We all know someone who takes annual traditions to the limit, and when it comes to Halloween, there are countless ways to go big and also go home, literally! From a homage to Stranger Things and an impressive amount of pumpkins, to ghosts, ghouls and terrifying clowns, too much was only just enough for these over-the-top Halloween homes that are more than ready for the witching hour. Click or scroll on, if you dare...
It's not always all about pumpkins and spiders at Halloween. TV shows and movies are great décor inspo and Stranger Things fans were blown away by the levitating Max display unveiled in 2022 for the Halloween season. Illinois couple Dave and Aubrey Appel, who specialise in designing horror props, spent more than 1500 hours creating the display which saw Max Mayfield from the Netflix show hovering above the graveyard in an attempt to escape the grasp of deadly villain Vecna. The setup went viral, but the couple’s neighbours called the police due to the crowds who gathered in the driveway, reported TMZ.
The couple were forced temporarily to shut down the display, which included the spooky grandfather clock and other chilling elements from Vecna’s lair, but compromised with their neighbours by switching it on at weekends only. Onlookers were nonplussed as to how the couple managed to create the illusion of the floating Max, but their recent posts on Instagram reveal fishing wire and a pole were involved.
Sticking with the successful Stranger Things theme, their 2023 display was just as mind-blowing. This time the Horrorprops duo decided to create a demonic gateway into Vecna’s lair along with lights, music and fog, and they added some scary clowns too. So, get your sneakers on and go running up that hill to take a look!
But don’t be surprised if you run straight back down again. These maniacal clowns in the Appels' front yard look poised to terrify the living daylights out of any unsuspecting trick or treater. The Horrorprops team have pulled another victory out of the bag with these menacing jokers who are sure to unleash a serious bout of coulrophobia, an irrational fear of clowns.
This beautiful house, decorated by Instagrammer Jessie Pennington, manages the difficult task of looking both scary and chic at the same time, thanks to a pumpkin arch and the incredible custom Halloween wreath inspired by Tim Burton's classsic movie: The Nightmare Before Christmas.
Pharmacist Ric Griffith started carving pumpkins with his three daughters in 1978. The following year they carved 20 pumpkins, but now over a 1,000 volunteers show up to scoop out hundreds of jack-o’-lanterns as part of an annual spectacle that draws people to this gorgeous house in Kenova, West Virginia. And long may it continue; they must be the envy of the street with their pumpkin decorating idea!
If spiders are more your thing, this giant furry tarantula scaling the roof is enough to make anyone's skin crawl and scare them off good and proper this Halloween! Definitely not one for the arachnophobes though...
Another webtastic idea for a Halloween house, this Indiana home plays host to this huge spider web decoration every year for the spooky season. Covering the front porch and finished off with the spider's prey in the top right corner, we would certainly steer clear if you don't want to be caught in a trap.
Artist Vile Kyle loves to get creative while also scaring the neighbours, no doubt. He transformed this home in Atlanta, Georgia for Halloween by adding slime, a festive staple, to each of the porches. Oozing down from the balcony above, we dare you to walk under the dripping gunk to reach the front door to get your candy loot.
For Halloween 2021, Vile Kyle worked his magic again, this time taking his own home in Atlanta and turning it into a human-eating monster with some comic book-style green teeth that morph the porch into a hungry mouth. To complete the beast's face, he also added some oversized eyeballs. Yikes!
Of course, when you’re blessed with an historic house and a fabulous front porch like this one, you don’t need to go too crazy to create a spectacular spooky display on All Hallows' Eve. We love the little hand-painted ‘Ghost Manor’ sign and the array of pumpkins in front of this New Orleans house. We counted at least 38....
New Orleans seems to be the ideal backdrop to Halloween celebrations, with its creepy history and atmospheric cemeteries. The residents of this grand house in the city put on a truly outlandish display, covering their garden with comical, skeleton figures that you might just recognise. From Annie to the Rolling Stones, these homeowners certainly didn't hold back when dressing their ghoulish gang...
Elsewhere in town, that old black magic has us under its spell with this creepy corner, filled with terrifying clowns, a garland of bloodied daggers and an angel of death casting its icy fingers up and down the spines of unsuspecting passers-by.
This little Hobbit House in Spokane, Washington takes a more gentle approach to the spooky holiday. Not much is needed to turn this magical little dwelling into the stuff of fairytales. Built by resident Tolkien fan, Ryan Oelrich, the hobbit house, which puts The Shire to shame, usually functions as a home office and reading room. Every Halloween, Ryan opens up the pocket-sized space to trick or treaters on the proviso that they donate books to children in foster care. Now that’s a hero to rival Bilbo Baggins.
