How to Create Creepy Halloween Titles in Premiere Pro (Plus Templates)

Titles are a fantastic way of creating a tone and style for your video projects, especially when it comes to Halloween. There are many creepy title effects you can create from scratch in Premiere Pro. So, today we’re going to walk you through 2 of the most popular; dripping blood titles and spooky grunge text; let’s jump in.

Part 1: How to Create Creepy Dripping Blood Text

Creating bloody drips for your test is a simple but effective way to spook up your Halloween Titles. Animating Masks is an excellent skill for any editor, and this method can be used for various effects.

1. In a New Project, add your title using the T tool.
2. Highlight the title and in the Essential Graphics panel, adjust the font, color, weight, and size of your title; for the best effect, use a chunky font.
3. When you are happy with how your title looks, go to the Project panel, right-click and choose New > Color Matte.
4. Click Okay and use the Picker to choose the same color as your title.
5. Drag the Color Matte to the layer above your text.
6. In your Effects Control panel, adjust the Color Matte Opacity to 50%.
7. Select the Mask Pen tool and draw your first drip shape under your title; it can help to zoom into the Viewer.
8. When you have created your drip, move the playhead to 16 frames from the clip’s start.
9. Click the Stopwatch alongside Mask Path to create a keyframe.
10. Move your playhead backward 8 frames.
11. Click on the Mask Controls in the Effect Controls panel to view your mask shape.
12. Drag the Mask Path Handles to half the size of your drip.
13. Move the playhead back a further 8 frames to the start; click the Mask Controls and adjust the Path Handles so you can no longer see the drip.
14. Repeat the drip creation process as often as you need for your title, staggering them to start at different points in your composition.

Top Tip: If you don’t have time to create a lot of individual drips, duplicate and reposition your first one.

Part 2: How to Create a Creepy Grunge Title Animation

If you’re looking for creepy horror movie-style titles, then this is the effect for you. For this title style, you will need a grunge background image; we’re using the fantastic Rusty Peeling Metal Texture from Motion Array.

1. Create your title and adjust the style using the Essential Graphics panel.
2. In the Effects panel, search for Ramp; add it to your title.
3. In the Effect Controls panel, change the Ramp Shape to Radial, adjust the Colors and position the Ramp Points to create a gradient effect.
4. Hold Alt and drag the title layer up 2 tracks to create a duplicate.
5. Drag the Background Texture to the track between your title Layers.
6. Right-click the texture layer and choose Nest…
7. In the Effect Controls panel, search for Track Matte Key and add it to the Texture Nest.
8. In the Effects Controls Panel, change the Matte to reference the top video layer (Video 3)
9. Look through the Blend Mode options to find a style that suits your design. When you are done, select all 3 layers, right-click and choose Nest…
10. Select the nested layer and create a keyframe for scale with your playhead at the start of the clip.
11. Move to the end of the timeline and increase the Scale setting to create a slow zoom-in effect.
12. Right-click in the Project Panel to create a New > Color Matte, this time in black.
13. Drag the Color Matte to the timeline above your title.
14. In the Effect Controls panel, select the Circle Mask.
15. Adjust the Mask Shape and Feather to create a vignette around your title, just touching the edges.
16. Ensuring the playhead at the end of the clip, create a keyframe for mask expansion.
17. Move back to the clip’s start and decrease the mask expansion until the title is no longer visible.
18. In the Keyframe panel, drag the diamonds along the timeline to speed up or slow down the animation.
19. Right-click each keyframe and choose Ease Out for the start and Ease In for the end.

Part 3: Top Premiere Pro Halloween Text Animations for Editors

If creating titles of your own from scratch seems too much work, check out the incredible collection of Halloween Titles for Premiere Pro from Motion Array.

1. Horror Text Animations

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The Horror Animations Preset includes a variety of creepy stretched title effects, ideal intro sequences, and credits. The slow blurred glitch style is a simple effect that can be built on with font, color, and background options.

2. Halloween Logo

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The Halloween Logo offers one text/logo placeholder in a beautifully rendered cartoon intro sequence. The camera pans into a cauldron sitting amongst carved pumpkins, filled with boiling green goo, before landing on your message contained in a rising bubble.

3. Rooms Horror Opener

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The Horror Rooms Opener includes 16 titles, 8 media, and 1 logo placeholder in a chilling and eerie composition. The background elements include a series of spooky rooms that project your media around the walls, while the large titles display your messaging.

4. Horror Movies Titles

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The Horror Movie Titles include 20 stunning designs ideal for horror, thriller, and sci-fi film. The minimalist titles slide on surrounded by lin animations with subtle RBG glitch effects to highlight the titles from the background.

5. Halloween Scary Titles

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The Halloween Scary Titles pack includes 5 fun, cartoon-style text elements, ideal for full-screen titles, lower thirds, and badge elements. The cute spooky designs include a cauldron, pumpkins, a graveyard, and blood splatters.

6. Horror Trailer

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The Horror Trailer is ideal for promoting your scary video projects and seasonal greetings. The titles burst on screen with a subtle scale-up while the background elements scale down, giving a cool but creepy composition. 

7. Thriller Opener 4K

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The Thriller Opener 4K project offers a simple but effective title animation, ideal for films with a lot of suspense. The titles drift across the screen with a double-exposure glitch effect, creating a ghostly pattern to your text elements.

8. Light Rays Opener

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The Light Rays Opener includes 12 presets to create stunning horror/thriller opening titles and credit sequences. There is no title animation in this template; instead, the light rays burst on-screen, highlighting your messaging in any font, color, or style.

Premiere Pro is an incredible suite of tools for editing, and After Effects is Adobe’s dedicated animation software. However, there are lots of effects you can create from scratch in Premiere. So now you know a couple of techniques to create stylistic text, why not apply the methods to other projects and styles. Check out this handy guide for even more Halloween-inspired templates.