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I have used my Omen effect at a halloween party before, to quite good end.

Another VERY entertaining way to mess people's minds up badly at halloween is to grab your IT and be creative. The night is perfect for setting the scene—things that go bump in the night are totally expected!

Also, another fantastic alternative to the 'Web' type of shocker is to use a Raven, a small plastic spider and a large shell coin... I will leave the rest to your imagination... I've tried it, and it is a great pant moistener.

on the subject of IT, Derren Brown said something rather interesting on one of the commentaries on a dvd, he said that if an object floats up and down, its usually seen as magic...but if it moves across the table or shelf (or whatever) its seen as more spirit-like or PK influenced...

Yep... but IT isn't just limited to visual floats or moves... the unexpected crash of something falling off a shelf, or a candlestick falling over are all very eerie...

especially if the picture is a haunted portrait in a nice weathered old frame...

EDIT: its also time to break out Ghost Glass 2 and FUSE...an old wine glass tips over, maybe breaks...you breath on the base of the glass and a symbol or number appears...

and for FUSE, a contract with the devil maybe, and if you can do a little pre-show or billet work earlier, then you can singe the contract and their name or initials will appear...

I'd go for a Living & Dead test. My favourite is written up in Annemann (somewhere) and involves a large glass bowl filled with water. The performer takes out some scrap paper and rips it casually into small pieces and hands them out to the spectators. Everyone is instructed to write the name of someone who is alive apart from one person who is to write down the name of someone who is dead (I suggest a dead famous person rather than a relative or close friend for obvious reasons). The pieces of paper are collected in by a spec and everyone joins hands in circle around the bowl. The performer says something appropriate and then the spec is instructed to drop the pieces of paper into the bowl of water.

The 'living' float on the surface whilst the 'dead' slowly and eerily sinks to the bottom. Gets great reactions.

Last year I did an 'out of this world' with pictures of people, on the back was a name and either 'living' or 'dead'. I followed this by giving the audience a 'free' choice of a dead person (which I never saw) and moving onto a ouija presentation with letter cards and a short glass in which the spirit spelt out their name from the face down cards (so no-one could influence where it went ), needless to say it was the same name as the picture they had chosen.

All pretty easy stuff, but when dressed up, and as long as you are prepared to take your time over the ouija bit, quite effective.

For gore I used a variation of Marc Spellman's 'The Afflicted' in which the second wound was devined, not by piercing a piece of paper but with needle through arm instead.