You can carve as many pumpkins and wear as much make-up as you want, but if those little trick-or-treaters come to your door and see you watching Glee with the lights on you’ve failed to impress. So what’s the trick? You’ve gotta deceive all of the senses – in the foyer at least – and here’s how you do it:

Hearing

In my opinion, the most underrated of all the senses. Nowadays we go to see a movie, but what about the scary music that makes your hair stand on end? Anyone who presses the mute button during the scary bits knows what I’m talking about. It’s absolutely essential to a scary experience. An old favorite is the spooky Halloween tape/CD with generic spooky noises. If you have one of these or can find a cheap one online, great! If you don’t, why not get the kids together and tinker around in GarageBand or another free audio recording program. Nowadays it’s as simple as hollering and booing into your computer and burning it to disc.

Sight

Unquestionably important is the power of light and dark. A bag of cotton balls can be transformed into spider’s web and cardboard can be turned into bats. If you’re pressed for time though, there’s a simple solution: Turn the lights off, because everything is scary in the dark (use a fog machine to increase creepy).

Touch & Smell

Hold the jokes. Touching and smelling should not be part of anyone’s Hallowscream repertoire.

Taste

The be all and end all of Halloween is the candy you dish out to all of the ghosts and ghouls that stop by your door. I enlisted the help of the Used crew to decide once and for all what the top five “candies” to give away at Halloween are.

1. A Full-sized Chocolate Bar
2. Maynards Candy (Cherry Blasters, Fuzzy Peaches)
3. Bite-sized Chocolate Bars
4. Tootsie Pops
5. Pop Can

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!