The Best Halloween Animatronics, Ranked by a Show Designer

Every October the aisles fill with animated props, and every November I drive past the same mistake: a seven-foot reaper standing in the middle of a lawn, lit by a porch bulb, waving at nobody. A great animatronic is a performer, and a performer needs blocking, light and a stage. This list ranks what is on Home Depot's floor and website this season the way I would cast a show: by how well each figure actually performs from the street.

How we ranked them

Showroom videos are shot at arm's length. Your audience is in a car at thirty feet. So each prop was judged on five things a show designer cares about:

• Silhouette at distance. Can you tell what it is from across the street, in the dark?
• Movement that reads. Big head turns and arm sweeps read; tiny jaw movements do not.
• Sound and trigger. Does it talk, and can you control when?
• Light-ability. Will it take a color wash, or does it fight your lighting with its own?
• Value per foot. Height is drama. Price per foot of scare matters.

Prices and availability below were checked on homedepot.com the week this guide was written. Halloween stock moves fast, so treat every price as a snapshot.

The ranking

Home Accents Holiday12 FT Giant-Sized Animated LED App Controlled Skelly with LCD LifeEyes™ · No. 1: The headliner$379.00View

The twelve-foot skeleton changed front-yard Halloween because it solves the distance problem by brute scale. This app-controlled version adds animated LCD eyes and control from your phone, which matters more than it sounds: being able to choose when it moves turns a gimmick into a cue. Stage it at the back of the yard, never at the curb, so the audience sees it grow as they approach.

Home Accents Holiday12 FT Giant-Sized Skelly with LifeEyes LCD Eyes · Also cast: the original giant$299.00View Home Accents Holiday6.5 FT Grave & Bones Animated LED App Controlled Ultra Skelly with LCD LifeEyes · No. 2: Best actor$279.00View

At human scale, what sells a figure is behavior. The Ultra Skelly's app control and LCD eyes give you a performer you can actually direct. Put it on the porch where people walk up, not on the lawn.

Home Accents Holiday7.5 FT Grave & Bones Animated LED Fiery Reaper · No. 3: Best value tall figure$179.00View

A reaper's robe is a silhouette machine. The Fiery Reaper's built-in LEDs give it light from within, which pairs well with a low orange key from the front. At seven and a half feet it fills a doorway frame.

Home Accents Holiday11 FT Grave & Bones Giant-Sized LED Mummy · No. 4: Biggest presence under $300$299.00View

Strictly speaking this one is a giant poseable figure rather than a full animatronic: Home Depot lists poseable shoulders, three sounds and LED eyes and chest. It earns its place anyway, because an eleven-foot mummy reads from the end of the block and the wrapped texture takes a side light beautifully. Graze it from one side with a warm white spot and leave the other side dark.

Home Accents Holiday8 FT Wicked Woods Animated LED Brewing Witch · No. 5: Best character piece$199.00View

Witches are a gift to a designer because they come with a story, and this one arrives with her own illuminated cauldron to stir. Add a little fog drifting past the cauldron light and you have a scene instead of a prop.

Disney6.5 FT Deluxe Life-Size Animated Jack Skellington · No. 6: Best for families$259.00View

Not every yard wants gore. A life-size Jack Skellington works for Halloween and stays relevant into December for anyone who loves the film, which doubles its run.

Home Accents Holiday6.5 FT Grave & Bones Animated LED Soul Slasher · No. 7: Best entry-level animatronic$129.00View

If you are buying your first animated figure, start here. It is the least expensive full-height figure on this list, and with good lighting it holds its own next to props twice the price.

Home Accents Holiday5 FT Grave & Bones Animated LED Hearse · No. 8: The set piece$399.00View

This is not a figure, it is scenery. A hearse anchors a whole graveyard scene and gives your other figures something to perform around. Buy it only if you have the space and a plan; it rewards a designer and overwhelms a small yard.

How to stage an animatronic like a performer

Give it a mark

On stage, every actor has a spot taped on the floor. Do the same. Place your figure where the audience's eye naturally lands: the end of the walkway, beside the door, framed between two trees. Avoid the dead center of the lawn, where nothing frames it.

Light it from below and from the side

Uplight is the language of horror; it inverts the shadows we expect on a face. A single low spotlight a few feet in front and slightly to one side does more than any built-in LED. For giant skeletons, a dedicated color-changing kit puts the light right where it belongs.

Home Accents HolidayColor Changing LED 12 FT Skelly Lighting Kit · Lighting kit for the giants$29.98View Home Accents Holiday18 watt Mult-Colored LED Cauldron Spotlights · Ground glow$29.98View

Add atmosphere

Light needs something to travel through. A fog machine on a timer makes every beam visible and hides the base and stakes of your props, which is exactly what scenic designers use haze for.

Home Accents HolidayFog Machine 1000 Watt · Atmosphere$84.98View Home Accents HolidayFog Timer · Run it on a cue$24.98View

Control the trigger

A figure that talks nonstop becomes background noise in five minutes. Use the try-me or sensor modes, or an app where available, so the movement happens when someone is there to see it. Surprise is the whole point.

Wind, power and the morning after

Tall figures are sails. Stake every leg, add guy lines to anything over six feet, and take the twelve-footers down, or at least lay them flat, before a real storm. Keep power connections off the ground, and use outdoor-rated cords and GFCI outlets. Batteries in a sound module should come out at the end of the season so they do not leak before next October.

The verdict

If you buy one prop this year, buy height and light it well. If you buy three, cast them like a scene: one headliner at the back, one character near the door, and one surprise where people do not expect it. And if you are thinking about projection effects to go with your cast, our holiday projector guide covers window ghosts and video kits.