Halloween decorating is a serious business for my family. It started with my father pretending he was a Halloween prop on our porch and has since evolved into more elaborate decorations, lighting, and sound, making my family's home a must-see stop for trick-or-treaters every October 31st.
The haunting season is a lot different this year, but Halloween certainly isn't dead and there are still plenty of opportunities for a macabre makeover in your own home. With so many people not being able to go to theaters, setting up a home theater has been a popular option for many people and I wanted to provide my recommendations for creating your own creepy cinema experience:
Know Your Space
Before you even get to equipment selection, you need to know exactly where you want to set up your screen, projector, and seating.
Know Your Budget
Are you looking to have a theater-quality setup in your home? Or are you looking for something quick and easy you can set up in your backyard? You can spend anywhere from hundreds of dollars to tens of thousands of dollars, so it’s important that you set your budget and go in with the right expectations.
Prioritize Importance
Selecting Your Screen
I'm going to (hopefully) save you a lot of time on this one and let you know that your best bet is going with a Silver Ticket screen. There's a very handy article from The Wirecutter that goes into all the details, but to sum it up, this projector is one of the best you can by for a fraction of the price of its competitors. I've been using this screen myself for the last 4 years and it's incredible value. Just keep in mind that it will take a little bit of time to construct, and it's definitely helpful to have a second person assist.
Selecting Your Projector
Picking the right projector is really going to come down to your needs, but for the purpose of this guide, I'm going to tell you what I'm looking for at this point in time:
Testing the Optoma UHD50x
For my testing and this guide, Optoma supplied me with a test unit for 60 days, so I was really able to spend some time with it. Overall, I was very impressed with this projector and the high quality it was able to deliver, while staying on the lower end on the price scale for 4K projectors.
Setup
If you've ever set up a projector previously, setting up the UHD50x is pretty straightforward. This unit allows for mounting, but in my case, I have essentially a shelf that's positioned perfectly to set the projector on. From there, it's fairly intuitive to set your screen size and adjust your focus.
I think the biggest complication comes from plugging in different devices into this (or any) 4K projector. Using the PS4 as an example, you have to make sure that your correctly accepting an HDR signal and enable HDR if it was previously disabled. This was the cause of a little back and forth, and troubleshooting on my part, but with a little trial and error I was able to get everything set up.
Thankfully, the Optoma software allows for very easy configuration, with a variety of screen modes and expected picture calibration settings that will allow you to fine tune everything to your needs.
Specs (via Optoma)
Why this Matters
With an excellent brightness and contrast ratio, Blu-ray, 4K, and HDR content looks equally impressive. With so much horror content spread between Blu-ray, streaming content, and more recently 4K disc, it's important to me that anything I watch is going to look good, and this projector did not disappoint. As mentioned above, refresh rate is really important for online gaming, and this projector makes for an excellent gaming projector, allowing you to play the latest games and take advantage of HDR, while also being competitive in games like Call of Duty and Fortnite.
Overall Impressions
4K home projectors are still relatively new to the market, so the technology has not been perfected as well as the 1080 market has. If you're a cinephile looking for the absolute best picture for movie screenings, you could spend $5,000+ on another projector, but many of those projectors have pretty terrible input lag, so you couldn't use them for gaming. With the PS5 and Xbox Series X being released next month, this is an ideal projector for gamers looking for the best possible 4K / HDR visuals in their Console games.
For the average person, the the UHD50x is an ideal mix of all the best feature at a reasonable price ($1,599.00 on Amazon). The UHD30 is also pretty close in specs to the UHD50x and it's only $1,199.89 on Amazon, so that's another option as well.
With either projector, you'll have a really incredible home theater experience. With theaters not screening new movies any time soon (aside from the drive-in), it's a worthwhile investment for me, as my immediate family have all been staying in since COVID and we all get together weekly for movie nights.
Choose the Right Lighting
One of my biggest challenges with lighting is the lack of color selection. Since many homeowners are buying from major outlets like Amazon, Walmart, Home Depot, and so on, the colors and light types being used on suburban streets and throughout cities are mostly the same. Now, it's important to note that these lights are not officially rated for outdoor use, so be wary of how much wear and tear they might have to endure out in the elements (or among the living dead who roam about on All Hallows' Eve).
To keep your lighting choices easily interchangeable, these LIFX Color 1000 bulbs are all connected via Wi-Fi and can be controlled from your smartphone or tablet using the LIFX app. You can customize colors for the entire set or for each individual bulb, and there are even pre-made themes, as well as custom themes, that you can use to illuminate your Halloween display in horrific hues. Be sure to check out the special spooky theme on the LIFX app for different ways to haunt your guests this Halloween.
To really set a macabre mood, utilize the flicker options to keep your lights flashing in frightening fashion. If you're playing terrifying tunes or sound effects outside of your home—whether you're cranking something as unsettling as the Jacob's Ladder soundtrack or playing an old standby like the "Monster Mash"—the music visualizer on the LIFX appcan help keep the lights moving to the rhythms of the night.
Aside from color variation, the biggest reason for moving to smart lights is to cut the cords. It often looks like the back of a rock concert inside of my house, with cables running upstairs, outside, and everywhere in-between. Not only did switching to smart lights significantly help avoid clutter, but it cut my setup time down by about half.
LIFX is also expanding their product range beyond traditional bulbs and into light strips. Their LIFXZ starter kit provides a 2-meter LED strip that can be controlled via the LIFX app. It's only available as a pre-order for now, so you won't be able to get it in time for Halloween, but it's never too early to start thinking about next year's Halloween theme and Christmas is right around the corner.
Additional Apps & Lighting Ideas
You can adjust the lighting of your eerie attractions using a Amazon's Echo or a third-party smartphone app like Yonomi, which allows you to control LIFX lights from the comfort of your own couch, or from the fake coffin you're waiting to spring out of...
Another great third-party app to use with Philips Hue and LIFX lights is OnSwitch, which features a wide variety of lighting options perfect for setting all kinds of macabre moods among your guests this Halloween.
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Stay tuned for future guides on selecting the right audio and other home theater extras!
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