Halloween is coming soon, and as you can imagine props the you can by at the local Spirit Halloween store become more and more sophisticated every year. I have a few that decorate my house all year long, and as the holiday gets closer we’ll talk a little more about scary technology, both actually scary as well as the stuff used for entertainment.

I made my first pilgrimage to the Halloween store this weekend, and as usual there is a fun selection of animated and battery-powered props – everything from the pretty scary to the, well, not so much.

Although I thoroughly enjoy walking through there, I am mostly intrigued  by something they introduced last year; a series of DVDs that can be used in conjunction with a projector and a well-prepared window to project some Haunted Mansion-quality effects for visitors or decoration.

I took a 2-minute video of the display they had in the store (this particular store is in the Best Buy center at the intersection of Marks and Sunset), and surprisingly no one told me to stop. I guess they don’t care of you film or not. Here’s the video, and afterwards I’ll talk a little about data projectors and why you have to be sure to use an appropriate one if you want to try this at home.