The days are shorter, the air is colder, and the Village is preparing for a zombie invasion. That’s right: Halloween night in NYC is nigh. Halloween decor is on your mind, and it should be. Every year you say you’re going to do something fun and fabulous in your apartment to celebrate All Hallows’ Eve, and every year on November 1st, you wake up, cringe at the now-torn black streamers you’ve half-heartedly hung from your ceiling the night before, and promise yourself that next year, you’ll do better.

Well, it’s next year now, and it’s time to get this monster mash in gear. Turn your NYC apartment into the haunted manse it’s meant to be.

Image Source: Flickr/Ricky Brigante

Invasion of the Monster Robot Thingies

Giving your apartment a Halloween makeover? Go for the motion-activated animatronic monsters. Before you roll your eyes, understand that today’s Halloween props can be so much more realistic and way, way cooler than the cheesy, fake-looking stuff you remember from your childhood. A strategically placed ghost that springs to life when unsuspecting guests walk by pays for itself over and over. If you can, put one onto or just outside your front door so that folks are startled when they reach for the bell. Your boss’s reaction to a discreetly hidden lunging zombie creeper may jeopardize your bonus, but you’ll never forget it. Where to find them? Seasonal pop-up palace Ricky’s Halloween is a good start. If you don’t want to be stuck with decaying zombies after Halloween, you can rent them from awesome NYC Halloween stores like Abracadabra NYC in the Flatiron District.

Image Source: Flickr

Hauntify Your Home and Everything In It … Including Yourself

OK, “hauntify” isn’t a real word, but you get the idea. Hang creepy lanterns from the ceiling, drape your sofas with black cloth, and hide creepy tchotchkes everywhere. If you’re more about tricks than treats, try putting gross, squishy items where people least expect it. If you’re on a budget but you’d still like a lot of visual bang for your buck, go all-out with the lighting. Halloween lights can turn any room into something eerie and beautiful. Place LED tealight candles in plastic pumpkins and skulls to add an extra ghoulish glow without causing a fire hazard. After you’ve figured out your Halloween decor, head on down to NoHo and NoLIta, and hauntify yourself with insane-in-the-membrane costumes that you scope out at Screaming Mimis or Patricia Field.

Image Source: Flickr/Tatyana A.

Serve Horrifying Hors D’Oeuvres

Appropriately gross food is vitally important to a truly good Halloween bash. A pumpkin upchucking green stuff is pretty disgusting, but when that green stuff is delicious guacamole, people will get over it. Who could resist finger-licking-good breadsticks shaped like severed fingers? And don’t forget the spooky drinks. After all, what’s a Halloween party without a Zombie Brain Hemorrhage?

Image Source: Flickr/John Ell

Enter a Dimension of Sound, A Dimension of Sight, A Dimension of Mind

There’s something really sinsister about watching scary movies on mute. Queue up some fright flicks, and let them loop on your TV with the sound off. Keep your audience in mind: Don’t air The Texas Chain Saw Massacre if there are six-year-olds in attendance. For additional atmosphere, pipe spooky music through your sterero system. You could go with the classics like “Monster Mash,” but also look into horror soundtracks. Music from films like Eraserhead, John Carpenter’s The Fog, and Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining are good starts.

Main Image Source: Flickr/Tatiana Shebelova

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