Halloween Movie Night Pairings, Part 2
Part one was supposed to be the whole list. Then I kept coming up with pairings, and seven more made the cut.
Same rules as before: lighthearted movies, no licensed tie-in games, and every game shares something real with its movie. This batch leans a little more family-friendly, with a couple of picks for the grown-ups at the end.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Halloween Movie Night Pairings
Watch:Â Ghostbusters (Any version, as long as the original 1984 is part of the mix!)
Play: Club Spooky | 2-4 players | Ages 14+ | 45 mins
The Ghostbusters spend the whole movie trying to catch ghosts. In Club Spooky, you're trying to get them to hang out with you. It's a busy night at the club and you're assembling the coolest group of ghouls, outbidding the other players to win over the VIPs. Your clique also has to get along, or they might just leave.
Watch:Â Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
Play: Pirate Party | 1-4 players | Ages 10+ | 20 mins
Cursed pirates who turn into skeletons in the moonlight is about as spooky as a family movie night needs to get. Pirate Party keeps the pirates and swaps the curse for history. It's a rummy-style card game built around real women pirates, with treasure, mermaid wildcards, and a Kraken that can wreck your plans at any moment. It also has a solo mode and two Seaport Solitaire games.
Watch:Â Knives Out (2019)
A Royal Will | 2-4 players | Ages 12+ | 20-30 mins
Knives Out isn't technically a Halloween movie, but it has a spooky old house, a dead patriarch, and a family that turns on each other the second the will comes up. That makes it perfect for an October mystery night.
A Royal Will by Mega Mint Games is that family fight as a card game. Everyone competes for the inheritance by secretly asking for coins from a shared pot. If the pot can't cover everyone, it goes bust, nobody gets paid, and the greediest player pays a penalty. The Thrombeys would hate it.
Watch:Â Hotel Transylvania (2012)
Play: The Hunger | 2-6 players | Ages 12+ | 60 mins
Hotel Transylvania is all about Dracula's castle. In The Hunger, you're a vampire racing to get back to yours before sunrise. Along the way you hunt humans for points and recruit familiars, and all of it goes into your deck. Every human you hunt slows you down, so get too greedy and the sun comes up before you're home.
I played this for the first time at an all-day game event this month. I usually shy away from games this complex, and I was glad I took the chance. It was a lot of fun, even though I lost terribly. The movie works for little kids, but the game is best for families with teens. Copies of the original are hard to find right now, so your local game store used shelves!
Watch:Â The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
Play: Yahtzee| 1+ players | Ages 8+ | 30 mins
Oogie Boogie plays a high-stakes roulette game to decide Santa and Sally's fate in the movie, so any favorite dice game is a great option to pair with The Nightmare Before Christmas.
And since this movie counts as both a Halloween movie and a Christmas movie, the game gets to stay out through December.
Watch:Â Little Shop of Horrors (1986)
Play: Botany | 1-5 players | Ages 8+ | 45-90 mins
Seymour is a florist's assistant who finds one strange plant and gets very, very carried away. In Botany, you're a Victorian plant hunter traveling the world to collect specimens, hiring crew, picking up pets, and building orangeries and conservatories back at your estate to win the Queen's Prize in Botany. It's the same obsession with rare plants, minus the part where one of them asks you to feed it.
For the plant parent with a few too many plants.
Watch:Â Coco (2017)
Play: You Think You Know Me | 3-8 players | Ages 14+ | 30-60 mins
Coco is about remembering the people in your family and the stories that keep them with you. You Think You Know Me puts that to the test: how well do the people around this table actually know each other? This game sits on my desk and comes out all the time for team events, and it works just as well with family.
For families with teens who want a movie night that ends in storytelling.
Quick Reference: Halloween Movie Night Pairings, Part 2
Game | Pair With | Players | Time |
Ghostbusters | 2-4 | 45 mins | |
Pirates of the Caribbean | 1-4 | 20 mins | |
Hotel Transylvania | 2-6 | 60 mins | |
Coco | 3-8 | 30-60 mins | |
[Yahtzee]([AFFILIATE LINK]) | The Nightmare Before Christmas | 1+ | 30 mins |
Little Shop of Horrors | 1-5 | 45-90 mins | |
Knives Out | 2-4 | 20-30 mins |
