How to Pair Cocktails With Your Favorite Horror Movies
Halloween is the best holiday; it is a fact. Children can dress like minions, or frozen, or whatever, stay up late and – if their neighbors don’t distribute toothpaste, which is not punishable by law – eat a truly shameless amount of candy. Adults can do all of the above and get drunk while watching horror movies, which is my preferred way of keeping the holy day.
These days, I’d rather spend Halloween inside with people I already know I love than go into the fury that is a must-have for a costume. If you’re in a similar moment in your life, why not throw a themed pre-movie party this year? Pick a horror movie or two, invite as many or fewer people as you like, make some food (or just buy a lot of candy) and serve themed cocktails.
I find cute food that grabs Instagram attention is more of a problem than it’s worth, but I all love themed cocktails. On a practical level, I usually need a few to get through any horror movie because I’m a big, anxious kid. In addition, themed cocktails are just fun to come up with, and when performed correctly, they embody the essence of the film in a way that no appetizer can.
There are no rules for making the perfect themed cocktail; your links can be broad, thematic, or hyper-specific. The goal is to come up with something that will make people go crazy when you tell them what they are drinking that night, so I guess the only “rule” is to get carried away with the subject matter. I’ve selected four of my favorite horror movies for this list, and I hope they inspire you to create your own creepy libations.
Soft spoilers ahead; skip the annotations and just read the recipes if you’re afraid of ruining any of these movies.
Suspiria (1977) and Sour Patch Kids vodka
Here is the main plot of Suspiria : an American ballerina travels to Germany to enroll in a prestigious ballet academy, and amidst a series of horrific deaths, she realizes that something vile is happening. It really has it all: aesthetics and a soundtrack that can only be described as a “drug”, ridiculously bad accents, even worse dubbing and an ancient coven of witches. Watching this gorgeous mess in the movie is like eating cotton candy with LSD in it, and I love it.
One of my deepest and darkest secrets is that I’ve always wanted to try a vodka infused with Sour Patch Kids vodka. Finally, I had an excuse: After all, what better pairing with a chilling movie dream than literally lollipop liqueur? Plus, Claire just taught us all how to make sous vide liqueur, so that was clearly by design.
Vodka Sous-Vide Sour Patch Kids
For some reason, no one else thought to apply the sous-vide technique to the monstrous Sour Patch Kids vodka, so I had to experiment a bit. Fortunately, it turned out to be quite simple.
Equipment:
- Digital Kitchen Scale
- Quart freezer bags or jugs with lids
- Immersion circulator
- Fine mesh sieve
- Coffee filters (one per candy flavor)
Ingredients:
- Sour Patch Kids or other sour candies sorted by color
- Vodka (I used 100-degree Smirnoff, but would recommend something smaller for the paint nearby)
- (Optional) Freshly squeezed lemon juice for serving
- (Optional) Sprite or club soda to serve
First, install a system that allows you to weigh candy and vodka. Banks are easy: put them on the scales and go to the city. If you are using bags like me, place the bag in a tall mug and fold the edges down, for example:
Then measure out the lollipop; I used about 65 grams each of the blue, red, and green Sour Patch Kids (I really hate oranges and yellows, and didn’t care how their vodka flavors tasted). After weighing the candies, add some vodka. The exact amount you use depends on what you need: for a thicker liquor, add one and a half times the weight of the candy; for a thinner infusion with more vodka, use four times the amount of hard candies. The word “vodka-forward” gives me a hangover, so I chose 100 grams of vodka for 65 grams of sweets.
Close the bags using the water displacement method (I usually suck air through a straw, which I have tried here and strongly discouraged) and toss in a 140-degree water bath for about three hours. Remove from bath and let cool at room temperature until warm to the touch, no more than an hour.
Finally, strain each infusion into a storage container through a fine mesh coffee filter, using a fresh filter for each flavor. Take a bite of the vodka if you’re feeling brave and chill until you’re ready to drink. Serve like any liquor: straight or as the star of a simple cocktail.
Tasting notes: In the form of a shot, this dish is very spicy . After the first sip, I did the same face as when I first triedMahlurt, but by the third sip I waskind of carried away by it. (Again, I like Malört, so your experience may vary.) I don’t recommend this as a shot unless you are making money as it uses so much candy and so much vodka. It is also a very tasty dish mixed with lemon juice (I used 3 parts liqueur for 1 part lemon), covered in ice and a little sprite or seltzer added.
