Google's best Halloween doodles are frightfully good.
These spooky Halloween doodles are the perfect thing to get you in the mood for what is arguably the best holiday of them all. Halloween is now just a couple of weeks away so it's the perfect time to start carving pumpkins, even if trick or treating won't be the same as years gone by.
Halloween is clearly a favourite for Google too, with the Google Doodle team each year releasing an awesome Halloween doodle to mark the occasion. The first was seen in 1999, with the company releasing a new one each year since. We've yet to see a bad design so choosing our favourites was tricky, but there were a few standouts, which you'll find details of below. But let's start by taking a look at the 2019 Halloween Doodle, which has got to be up there with one of the best designs we've seen so far. We've got our fingers crossed that the 2020 Halloween Doodle doesn't disappoint, either.
Last year, Google went all out with its Halloween Doodle, creating a whole road of haunted houses, each containing a fearsome (or downright creepy in the octopus' case) beast.
An interactive design, users are able to knock (click) on and enter each door, where they will encounter everything from a bat and tarantula, to a wolf and an owl. Here, you can choose whether the creature performs a trick, which we won't spoil but they are well worth checking out, or provides a treat in the form of a fun fact.
You can return to the street at any time by clicking the home button, and if you take the time to click through every door, there's a surprise creature mash-up to enjoy. The Doodle also links to WWF, where you can learn more about supporting the animals featured and more. Bravo, Google. Bravo.
Halloween doodle: Wes Craven (2008)
This Halloween Doodle stays still (Image credit: Wes Craven)
This 2008 entry is from none other than legendary horror movie director Wes Craven. After featuring a number of animated doodles up to this point, Google opted for a static design from Craven, letting his dark imagination do all the talking. A wonderfully sinister-looking pumpkin and candle replace the 'o' and 'l', and we particularly love the inclusion of the kitchen knife, which was a weapon of choice in so many of his films.
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How many characters can you identify? (Image credit: Sophia Foster-Dimino)
A few years later, in 2012, Google Doodler Sophia Foster-Dimino created another incredible static illustration to mark what would have been Bram Stoker's 165th birthday. The man behind legendary villain Dracula, Foster-Dimino researched the author extensively in order to bring this beautiful black-and-white image to life.
"I immersed myself in the source material by reading the thoroughly well-documented annotated edition of Dracula by Leslie S. Klinger," the illustrator says on the Doodle blog. "I wanted to give a nod to each of the major characters in the story, as it is their collective observations which shape the saga. I invite our users to see if they can identify seven protagonists, four antagonists, and one who falls somewhere in-between."
Halloween doodle: Scooby Doo (2010)
A couple of years earlier, Google released this impressive Scooby Doo-themed Halloween doodle, which consisted of five panels for the user to click through. In true Hanna-Barbera style, Velma, Daphne, Fred, Scooby Doo and Shaggy investigate Halloween-style clues in a bid to solve why the Google logo is missing. There was no sign of Scrappy though, much to our dismay.
Halloween doodle: Witch's cauldron (2004)
This doodle keeps it simple (Image credit: Google)
The fifth Halloween doodle to be created was this simple but beautiful design from 2004, which features a number of witch's vital items incorporated in to the famous Google logo. The designs became way more sophisticated as the years went on, but there's something so truly 'Halloween' about the illustration that it remains a firm favourite. Did you notice the eyeball? Genius.
Halloween doodle: The Witch (2013)
When it comes to interactive designs, the Google Doodle team are masters of their craft. Intricate, clever and humorous designs, one of our favourites is this design released in 2013, where users could choose which ingredients the witch puts in her cauldron. The results differ depending on what the user chooses, although our favourite has to be the game of grab the zombie hand before it disappears.
As much as we love and can appreciate the the static doodle images, there's something really special, not to mention fun, about the interactive ones, and so we really hope the Halloween doodle for 2020 follows the witch's trend.
Kerrie Hughes is a frequent contributor to Creative Bloq, and was once its editor. One of the original CB crew, Kerrie joined the team back in 2013 after moving from her role as staff writer on 3D World. Since then she's written regularly for other creative publications such as ImagineFX, Computer Arts and Digital Camera World. After a stint working for the police, Kerrie is back reviewing creative tech for creative professionals.
