When everyone’s front yard suddenly becomes a cemetery, you know Halloween is coming. Nowadays, despite some things still being scary, like watching a horror movie or your parents opening Genesis, Halloween isn’t as spooky as we think. The only way to make Halloween scarier than ever, is to be the main cause of the fear. So, if you feel like reminding your friends what true horror is, here are some of the best ways to scare them. 

WARNING: Don’t do this on anyone else besides your friends who you are especially close with. We don’t encourage bullying and generally enjoy not being banned off the internet. So please, be careful if you’re actually going to do any of these.

1.Knocking on the Door 

We’re starting off with a classic. Whenever you go to one of your friends’ houses, knock on the door and make a mad dash to hide. Then, try to pick the most random spot and hide. Whether it’s a bush, under a car, or behind a tree, anything works. If they come outside to look for you, that’s your chance to strike. If your friends already know this trick, try hiding right next to the door, but out of sight, so you can scare them as soon as the door opens. If they see that coming as well, run into their backyard, and run in through the back door. Since they’re not expecting you to be inside their house, they won’t be ready for you to pop out from behind a corner and scare them. Admittedly, you should only do this with friends you’re really close with. If you are, you can also make them question their sanity as you try to explain that you went through the front door when they weren’t looking.

2. Sound Effects

This is another simple yet effective way to scare your friends. If your friend ever leaves the room you’re in, this is when your plan is put into action. Quickly go onto  Youtube and load a video of a random spooky sound effect playing every few minutes. Then simply hide your phone somewhere and watch your friends lose their grasp on reality when they return. If you really want to scare them, try sound effects of someone knocking on a door, glass breaking, or an animal growling. If you play along well enough, you might actually convince them that someone or something has broken into their house.

3. Pet Problems

This one only works if you have a pet that friends don’t know particularly well. The idea is pretty simple. When your friends come to your house, introduce your pet, but tell them that they aren’t friendly and you have to put them in a different room. Then, later on, “go to the bathroom” and let the pet enter the room. Now you can  hear your friends have a panic attack as your friendly dog runs over to seemingly attack them. One disclaimer though, if your pet isn’t actually friendly, obviously don’t do this. Or put them on a leash. And try to pull them away as late as possible.

4. Gaslighting 

If you really want to get inside your friends’ heads, gaslighting is the perfect way to do it. There are many ways you could gaslight someone, so really it’s up to whatever you can think of, but here’s one idea. If your friends ever send you a really embarrassing snap, or any private information on snapchat, wait until they’ve put their phone down, and then ask them why they just posted that snap on their story. Watch as they frantically open their phone, open snapchat, and then realize they were panicking for nothing and that you’ve been filming it the whole time. Whether or not you want to gaslight them about the filming part is up to you.

5. Hide Their Belongings 

We’ll finish with a classic, hiding their stuff. Some examples include hiding their phone, their credit card, their keys, or their homework, but there are multiple levels you can take this to. Take hiding their phone for example. You could just pick a random spot, hide it, and watch them panic. You could take it a step further by trying to call them in order to help find the phone, and then just calling a random number, making your friends have no idea where their phone is. If you really want to make your friends lose their minds, hide their car keys when they’re at your house. You can watch them freak out, thinking they’ll have to wake up their parents late at night, and explain to them that they lost their keys, and need a ride home. Regardless of what you chose to hide from them, they’re sure to start panicking when they realize one of their valuables is missing.

Take this from my personal experience, all of these tricks work, and while your friends may not appreciate them, it’s sure to put them into a spooky spirit. What I like to do whenever I go to one of my friends’ houses is to see how many of these I can pull off in a single night. Currently, my record is four, so if you want to prove that you’re a worse friend than me, try to beat my score and go for all five.