The Shining (1980) and Enough Kalimotho to Fill the Elevator
Fun fact: I once watched Shining Stone Nonsense (and all alone) on Christmas – or at least I tried. I got to the first appearance of the twins in the playroom before realizing my grave mistake; I’ve seen this a few times before, too, so it’s not like I had no idea what’s coming next. There’s a reason this movie is, in some ways at least, the gold standard of horror: it’s scary as hell.
If you wantpure precision thenpure whiskey is probably the best choice here, but I’m very picky so I need more.The famous blood elevator was the perfect source of inspiration. I wanted something like blood that could be freely consumed over a long period of time, because The Shining lasts two and a half very stressful hours. The answer, of course, was a lot of Kalimotxo.
This deliciously simple cocktail requires no recipe: just mix equal parts cheap red wine and cola, ice over, and enjoy. (I recommend that you use a more fruity red wine with a lighter body than the dark red 19 Crimes I used, which tasted quite normal, mixed with Coca-Cola .) If you want a little more flavor , try cherry cola Kalimotxo : It’s delicious, and Amarena cherry syrup makes the whole thing just a little bloody.
The Witch (2016) and “Black Philip”
Call me an overly preoccupied hipster, but The Witch is the scariest movie I’ve ever seen. On the way back from the theater, I called my boyfriend and asked him to talk to me on the phone until I got to his house; Then I stayed awake until three in the morning, obsessively reading reviews, one of which inspired me to order an academic text on the hellish life of the first colonists in the Amazon. (The book is both complete and good, if you’re curious.) I know it’s cool to hate horror movies that emphasize the tension and overwhelming fear of more serious fears, but still complain that the Witch is “not scary enough.” to me it smells of “missing the point.” This is a film about the armed patriarchal fear of women. If that doesn’t scare you, I envy you.
Black Philip
Some films require custom-made, and The Witch is definitely that kind of film. I chose Black Philip as my muse, everyone’s favorite goat-killer. His drink had to be black as night (yep), oily, hot and caffeinated – you know, to better fuel the post-movie googling madness. I settled on a hybrid rum with butter and Spanish coffee because I like to live deliciously.
Ingredients:
- 2 cups extra strong black coffee
- 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg
- Dash of ground allspice
- A pinch of salt
- 2 ½ ounces (5 tablespoons or just over a glass) spiced rum
Combine everything except the rum in a saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce heat to very low and simmer, whisking occasionally to stir, about 10 minutes. Alternatively, blend everything except the rum in a microwave- safe container (I used, you guessed it, a plastic soup bowl ), microwave for 2-3 minutes on high heat, and stir with an immersion blender until smooth … Stir in rum from heat, pour into mugs and serve hot.
Get Out (2017) & Milk Punch (With Frozen Loop Side)
I haven’t watched that many films three times in theaters, but ” Go Away” is one of them. Everything about this film is impeccable: the cast, the music, the script, the editing, the cinematography, the set, the tempo, etc. It came out less than a year, so I don’t want to tell too much; just know that Get Out has driven many of the racists it owns to insanity.
However, the proposed cocktail refers to a scene at the end of the film. In this scene, a white character drinks a glass of milk through a straw and eats dry Froot Loops – neatly, one after the other – from a separate bowl. The scene is 30 seconds long, maximum, but it practically lights up the tent with the words “FULL AND FULL PSYCHOPATH” over their heads. It’s great.
Frozen milk punch with rye
This drink has always seemed disgusting to me, but Deb Perelman convinced me otherwise. Her recipe is short, simple, and frozen , so it looks more like drinking a milkshake than drinking a cup of milk. I have a slight lactose intolerance and I am the only person in my house who drinks, so I did a lot less than the recipe requires. As written below, this will make about 3 drinks, but it scales very easily.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1/2 cup in half
- ½ cup rye whiskey (bourbon, rum, or even brandy will work here)
- ⅓ cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- A pinch of nutmeg for garnish
Mix everything except nutmeg, in a container suitable for freezing (I used a plastic container for soup ) and freeze to form a slush, 3-4 hours or overnight. Pour into glasses, garnish with nutmeg and serve with a bowl of Froot Loops.
I’m not a big mixologist, so I’m pleasantly surprised how delicious it all turned out. If I had to rank them, I would say that Black Phillip barely edged out milk punch for first place, Sour Patch came in third, and Kalimotxo came in fourth. If Halloween is your favorite holiday too, I’d love to hear what your plans are for this year, especially if they involve horror movies and booze. What’s your favorite movie ahead of Halloween and what are you drinking with it?