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Remember that line from Addam's Family?;

Uncle Knick-knack's Summer wardrobe....
Uncle Knick-knack's Winter wardrobe....
Uncle Knick-knack.....

How about:

-Old, dusty and LOCKED journals
-Revealing letters that cast family members in new light
-Preserved black cat
-Jar of Sea Salt
-Ivory key case; key missing
-Several cans of red, dry caked paint (if the dry paint is chipped away, perhaps the key, or other item, had fallen (or was hidden) inside the paint when it was wet)
-Old 45 records of "bayou" songs recorded at an obscure music studio where a grandparent used to work/play at when in his 20s

I know, I know. I just think New Orleans is a great setting for a good voodoo story. And when you mix elements from voodoo with Cajun folklore and flavor, toss in some swamp sequences and a dirty old crusty guide from the last century with a Cajun/French accent holding a hurricane lamp in a rainstorm while fending off zombies... well, there ya go. Thank you please drive through.

Man, that real story from New Orleans is pretty creepy. I mean, to think that *people* actually did that to other people. Makes BTK seem like rated PG.

I think that's why we need "scary" things like voodoo and monsters and stuff found in attics. The real world is a truly dark place sometimes.

But on a lighter note, you might also find artifacts from the Civil War era in a locked chest. Confederate uniforms, money, coins, weapons, the works. Why? Well, say a detachment of rebs got lost from their command, or deserted. They went exploring into the swamps, looking for gold or whatever. They found death. They were turned into zombies or something (talk about a Civil War reenactment!). Also inside this chest might be papers/documents and land titles to some developed areas, something to throw a legal twist on the story, or let the characters cash in on the discovery. AFTER they fight the zombie that was stuffed in the chest.

Check the case files of serial killers on the web if you want serious insight into the evil humans are capable of inflicting on one another. For that matter, check the Nuremburg trials info, some of the stuff the concentration camp commanders did was pretty damn evil. Dr Mengele is another good source and more recent than Nuremburg. Vlad the Impailer and the Marquis d'Said are also worth noting and they have very interesting ties to modern culture.