Smart home Halloween: Special FX for a spooky, next-level house

What makes Halloween so delightfully spooky? Is it the lineup of scary movies on TV? Is it the people (and dogs) wandering the streets in creepy costumes? Halloween decorations, quite literally, set the scene for a haunting holiday. You’ve undoubtedly seen inflatable ghosts and temporary tombstones peppering your neighbors’ lawns over the years. But this year, you can really turn up your Halloween scares with a little help from the tech world.

It’s time to bring a little high-tech terror to your street. Amazon has a smattering of some very cool special effects to make your decor more lifelike (or dead-like, as the case may be) than ever.

Here’s what we found.

Holiday digital decoration projector (with 16 AtmosFX video effects)

This mini projector comes with a 4-by-6-foot virtual reality projection screen and a USB stick loaded with 16 AtmosFX holiday scenes. There are eight Halloween scenes, four Christmas videos and four miscellaneous holiday effects. Project waltzing spirits, a crowd of zombies, the shadow of a grave digger and more onto the sheer screen and bring these haunting images to life.

Holiday projector with projection screen and 16 videos, $280

Holographic gray projection material

To give your ghosts an even more otherworldly glow, you can buy a holographic gray projection screen. These screens are also available in white.

Holographic gray projection material (5.5 by 9 feet), $50

AtmosFX “Witching Hour” digital decoration

This witch projection boils up trouble in her cauldron, conjures spells and even sings original Halloween songs. This decoration comes on a DVD, which you can play through your television or plug into any projector, like the Reaper Brothers holiday projector.

AtmosFX “Witching Hour” digital decoration, $40

AtmosFX “Macabre Manor” digital decoration

Who wouldn’t want to invite this spooky, long-since-dead family into their Halloween party? Like the “Witching Hour” digital decoration, this effect comes on a DVD, which can be played through a TV or through a projector. 

AtmosFX “Macabre Manor” digital decoration, $40

Face-transforming LED mask