How To Throw A Halloween Murder Mystery
It’s the end of summer, so what does that mean? It’s nearly Halloween! Crisp, cold morning, golden leaves, chestnuts falling and of course Pumkin Spice Lattes, it’s time to dig out your winter boots and woolly jumpers and enjoy the spooky season. What better way to celebrate than by hosting your own Halloween Murder Mystery?
The great thing about this time of year is as soon as the kids are back at school (and sometimes before) shops are already stocking tons of Halloween goodies, sweets, decorations and themed glassware and if you stock up early it’s super cheap as the prices won’t go up for another few weeks, so now is the perfect time to plan your Halloween Murder Mystery Party.
At Masters of Mystery we have a great selection of spooky themed games if you’re into magic, why not go for our Toadwart Mystery? Feeling spooky why not go for a haunting mystery?, craving blood and elegance? Well, we have a Vampire ball, maybe you want a monster movie mash up? you can pick any of our Halloween games, or maybe you have something else in mind? You can view all our games at Masters Of Mystery, have a browse and start planning your party!
Where to begin?
When it comes to choosing your game, we recommend either Vampire Ball, Haunted House or Monster Mash but you can pick anything you want from our wide selection. Once you’ve chosen your game you will find everything you need to run the game inside the box, there will be a list of all characters (up to 20, depending on which version of the game you’ve bought), their names and a little bit about them, you can then start thinking about the people you want to invite and who might have fun in what parts. The game pack will also contain detailed character booklets for your guests, when they arrive so they will know exactly what to do. You will also find all the evidence that you need to reveal each round and a handy host guide which will tell you exactly when you need to do this.
The next thing you want to think about is where to host your Halloween party. If it’s a smaller group then you might be happy hosting it in your home, if you’ve opted for our larger 20-person game packs then you may prefer to hire a function room and host your party there.
One you’ve chosen a venue and you’ve decided on the date you want to have the Halloween party; you can then send out invitations to your guests. The invite will tell them what character they will be playing and since the game pack will have given some examples of what they can wear, it might be helpful for you to share that information with your guests so that they have time to prepare and shop if they need to. The more notice you can give people the better prepared they can be.
Setting the scene
Now the guests have been invited, you can turn your attention to actual party planning, Thinking about the decorations, music, food, drinks everything. Below are some examples of the kinds of things that you can do.
Decorations
It’s Halloween, you need spooky decorations! You don’t need to spend loads of money on decorations either, browse the discount stores and see what they have on offer, you can pick up some flickering lights, spider webs, pictures that appear to move, wall hangings, severed heads or hands and all sorts of cool things for cheap. You could even have a go at making some decorations yourself. Make some spooky Halloween Bunting, create a severed head or a hand out of paper mâché, carve some pumpkins, your options are limited only by your imagination. For some example of DIY decorations you can view this gallery.
Music
Music is a key part of any Halloween party, the type of music you select will depend on the type of party you want to throw. Are you having a horror movie murder mystery? If so, why not find have a browse on the internet and find the soundtrack to your favourite horror movie or dark musical? Popular spooky Halloween might include Jekyll and Hyde, Sweeney Todd, Little Shop of Horrors or of course Rocky Horror Picture Show. Never underestimate the power of a good piece of old-fashioned classical music. Danse Macabre, Night on Bald Mountain, Hall of the mountain king. You may not know these songs by name, but you will probably have heard them at some point in your life. Have a listen to Classic FM’s top 20 scary classical music and see if you get some inspiration.
Food
It wouldn’t be a murder mystery party without some devilish delights to serve up to your guests. Whether you are serving up a three-course meal and so you might have devilled eggs or, devils food cake, served alongside traditional autumn veg and soups or meat dishes or whether you choose to have a buffet meal with mummied hot dogs, Jellied eyeballs or marshmallow ghosts you can find all sorts of spooky food inspiration online.
Drinks
Red wine is great to serve at a Halloween party, the richness of the red, the fact that it can in fact create stains that look like blood create a great affect, especially if you are having a vampire ball. But other than obvious drinks such as wine what else can you serve up? Why not create the effect of a magic potion with the use of some shimmer powder? Often used by potion and cocktail makers to create a shimmer effect on their drinks. Shimmer powder comes in all different colours and can be bought online at various stores. Why not add some magic to your Halloween drinks? For more fun and drinks ideas you could always have a read of our Spooky Cocktails and Mocktails blog, to give you some inspiration as to what to serve up to your guests.
What to wear, where to buy costumes
You’re hosting a Halloween themed murder mystery you need to think about costumes, not only for yourself but for your guests too. Do you want an overall theme or colour scheme at your party? Or do you have very specific ideas about what you want you guests to wear. Make sure you’re very clear in your invites. At Masters of Mystery, our games contain a list of character costume suggestions for you to share with your guests. This is only a guideline of what you can wear though.
If you are going full costume party then there are plenty of costume stores in city centres and also various online stores too if you want to just buy your costumes outright and can afford to do so. If you can’t afford that though there are various online retailers and marketplaces where you can pick up a good costume for less money than perhaps a costume shop might offer. Sites such as Shein, Ali Express and Temu are a few. Depending on where you live, make sure that if you are going to order a costume online you give yourself plenty of time for it to arrive if it’s coming from abroad.
If you are going with a colour scheme rather than a costume party then make sure you state that in your invitations. Maybe you want all your guests to be in red and black or dark blue and purple, you might want an orange and white theme. Give your guests plenty of notice as to what your colour scheme is so they have time to find something. Never underestimate a visit to a charity shop or thrift store, these places can be great for finding costumes or outfits for a Halloween party. You can of course customise anything with some netting, torn fabric or fake blood.
Playing the game
The advantage to using one of Masters of Mystery games for your Halloween party is everything you need for the game itself will be included in the game pack. Once you’re ready to play, your guests start arriving, use the host guide to run the event, it’ll tell you when to reveal evidence, when to open the rounds of questioning and when to play any important audio or video files. You will need to hand out the character booklets to the guests when they arrive, but this will tell them everything they need to know in order to enjoy the game, each booklet is split into rounds. Introductions, Questioning, Motives, Methods, Opportunities and closing statements. Unsure of what to do? Have a read of our How To Guide here. Done that? Great! Now all that is left to do is have fun! So hit play on your spooky music mix, serve up your demonic drinks, present your gruesome gourmet dishes and try to figure out whodunit in your Halloween Murder Myster. Let’s get spooky!
