Planning an AtmosFX Halloween Display: Which Collections to Buy First
The catalogue is the problem. AtmosFX lists well over a hundred titles running from $4 samples to $60 collections, and the names tell you almost nothing about which ones carry a display. With Halloween a few weeks out, here is an order to buy in.
If you have $40 to spend
Buy one full collection rather than four single scenes. Collections contain multiple scenes and run long enough that passers-by see something different on a second walk past; single scenes loop quickly and give the game away.
At $40 the choices are Ghostly Apparitions, Jack-O'-Lantern Jamboree, Bone Chillers, Boo Crew, Halloween Monster Bash and Halloween Zombie Bash. Ghostly Apparitions is the safest first purchase — drifting spirits read clearly through a window from across the street, which is the test that matters.
If you have $100
Take one $40 collection and add a second with a different tone, so the display is not one note. A sensible pairing is Ghostly Apparitions at $40 plus Jack-O'-Lantern Jamboree at $40, leaving room for a $14 to $25 scene such as Jack-O'-Lantern Jokes at $14 or Ghostly Mansion at $25.
The sequels cost more and assume you already like the original: Ghostly Apparitions 2 at $50, volumes 3 and 4 at $60 each, Bone Chillers 2 at $50, Bone Chillers: Pirates at $55, Boo Crew 2 at $55. Buy a sequel in year two, not year one.
If children are the audience
Several titles are built to be fun rather than frightening. Gourdy's Halloween Sing-Along is $25 and is the one parents keep coming back to. Jack-O'-Lantern Jokes at $14 and Jack-O'-Lantern Songs at $14 are cheap and read as friendly. Dinosaur Encounter at $35 has nothing to do with Halloween and works for birthday parties all year.
Avoid the $45 Creepy Clowns and the $60 Halloween Hosts if small children will be walking up your path. They are well made and genuinely unsettling, which is the point.
If you want the scares
Ghostly Jump Scares at $35 and Emerging Terrors at $14 do what the names say. Creepy Clowns at $45 and Halloween Hosts at $60 are the premium end. Character pieces sit in between: Grim Reaper and Headless Horseman at $29 each, Ghost Pirate at $29, Ghost Bride at $25, Fortune Teller at $25.
The cheapest honest test
Before any of it, spend $4 on a sample — Boo Crew Soaring Spirits or Brontosaurus Playtime. Run it on your own window on an ordinary evening. If your street lighting washes it out, you have learned that for $4 instead of $60, and you should fix the surface or the projector before buying anything else.
Think past October
The projector and the disc are the expensive part and they do not care what month it is. Christmas Living Portraits at $40, Christmas Carolers at $35, Gingerbread Lane at $35 and Enchanted Snowman at $35 keep the same setup earning its place in December, and Happy Thanksgiving at $15 covers November. Buying a Halloween collection and a Christmas collection in the same order is usually the better value than buying two Halloween collections.
The full range, including the $4 samples worth starting with, is at atmosfx.com.