40 Halloween would you rather questions for couples

Haunted castle for one night, or a creepy cabin for a week? Here are 40 Halloween would you rather questions for couples, split into five rounds that go from cosy to creepy to sweet, with a simple way to play them for points on a night in.

Would you rather is one of the easiest games there is: two options, one choice, and a reason. The Halloween twist makes it sillier, and the scoring below makes it a proper game. The best part is the same as always, though. You learn how the other person thinks, one ridiculous choice at a time.

How to play Halloween would you rather as a couple

You can simply read the questions out and chat. But if you'd like a bit of friendly competition, try the guess-first version.

1. One of you reads a question aloud.
2. Each of you secretly writes down two things: your own answer, and what you think your partner will pick.
3. Reveal together, both at once.
4. Score a point for every correct guess about your partner.
5. After each round, the person with the better reason for any answer wins a bonus point. Your partner decides.

Keep the score loosely. The real prize is the reveal, when you find out your partner would happily live with a ghost, as long as it keeps the opera down.

Round 1: cosy and a little bit spooky

A gentle start. Good for the first cup of cocoa, or while the pumpkin is still being carved.

1. Would you rather spend Halloween night carving pumpkins at home, or walking round the neighbourhood admiring everyone else's?
2. Would you rather watch a scary film under one blanket, or a cosy film with every light on?
3. Would you rather have a house that smells of cinnamon all October, or one lit by candle lanterns every night?
4. Would you rather give out big chocolate bars to ten trick-or-treaters, or tiny sweets to a hundred?
5. Would you rather wear matching costumes, or costumes that only make sense when you stand together?
6. Would you rather tell ghost stories around a fire, or listen to one read aloud in the dark?
7. Would you rather bake a tray of Halloween biscuits together, or judge a pumpkin carving contest?
8. Would you rather have a spooky Saturday night in, or a spooky Saturday night out?

If you both picked the same answer to most of these, you already know what kind of Halloween you want. If you didn't, you've got a fun negotiation ahead.

Round 2: the haunted house

Now you're inside. Answer as if you really had to live with the consequences.

9. Would you rather stay one night in a haunted castle, or one week in a slightly creepy cabin?
10. Would you rather have a ghost that hides your keys, or one that hums in the kitchen at 3am?
11. Would you rather live in a house with a secret passage, or one with a locked room nobody has ever opened?
12. Would you rather hear footsteps in the attic, or whispers behind the wallpaper?
13. Would you rather share your home with a ghost who sings opera at midnight, or one who rearranges the furniture while you sleep?
14. Would you rather explore an abandoned fairground, or an empty old hotel?
15. Would you rather have every mirror show you a second late, or every door creak as loudly as it can?
16. Would you rather be the one who goes to check the strange noise, or the one who stays behind holding the torch?

Number 16 is a good one to ask "why?" about. The answer often says a lot about who looks after whom.

Round 3: monsters and costumes

Silly, quick and good for laughing at each other's reasons.

17. Would you rather be a witch whose broom only flies at walking pace, or a ghost who can only float through open doors?
18. Would you rather wear a costume you can't sit down in, or one you can't quite see out of?
19. Would you rather be a wizard who always forgets the magic words, or a fortune teller who can only see as far as next Tuesday?
20. Would you rather have a pet raven that repeats everything you say, or a pet spider that spins your name into its web?
21. Would you rather wear the same costume every single year, or a brand new one you don't see until the night?
22. Would you rather turn into a pumpkin at midnight, or a scarecrow at sunrise?
23. Would you rather have a zombie's appetite for a day, or a mummy's bandages for a week?
24. Would you rather choose each other's costume this year, or both dress up as the same thing?

Round 4: horror film rules

Every scary film has the same moments. Which character would each of you be?

25. Would you rather be the one who reads the old book out loud, or the one who says it's probably just the wind?
26. Would you rather split up to search the house, or stay together and move very, very slowly?
27. Would you rather run upstairs, or out into the garden?
28. Would you rather have a car that won't start, or a phone with no signal?
29. Would you rather know the monster's one weakness, or know exactly where the exit is?
30. Would you rather be saved by a clever dog, or by a very brave grandmother?
31. Would you rather hear a music box start playing on its own, or a laugh coming from an empty room?
32. Would you rather watch the whole film through your fingers, or talk the whole way through it?

There are no wrong answers here, but there is usually one of you who would clearly not survive the first half hour. Now you know who.

Round 5: sweet, and a little bit romantic

Save this one for last, when the sweets are nearly gone and the candles are low.

33. Would you rather share the last slice of Halloween cake, or save it for each other and both go without?
34. Would you rather hold hands through the scary bits, or be the brave one for both of us?
35. Would you rather relive our first Halloween together, or plan the best one we've ever had?
36. Would you rather find a love note hidden in a pumpkin, or a surprise treat in your coat pocket?
37. Would you rather have a candlelit dinner for two on Halloween, or a loud party with all our friends?
38. Would you rather be haunted forever by my singing, or by my terrible jokes?
39. Would you rather start a brand new Halloween tradition this year, or bring back one from when we were children?
40. If the clocks go back this weekend, would you rather spend the extra hour asleep, or awake and talking?

Set the scene for a spooky night in

A little atmosphere turns a list of questions into an evening you'll remember. None of it needs to cost much.

• Dim the big lights and use lamps, fairy lights or candle lanterns. Battery candles are safest near costumes and paper decorations.
• Put out a bowl of sweets for points. Each correct guess earns one, and the loser of each round refills the bowl.
• Play a quiet spooky playlist in the background, not loud enough to talk over.
• Keep a pen and two scraps of paper each for the guess-first game.
• Put phones face down, unless you're using one to read the questions.

If you want to make a whole date of it, carve a pumpkin or bake something first, then play the game while it cools. Our cheap date night ideas at home have more ways to make a night in feel like an occasion.

Make it a Halloween tradition

Write your answers down this year and keep them somewhere safe, like tucked into a cookbook or a box of decorations. Next October, play the same 40 again before you read last year's answers. It's surprising how many of them change, and how many don't.

You can also keep the game going beyond October. Our 72 would you rather questions for couples cover everyday life, food, travel and very silly choices, and 100 questions to ask your partner go a little deeper when you're in the mood to talk. For a single question to share each day, try the free question of the day.

That answer-apart, reveal-together idea is also how Our Little Thing, the app we make for couples, friends and family, works. You each answer one question a day in private, then see both answers together, and there's a free This or That game for quick choices like these.