If the Hobbit House wasn’t enough, Ryan also decorates his main house for Halloween, and he doesn’t hold back! From dragons to giraffes, the façade is covered in spooky creatures from all realms, with jack-o’-lanterns and dancing skeletons to boot. Now that's what we call getting in the spirit.
An eerie sight to behold, the owners of this brownstone in New York City went all out in October 2016, when they adorned the outside of their house with a monstrous devil, surrounded by giant spiders scaling the facade. It's enough to make our skin crawl...
The front of this house in Sierra Madre, California, takes All Hallows' Eve to another level. Rather than a simple lighting scheme or som carved pumpkin lanters, this home has an entire garden decorated with a giant neon Day of the Dead zombie and quirky Mexican-inspired décor. It's as beautiful as it is eerie.
How many pumpkins is too many pumpkins? Clearly for this homeowner, no amount could ever be enough! To welcome in the ghostly season, this lawn in Vermont was covered in countless pumpkins. It's certainly an impactful display. Hopefully the owners made a giant pumpkin pie after the festivities were over.
This haunted home in Washington DC features a quirky array of spooky decorations, from a haunted telephone box to a coffin and even a zombie bride. The terrifying tableau is encircled by the vast web of a giant spider as a terrifying finishing touch.
The owners of this home in Los Angeles not only decorated their entire home with spiders, webs, and tombstones, but they even went so far as to design their own spooky lighting system, complete with a homemade fog machine. The front lawn is adorned with sound-activated devices to keep passing trick or treaters on their toes. There's also a full-size coffin to hide in and catch unsuspecting visitors off-guard.
With a skeletal cowboy catching up with his characterful zombie businessmen friends, this San Francisco home erred on the side of comedy when it came to decorating their front garden. We can't help but smile at this humorous tongue-in-cheek tableau, complete with deckchairs and a spare seat should you wish to shoot the breeze with these boney fellas.
This garden in Boston, Massachusetts, was transformed into the surprise setting for a ghostly wedding celebration, featuring a skeletal bride and groom, and a hair-raising priest. It's a very literal take on ''til death do us part'. We're not sure we want to be on the front row for this one...
Orange doesn't have to be your main colour scheme this season. An arty take on the usual pumpkin decorations, the owners of this New York City townhouse adorned their front steps with some unique and unusual marrow specimens, as well as two rather bizarre pumpkin installations, which flank the entrance.
Who needs to go through all the trouble of making an iced gingerbread house, so popular at Christmas and the spooky season, when your home looks the part already? This clapboard house in Kentucky has been painted blue and purple and while it doesn’t look quite good enough to eat, its front yard has been decorated with pumpkins, cobwebs and tombstones to put on a scary front.
It's a busy season for skeletons you know. This bone-chilling family are taking a well-earned rest on some deckchairs on the lawn of their backyard. There appears to be parents and two children in the line-up, but the highlight of this little tableau is the skeleton of the family's pet hound. Just don't say he's like a dog with a bone!
If you thought that was dead funny, turn your attention to the Dallas man who said he was trying to lighten the mood when he staged an Ebola-themed Halloween display back in 2014, reported Time. Dressed in a protective suit, James Faulk set up biohazard barrels and wrapped his Texas home in white 'quarantine' tape to mimic the scene outside the apartment block where Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person to die of Ebola in the US, stayed when he fell ill. Faulk said he was raising funds for international humanitarian charity Medécins Sans Frontières.
When it comes to this much-loved annual festival, even POTUS gets into the spirit of things. In 2014, former president, Barack Obama and his wife Michelle decorated The White House with giant pumpkins and invited local children from military families around for a special Halloween party.
A few years later, former President Donald Trump and his wife Melania opted for a haunted forest-inspired theme for the scary season, says CNN. Silhouette cutouts of large black trees and creepy branches were placed on the columns of the South Portico, lit in a ghoulish orange, while violinists played theme tunes from The Addams Family and the Harry Potter films.
The Halloween decorations took a political turn at this home in Los Angeles when President Trump was depicted dancing on his own grave in 2017, the same year of his inauguration. He wasn't too freaked out however; it’s long been a tradition to mock political figures at this time of the year, plus it’s good for the economy. The US is expected to spend around £10 billion ($12.2bn) on Halloween in 2023, says the BBC.
