Halloween Heads Up Game Cards Printable
Heads Up is the game where one player holds a card to their forehead and everyone else acts out, describes, or mimes the word on it. The Halloween version is an absolute party weapon: the words are things everyone knows, the acting gets ridiculous fast, and it works for kids, teens, and adults with zero setup. Below is the complete printable kit — the rules card, 60 ready-to-cut game cards across six categories, and a score sheet. Print, cut, play.
All free, all below. And if you’d rather have the designed card deck — matching cards, rules, and score sheet in one coordinated Halloween set — for the full designed bundle with matching scorecards and game cards, grab it in our Etsy shop: fukroo.etsy.com.
The Rules Card
HALLOWEEN HEADS UP — OFFICIAL RULES
- Split into two teams. Each round, one team sends up a guesser who holds a card to their forehead (word facing out, so they can’t see it).
- The guesser’s teammates act out, describe, or mime the word — no saying the word itself, no rhyming with it, no spelling it, no pointing at it in the room.
- Set a timer for 60 seconds. The guesser shouts guesses; teammates say “yes” and move to the next card, or “pass” to skip a hard one (max 3 passes per round).
- Each correct guess scores 1 point. Passed cards score nothing.
- Teams alternate guessers each round. Play 4–6 rounds (or until the card stack runs out). Most points wins.
How to Print and Cut the Cards
Each category below is a set of cards. Print the page, cut along the lines (or just cut rough squares — nobody cares), and sort them into six piles. For a shorter game, use three categories. For mixed-age groups, pull out the “Spooky but Silly” and “Candy & Treats” piles — those are the easiest.
The Game Cards (60 Cards, 6 Categories)
Category 1: Halloween Movies (Family-Friendly)
- A friendly ghost movie (the one with the cartoon ghost)
- The nightmare before Christmas
- Hocus Pocus
- Casper
- Hotel Transylvania
- The Addams Family
- Beetlejuice
- Ghostbusters
- It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
- Coco
Category 2: Candy & Treats
- Candy corn
- Caramel apple
- Chocolate bar (full-size!)
- Gummy worms
- Lollipop
- Candy apple
- Popcorn ball
- Licorice
- Jelly beans
- Pumpkin pie
Category 3: Monsters & Creatures
- Vampire
- Werewolf
- Zombie
- Mummy
- Frankenstein’s monster
- Witch
- Ghost
- Skeleton
- Black cat
- Bat
Category 4: Costumes
- Pirate
- Princess
- Superhero
- Clown
- Cowboy
- Fairy
- Ninja
- Astronaut
- Devil
- Angel
Category 5: Spooky but Silly (Easiest — Great for Kids)
- Jack-o’-lantern
- Haunted house
- Trick-or-treat
- Spider web
- Cauldron
- Broomstick
- Pumpkin patch
- Scarecrow
- Full moon
- Costume parade
Category 6: Hard Mode (For Teens and Adults)
- Headless Horseman
- Poltergeist
- Crypt
- Exorcism
- Gargoyle
- Seance
- Witch’s brew
- Graveyard shift
- Phantom
- Possessed doll
Blank Cards (Make Your Own)
Every group has inside jokes. Leave a few blank cards in the stack:
HALLOWEEN HEADS UP — BLANK CARD
Category: ______________
Word: ______________
Category: ______________
Word: ______________
Write in your group’s favorites: the host’s costume from last year, the neighbor with the twelve-foot skeleton, the candy nobody eats. Custom cards always get the biggest laughs.
Score Sheet (For the Host)
HALLOWEEN HEADS UP — SCORE SHEET
Round | Team ______________ guesser: ______________ | Correct | Passes | Points
1 | | | |
2 | | | |
3 | | | |
4 | | | |
5 | | | |
6 | | | |
Team total: ______
Round | Team ______________ guesser: ______________ | Correct | Passes | Points
1 | | | |
2 | | | |
3 | | | |
4 | | | |
5 | | | |
6 | | | |
Team total: ______
WINNING TEAM: ______________
Hosting Tips
- Demo the first card yourself. Hold one up, let the room shout clues at you, and deliberately guess wrong twice. It sets the tone: this game rewards chaos, not precision.
- Enforce the “no saying the word” rule with a penalty: if a teammate says the word (or part of it), that card is dead — no point, move on. One dramatic disqualification early on and everyone plays fair.
- For young kids, let the guesser hold the card where THEY can see it and act it out for the team to guess — reversed rules, same cards, much easier for ages 5–7.
- Keep a “pass pile.” Skipped cards go back in the deck for later rounds instead of being wasted. Hard Mode cards you pass in round 2 become round 5’s problem.
- Sixty seconds is the sweet spot. Thirty is too frantic, ninety drags. Trust the minute.
Sixty cards, one timer, and a room full of people flapping their arms like bats — that’s the whole game, and it’s consistently the loudest fifteen minutes of any Halloween party I’ve thrown. Print the cards, split the teams, and let the miming begin.
Want the designed deck? The printable cards above are free and ready to cut. But for the full designed bundle with matching scorecards, rules cards, and game cards in one coordinated Halloween set, grab it in our Etsy shop: fukroo.etsy.com.
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