TERROR WITH A TWIST

Add spiders to your pineapple beverage containers or on piles of fruit

String dead flowers for leis

Tie "dead" birds to palm trees (or ravens, crows, owls, etc.)

Instead of using colorful paper flowers, use deep purple and black flowers

Dress a vampire or "Lurch" character in a flower shirt

Dress skeletons in torn bathing suits holding a battered surfboard

Paint plastic fish black and float in bowls filled with moldy or dirty water

Put a skeleton wearing a torn hat and old bikini in a beach chair under a sun lamp

Cover straw beach hats in spider webs and use a knife or scissors to fray the hats

Break one lens (leaved shattered but in the frame) of sunglasses to give to guests

Add obituaries of '50s icons (James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, Elvis, etc.) next to their pictures

Instead of running funny fifties movies, show horror ones of that era like Ed Wood films

Instead of displaying restored class hot rods (or models), show off ones that have been in crashes or buy some old model cars (or scuff up new ones and splatter with rust and blood red paint.)

Melt plastic 45 records into ugly shapes and hang as motley mobiles.

Add black leather touches like inverted hats holding snacks or strips of leather fabric as napkin rings to add doom and gloom to your table decor.

Instead of happy faces, make your own scowling face posters

 Hang signs that say, "Make Love and War" or "Have a Lousy Day."

Dress your skeleton in hippie clothes.

Instead of hanging beaded curtains, hang ones you've made with spiders

Faded and broken plastic flowers will make dreadful decorations.

Put a "Tony Manero" (Saturday Night Fever) white suit on a mummy

Cover your disco ball in spiderwebs

Dress someone in a typical Cher outfit but with a gray, witch's wig, torn costume and skull, spider and rat tattoos

Put up black light posters of groups like Black Sabbath or other grotesque rock groups, skulls, etc.

Play a game of "Stayin' Dead or Alive" challenging guests to guess status of names given.

Label refreshments "Terrorific Tacos," "Nice N' Nasty Nachos," "Monster Margaritas" and other plays on Halloween-type words.

Prop a skeleton against a wall in a sleeping position (knees bent and sitting) wearing a sombrero and a serape

Instead of colorful paper flowers, make them in black and deep purple

Make luminarias out of rusty cans

Hang blackened chili peppers

At a poker table, dress a skeleton in a old, dusty tuxedo.  Sit him with his back to the door and holding a "dead man's hand" (Aces and 8s)

Instead of hanging up oversized cards of every suit, use only the Ace of Spades.

 Use boxes to make up sets of dice, but paint (or use stickers or clip art) spiders or skulls to replace the dots

Add a garter, eyeshade and vest to a mummy to resemble a croupier

Run a hot Bingo-style game with cards made up with the letters S-C-A-R-Y.