How to Build a Creepy Scientist Lair

Use simple items like food coloring and water to make a scary laboratory.

Though movie mad scientists are not always evil -- think of the Absent-Minded Professor who created Flubber, or Doc Brown from "Back to the Future" -- they often are. Therefore, a good creepy scientist lair is a great addition to any haunted house or elaborate Halloween party. Though a perfectly serviceable and terrifying lair can be built out of any empty room in the house, a garage with plenty of shelves, nooks and crannies is an ideal framework.

Things You'll Need

• Assorted test tubes, Erlenmeyer flasks and bottles
• Food coloring
• Dry ice
• Vintage scientific and medical equipment
• Old books
• Inexpensive frames or cardboard and paste
• Photographs or etchings of anatomical diagrams or medical oddities
• Plastic painter's drop cloth
• Card table, cot or armchair
• Dummy, old clothes or volunteer
• Sheet
• Paint

Instructions

1. Fill all test tubes, flasks, jars and other glass receptacles with water dyed various colors or bits of dry ice. Do not cap the receptacles that have dry ice in them -- let the steam pour out.

2. Make creepy scientific tomes out of any large hardcover book using simple aging techniques. Wet the edges of the pages with brewed coffee or tea and let dry. Rough up the cover with sandpaper and spill more coffee or tea on it -- or wet a paper bag with coffee or tea, let it dry and cover the book with it. Take a lighter to the spine and corners of the cover to singe them

3. Create a "preserved organ." Cut the foot off an old pair of pantyhose and fill it with popcorn (popped or unpopped, depending on the texture you want), dried beans, sand or a similar textured substance. Tie it off and place it in a jar with some corn syrup, food coloring and a very small amount of milk to make it slightly cloudier.

4. Fill all shelves, nooks, crannies and flat unoccupied surfaces with the glass receptacles, old books and preserved organs, as well as old books and vintage medical and scientific equipment such as microscopes, scales, syringes and forceps.

5. Frame the photographs and etchings of medical oddities and anatomical diagrams, which can be downloaded and printed from the Internet or clipped out of old textbooks. Alternatively, paste them onto pieces of cardboard. Hang them on all exposed wall surfaces.

6. Lay plastic painters' drop cloth over the floor of the room. Place the card table, cot or armchair in the middle of the room. Place the dummy or your volunteer on it in a supine position, or arrange old clothes on it in a human or animal shape. Drape the sheet over it.

7. Spatter black and blood red paint, as well as water the same color as that in the jars, around the lair.

Tips & Warnings

• Vintage medical and scientific equipment is readily available at vintage stores and from online auction sites such as eBay.

References

• 365 Halloween: DIY Mad Scientist Laboratory
• Party Planning Mom: Mad Scientist Party Decorations
• Points in Case: Seven Classic Movie Archetypes

Resources

• eBay: Science and Medicine