Households across the world are gearing up for a Halloween like no other this year.
With 2020’s scariest visitor undoubtedly being the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, this means that the usual frightful festivities of Halloween parties, trick or treating and more will be out of the question, which is leaving people to turn to other forms of fun to mark the occasion.
This is probably why many are planning to go all-out on decorating their houses this year.
If you’re looking to, quite literally, lighten the mood, then it’s predicted that compact projectors – which are designed to reflect a range of Halloween-themed images and scary scenes onto the side of your house – are the must-have decorative accessory for this spooky season.
No matter your price range, or what it is that you’re looking for in terms of capability from a projector, there’s plenty of different options available to get your hands on.
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What’s more is they can also be converted over to be used for other annual celebrations too, like Christmas, Bonfire Night, Valentines Day, Easter and more, which means you’re bound to be getting your money’s worth from your Halloween purchase.
We’ve decided to round-up a few of the best projectors we’ve seen on the market so far.
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Total Home FX Special Effects Projector
£159.95 – The Glow Company
The Glow Company
The Total Home FX Special Effects Projector comes pre-loaded with twelve seasonal videos and creates an animated display that will delight viewers with amazing detail and special effects.
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Not only do effects include Halloween zombies approaching the window glass, romantic dancing skeletons, or even a crazed mummy, but there are Christmas scenes too.
With a built in speaker, the overall effect is incredible.
It’ll set you back £159.95 and you can buy the from the Total Home FX Special Effects Projector from The Glow Company website here.
Premier Decorations LED Projector
£10.00 – John Lewis
John Lewis
The Premier Decorations LED Projector keeps it nice and simple.
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It’s a light effect projector that’s designed to beam pumpkins, ghosts, skulls and Happy Halloween onto an outdoor garden wall, fence or other surface, but it’s also suitable for indoor use too.
A lot more on the affordable side than others on the market, the Premier Decorations LED Projector will set you back just £10.00.
You can get your hands on it from the John Lewis website here.
Halloween Holographic Projector
£24.99 – Amazon
Amazon
The Halloween Holographic Projector is a nifty machine.
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This Amazon bestseller offers a little more sophistication, with moving images shown on any window or reflective surface. This full colour window movie projector plays 16-second movies in your windows, with 12 movies to choose from – six Halloween and six Christmas ones.
For just £24.99, you can get your hands on the Halloween Holographic Projector from Amazon here.
Atmosfear Fx Window Fx Bundle
£358 – Direct Nine
Direct Nine
Are you looking to really take things up a notch this Halloween?
Currently on offer and down from £596, this bundle includes Atmosfear Fx Halloween videos, with ghostly apparitions and phantasms, fancy graphics and a hi-res output. With different styles of ghouls to choose from – from comedy cartoons, to full on horror-fests – this brand is best for those taking digital decorating very seriously.
The Atmosfear Fx Window Fx Bundle will set you back £358 and you can get your hands on it from the Direct Nine website here.
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Davina McCall asks fans to ‘say a prayer’ as she undergoes brain surgery
Daisy Jackson
Davina McCall has revealed she is undergoing surgery for a ‘quite big’ brain tumour.
The presenter and TV personality has shared a video on Instagram via her partner Michael Douglas updating fans on her diagnosis and asking them to ‘say a prayer’.
Davina, 57, said that the benign brain tumour was discovered during a health scan which she ‘thought she was going to ace’.
The 14mm colloid cyst tumour is rare, with only three in a million diagnoses, and ‘needs to come out because if it grows it would be bad’, she said in the pre-recorded video.
Michael shared the video to say that his partner would be ‘off grid’ while she recovers, adding: “She is in great shape and in very good hands.
“I’ll do the odd update from her account here for anyone interested. I’m sure she’ll read all the comments when she’s able to so feel free to send love. The support of people is amazingly powerful. Have a great day everyone. Michael xxx”
It’s expected that she will need to spend at least nine days in hospital following the surgery, a craniotomy that involves removing part of the skull to access the brain to take out the cyst.
Davina said in a video where she’s smiling bravely througout: “I’m handing the reins over to my surgeon, he knows what he’s doing and I’m going to do the getting better bit after. I’ll see you on the other side.”
Man United legend Eric Cantona stuns Manchester artists with surprise visit to GRIT Studios
Danny Jones
Artists working at a Manchester studio were left speechless by a recent surprise visit from none other than Man United legend Eric Cantona.
The former United forward’s love for the city has never waned no matter how many years have gone by and as a lover of all things art, be it music, painting, acting or what he did with a football, he never fails to engage with local culture whenever he’s here.
He may not be based here anymore but the Frenchman – who knows a thing or two about art given his past acting jobs, newfound music career and previous showcases – still pays plenty of visits to 0161, including a recent unannounced one.
Cantona was back in the city centre this week to pay GRIT Studios resident Michael Browne, the artist who he collaborated with to create his National Football Museum exhibition last year, but the one thing Browne didn’t do was let the other people working in their city centre location he was coming.
Credit: GRIT Studios Manchester (supplied)
To be fair, anyone would double-take if they saw Eric Cantona walk into a room, so this was quite a memorable occasion for the unsuspecting artists.
After working on 2023’s From Moss Side to Marseille with Browne, the 58-year-old has been reimmersing himself in the world of Manchester art and there aren’t many places that epitomise that than GRIT, who are based in Stockport and from their second studio at Great Northern Warehouse.
Landing in Manchester from Paris, Cantona arrived in the late morning and ended up staying for over an hour, taking time to meet a number of artists and tour the space with co-founder John Macaulay.
Clearly impressed with their work and genuinely enthused by the sense of community within the local grassroots art scene, it was a special visit for everyone involved.
John, a die-hard Man United fan who has seen the Red Devils play in 25 countries before going on to set up GRIT Studios and much-loved Art Battle MCR with his wife Sophie, said: “It’s full circle for me having watched Eric play all over the world, it’s true honour that he’s flown in to see our talented artists.”
Artists spent time chatting with Eric and talking through their creative processes; those present included mosaic artist, Francis Thorrington, plein air (outdoor) artist, Sketch MCR – a.k.a. Ben Rock – painters Jodie Silverman, Helen Davies and Sophie Macaulay, as well as woodworker Gus Riddell.
Also a fellow United fan, Francis said he simply “couldn’t stop smiling the whole time” after Cantona described his work as wonderful.
Eric looked at home when he picked up and started strumming Chris Pollin’s hand-made guitars, which are handcrafted from driftwood and take hundreds of hours of work.
The enigmatic sports personality turned pop philosopher and cultural figure’s final message was that it was refreshing to see a place where “art was for everyone” not just the elite.
As for Browne, he is sworn to secrecy on his next project but let’s just say you can expect some big announcements in the coming weeks. As for GRIT, you can visit one of their open days this Saturday, 16 November and make sure to check out their Stockport studio if you’re in the area.
Emily Sergeant -
24th September 2020 
