Ok, you don't need any blood, ghosties, bugs, etc. to creep people out and btw... it's not the trick but rather the affect YOU have on your audience; give the right spiel and their mind will do the rest. On the other hand you can have the best, bloodiest buzz saw illusion ever made and no one will believe anything about it because YOU stink as a showman.
Bizarre/Macabre Magick has been a huge part of what I do and have done since the later 1970s and it has far more to do with what you allude to than it does anything else. That's not say that you don't want "Special Effects" that help punctuate the psychological set-up you spin with your words & staging, only that you need to work from the foundation of what makes something Bizarre or Creepy or Gross or simply Mystical and Enchanting -- obviously, you need to understand what those things are in order to reach them as a goal as well as knowing how to manipulate the emotions and ideomotor reactions in people as you weave each presentational web.
If you believe yourself a Bizarre Entertainer because you dress in dark clothing, wear eyeliner and have blood smeared on a few playing cards or a big needle to jam through your arm. . . YOU AREN'T! Like Goth, Steampunk, etc. it's a frame of mind that goes much further than tricks.
If this is the stuff you like I'd recommend finding a copy of Jim Magus' Arcana of Bizarre Magick so as to better define things in your head (not to mention, there's some neat routine ideas in there).
