PULTEVENT
Halloween party games for adults: 7 formats with a costume vote
The man in the inflatable T. rex suit cannot hold his phone. The arms are about eight inches long and end in felt claws, so his girlfriend scans the QR code for him and casts his vote in the costume contest. That is roughly how every grown-up Halloween party I host goes. People came in character, and the games have to work around the masks, the fake blood and the drink in the other hand.
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My setup never changes much. The console runs in a browser on my laptop, the TV carries the picture, and a QR code on that TV is how people get in. Nothing to install, nobody makes an account. Phones need internet, and mobile data is fine, which matters more than usual in a basement decorated with forty paper bats.
Below are the seven formats I use for adult Halloween parties, at home and in bars, roughly in running order, plus the things that tend to go wrong.
Seven formats for a grown-up Halloween party
1 Costume contest by phone vote
Walk the contenders across the front of the room one at a time, then open a vote listing them. Phones do the choosing; the result shows up only once you end it. I run three categories: scariest, funniest, most effort.
How to run it. Announce the categories at the door so people know they are in the running. Switch the vote to anonymous if the room is full of coworkers.
A paper ballot box always ends with somebody's cousin stuffing it. One phone, one vote settles that before it starts.
2 Horror movie quiz
Fifteen questions from the quiz builder: a still with the villain cropped out, a famous line, the year a franchise began. Four answer buttons on each phone, bars climbing on the wall, a countdown of 20, 30 or 45 seconds, and the answer revealed at zero.
How to run it. Mix the decades. Put one question in each round that someone who has never watched a horror film can still get.
The film buffs get their moment and the people who watch through their fingers score on the easy ones. Everyone keeps talking.
3 Fake karaoke of theme songs
A guest sings along to a backing track. The microphone, plugged into the laptop, records only the voice. Then the moment of truth: the music drops out and the room hears the performance on its own.
How to run it. Test it on yourself before anyone arrives. Choose songs where everyone knows the chorus: a ghost-hunting film theme, the zombie dance number, the organ riff from every haunted house.
The first performance gets a laugh. By the second, the whole room is begging to go next.
4 Fun Flight, night edition
Six guests each take a plane on their phone, a monoplane, a biplane or a seaplane with a number on the side, and race over mountains, lakes and forest. The big screen cuts between cameras like a broadcast, the sky turns to night with a moon, and weather rolls in. Most coins wins.
How to run it. Pick the night flight over the forest. It is not strictly a Halloween theme, but with the lights down it plays like one. Run three or four races and swap in spectators.
It gives the people who lost the costume contest a second shot at glory.
5 Title screens with names and photos
Between games the wall carries a title card for the night: its name, the date, any background you like. I use a photo of the best costume from the door.
How to run it. Load it before guests arrive and return to it between every block.
A dark room with a lit, still image on the wall is atmosphere. A dark room with a laptop desktop on the wall is not.
6 Team scoreboard
Split the room into covens, crypts or tables, whatever fits, and keep a running score on the big screen. You add points during each game, and a label above the table shows what they were for.
How to run it. Name the teams after the decorations in the room. Give points for the quiz, the flight races and each costume category.
A running score gives a loose party some structure. People start caring about the second half.
7 Awards ceremony
At the end, the awards section looks at the night's stats and picks fun awards for every team, so nobody goes home with nothing. One overall winner, one cup. You can rename any award before the show.
How to run it. Buy one plastic skull trophy and a bag of candy. The skull goes to the winners, the candy to every award.
It gives the night an ending instead of a slow fade into the kitchen.
Costume vote without paper ballots
Each phone gets a single vote from the list of costumes you typed in, and the winner is revealed the moment you end voting. No counting slips under a strobe light.
A horror quiz in your own words
Build it in the quiz builder with stills, sound and short clips. Answers come from phones against a countdown, and the right one turns green.
The moment of truth
Fake karaoke records only the singer's voice over the backing track. Then the music cuts out and the room hears what really happened.
Awards so nobody leaves empty-handed
The scoreboard tracks team points all night and ends with fun awards on the screen. Every team gets at least one. There is still only one cup.
House party or bar
At home, a TV and a laptop over HDMI are all you need. Twelve to twenty-five people is a comfortable size, and the costume vote is more fun when everyone knows each other by name.
At a bar or a rented room, the screen usually hangs over the bar and the speakers belong to someone else. Ask for the HDMI input and a cable long enough to reach where you stand, and check the phone reception at the back tables. Guests play on their own data, so the venue Wi-Fi is a bonus, not a requirement.
The costume problem
Costumes are the whole point, and they get in the way. Masks fog up glasses, gloves do not work on touch screens, inflatable suits have no hands. I pair people up: one phone per pair for the quiz, everyone on their own phone for the vote. I keep the flight races for last, when the masks are off anyway.
And take the arrival photos. You will want them.
How the evening runs
Doors at eight, photos as people come in. The quiz at nine while everyone is still sitting down. The costume vote at half past, once the late arrivals have made their entrance. Fake karaoke at ten, flight races at half past, awards before eleven, then music. The DJ deck lives in the same console, so you can keep the music going without switching laptops.
Couples, groups and the people who did not dress up
Group costumes are a scoring problem. Five friends as the cast of a sitcom should count as one entry, not five, or they will win every category on sheer numbers. I list them once in the vote and give them their own category if there are several.
Then there is the guest who came in jeans and cat ears drawn on with eyeliner. Give them a job: timekeeper for the flight races, or the person who reads the quiz answers. Nobody should spend the party apologizing for their outfit.
What it will not do
Guests need internet on their phones. There is no offline mode, and in a room this full I would not trust one anyway. Most of the built-in quiz content is Russian at the moment, which means the horror quiz is yours to write in English. It is also better when question seven is about the host's own worst costume.
About the author
PULTEVENT was built by Ruslan Barashkin, an event host since 2014 with more than 500 events behind him. The TOP 100 Awards named him best host in Moscow in 2024 and in Saint Petersburg in 2023. He wrote the console for his own nights first: pultevent.ru/en.
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How to run a Halloween party on the screen
- 1
Write the horror quiz in the quiz builder and settle the costume categories.
- 2
Run HDMI from the laptop to the screen and get the title card up.
- 3
Photograph costumes at the door and note the contenders for each category.
- 4
Turn on live mode and show the QR code so guests join before the first game.
- 5
Run the quiz, the costume vote, fake karaoke and the flight races, adding points to the scoreboard as you go.
- 6
Close with the awards ceremony, hand over the skull, then give the room to the music.
FAQ
Can people vote for their own costume?
What if someone's phone dies halfway through?
Do we need venue Wi-Fi?
Is there a ready-made Halloween quiz in English?
Is the fake karaoke recording saved anywhere?
Can we do this at a virtual Halloween party?
How long should the games take?
How much does it cost?
See also
Run brighter events — with PULTEVENT
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