Halloween

Chad Hudson Events produced the October 24 premiere event and after-party for the new film Fun Size. Held at Marathon Park inside the Paramount Studios lot, the event was inspired by a typical, all-American Halloween festival. Illuminated jack-o'-lanterns, creepy trees and scarecrows from CHE and Jackson Shrub and Props, and lighting effects and spiderweb gobos from CHE and Ultimate Lighting created the festive atmosphere.

The Addams Family-inspired Citi Performing Arts Center Gala in 2011 was ridden with graveyard imagery.

Billed as a "skeletal spectacle," Redmoon Theater's October 27 Halloween party in Chicago featured dozens of the bony Halloween icons. At a s'mores station, two performers dressed in lingerie and face makeup prepared the snacks in a bathroom vignette. They warmed the chocolates over candles in the bathtub and used blowtorches to melt the marshmallows.

In 2008, a section of Hugh Taylor Birch State Park was transformed into a haunted Halloween scene for the 11th annual Bremen Brothers Beach Bash. Among the tented areas for the event was a black-lit library-like space that recalled a haunted house.

Interior designer Leah Pickler interpreted Showtime's Dexter series when the network partnered with Metropolitan Home in 2008 for an experiential show house. Pickler's dining room included plates, chairs, and walls splattered with blood and a centerpiece comprised of vials of red liquid.

The 2008 Design Exchange gala achieved a haunted forest effect in the museum with graffiti artist Mike Echlin's white trees painted onto a black backdrop.

At the 2011 "Galaween" Benefit in Chicago, guests walked through a temporary graveyard outside of Venue One. Inside, the raw space was transformed into an enchanted forest foyer, a torture chamber dance floor, and a haunted mansion with rags hung from the ceiling’s chandeliers.

At this year's Dining by Design in New York, the table styled by Alexa Stevenson had rather a macabre centerpiece that included moss, succulents, and a skull inside a glass cloche.

The look of the Lexus event during the 2011 New York International Auto Show might have been more futuristic than spooky, but the eerie glow of blue lighting and the fog coming out of the drinks works just as well for Halloween parties. Caterer Creative Edge served up a liquid nitrogen cocktail of vanilla Absolut with tangerine and a vanilla kumquat marmalade alongside passion fruit meringues dipped in a bowl of nitrogen for the carmaker's preview event.

There was no shortage of inspiration for HBO when it hosted a premiere party for vampire series True Blood in 2008. In addition to Mexican relic shrines and cemetery lanterns, the event included a menu of blood-colored dessert bites.

Edward Gorey's morbid illustrations were the inspiration behind the design for the 2006 Central Park Conservancy Halloween ball. Inside the dining room, Grayson Bakula (a company that has since changed its name to Bakula Design) decorated the walls of the tent with projections of barren branches and hung menacing hooded figures from the ceiling.

At the 18th annual Dream Halloween AIDS Benefit in 2011, guests entered the main space of the transformed Barker Hangar only after walking through a series of five haunted tombs amidst a foggy forest.

At the Florida Aquarium's 10th annual masquerade ball, Nauti-Night, in 2007, the entire space was transformed into a spooky environment for drinking, dining, and dancing. The webs that covered the exhibit walls created ghostly passages for guests to explore.

Neuman's Halloween-themed table for the ISES competition at the 2010 BizBash New York Expo used skeleton hands napkin rings, mini coffins and cauldrons, and a barren hilltop centerpiece to set the eerie mood.

NYC Photobooth’s “Haunted Photocrypts” photo booth station includes an interactive talking skull to instruct visitors and a number of spooky backgrounds to choose from.

In 2006, when XBox 360 launched its Gears of War game at Hollywood's Forever Cemetery, the spooky and unconventional mausoleum made for a suitably morbid venue.

At The Simpsons Halloween-Carnival party in 2009, a mask-making station at the Barker Hangar in Los Angeles let kids and adults create their own face coverings as a unique event souvenir.

Playing off the venue—the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles—and eerie plots of its forthcoming shows, Showtime's 2006 event was set amid dry ice and twisted scenery.

Kapture Vision produced a holiday bash with a masquerade theme for CyberCoders in December at Newport Beach Dunes Resort in Newport Beach, California. Jay's Catering set up a s'more station where guests could fire-roast their own desserts.