Home Office: Have a Trippy Halloween

Slimy buck teeth, a rat in a can, and how to clean eggs off of your house.

Steve Bass

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It was late August when I first started seeing Halloween displays at a few local supermarkets. That's crazy, I know, and I refuse to buy into it. But here it is October and my editor's nagging me for his annual Halloween fix. (I'll do it, I said to him in e-mail, as long as you string those orange twinkle lights around your monitor. He hasn't answered yet.)

A Few Halloween Pranks

If you're as old as I am, you might remember some of the pranks we used to pull as kids, like soaping car windows and TPing houses. [Note to Editor: toilet papering] Here a couple sites I discovered that I suspect you'll like.

The first is the Ghost Droppings site. There's a decent collection of pranks, from the correct use of stink bombs to the best way to use disappearing ink. The downside is you have to plow through lots of messages to find the good ones. As much as I'd like to give you a link directly to my favorite pranks, the best I can do is get you to the message board.

A few of you might remember the novelties and gags from the "Johnson Smith & Co. Catalog of Surprising Novelties, Puzzles, Tricks, Joke Goods, Useful Articles Etc." Check out one of the early catalogs. The company still exists, and it even has a Web site.

If your runny-nosed teenage neighbor pulls a prank on you, go to Homestore.com for tips on cleaning up afterwards.

Go Read a Halloween Magazine

I'll bet you didn't know there was a magazine dedicated to haunted houses put together by local civic organizations. It's called Haunted Attraction, and it's a hoot.

If there's one magazine, there's got to be another: Haunted Media has reviews of haunting events across the country.

One terrific article that might bring back memories of your youthful Halloweens is Salon's "Primeval terror (since 1929)." It's a good read about how Halloween's changed over the years.

Dig This: I'm baffled by this mind-reading gem (and resent those of you with analytical minds who won't have much difficulty figuring it out). [With thanks to Tom Lenzo.]

Buy a Prop

I went searching for sites that sell professional props and equipment that you can use for your once-a-year scare, the kiddies' gala event. Here are a few of the best I've seen.

Smarthome Halloween Store. Some of the niftiest--and most expensive--Halloween props can be found on Smarthome's Web site. If I had $20,000 or so, I'd spring for the $2000 Bio-Hazard Barrel, $14,000 Attack Alligator, and $2000 Talking Mirror. But don't stop there: Check out the entire collection.

Latex Mask Central. You might want a really cool mask, one that'll frighten your neighbors and maybe even bring the Homeland Security people to your door. Check out Latex Mask Central for some of the most convincing masks ever.

Nightmare Factory. Need a set of fangs, some buck teeth, or maybe just some slimy looking choppers? The Nightmare Factory's got just the thing.

Build Your Own

MonsterList of Halloween Do-It-Yourself Projects. If you're really handy, you may want to build your own Halloween props. For that I suggest you choose from the over 500 possibilities at this site, one of my favorites. Many of the props are homemade, and quite a few are reasonably easy to replicate. For instance, the HorrorDome's "Rat in the Can" looks good, and so do the "Haunted Books" (click the Back button at the bottom of that page for more projects).

Chris' Home-built Halloween F/X Displays. This site has a ton of smart looking Halloween gimmicks.

Phantasmechanics. The "Flying Crank Ghost" is a stunning example of what you can do without a lot of money.

Halloween Clip Art, Sounds, and Fonts

Of course, we've got Halloween screen savers and games in the PCWorld.com Downloads area. If you work in the human resources department, how about trying Horror Hotel fonts or the Graveyard Font Collection for your next series of layoff memos. You'll find these fonts, plus games and desktop themes, in the "Creepiest Games and Screen Savers" collection.

You can grab some Halloween clip art at the Happy Halloween Clipart site.

For something more educational, try the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Halloween Sounds, such as radio waves collected near Jupiter and weird radio emissions from Jupiter's largest moon.

Dig This: If you have a really important meeting, or a project that just has to get done, then do not go to Larry Carlson's site; there's way too much to explore. Want examples? Try the bizarre "Dark Moon" and "Pull My Butterfly," both under Flash Movies.