High-tech Halloween: How to Decorate in 2024

While sheet ghosts and peeled grape eyeballs will never go out of style, 2024 might be the year you finally want to up your Halloween decorating game. Animatronics, giant skeletons, fog effects, and digital decorations can transform your humble abode into a haunted house that will quickly become a neighborhood favorite.

Check out your local home improvement store or shop online to find creepy creatures that will haunt your garden or digital spooks that will jump out of your walls.

Here are our suggestions for the most modern Halloween decorations that light up, talk, move and help create a spine-chilling holiday atmosphere.

Levitating LED Harvester

Home Depot made Halloween history with its 12-foot skeleton named Skelly. Since then, the home improvement retailer has been coming up with variations on the theme, including a giant skeleton dog. The 12-foot animated LED levitating reaper offers a major upgrade in horror with a glowing ribcage and skull. The reaper is designed to look like it’s floating, especially in the dark. The grimacing giant utters six unsettling phrases, including, “You’re just ants in my game of death and destruction.” It’s a real hit at $299.

7 foot tall werewolf

If you’ve seen this guy staring at you from across Costco, you probably remember him: a 7-foot-tall animated werewolf.

His head, mouth, and arms move, and he’s dressed in a tattered but still-cool-for-fall buffalo plaid flannel shirt and ripped jeans. He also has LCD eyes, makes “werewolf sounds,” and the whole thing is activated by a motion sensor.

If you want to scare the crap out of every kid that walks past your house, the weirdly muscular, animated werewolf is currently retailing at Costco online for $340, including shipping.

Skelly Eye Makeup Kit

Here’s a bonus for those who already own the standard 12-foot Skelly from Home Depot. You can upgrade the skull with the LCD Eyes Kit for $30. The kit offers eight different LCD animations that you can customize to match the season. There are hearts for Valentine’s Day and fireworks for Independence Day, or you can opt for year-round fun with reptilian eyes, regular eyes, bloodshot blue eyes, flames, spirals, or stars. Remote-controlled, movable eyes take your giant skeleton to an unsettling new level of scariness.

Talking LED Diver with Haunted Harbor

Not to be outdone, Lowe’s stocked up on Halloween animatronics this year. If you’re looking for something a little more unusual, check out the 6-foot Haunted Harbor Talking LED Sea Diver for $349. The harpoon-wielding, seaweed-covered diver has an LED skull face, makes spooky sounds and phrases, and moves from side to side. It’s a nightmare from the deep.

AtmosFX Scarecrow Collection

Dip your toes into the world of digital decorations with AtmosFX’s spooky offerings, from grimacing Halloween pumpkins to flying ghosts. The Legends of Halloween: The Scarecrow collection is $39 for a digital download and includes several scenarios featuring the terrifying talking scarecrow. You can project your decorations using your TV or, even better, a projector. With a projector, you can aim them at a wall, floor, or ceiling, or send terrifying, moving images to a screen. Check out CNET’s recommendations for the best projectors.

Distortions Unlimited Wolf Scare

You won’t find this Halloween prop at Home Depot. The Distortions Unlimited Scare Wolf is a professional-grade prop that retails for $5,250. The terrifying werewolf animatronic pounces on unsuspecting passersby. A snake in his mouth blows air for interactive entertainment. But it’s so expensive that it’s not a prop you’ll leave on your porch all night. While it’s terrifying, it could still be snatched by a wolf.

Spirit Halloween 400 Watt Fog Machine

A professional DJ fog machine can cost hundreds of dollars, or you can drop by Spirit Halloween—known for its seasonal pop-up shops—and buy a 400-watt fog machine for $50. Even better, the machine comes with its own Halloween costume, complete with a coffin and skeleton on top. Don’t forget the fog machine fluid and a timer.

Echo of Amazon

Amazon’s fourth generation for $100 Echo speaker lets you tap into the spooky side of your Alexa voice assistant. Play games like Monster Madness, experience chills down your spine with eerie sound effects, or ask Alexa to tell you a short horror story. Here are ways to use Alexa to spice up your Halloween.

Also check out these tips for creating a last-minute haunted smart house.