With Halloween hot on our heels, procrastinators may have slipped behind on getting ready. Fortunately, thanks to the magic of the Internet, even the lazy can catch up quickly with a few simple apps and sites. From playing the latest spooky games to dressing up your home, the Halloween experience can be yours in a snap!

Get Candy or Costumes Quick

Need a costume or candy immediately? A few websites ship a wide selection of Halloween costumes quickly and cheaply. In my experience, the best is Amazon, particularly if you have its Prime service. Amazon even has its own Halloween store.

Just search for your preferred costume or candy, filtered by reviews or by popularity. If you have Amazon Prime, you’ll receive the package within a couple of days. Is Amazon Prime a good deal? For most people, it is!

I recently picked up a zombie costume for $20 and can't say I regret the decision. Well, I regret not going to any parties which obviated the need for a costume.

Pick Up a Scary Game

For those of you seeking to get in the Halloween mood, try breaking out a scary game. Gamerankings actually sorts games by genre. You can find a list of their top horror titles here.

The scariest game I’ve played in years is Outlast, a survival horror title. Outlast feels unlike any other action game ever made, in that it revolves around running and hiding instead of fighting. There’s no combat involved at all. It’s also relatively inexpensive at $20.

For those of you looking for game bundles, check out my article on the subject.

Try Out a Spooky App (for tracking your kids)

In the Play Store you can find dozens of Halloween-oriented apps loaded with various specters and monstrosities. Some can turn duck-face selfies into duck-faced zombies. Others can change your wallpaper to something a little more seasonal.

One of my favorites, Glympse on Android and iOS, allows parents to track their children using their phone's GPS.

Get Spooky Sounding Music

For those of you looking to either get into the spirit of the season or find a playlist for their Halloween party, a variety of apps can help you out.

• Spotify: There’s a tremendous quantity of Halloween themed playlists over at Spotify. The link I've provided just includes a few official sources, but out of everything I’ve listened to, my favorite is the retro-eclectic mix provided by Alison via NOLA.com. Finding user compiled playlists on Spotify is extremely easy.
• Pandora: Pandora has an entire channel dedicated to Halloween music. It includes both family-friendly tunes and scary metal songs. Try it out if you dare!
• Last.FM: Like Pandora, Last.FM includes a list of Halloween themed music. Out of three, I like Last.FM's selection the least, but if the others don't cut it, try this list.

Look Up Haunted Houses and Corn Mazes

For those of you seeking a more hands-on experience, consider trying out a haunted house or corn maze! A number of websites keep lists, sorted by ZIP code, of all the corn mazes and haunted houses in the United States. My favorite is Horror Find.

Horror Find works pretty easily. Either search for attractions in your state, or you can search by city. The easiest method is to type your city into their search engine. Alternatively, you can input your state from the drop down menu.

Watch a Scary Movie

I've covered many of the basics behind searching for a really scary film — just head to Metacritic, Rotten Tomatoes or Reddit and grab one of their highly ranked horror films. It's easy, since their users have already reviewed each title.

• Metacritic's scariest films;
• Rotten Tomatoe's scariest films;
• Reddit's /r/horror's scariest films of all time.

Just be careful not to rent titles with only a small number of reviews. This is a sure indicator of a terrible film.

Get Ideas for Throwing a Halloween Party

Out of the many options, I prefer Pinterest for its wide array of Halloween ideas. Just use Pinterest's search engine, including the key term "Halloween" and it shows, using infinite scroll, a large number of Halloween pictures.

Conclusion

Getting in the holiday spirit for Halloween is frightfully easy – just by using a few simple sites and apps, you can really enhance your Halloween experience.

What about any other ways to search for Halloween ideas from the Internet? Let us know in the comments.

Image Credit: Thomas Backa via Flickr