It was nearly a wash-out for President Joe Biden in 2022 when rain threatened to dampen spirits for the annual party. It was the Bidens' first Halloween at the White House and they chose a haunted town theme for their display, says Reuters, with Dr Jill Biden dressing up as a butterfly for the event, which took place just a week before the midterm elections. While not exactly a nightmare, Biden must have been slightly spooked by the disappointing results.
There's little party atmosphere on the front porch of this home in Churriana in Southern Spain however. Dark and lugubrious and draped in cobwebs, grandma's old rocking chair stands empty alongside jars of peculiar liquids and poison apples. There's even a witch in her dark long robes urging us into this dark fairytale.
These American homeowners certainly weren't feeling deflated at Halloween. They spent hours inflating a comical cemetery scene to adorn their front garden, complete with your seasonal classics: spiders, ghosts and skulls, to strike fear into the hearts of their neighbours.
The owners of this home in Bristol, Connecticut meanwhile, utilised rusty vintage cars and an expanse of cobwebs to create an eerie entrance to their Halloween house party. It might look like spare parts, but we wouldn't rule out the chances of this creepy car springing back to life on All Hallows' Eve...
The owners of this home in North Tonawanda, New York, could never be accused of playing it safe or scaling back on the decorations. Their pirate's graveyard is filled with tombstones, while a sinister skeletal captain keeps guard. We wouldn't want to meet him on a dark and stormy night.
Each year, Van Cortlandt Manor in Croton-On-Hudson, New York, hosts a rather spectacular (and illuminating) Halloween festival. Known as the Great Jack O'Lantern Blaze, this annual celebration is renowned for its use of more than 7,000 intricately carved pumpkins. The manor itself is also impressively decked out for the festivities, with dozens of pumpkin lanterns alight, each hand-carved thanks to the work of over 1,000 local volunteers.
The owners of this dwelling in the UK turned up the black humour with this graveyard garden, featuring a host of tombstones, from the horrifying to the downright hilarious. They boarded up their property's windows, covered the lawn with fake rats and cats, and decked out their doorstep with a creepy butler and a haunted organ, a truly harrowing combination!
Proving decorating for the season can be done on a budget, they kept it simple in this Uptown property in New Orleans, which appears to have been taken hostage by one enormous single spider and a giant web, which spans from the top of the dwelling to the bottom.
Each year, homeowner Chris Donaubauer sets up this vast display of Halloween decorations in September. Extending up his driveway and into his garage, Chris has kept up this spooky spectacle for a whopping 23 years. He's spent in excess of £82,000 ($100k) on the display and makes many of the decorations himself. Stay tuned though because apparently his Christmas display is even bigger and more elaborate!
This spooky home in New York City features a display of pumpkins and skulls, set within a ghoulish graveyard. While the pumpkins may look friendly, passers-by are greeted by a bloodthirsty bat who's ready to strike! We'd steer clear of this one...
It’s Halloween all year round at this Beetlejuice house in Winona, Minnesota, which was painted black and white in honour of the movie. The owners add a few extra decorations for the spooky season, but it’s pretty much like this the entire year. Funnily enough, according to Mix108, Winona Ryder, who stars in the film, was born near the town, hence her name, and we’re sure she would be impressed.
Being invaded by a man-eating giant spider is the stuff of horror movies. But for the owners of this house in Scotland, the scene may have been inspired by the real-life invasion of giant house spiders following a warm but very wet summer. According to reports, the eight-legged beasts have been moving indoors early this year in search of a female mate. House spiders can bite, but they are more likely to scurry away for cover.
This alien pilgrim is sitting back on his colourful porch to celebrate Halloween. The Pilgrim Fathers were a group of extreme Puritans who settled in the New World to find religious freedom, so taking it easy and having fun was not exactly top of their list, but they are credited with creating the first Thanksgiving in 1621, when they celebrated the harvest with a group of Native Americans and kicked off today’s much-loved national holiday. Perhaps this guy is just getting ready early...
Brooklyn’s Park Slope seems to be a horrifying hub for Halloween celebrations. The neighbourhood’s impressive brownstones appear to be the perfect backdrop for all manner of creepy creations, whether it’s a pirate ship built on the steps of one townhouse or this spine-chilling spectacle of 'Death' the puppet master as he manipulates his multi-coloured skeletons to do his evil bidding!
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