Movie Night Magic: What to Watch This Halloween, Snacks, Activities, and More!
I love Halloween. I love the fun of it, the dressing up, the pumpkin patches, the trunk-or-treats in every church parking lot, the Reeses pumpkins. I also really love Halloween movies. So this edition of Movie Night Magic is a special one. Check out these movie options based on the type of audience you have, complete with snack suggestions and activities you can do to add to the fun! I’m not much of a “scary movie” person, so most of these are more fun than truly terrifying. But, whether you need a great movie for a fun family night, a date night, or night with friends, I got you.
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Movie Night for Families with Small Children
Movie Suggestions
- It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown: It’s a classic staple for spooky season that any age will love.
- Kiki’s Delivery Service: Sweet story of a young witch who uses her flying ability to help others.
- Hotel Transylvania: A cute movie about a hotel full of monsters that are anything but scary.
- Pooh’s Heffalump Halloween Movie: Pooh and friends trick-or-treat and face the dreaded “Gobloon.”
- Scooby Doo Movies: You could go with the recent Scoob!, or a classic like Scooby Doo and the Boo Brothers or Scooby Doo and the Witch’s Ghost.
Activities and Snacks Ideas:
- Make Halloween Cookies: Check out these cute cookie cutters from Amazon in shapes like a pumpkin, black cat, and bat. Buy or make cookie dough, let the kids cut out their favorite shapes. Bake and decorate with icing and fun sprinkles like these.
- Make a Halloween House: If you’ve ever made a gingerbread house at Christmas with kids, you know how fun that is. I didn’t know until recently that there are kits to make a “Haunted House” too. Check out this cute option.
- Play Halloween Bingo: Use this free printable from Crazy Little Projects as your boards and candy corn or M&Ms as the pieces.
- Organize Snacks Individually: Use school supply caddies like the one pictured for easy snacking during the movie.
Movie Night for Families with Older Children
Movie Suggestions
- Hocus Pocus: Probably the most quotable Halloween movie ever, it follows the Sanderson Sisters as they terrorize a small town on Halloween night.
- Halloweentown: Starring Debbie Reynolds, it’s the story of a girl who travels to a town where it’s always Halloween.
- The Haunted Mansion: A silly, stellar Eddie Murphy and his family break an old curse on a haunted mansion.
- Casper: Kat and her family move into a haunted house and she gets to know a very friendly ghost.
- Bedknobs and Broomsticks: This is a classic live-action by Disney, in which Angela Landsbury plays Ms. Price, a real witch facing the very real problems of WWII.
Activities and Snack Ideas:
- You can still use all the ideas above with older kids too.
- Create a Costume Game: Pack a box with random clothing items, along with funny hats, scarves, gloves, swaths of fabric, props, etc. Have each child choose 3-5 items and they have 10 minutes to plan a costume with what they have.
- Make S’mores: We use our open fire grill, which you can find here. But you could also use a s’more kit like this one if you don’t want to spend so much or want to stay indoors.
- Pumpkin Decorating: Depending on the ages of the kids, you could buy acrylic paint and have them paint pumpkins or buy some stickers like these to use to decorate. If you have older kids that you can trust with cutters, you could do pumpkin carving. Check out Kristin’s post for ideas for the perfect pumpkin carving party!
Movies for a Perfect Halloween Date Night
Movie Suggestions
- The Mummy: One of my favorite movies of all time, this one follows Rick and Evie as they defeat an ancient mummy and fall in love.
- Sleepy Hollow: I love the story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and the movie version with Johnny Depp and Christina Ricci is my favorite adaptation, and it’s perfect for a couple on Halloween.
- Warm Bodies: This is my favorite zombie movie and its seriously sweet and funny and entertaining.
- Practical Magic: Two sisters who are witches must lift a curse in order to find love. It’s a great romantic comedy with lots of magic thrown in.
- Coco: I know this is an animated film, and is actually about Dia De Los Muertos rather than Halloween, but I actually think it makes a great date movie, especially for a couple looking to get to know each other better and talk about their families.
Activities and Snack Ideas
- Make a cute Halloween Sign: The blog Kippi At Home has several good DIY ideas for fun Halloween signs that you can check out here.
- Make a fun Halloween Snack: I think it would be so fun to pick a snack off this list of Halloween snacks by Woman’s Day and make it together.
- Go on a Halloween Scavenger Hunt: Check out this Halloween Scavenger Hunt from The Dating Divas that you can do in whatever town you call home. You could even challenge other couples to join you!
- Escape Together: Play this fun “escape room” game that requires you to solve clues to get out of an abandoned house.
Halloween Movie Night with Friends
Movie Suggestions
- Psycho: This is the granddaddy of all horror movies directed by the OG himself, Alfred Hitchcock, and it’s a great film to watch and dissect with friends.
- Little Shop of Horrors: A hilariously campy musical starring Rick Moranis and Steve Martin that’s about a giant plant that eats people.
- Scream: One of my favorite movies to watch with a group, it’s about a girl who is terrorized by a killer on the anniversary of her mother’s murder. It’s got so many great actors from the 90s and it’s great scary fun!
- Ghostbusters: Another of my favorites that’s more funny than scary. Who you gonna call?
- Young Frankenstein: Mel Brooks + Gene Wilder + Frankenstein = hilarious and awesome.
Activities and Snack Ideas:
- Compete with Your Friends: Make any of the activities from the other section into competitions, like the pumpkin decorating, the costume game, or the scavenger hunt.
- Make some Halloween-Themed Drinks: Check out this great list of cocktails perfect for spooky season from Country Living.
- Have a Bonfire: This is a simple idea and it’s something that I feel like just goes with Halloween. It might not be that original, but it sure is fun! And make sure to tell a scary story or two.
- Make Your Own Scary Movie: After you watch a movie, have fun making your own. Maybe make one that spoofs the one you just watched, or see which team can do the best reshoot of a key scene, or come up with your own idea.
What are you watching this Halloween?
So, what is your go-to Halloween movie? What are your favorite things to do for fun during spooky season? Drop a comment below and let me know!
And if you are looking for more ways to make an ordinary night special, check out these posts:
- How to Make Taco Tuesday Even Better!
- 5 Easy Ways to Make Date Night Even More Special
- It’s a Terrific Day for a Teddy Bear Picnic!
- Make Movie Night Memorable with Raya and the Last Dragon
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