You thought it would be fun to spend the night in a haunted house. There are plenty of haunted places around after all, and you’ve seen them on the History channel. You wanted to go, but when your friend bailed out on you it seemed like it would be less fun. Regardless, you kept your reservation on the grounds that it was pretty hard to get this time of year. It wasn’t just that the hotel was haunted, but you loved the look of the old furniture, and were looking forward to the fancy breakfast the next day. As you check in, the hotel staff jokes that the breakfast is to celebrate your survival of a night there.

You get settled in the room easily enough. You run your hand over the finished wood and decorative carvings. It’s beautiful, you think. You wait up for a few hours hoping that something will happen, but eventually get tired and turn in for the night. Around 4am, you hear a noise that pulls you from that comfortable sleep. For a minute you think that it sounds like a ring tone, perhaps one of the other guests got one of those unpleasant early morning phone calls from a drunk friend asking for a ride home. But as you listen closer it sounds like singing. You sit up in your bed and glance around, peering into the darkness as best you can … then you feel the old springs in the mattress move. It feels like someone is sitting on the foot of your bed, but you don’t see anyone there. The singing, that sounded faint and far away is now a close-up humming. It’s a soft gentle song, like a mother might sing to her child, but in this situation it is the opposite of relaxing. You’ve been waiting for an experience like this, you tell yourself. This is why you came here. So why can’t you move or speak or breathe? You feel the mattress shift again, and you manage to whisper “hello…?” But the ghost of whoever it was, has already gone.

May we reconvene under the blood red moon,
-Black Widow

Here’s another classic that I assume all of us have been at some point in our lives; a ghost. Now, if you didn’t really want to try hard with this one, or are the type of person that loves the old school or a good corny costume; then you could most definitely cut eyeholes in a sheet and wander around the party/streets making ghostly “oooooOOoooOOoooo” noises in response to any question asked of you. But if you wanted to go a different route there are plenty of ways to do it.

You could be a more recently deceased person and simply buy something that looks old and washed out from your local good will or salvation army. You can make it look like it’s spend time in a coffin by tearing and ripping the edges or other key spots. Then all you have left to do is make your face appear more pale, add a dark shadow around your eyes to make it seem that they are sunken in, and mess up your hair.

If this all seems like too much work for you, or if you simply don’t have the time to go through all that; there are lots of different types of ghost and ghoul costumes available for purchasing. The best ones (in my opinion) are make to look like Victorian or Antebellum age dresses and suits, but they are entirely white or grey. They look (tastefully) tattered and torn, and appear to be what you might see if you had a ghost encounter yourself. Really, it’s something that with the right make-up and perhaps a white or grey wig to match; will really turn heads.

What’s best is that if you choose to act the part you can be spooky and unnerving without having to resort to the gore or disfigured masks that other people often employ to scare kids (or friends) on Halloween night. If you’re part of a haunted house; not speaking, and using slow deliberate movements to invade people’s personal space will have them freaked out in no time.