20 Haunting Halloween Cocktails

Jack-O-Lantern is a popular name for Halloween drinks and a number of recipes have used it over the years. Yet, few are as simple or as eye-catching as this one. While it's not a pumpkin-flavored cocktail, it looks like one. Inside this glass you'll find a pleasant drink of Cognac, Grand Marnier, and orange juice topped with ginger ale. It's the Halloween-worthy garnish that really takes it from ordinary to extraordinary.

Many attempts have been made to recreate the taste of candy corn in a glass. While they're not perfect, they're a lot of fun. In this Candy Corn Cocktail, you'll infuse kettle corn into a bottle of gin and pair that with Moscato wine and homemade grenadine. It's a little fancy and a little out-of-the-box, but that's what makes it great.

Are you hosting a fancier party or just want to show off your new cocktail glasses? Then you'll want to serve up a bewitching martini. In this realm, the Halloween Hypnotist is a recipe you won't want to miss. The drink has a haunting, eerie blue glow and requires just three common ingredients. It's both easy and fruity—just don't forget the glow stick for the full effect.

For this super easy cocktail, you get to make candy corn-infused vodka. It takes just a couple hours for the infusion, so you can pull it off at the last minute and it's guaranteed to be the talk of the party. When it's serving time, mix up a round of Children of the Corn cocktails by adding cinnamon syrup, lemon juice, and seltzer to your sweet vodka.

Go old-school with an impressive variation on the Scotch Manhattan. The Blood and Sand adds a splash of cherry brandy and orange juice to the popular whisky-and-vermouth combination. This classic is a winner for any occasion, but it's the name that makes it a great fit for Halloween.

The Peach Candy Corn Cocktail takes an entirely different approach. It is all about creating the cult-favorite treat's three layers and this recipe plays up that visual effect in a delicious way. It's sweet—a mix of sparkling peach, pineapple, and whipped cream vodka—and as fun to drink as it is to look at.

The Vampire Kiss Martini is fancy and fun, combining vodka, Chambord, and Champagne into one tasty concoction. The bloody red rim sets it over the top and you can always drop in some wax vampire teeth to give guests an extra special surprise.

To make an old-fashioned game like bobbing for apples even more of a spectacle, add an applicious cocktail to the party. The Candy Appley Cocktail adds caramel-flavored moonshine to sparkling cider. It also tosses an apple liqueur and some cranberry juice into the mix. It's certainly not what you'd expect from moonshine and that's most definitely a good thing.

Shock your guests by serving Jägermeister and tequila together in style and on the rocks. The Fright Night in the Grove is incredibly simple because the only other ingredients you need are simple syrup and grapefruit juice. It's a devilish drink and a new way to enjoy these two notorious spirits.

Admittedly, some drinks are more gimmick than anything else. Yet, they're filled with fun ideas and the surprises cocktails like the Frog in a Blender are sure to set your party apart from the rest. In this recipe, you'll create a mess out of a vodka cranberry by giving the drink a whirl in the blender. The trick is to avoid blending it as well as you would your margaritas, so all those green bits of lime remain chunky.

Making jello shots for the party? Save a bit of the gelatinous treat for this fun rum cocktail and give it a creepy vibe. You can totally customize the look of the Swamp Water Surprise by choosing certain ingredients. For the curaçao, go with the blue liqueur or a clear one. Then, add in your favorite fruity gelatin in whatever color you like.

When you're looking for a bloody good drink that will entertain and refresh, the Skeleton Key is a great choice. This unique bourbon cocktail includes elderflower and ginger beer and has an easy bloody garnish. Bottle of bitters be gone.

You'll have a little something extra floating around in your glass when you make the Black Widow. It is nothing more than a Halloween-inspired way to make a vodka cranberry. The key to pulling it off is that you will need to find Blavod or to make black vodka from scratch.

Another funky apparition in a glass, the Ghostbuster features an entirely different style of cocktail. It's just as easy and creates a green drink with a peachy-melon flavor that everyone will die for. What's floating inside? It's a white spirit that you probably already have in your bar.

There are many cocktail recipes that are named for things that go bump in the night. A favorite among those is the classic Zombie, which is a little different than the punch. Both are old-school tiki cocktails and either of the fruit-filled, rum-heavy drinks will keep the party going all night.

The Corpse Reviver family of drinks have been waking the dead since the 1930s. The No. 2 recipe is a gin-based mix with a little absinthe mixed in for wicked good times. It will surely revive, invigorate, and entertain all your ghoulish guests.

A bite from this creepy tiki cocktail isn't such a bad thing. The second round? Well, that may be a different story. The Scorpion will definitely pack a punch—and it is an actual punch—so it will quench the thirsts of all the ghosts, goblins, and monsters that show up. Rum and white wine make up most of it, but there's also gin, brandy, fruits, and mint inside.

If a Hitchcock film fest is in your plans, the Vertigo is the perfect drink for you. It's classy, it's casual, and extremely satisfying. All you need is Averna, lemon juice, and ginger ale. The layering effect makes it just a little more interesting than the ingredient list makes it sound.

The Zombie's Brew is all the permission you need to pick up a candied vodka for Halloween. If Three Olives Tartz is on your radar, this easy lemonade cocktail is ideal, offering a tart mix that anyone can mix up in minutes. Make it for the crowd or by the glass, it's fantastic either way.

Treat your guests to a round of Halloween shots and serve up the memorable wolf bite. Like a mad scientist's experiment gone wrong, this fun absinthe and Midori shooter—complete with a blood-red float—needs to be seen before it goes down.