These DIY hacks will haunt the hell out of your house (pictures)
With a little bit of tech and some DIY ingenuity, you can create the Halloween haunted house of your dreams (and of your trick-or-treaters' nightmares).
Make your own 'Alien' chestburster
Need some last-minute ideas for haunting your house? These quick, tech-savvy tips will leave 'em screaming for more.
Want to bring a chestburster from "Alien," or any other terrible creature from your imagination, to life? This Instructables DIY shows you how to create your own latex puppet abomination.
Pilot a ghostly quadricopter
Here's some basic Halloween math for you: Quadricopter drone + white bed sheet = most badass ghost ever. And it's pretty simple to make!
Make a Ouija board even more creepy
Looking to startle your guests with fast and furious seance action? Glue a small remote-control toy car to the bottom of an Ouija board planchet. We used a Circuit Board skateboard by Hexbug to bring this one to life.
Make a Mac-o'-lantern
Have an old Mac laying around, collecting dust? This clever DIY Instructables project shows you how to turn it into a fun Mac O'Lantern for Halloween. All you need is the computer, spray paint, scissors and some epoxy.
Create a fake mirror
Looking to pull the perfect Halloween prank on a narcissist? With just a flat-screen TV, a frame to hide it, and two-way mirror film, you can create a terrifying haunted mirror.
Learn how to create this DIY prank at the Best Buy website.
Set up some disembodied heads
Add one of the coolest parts of Disney's "The Haunted Mansion" ride to your own Halloween display! This Instructables DIY shows you how to create talking, disembodied heads using an Arduino controller, a VGA projector, some styrofoam busts, and other basic hardware you likely have around the house.
Build a glowing, talking brain
No mad scientist's lab is complete without its own talking, glowing brain. Creating the creepy cerebrum shown requires some wiring and programming know-how, but this Instructables DIY walks you through the project step-by-step.
Boil up some witches brew
Dry ice -- frozen carbon dioxide -- is the age-old secret behind bubbling witches' brews, magic potions, mystical cauldrons and other props that call for a thin blanket of harmless mist. Drop a chunk into water and you'll set off a violent (but safe!) bubbling reaction as carbon dioxide gas is released.
Warning: Dry ice is extremely cold and should not be touched with bare hands. It is definitely not food, either, so don't put it in your mouth. The mist itself is carbon dioxide, and is safe to touch and breathe.
Project fear onto the exterior of your house
Want to give your home's exterior an otherworldly appearance? All you need is a simple VGA projector and a Halloween-appropriate video (many are available for purchase online).
Stuff a pop-up scare in the garbage
Want to hide a scary secret in a trash can or other similarly sized object? Check out this Instructables DIY to learn how to build your own vengeful spirit with an insatiable hunger for human garbage.
Make a possessed spirit box
This kid-friendly DIY Halloween project combines a 3V motor and a small microcontroller to simulate a ghastly haunting. Tap the box once, and the spirit inside will tap once back. Tap 13 times, and the box will play the "Addams Family" theme song.
You can find step-by-step instructions for how to build it on Instructables.
Put your friend's head in a jar
Have a color printer at home? Take a couple of pictures of a friend's face, edit them into a printable sheet, roll the printout up, and then stuff it into a mason jar. This Best Buy DIY page shows you how.
Keep watch on the ghouls and goblins
Want advanced warning when a guest is about to enter your haunted house? Or maybe you just want to catch those darn teens who keep jacking your o'-lanterns? Sticking a wireless camera in a hollowed out pumpkin will do just the trick.
Control a severed hand
With some commonly available materials (mainly plastic tubing and string) and this Instructables DIY, you can create your own animatronic hand. Cover the end product with a layer of latex to simulate skin (or lack thereof) and you're ready to terrorize your friends.
Make scarier fog
The secret to creating graveyard-style fog that hugs the ground, rather than spewing upward, is to chill the fog as it exits your fog machine. You can MacGyver a cheap fog cooler using a styrofoam ice chest and some piping from your local hardware store that's at least 4 inches (10 centimeters) in diameter and 4 feet (1.2 meters) long.
Cut holes in both ends of the ice chest, near the bottom, then run the pipe though both holes. Fill the chest with ice, so the ice covers the pipe, close the lid, point your fog machine nozzle into one end of the pipe, and blast away.
Behold: Instant creep factor
Your chilly fog will hug the ground, making your backyard haunt conducive to grave-robbing and other paranormal activity.
Get your mad scientist on
Jacob's Ladder, the mad scientist prop that shows off live electricity, can easily be built with this RM Cybernetics tutorial. Be sure to complete the aesthetic with bell jars, beakers and other smart props.