When you start seeing pumpkins popping up everywhere you look, you know it's almost Halloween season. Why not add a pumpkin to your Mac, too? At our house, our Macs get into the Halloween spirit with screen savers full of spooky ghosts, glowing pumpkins, cackling witches, rattling skeletons, dancing black cats, and circling bats.
Halloween screen savers can be so much fun that you might want to enjoy them for the whole month of October, and even beyond Halloween.
Screen savers are available from many sources. My favorites come from web sites that specialize in seasonal decorations for computers.
Skyrocket Software: Batz
Skyrocket Software
Bats get a bum rap. They're not the bloodthirsty villains that many horror movies would have you believe. These bats may look a little scary, but they're just flying around looking for their favorite nightly snacks of insects and bugs.
The basic Batz screen saver from Skyrocket Software is free. For a small fee, you get additional bats and a customizable background.
Updated for Snow leopard (OS X 10.6)
American Greetings: Halloween Screen Savers
American Greetings
American Greetings has a fine collection of Halloween screen savers that are suitable for the whole family. The screen savers range from silly to slightly spooky. There's even a screen saver for pet lovers.
Download one or download them all. The screen savers are free, but you must register for the American Greetings web site (registration is also free) before you can download them.
Skyrocket Software: Bonez
Skyrocket Software
Bonez is a solitary skeleton that patrols the remains of a long-abandoned outpost deep in a dark forest. Bonez paces around an eerie graveyard to the sounds of distant thunder and nearby crickets, and occasionally speaks to you.
The Bonez screen saver is free from Skyrocket Software. For a small fee, you gain access to an interactive mode that lets you click on items for surprises, throw rocks at the skeleton (if you dare), personalize the screen saver so the skeleton speaks a name (great fun for kids), and counts down the days to Halloween.
Updated for Snow leopard (OS X 10.6)
Killer Robots: Jack-O-Lantern Screen Saver
Killer Robots
The Jack-O-Lantern screen saver is a finely detailed and exquisitely fashioned series of carved pumpkins that will light up your screen. An assortment of carvings is included; you can also carve your own pumpkin.
The Jack-O-Lantern screen saver is free from Killer Robots.
Updated for Snow leopard (OS X 10.6)
Skyrocket Software: Spooked!
Skyrocket Software
Don't be surprised if a poltergeist takes over your Mac this Halloween. The Spooked! screen saver from Skyrocket Software is an animated skull that hides behind a darkened screen and jumps out when a sound is detected near your Mac. What a great way to scare your coworkers!
Spooked! is available as a free download. For a small fee, you get a choice of additional spooks, the ability to add custom phrases for the spook to say, and a mimic mode, where the spook repeats whatever sound it hears.
Updated for Snow leopard (OS X 10.6)
Brian White Illustrations: MacHallowScream
Brian White Illustrations
With its colorful, kooky characters, the free MacHallowScream screen saver from Brian White Illustrations will delight just about everyone.
One thing to note: When you install MacHallowScream, it will show up in the Mac's Screen Saver preferences pane with the name 'fssx' rather than 'MacHallowScream.'
Skyrocket Software: Cemetery
Skyrocket Software
A desolate cemetery is the setting for this spooky screen saver. Ghosts, skeletons, witches, bats, floating orbs, and more haunt an abandoned graveyard. You'll also hear spooky sounds and eerie music as a full moon rises over the cemetery.
Cemetery uses the OS X Quartz rendering engine, so it will only run in OS X 10.4 or later.
Updated for Snow leopard (OS X 10.6)
