Making a Horror Themed Island in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Animal Crossing: New Horizons has bought out a level of creativity in all of us that we didn’t know we had. Although the items the game gives you are almost all inclined towards your typical, cute-sy, fairy-esque island, sometimes you need to mix it up a bit. As an avid lover of all things horror, I set out on a mission to make my island the spookiest island I could manage. For anybody else who loves horror and wants to add it to their ACNH island, here’s some tips I picked up along the way! If you’re looking for something specific, you can ctrl+f to jump to: island names, villagers, clothing, furniture, area ideas and custom designs

Island names

If you decided you want a horror island before starting the game or you recently restarted the game, picking a name that fits your theme is a great way to set the scene! Unfortunately, you can't change the name once you've started, but if you're in the position of setting a name, here's some scary ideas for you!

• Salem (my island name!)
• Elm Street
• Midsommar
• Amity (as in Amity Island from Jaws)
• Alternatively, Amityville
• CrystalLake
• SilentHill
• Purgatory
• Hell

Villagers

Whilst it’s not always feasible to tailor your villagers to your island theme, especially if you have dreamies who don’t fit, there are definitely a few characters who fit the spooky theme perfectly. I bought their Amiibos to get them to my island, since I had to worst luck when searching with Nook Miles Tickets. Here’s my list of the spookiest characters available!

• Lucky : Lucky has to be top of this list. Aside from the fact that he’s literally covered in bandages and has just one yellow eye visible, his house fits the theme perfectly!
• Coco : Though Coco is supposed to be a rabbit, I’m not quite sure I get any kind of cute vibe from her. She’s pretty terrifying to see wandering around in the night and definitely fits the theme.
• Pietro : Now, I’m not one to be scared of clowns and movies that play on the assumption that everyone is often bore me. But there’s just something creepy about a clown sheep.
• Stitches : OK, this one I’m not sure about. Stitches is pretty adorable at times but he also has crosses for eyes and something about one of my neighbours being a living teddy bear definitely makes it a lil’ spooky.

• Ribbot : Ribbot is like the technology that is just slowly waiting to take over the world and overthrow all of humankind. No thanks.
• Raddle : He’s constantly sick but, hey, at least he’s wearing a mask.

Clothing

Once you can gift your villagers clothes, you get to, to an extent, control what they wear through that. Gifting your villagers certain clothes and making your own character wear certain clothes is definitely one way you can spook your island up. Not only are these useful to wear, but they’re great to display for an extra effect! Here’s some of the clothes you can make spooky!

• Orange jumper work suit - Perfect for making your villagers look like prisoners
• Bone costume and skeleton hood
• Imitation cow skull
• Mummy mask and outfit
• Noh mask
• Any flower crown for that Midsommar effect
• Stagehand hat
• Mage's robe and hat
• Ruffled dress - Great for a Victorian-era vibe
• Frugal hat/outfit/dress
• Ghost umbrella
• Spider umbrella

Furniture

You can use these items to decorate your house but also around your island to make specific areas (some ideas later in this article). These can be obtained in all different ways: DIYs, Nook Miles programme and from the shop. Some of these may not scream "horror island" at first, but it's all about how you use them.

• Western-style stone
• Stone lion-dog
• Anatomical model
• Skeleton
• Lighthouse
• Flying saucer
• Jail bars
• Scarecrow
• Streetlamp
• Throwback Gothic mirror
• Sphinx
• Pyramid
• Tall lantern
• Fortune-telling set
• Dolly
• Lab-experiments set
• Magic-circle rug
• Any complete dinosaur

Area Ideas

Creating areas dedicated to different things all over your island is a great way to decorate. Here are some horror-themed areas you can make with some of the items listed above!

• Graveyard
• Hospital
• Haunted market place
• Summoning circle
• Tarot card reading area
• Alien visit
• Experiments-gone-wrong area

Custom designs

Custom designs can be used to create paths, clothing, flags, or just add some decoration. They're a great way to really personalised your island how you want it, but can be tricky to make or get inspiration for. Here are some of the horror-themes designs I found on Pinterest.

These are all just ideas, and the most important this is to introduce your own creativity with it an have fun!