There is nothing scarier than seeing a table set for dinner, because dinner is an invitation. To create this nightmare, set up a table—either inside near a window or out on a porch—as if a feast has just ended or is moments from starting. Use lace or silk tablecloth (soiled and torn), mismatched silverware, chipped china plates, and wine glasses filled with dark red liquid. Place a fruit bowl in the center, but instead of apples, fill it with pumpkins, rubber rats, and hand-shaped candles. Set out several chairs, and leave one chair pushed back slightly, as if the occupant just rose abruptly. In that chair, place a full-sized mannequin wearing a veil, a tuxedo, or a Victorian mourning gown. The mannequin should have a blank, white face, with a white mask or a burlap bag tied over its head.
Put fake maggots made of rice and macaroni on the plates, and add fake blood dripping from the corners of the table. Add several tall candles with dripping, blackened wax. Better yet, use a smoke machine and set up a projector that casts moving shadows of hands and faces on the wall behind the table. If you want to raise the terror, add a sound system that plays clicks, slurps, and bone-cracking sounds from under the table, timed with a motion sensor. Guests will feel like they accidentally arrived during dinner—and that dinner was something wrong. The Uninvited Guest Table is very effective because it asks a question that no one wants to answer: who is the guest, and where did they go?
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