event in an old mansion or building that seems like it's from another time will really get guests in the right mood. Find antique candelabras and frames from a local thrift shop to put around the event space. Cover tables and walls with fabric that has a damask pattern.