A Note From The Home Depot
It’s always fun seeing spooky Halloween decorations in October. This DIY is equipped with snacks, decor, and even skeleton theater employees! Keep reading to see how Chica and Jo transformed their backyard into a Halloween Theater.
Halloween Skeleton Theater Lawn Decor
For Halloween this year, we decided to create a fun and interactive yard decoration for our neighborhood trick-or-treaters to enjoy. Our “Bones Cinema” skeleton-operated movie theater, complete with glowing marquee, movie screen, seating, and fully equipped concession stand, made the perfect spooky-but-fun Halloween decor.
Setting up the movie screen
To quickly and easily create an outdoor movie screen, we started by anchoring two 84” Traditional Double Shepherd Hooks into the ground, about 8 feet apart. Then we suspended a 10’ long piece of Electric Metallic Tube Conduit across the hooks, letting it hang off about 1 foot on each side.
For the screen itself, we draped a 6’x9’ Medium Duty Canvas Drop Cloth over the pole, securing it with a few large binder clips.
To give the screen that classic movie theater vibe, we hung Cabernet Velvet Blackout Curtains on either side of the pole and we used binder clips to attach them to the drop cloth along the back.
To finish the look, we draped a remnant of lightweight black fabric along the top, which disguised the pole and hid the binder clips. The best thing about this setup is that it can be reused for any outdoor movie night we might have in the future. The components are inexpensive and easy to store.
Building the marquee
Every theater needs a neon sign to advertise upcoming attractions. Instead of expensive neon, we came up with an alternative that is inexpensive and looks great! To create our marquee, we first designed a Bones Cinema Logo, and transferred it onto a 2’x4’ piece of 1/4" MDF.
We used a drill to cut out the round light holes, and a jigsaw to cut out the letters and large white area.
After sanding everything smooth, we painted the entire sign with Behr Black Gloss Spray Paint / Primer.
To inexpensively add color to the lights, we covered the back of the words with purple cellophane, and the round lights and skull with red cellophane, just taping it in place with clear packing tape.
Then to diffuse the light and give an even, overall glow to everything, we cut a 2’x4’ Ceiling Light Panel to size and hot glued it to the back of the board, covering all the cellophane.
To add the signage to the marquee, we glued strips of 1/4" FRP Cap Molding to the top and bottom edges of the large white area to create a channel for adding letters. We printed letters in a large font onto clear transparency film and inserted them into the channels to create the “TRICK OR TREAT” sign.
We then used another MDF panel and some 2”x4” lumber to build a basic box, and added some 12” LED Cabinet Lighting to the MDF panel before screwing it onto the back of the box.
To display the marquee, we mounted it on some 2x4s, painted the remaining wood black, and positioned it over the concession stand.
Building the Concession Stand
To make building our concession stand super easy, we started with this simple 30” Grey Oak 3-Shelf Bookcase. To create an elevated candy display, we scored some black foam core and folded it to make a wedge that fit on the shelf. We added one to each shelf, and secured them with clear packing tape.
To fully enclose the shelf, we measured and cut more black foam core to fit the sides and back, again securing them with clear packing tape.
The shelves were ready to fill with popular theater candy, but we took it a step further with download-and-print custom candy wrappers featuring funny Halloween names. We simply printed the wrappers, cut them out, and secured to the candies with a bit of tape on the back, creating a fun and colorful candy selection for our trick-or-treaters.
No movie viewing would be complete without the popcorn, so make sure to include a Nostalgia Black Popcorn Maker to get that true theater experience.
To serve the popcorn, we designed a simple popcorn box template, that can easily be printed onto colored cardstock, cut out, and formed into coordinating boxes.
When filled with popcorn, they are the perfect size for a small snack while watching the movie.
With the marquee positioned above the concession stand and a skeleton clerk on the job, this made a perfect welcome for our trick-or-treaters as they entered the Bones Cinema theater. We even think this would make a great standalone decoration for your front driveway to welcome trick-or-treaters.
Creating the seating area
With the concessions and movie screen done, we next focused on creating somewhere for guests to sit and enjoy the show. We set up several rows of Black Metal Folding Chairs leaving space in the middle for the aisle.
To establish the aisle, we laid out a Sabin Black 3 ft. x 7 ft. Indoor Runner Rug that had the perfect vintage theater look we were trying to achieve.
Aisle lights are important to make sure you find your way to your seat safely in the dimly lit theater. Ours needed to be a little bit creepy, so we started with several 3-piece Bags of Skulls and made small slits in the bottom of each.
Into each slit, we then tucked a LED Pathway Light which lit up the skull from the inside, giving a really creepy look.
We lined the skull lights up along each side of the aisle runner and they gave an eerie glow to our theater seating area. To maximize the light output, we made sure to leave them out in the sun all day to charge, and waited until the last minute to put them into the skulls.
Finishing touches
The Bones Cinema would not be complete without the addition of a few 5 ft. Hanging Plastic Posable Skeleton Decoration with LED Eyes. We dressed two up as a skeleton couple out on a date to sit in the chairs and watch the movie with the kids.
We hired another skeleton for our theater and put him in charge of playing the movie. We hid our modern Dartwood Portable Mini Projector inside a simple black box, and covered it with a vintage projector to suit the theme.
Our final employee hire was the skeleton to run the concession stand. All the employee uniforms were simple black bow ties and usher hats that we made from craft foam sheets.
Sharing it with the kids
The Bones Cinema was now open and ready for business! The kids got to help themselves to treats from the concession stand first before making their way down the aisle to enjoy some non-scary Halloween cartoons with their new skeleton friends.
The trick-or-treaters loved our skeleton movie crew and it wasn’t too scary to enjoy. Of course the concession stand full of candy and popcorn was their favorite part!
Setting a theater up like this would also be a fun way for older kids and teens to enjoy celebrating Halloween, especially after darkness falls. They could have a marathon of scarier movies with their friends as a unique, themed party idea.
