7 devilishly fun games to make your Halloween party a smash

The fun of Halloween can dwindle hard in your adulthood. Once you're too old to walk around the neighbourhood with a pillow case and the beer pong prime of your college years are far behind you, you could spend the rest of your life just handing out awesome candy to perfect strangers having a way better time than you. But it's never too late to take charge and throw a Halloween party of your own. And if you're sick of bobbing for apples or reaching into the mystery box (everyone knew it was spaghetti and not brains anyway), here are a few fun games to keep your guests entertained well into the night. Don't forget the prizes.

Pumpkin Toss

What you'll need: Big pumpkins, carving tools, balls/beanbags/apples, space to play (ideally a backyard)

Find 3 or more of the biggest pumpkins you can and carve a variety of different sized shapes into them, all big enough to fit a ball through. Paint around each shape in a different colour, corresponding to a different score (eg. red is 10, blue is 20). Set them up in your yard at different distances - you can light them with LEDs if it's getting dark - and have your guests play a variety of toss games: first to 100, highest score in 30 seconds, etc.

Monster On My Back

What you'll need: Printed photos, tape

When each guest arrives, have them turn around and tape a photo of a famous movie monster or villain on their backs, without them seeing who it is. During the course of the night, the guests must guess who is on their back only by asking the other guests yes and no questions about them.

MORE HALLOWEEN:

Flash Memory

What you'll need: Decorated rooms, papers, pens

Perfect for the host who likes to decorate devilishly. Give your guests five to ten minutes to go through every decorated room in your house, taking note of everything that's there. When the time is up, gather them all together, give each a paper and pen and ask them specific questions regarding your decorations, like "How many spiders are in the hall?", "What's the name on the tombstone?", "What are the colours of the candy bowls?" etc. Always have an extremely difficult tie breaker standing by.

Make Me

What you'll need: Pen, strips of paper

Prepare to hypnotize. On the strips of paper, write out a task for each guest that involves them getting another guest to do something; ex. "Make Steve scratch his nose", though you could get much wilder. When each guest arrives, give them their paper, have them read their task and then put it in their pocket. For the rest of the evening, each guest has to perform their task without the target guest realizing. When they do, they can call it out and reveal their paper. If your target guest realizes what you're trying to do and calls you out, you're eliminated.

Zombies

What you'll need: Room to play (backyard or empty room)

Great to play with kids and adults. One person is assigned to be the "living", while the other guests play dead by collapsing to the floor. As the living walks around the room, the dead try to slowly get from a lying position to a fully standing position without being caught. If the living catches them moving, they're eliminated from the game.

Story Time

What you'll need: NOTHING! Nothing except your creativity, that is.

The day of the party, message each guest with the opening line of a different horror/science fiction story; ex. "With the storm approaching the castle, the doctor could finally begin his experiment". Tell each guest to come prepared with the rest of the story and have each tell their stories campfire-style. If you have a really creative guest list, give each guest the same start and see how they take it in a different direction.

Who Died?

What you'll need: Tape, weird props

Everyone will play detective in this murder mystery. Tape a "chalk outline" of one of your guests to the floor and scatter some odd props around it. Give each of the other guests some time to examine the position of the outline and the props. When they're ready, they'll each take turns presenting their hypothesis for how the suspect died, involving all the props. When they're done, the victim presents the real way they died to see who was right.