Halloween is one of the most beloved holidays in America. With the prospect of dressing up, Trick-or-Treating, and attending Halloween-inspired events, what’s there not to be excited about? If you’re hosting a Halloween party and want to take your event from fun to fantastic, incorporate a spooky Everglades swamp-themed haunted house. Use wild, Florida-inspired decor to make a unique and memorable attraction for your friends and family.
To make the experience really spooky, concentrate on the details of your decor. Here are a few ideas to help bring your swampy haunted house to life:
- What’s that lurking in the forest? Use your natural Florida shrubbery to hide scary monsters and creatures. By using paper towel and toilet paper rolls, you can cut out various eye shapes. Then, use glow sticks or flickering pedestrian lights to illuminate the night with spooky eyes.
- Ghostly cutouts. Use chicken wire and bits of sheer fabric to make ghostly silhouettes. You can mold the chicken wire around a generous friend’s body to make a proportionate and life-like shape. Keep it simple and allow yourself plenty of time to make these ornaments if you’re not going to purchase pre-made decor. Also, consider lighting them ominously for added effect.
- Swamp of ghosts and ghouls. If your haunted house is a swamp theme, there has to be some water involved. If you have a pool or small pond, incorporate it into your amusement. Use ghoulish halloween decorations and submerge them in the water. If you don’t feel like spending money on decor that you’re just going to sink into a body of water, use rubber gloves and inflate them to look like bloated hands. Now, add some lighting, gator heads, and some swampy foliage and you’ve got a spooky swamp that will send the kids running.
- The star of the show--the monster. No swamp-themed haunted house is complete without a swamp monster. Have someone dress up, or create a fake Creature from the Black Lagoon to heighten the house’s scare appeal. If you want to keep it Florida focused, make your antagonist the elusive Skunk Ape. That way, you can litter various Skunk Ape signs--the distasteful smell, broken branches, and clumps of hair--around the house to foreshadow his appearance.
Have some fun with it and dress as an Everglades swamp inhabitant to keep the theme consistent. This haunted house is not only great for Halloween parties, but for neighborhood Trick-or-Treaters as well. If you’re looking for inspiration, come to Wild Florida for an Everglades airboat ride. We’ll take you through Florida’s natural swamplands to help you come up with the best ideas for your haunted house.
How would you make the ultimate swamp theme haunted house? Tell us, or, better yet, show us! We’re challenging you to build the most outstanding Everglades-themed haunted house. Send us your pictures, and, hey, maybe we’ll stop by for a walkthrough.
