Add excitement to mundane Halloween traditions

By Tara Sahdev

If dull Halloween traditions haunt you year after year, make your Halloween a little spookier with these helpful suggestions.

1. Transform your home into the ultimate haunted house. String cobwebs in the corners, plaster the windows with black garbage bags, turn out the lights and dress up your friends in masks to frighten trick-or-treaters.

For extra spook, make dishes of "eyeballs" out of peeled grapes.

2. Make creepy cocktails by freezing plastic spiders in ice cubes and replacing your martini olives with gummy worms. Use food dye to change the color of your drinks and drip the red food dye on the side of the glasses to make it look like blood.

If you are making drinks in bulk, make sure to brew them in a witch's caldron.

3. Go watch "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" on Halloween.

The movie is about a couple who gets stranded and must spend the night in a twisted mansion, the site of the annual Transylvanian Convention. The mansion is filled with the most bizarre characters -- like those of the Addams Family or Frankenstein. Spending Halloween in San Francisco calls for the wildest costume ever -- the fewer clothes, the better.

The movie is playing at Clay Theater on Fillmore Street in San Francisco at 11:55 p.m. Tickets are $9.50.

4. Trust your friends to pick your Halloween costume. On Halloween, gather your group of friends and have everyone think of a costume idea. Then have each friend draw from a hat what his or her costume will be for the night.

To add to the fun, throw in some restrictions to make the task of getting together a costume more difficult, such as only using what you have in your house or not being allowed to spend more than $10.

5. Have a party that combines a potluck and terrible Halloween movies. Make your friends provide dinner while you provide the movies.

Watch the most poorly acted, worst produced, least scary, oldest horror films, such as "The Last House on The Left."

6. Go visit Great America's Halloween Haunt. All the mazes, rides and shows are Halloween-themed. There are four haunted houses to visit, and with the cost of admission you have access to all roller coaster rides.

"The best part was the 3-D haunted house filled with clowns," said sophomore Alvaro Lacayo. "You would keep walking because you would think the hall went on, but you would hit a wall. People would just pop out of nowhere wearing clown costumes."

Be sure to also look out for the magician who can make people disappear right in front of you. Tickets are $29.99 with a student ID from 7 p.m. to 12 a.m. on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1.

7. Create your own pumpkin patch. Cover your grass with hay and decorate your front yard with pumpkins and dried corn. If you are feeling especially spirited, adopt some black cats and make Styrofoam tombstones to add to the ambiance.

8. Play some friendly Halloween pranks. Buy a scary mask to spook your friends or some plastic body parts from Spirit Halloween Superstore and hide them around your room or house -- in the cutlery drawer, in the closet or in the fridge.

Spirit Halloween Superstore is located at 2020 El Camino Real in Santa Clara.

9. As dance professor Pauline Locsin-Kanter suggested, "Make your own costume with household items, or for theater enthusiasts, create your costume based on a specific line from the script of a show."

10. Celebrate Halloween all day and wear your costume to class.

If you are feeling exceptionally generous, make goodie bags with candy and treats to pass out to your friends and teachers.

Contact Tara Sahdev at (408) 551-1918 or tsahdev@scu.edu.