There are several decorations that are always held in common at all great Halloween parties. If you choose to add some extra scary details to your festivities, however, you will really be able to scare and surprise your guests. By applying some of the following suggestions, you might even manage to get a few especially jumpy people to scream in terror!

No good Halloween party could be void of spooky, creepy, candlelit, carved Jack-O-Lanterns spreading eerily dim lighting throughout the room. You can also buy ghostly glowing images to hang up in strategic locations and add imitation spider web or goassmer cloth to walls. Either one will create a scary haunted house feel to your party.

Suspending decoration items like bats, flying witches on broom sticks, large hairy spiders, balloons with ghostly faces, skeletons and the like from the ceiling, down to to face level, will have your guests dodging around among these horrors in the flickering candle light, and always on the lookout for their next fright. Distributing plastic spiders and other shocking surprises around where people sit, or on tables among the drinks and plates, will help to keep your guests on edge.

To make party goers feel a creepy ghostly presence in the room, you can attach lots of thin, darkly colored string from the ceiling. Make sure they can’t be seen. That way, people will walk into them and feel something strange touching them without being able to see what it is, which might even win you a few terrified screams.

The unexpected is often quite scary. Set up some frightening pictures and other decorations that are placed in front of timed lights. When these scary scenes are suddenly illuminated, or better yet, combined with loud, frightening sound effects, everybody will be surprised enough to jump out of their seat. If you invite a more adult crowd, your lights could reveal a headless corpse hanging in the darkness.

Combining good lighting effects with a fog machine can really make things creepy. To make the effect authentic, hide the fog machine behind some cleverly placed tombstones or other decorations.

Another great touch can be a horror movie. Just put on an especially scary film on a big screen TV and let it play quietly in the background. It will add a chilling touch to your party.

Music plays a large part in creating the atmosphere. At least for the early part of the party, Halloween sound effects and music like the classic Monster Mash will heighten the sense of tension in the room. With the party in full swing later on, your guests will expect to hear their favorite dance music tracks. A compilation interspersing Halloween sound effects would help to maintain the atmosphere.