Scary Halloween Story Ideas

Halloween is a holiday celebrated around dark themes, horror and bringing the fear out of people. Along with costumes, haunted houses and horror movies, more Halloween thrills can come from telling scary stories. With a scary story, the tale provides the vivid details, and the listener's imagination does the rest. Depending on your audience and genre, there are many scary stories that are great for Halloween.

Classic monsters and villains have remained popular for a reason: They scare people of all ages. Use characters such as Frankenstein, mummies, witches and werewolves to create a story. Apply new elements to the story. For example, set a story of Frankenstein in a big city. Make the monsters do things they have never done before to throw off the audience. For example, you could write a story about a witch that poses as a schoolteacher to torment a classroom of children.

New monsters can be a blend of old standbys or something completely original. Give the monster a little back story so readers know where it came from, but focus more on providing scares and developing the eerie atmosphere.

A phobia-focused story is guaranteed to scare key audiences. These scary stories have been written for years, and there are countless ways to tell them. Classic phobia examples include clowns, flying, spiders, snakes and heights. You can even mix phobias. For example, create a story about an evil clown carnival from which the hero has to escape in the middle of the night.

Create a scary story with children as the main audience. It is a lot easier to scare children and easier to think of ideas. Take a common element of childhood and turn it into something scary. For example, evil toys that come alive, ice cream made of worms, haunted bicycles that travel in the dark woods or a video game that sucks players into the television. Your young audience will identify with the relatability of the theme and be frightened by the unexpected twist.