Top 12 Adult Halloween Games

Face it—sometimes we get our best jack-o-lantern design ideas after we put the ones we’ve already carved out on the front stoop. That’s a lot of creative whims lost in the Halloween wind that can hopefully be recovered for next year. But why wait? Why not furnish a bunch of smaller sized pumpkins for your guests—along with carving tools, a newspaper-covered table and bucket for the pumpkin guts—and let them apply their last-minute ideas where they belong?

A scavenger hunt at a party can be tons of fun, and when you theme it spookily for Halloween, it can be a fantastic game to play simultaneously as other activities. Hide plastic spiders and skulls, witch figurines, even pieces of favorite candy throughout your house—just make sure all your guests the running list of items to find, and that you have a special cocktail planned for the winners!

How many films in the Halloween series did Jamie Lee Curtis star in? What’s the name of the first film about Hannibal Lechter? What’s the title of the 5th movie in George Romero’s Living Dead series? Film nerds are a lovable bunch who need care and feeding, especially when they love a specific genre. Your horror and suspense buffs will become devoted to your social events if you put together a trivia contest that aligns with their obsession.

This one brings up two questions:

1. Would you think that trying to eat a piece of fried dough hanging by a string tacked to your ceiling with your hands tied behind your back could bring total hilarity to your Halloween party?
2. Have you ever tried playing it after just one drink? If you answered no to either one of those questions, this one is a Halloween must-do.

Wanna get your guests talking to each other? Try this darker take on the traditional Who Am I? game. Just tape the name of a villain from film, literature, history or the news to the back of each guest, and get them to ask each other questions about their assigned villain without revealing the villain’s name.

All players sit in a circle and must draw out a slip of paper from a hat. All the pieces of paper have the letter “P” written on them except for two—one with the letter “M”, and the other with the letter “I”. Everyone keeps their letter designation secret except for the person who drew the “I”—that person is the Investigator who only gets one chance to guess the person who drew the “M” for “Murderer”. The Murderer “kills” other people in the circle by winking at them, and a guest who receives a wink must dramatically “die” within 30 seconds. The Murderer wins if either the Investigator guesses wrong or all the guests die.

Drinking games involve pouring booze into your gourd, and this one’s not exception. Seat your guests around a large plastic pumpkin with a pint glass in it. Everyone starts with a shot in front of them, and guests take turns drawing a card from the top of a deck. For instance you can have the whole table pass their shots to the right a number of times that corresponds to a number card. If you draw a king, you’ve got to take a sip of what’s in front of you. Draw a queen, and you can make someone else sip. A guest who draws a jack must pour their shot into the pint glass and refill. Finally, when someone draws an ace, they to drink whatever mix is in the pumpkin.

Who wouldn’t be up for this super-spooky version of the TV drinking game? Put on a scary movie and customize rules for taking a sip whenever a certain event happens—a scream, a death, suspenseful music, a certain spoken word or phrase. It’s a great way to make well-worn favorites more inspiring.

Your twisted imagination is the limit when it comes to your Samhain-ish version of this classic (which like any game can involve imbibing alcohol). The key, of course, is to avoid the cliches and challenge your guests with answers like “zombie baby”, “death by ceiling fan” or “witch hosting a cooking show.”

Gather some gothic-styled potion bottles, fill each with a different liquor, then attach a written revealing question or personal task to each bottle. After the drink is finished, guest has to do what the tag says.

You’ll be surprised—maybe even terrified—to find out how many karaoke versions of the dark, opaque, mortified and fearful hits you love are up on YouTube. Find that playlist, break out that mic, and start moping. Goth rock is some of the best kind of music to ridicule and make yourself a ham to, so have at it!

There are a ton of printable Halloween-themed bingo cards available online, and lots of candy corn to use as chips. Just be sure to substitute a chilling scream or groan instead of the bingo call. For a more sedate time, try out a horror-themed board game like Arkham Horro, Call of Cthulhu or Doom: The Board Game.