The Ultimate Summerween Bucketlist: 13 Spooky Things to Do This Summer

For those of us who come alive in the crisp fall air, we need something to do to keep us from melting away during the summer months. Something like haunted boardwalks, drive-in horror movies, ghost stories around the campfire, and the sneaking suspicion that your lakeside vacation is about to become the opening scene of a slasher.

This Summerween bucket list is filled with spooky summer activities for horror fans who are already counting down to Halloween. Complete all twelve, choose your favorites, or use it as inspiration for your own Summerween screams.

Save the checklist, send it to your favorite final girl, and see how many Summerween activities you can complete before summer dies.

• Watch a horror movie at the drive-in.

  Choose a summer slasher, creature feature, or classic monster movie. Bring a group, an inflatable bed, a spare car battery, or an external speaker, and plenty of your favorite snacks if your drive-in does not have a concession stand.

• Tell ghost stories around the campfire

  Gather your darkest of darlings, make some s’mores, and see who can tell the story that keeps everyone investigating the unexplained noises.

• Read a horror novel by the water

  Bring something eerie to the pool, beach, or lake. Just try not to think too hard about what could be moving beneath the surface. Join our book club over on Fable if you want some solid recommendations.

• Take a Summerween late-night drive

  Roll down the windows, turn up your spooky summer playlist (Like this one here), and cruise past neon signs, sleepy diners, and suspicious roadside motels. Bonus points for staying at your favorite haunted hotel, like the Stanley.

• Visit a creepy roadside attraction

  Look for strange museums, abandoned-looking landmarks, oddities shops, haunted locations, or anything advertised by a cardboard sign on the side of the road.

• Carve a watermelon jack-o’-lantern

  Give traditional pumpkin carving a sticky summer makeover with a watermelon.

• Go thrifting for vintage horror gear

  Search for old horror paperbacks, camp shirts, VHS tapes, retro décor, and anything that looks like it survived an ’80s slasher movie.

• Host a horror-themed cookout

  Serve spooky snacks, summery drinks, and grilled food while a horror soundtrack plays in the background.

• Have a haunted photoshoot

  Head to a carnival, fair, arcade, or boardwalk around sunset and create your own retro Summerween postcard.

• Play flashlight tag

  Turn a childhood summer game into something much more sinister by playing after dark, preferably somewhere with an abandoned cabin.

• Take a dusk nature walk

  Pair a sunset walk with a ghost-story podcast, spooky audiobook, or local legend.

• Create horror-franchise postcards

  Design vacation postcards inspired by your favorite horror movies and mail them to the people who would rescue you in any situation

• Have a horror-movie date night

  Choose a movie, prepare themed snacks, dim the lights, and make a night of it

Your Soundtrack to Summerween Screams

Every suspicious late-night drive and haunted boardwalk adventure needs the right soundtrack. Press play on my Summerween Spotify playlist for a mix of classic summer songs, goth rock, punk, alternative favorites, and music made for dancing beneath the Ferris wheel while something lurks in the shadows.

Keep the Summer Haunt Going

Looking for more spooky-season inspiration? Explore more horror movie recommendations, themed recipes, creepy cocktails, haunted travel, and episodes of Slasher & the Final Girls .