DIY Halloween haunted drive-in movie lawn decoration

For any Halloween-crazed enthusiasts out there, this haunted drive-in movie is the perfect way to spice up your October decorations in your front yard. It’s super spooky and surprisingly easy to pull together. Check it out!

I put together this haunted drive-in movie for the Scarecrow Festival at Ashton Gardens in Lehi, Utah. This was my 9th year submitting a scarecrow. Although I made this as a scarecrow display, you could easily use it as a yard decoration for your front yard. It’s pretty easy. Here’s how I did it.

Build your character cars

Paint your cars
I decided to use storage tubs instead of cardboard boxes for the cars so they would hold up to the elements outside. I collected seven tubs for free from yard sales. Spray paint each tub a different Halloween color. I used green, purple and orange. I bought a can of spray paint for about $6 on Amazon and I sprayed two tubs with one can.

*Spray paint each storage bin with a different Halloween color*.

Decorate your cars
Now that your cars are painted, you’ll need to decorate them like cars. I added the following accessories:

Wheels – black paper plates with silver strips of paper
Bumpers – Pool noodles covered with duct tape
Steering wheels – Black paper plates attached with pool noodles
Headlights – Small back paper plates with gold wrapping paper circles
License Plates – Printable Halloween license plates that I designed (download at the end of this blog post for free)

The paper plates ended up being a bad idea because after a couple of wind storms, they fell right off. I would recommend using plastic of some sort and screwing them on really securely.

Add your characters
I needed to make seven Halloween characters to sit in the cars. So, I tried to find items that I already had around the house. I ended up with the following characters:

Witch – a witch face with a wig and cloak
Pumpkin – light-up pumpkin decoration
Octopus – stuffed animal
Werewolf – old Halloween mask
Ghost – old bed sheet
Monster – recycled Halloween decoration
Cat – old Halloween mask

I attached each character inside each car with a bunch of styrofoam and duct tape. Just get creative.

*Adding Halloween characters to the cars*

Set up your refreshment stand

You can create a refreshment stand in a lot of different ways. I scoured Facebook Marketplace until I found an old wooden shelf that someone was getting rid of for free. You can also build your own refreshment stand with some wooden crates and 2x4s. I painted the wooden shelf black and then added all the details.

*Used wooden shelf for a refreshment stand*

Here’s the following items that I added to the refreshment stand to make it look like something you would see at a drive-in movie:

Popcorn boxes – filled with corn puffs
Vintage popcorn machine
Glass soda bottles – wrapped with Halloween drink labels
Life-size skeleton – with a paper bow tie and hat and attached to rebar so it stands up
Candy bar display – candy boxes covered in Halloween labels displayed on a black sturdy poster board
Drive-in movie sign – Large poster board with “Dracula’s Haunted Drive-in” written on it and a large arrow pointing to the movie screen

*Refreshment stand for the haunted drive-in*

I tried to secure most of the items on the refreshment stand with hot glue but if you can nail them down, that would work better. Some of the items started falling off the stand. I also found the popcorn machine at a yard sale for $10.

Set up the movie screen

The movie screen is probably the easiest part but it did take a little bit of work to find a display stand. Fortunately, I found a tradeshow display stand on Facebook Marketplace. It worked perfectly. If you can’t find something like that, you could use and outdoor movie screen or a couple of heavy duty shepherd hooks and a pole.

*Completed movie screen for haunted drive-in movie*

I found an extra-large Halloween backdrop of the clown from “It” and attached it to the display stand. Then I added some window curtains to the side and a black blanket at the top.

Once I built all of the elements of the drive-in movie, it was time to put it all together. I was so happy the way of this turned out. And, I was able to find most of my supplies using items I had laying around the house. The entire display only cost me about $100. Hopefully you will have just as much fun as I did creating this fun Halloween haunted drive-in movie. Let me know how it goes in the comments below.