How to Celebrate the Ultimate Summerween!!
The second July is over, I’m mentally doing the Michael Scott last-day-of-summer dance whether the calendar agrees with me or not. Summerween is exactly the excuse that impulse needs: all the Halloween energy, none of the waiting, celebrated while it’s still warm enough to do it in a swimsuit. Here’s how to actually pull it off.
Host a horror movie marathon outside. Set up a projector in the backyard, or just prop a laptop against something sturdy, and run a horror marathon under an actual sky instead of a dark living room. There’s something genuinely fun about watching a slasher with warm air on your skin instead of a blanket, it changes the whole mood of the movie without changing a single frame of it. Keep the classics in rotation, something with camp counselors, something with a mask, and let the evening get later than you planned.
Carve a pumpkin in a swimsuit. This is the single most Summerween image there is, and it’s worth doing on purpose at least once. Pick up a pumpkin early, most grocery stores start stocking them well before the actual season starts, and carve it poolside or on the porch in whatever you’d normally wear to the beach. It shouldn’t make sense. That’s the bit.
HOST A SUMMERWEEN PARTY AND DRESS UP!!!
If you’re going to throw a Summerween party, do it properly. Summer Slasher is the version that goes all in, pool party energy collided head on with a full horror movie mood, and it’s genuinely one of the most fun party themes I’ve thrown together. Here’s how to actually pull it off, from the invite to the last playlist song.
The invites
Set the tone before anyone even shows up. Aight, I’m thinking- summer camp slasher summer. A torn, slightly bloodied looking invitation works well here, think a ransom note crossed with a pool party flyer, dripping red text over a bright, tropical background. If you’re sending digital invites, a horror movie title card font paired with a beach-bright color palette does most of the work. Include a costume note right on the invite itself: swimsuits welcome, horror-inspired accessories encouraged, so nobody shows up under or over dressed for the mashup.
The vibes
Bright pool floats next to fake blood splatter. String lights strung next to caution tape. A genuinely warm, sunny afternoon that slowly tips into something a little more ominous once the sun starts going down. Remember- you don’t have to BUY anything- use what you already have!!
Decor
Start with your normal pool party setup, floats, umbrellas, bright colored cups, and then start layering horror on top. Fake blood drizzled along the edge of the pool. A few strategically placed rubber knives or masks tucked among the pool floats. Caution tape wrapped around a chair or a tree, treated less like a warning and more like a decoration. If you’ve got a projector, run a horror movie silently in the background even during the daytime portion of the party, just for atmosphere, and save the real, full-volume movie marathon for after dark.
Decorate for BOTH seasons! Put a pumpkin next to your pool float. Hang a string of bats over your patio string lights. The whole appeal of Summerween is the visual contradiction, tropical brightness and Halloween darkness sharing the same space without apologizing for it. If you’ve got leftover summer decor still up, don’t take it down first, just start layering the spooky stuff directly on top.
Set the ambiance. This is where I always end up plugging my own thing, because it’s genuinely true here: a candle that leans a little spooky and a little summer keeps the whole mood consistent once the sun goes down and the movie starts. My own line comes with a small story attached to each one, a tarot card tucked underneath for the autumn candles specifically, so lighting one during a Summerween night feels like it belongs to something bigger than just the scent. Goblin Market is perfect for that juicy berry sweetness, and Into the Unknown for a more spooky forest vibe.
Activities
A costume contest works well here, specifically judged on best fusion of “summer” and “slasher” rather than either category alone. A pool-friendly scavenger hunt themed around a specific slasher movie, hidden “clues” or props tied to an iconic scene, gives people something to actually do beyond standing around. As the sun goes down, transition into the horror movie marathon, projected outside if the weather allows it, blankets and towels doubling as seating. And if your group’s into it, a “which slasher villain would actually survive a pool party” debate is a surprisingly good way to get everyone talking and laughing at the same time.
Food and drinks
Lean into food that looks a little unsettling without being unappetizing. A “bloody” fruit punch, red juice with frozen fruit “chunks” floating in it, is an easy, crowd-pleasing centerpiece. Popsicles dyed to look like something a little more sinister than they actually are. A “specimen” charcuterie board, dark grapes, blackberries, a few deliberately odd-looking cheeses, laid out like something recovered from a crime scene rather than a snack table. And for something heartier, a taco or burger bar keeps things simple to serve outdoors while still leaving room for a horror-themed name on the menu card, “The Final Girl Burger,” that kind of thing.
The playlist
Split it into two moods and let the party naturally shift between them. Start with something upbeat and summery for the daylight hours, the kind of playlist that works for a normal pool party. Once the sun starts going down and the movie portion of the night begins, transition into something moodier and more atmospheric, synth-heavy horror soundtrack style tracks work well here, low and tense rather than melodic. The shift in music alone will help signal to guests that the party’s entering its second act.
Aight, I got you covered:
Costumes and dress code
Give people an easy entry point if they’re not sure how to combine the two halves of the theme. A swimsuit paired with fake blood and a horror accessory, a mask pushed up on the forehead, a prop knife tucked into a beach bag, covers most people without requiring an elaborate costume. For anyone who wants to go further, a “final girl” look, messy hair, a torn oversized shirt over a swimsuit, works as an easy, recognizable costume that still holds up if someone ends up in the pool.
Regular Halloween costumes rarely survive contact with water, so Summerween solves that with its own dress code: swimsuits reworked into costumes. A mermaid is an easy one. A “which horror character would actually survive a pool party” bit works if your friend group is into a running joke. Face paint holds up better than most makeup in the water, so lean on that over anything elaborate.
Get your costume thrifted early. If you know you want a specific piece for actual October, and Summerween is giving you the itch, start thrifting now while the selection’s still good and nobody else is competing for the same rack yet. You’ll also spot pieces you’d never plan for on purpose, which sometimes end up being the better costume anyway.
Live the ‘Stume: This one’s become a genuine tradition for me, picking a favorite autumn-coded character and imagining what their perfect fall day would look like, then trying to build a little piece of it into your own evening. It works even better at a Summerween party than it does later in the actual season, because everyone’s already half in character between the costumes and the horror movies playing in the background.
Let it end whenever it wants to. Summerween doesn’t need a strict start and end time the way an actual holiday does. Some years it’s one deliberate night. Some years it’s a slow build across a couple of weekends, a horror movie one week, a costume thing the next, decorations creeping in gradually until you’ve basically been celebrating without naming it. Either way works. The whole holiday exists because someone decided not to wait, and that instinct is really the only rule you need to follow.
Happy Summerween, to everyone else doing the math on how many days are left until it’s socially acceptable to say the word “spooky” out loud!!!
