It’s crunch time for Halloween decorators – props are being built, displays are taking shape, and everyone is looking for that one extra detail that makes trick-or-treaters stop and stare. Ursula V. of Holmdel, New Jersey, found hers: a hidden screen inside a foam gravestone, loaded with Eerie Eyes Decoration Collection. Something is watching from that grave. Several somethings, actually.
Eerie Eyes is particularly well-suited for this kind of hidden screen trick. The decoration features an assortment of eyes – and occasionally fangs – in different shapes and sizes, creating the impression that multiple creatures are lurking just out of sight. Slide a screen into a prop, and suddenly the prop feels inhabited.
“This was a lot of people’s favorite,” Ursula tells us. “I used foam insulation to make the tombstone and made a slot to hide my iPad.”
Tombstones are a popular way to add an AtmosFX Decoration, but it is certainly not the only one. We’ve seen clever decorators hide small screens and tablets in trick-or-treat candy bowls, crates and cages, spell books, garage doors and more. There’s truly no shortage of ways to sneak a small screen into a Halloween prop and really turn it into something extraordinary.
For example, Ursula’s dollhouse! Here, Eerie Eyes projected through the window creates the unsettling sense that something – several somethings – are peering out from inside. Ursula has bigger plans for it too. “This is still a work in progress and the video is a test run,” she says. “I plan on putting my ‘haunted dollhouse’ inside a child’s playhouse filled with creepy dolls and broken toys.”
Here’s the thing: you don’t need to go out and buy anything special to try this yourself. Most of us have an old smartphone, a spare tablet, or a forgotten digital picture frame sitting in a drawer somewhere. Any of these can be quietly slipped into a prop and loaded with AtmosFX Decorations to instant effect. Your junk drawer, it turns out, may be full of Halloween magic.
One extra tip: try wrapping the screen in Hollusion Projection Material or a dark, gauzy fabric before hiding it in your prop. It makes the screen less shiny and more murky, obscures the shape of the device, and adds to the mysterious effect overall.
What have you created with AtmosFX Decorations? Halloween is almost here! Send us your photos and videos using this simple online submission form! Every submission will earn you points redeemable at the AtmosFX online store. And if you are selected as a future AtmosFAN of the Week, not only will you inspire fellow decorators around the world – you’ll earn a free decoration collection, too!
