Burger King's 2024 Halloween Menu Review: Addam's Family-Inspired Eats Are Scary Good

Burger King has a long history of celebrating special events by coloring its burger buns, and this Halloween is no different. To usher in the spooky season, the fast food mainstay has turned to the creepiest, kookiest, and all together ookiest characters around for a deliciously dark collaboration. That's right, this Halloween, you'll be dining with The Addams Family.

Burger King invited me and a handful of other writers to its Miami headquarters to try out the newest festive fare, which is available starting September 30th and will remain in stores for as long as supplies last. While some selections are new creations, others are twists on familiar favorites wrapped in an Addams Family costume. Read on to find out which of Burger King's 2024 Halloween items are a screaming good time and which are better left behind in the haunted house.

If you've ever wondered what the disembodied hand — affectionately known as Thing — would order at Burger King, the answer is obviously onion rings. There's something uniquely entertaining about sliding an onion ring over a finger and eating one's way around the deep-fried piece of jewelry, even if Thing doesn't actually have a mouth.

These onion rings aren't anything new, but their packaging is. Burger King's cupholder-friendly cardboard container is adorned with the official Halloween name, Thing's Rings and Other Things, along with an image of the aforementioned hand.

Fun fact: Thing is generally depicted as a right hand, but in the original television series, actor Ted Cassidy — who also played the butler, Lurch — occasionally swapped in his left hand, just to see if anyone would catch on. The good news is that it doesn't matter which hand you eat your Thing Rings with because they're perfectly crispy and savory either way.

A trip to Burger King without a Whopper is like stepping inside the Addams Family mansion and not getting the chills — it's nearly impossible. This year, Burger King continued its colored-bun tradition by turning the bread purple and the sesame seeds black in honor of the ever-moody Wednesday Addams, who's no stranger to fast food collaborations.  The color comes from purple potatoes, and the Burger King test kitchen tried 20 different variations before settling on the hue you see above.

However, the bun color isn't the only difference in this Whopper. Swiss cheese takes the place of the standard American cheese to offer a small twist on the famous flame-grilled burger. Beyond changing up the taste a bit — the Swiss is quite good but doesn't radically change the burger — the new cheese visually contrasts with the purple bun in a fun way that immediately made me think of a ghost, or at least a beef patty trying to disguise itself as one.

If you're hankering for a Whopper, and want to forget the Whoppers of Halloween's past, I highly suggest ordering Wednesday's version because where else are you going to get a purple burger?

At Burger King headquarters, I learned that BK is obsessed with turning things into fries. Burger King Chicken Fries and mozzarella fries are already staples on the menu — and there will be more fry-fun in the near future — but for now, the team at BK has turned their fryification skills towards dessert and created Churro Fries.

Why make the already handheld churro thinner? Convenience. Consumers, and especially younger crowds, have gravitated towards the portability and snackability of Burger King's other fry-sized items, so it only seemed natural to take the trend in a sweet direction.

Gomez's Churro Fries are long, slender, and very crispy. The additional outer surface area allows for more cinnamon sugar per bite, while retaining the hallmark chewiness of a standard churro. The accompanying chocolate sauce is nothing special, but it gets the job done to satisfy the inherent need to dip anything fry-shaped.

My only note of caution regards the packaging. Once again, the box is cupholder-friendly and can stand on its own. BK even added a perforated spot in the lid meant to house the chocolate sauce. This is a great concept if the container is in a cupholder, but if the box is sitting on a table, the weight of the chocolate sauce will cause the entire thing to fall over once you consume enough churros. Of course, if you're looking for a good jump scare with your meal, then by all means, allow teetering churros to "fry" your nerves.

I like sweet things. Dessert, in general, will get my attention, but ice cream holds a special spot in my heart. That said, cake batter ice cream is something I've always been on the fence about. It tends to be almost sickeningly sweet, lacking a flavor beyond "lots of sugar," and is often thick and sticky in texture. I want to like it, but it's usually not for me, so when Burger King set a chocolate cake batter shake in front of me, I was skeptical.

I was so very wrong. Morticia's Kooky Chocolate Shake is phenomenal. Featuring the matriarch of the Addams Family on the side of a clear glass, the shake is topped with purple and black cookie pieces while ribbons of chocolate syrup run down the inside of the glass. The ice cream is undeniably sweet but also extremely flavorful. The small cookie crumbles are mixed throughout the drink and offer a lovely crunch while remaining small enough to not interfere with the straw. I'm not embarrassed to say I drank my entire shake; it was that good. Even in a tasting group that ranged from sweet fans like me to connoisseurs of the savory, most agreed that Morticia's Kooky Chocolate Shake was a standout.

Burger King and Halloween go together like The Addams Family and, well, Halloween. The fast food chain's colored bun trend is, at this point, iconic, but the addition of churro fries and a chocolate cake batter and cookie milkshake elevates the seasonal menu to new heights. Here's to hoping those two items don't get scared away once the season is over.

Burger King flew me and several other food writers to Miami to try their Halloween menu. All items were prepared for us in the Burger King test kitchen, which is also where I photographed and tasted everything. Each dish was evaluated on taste, appearance, and creativity. Neither I nor Mashed were paid by Burger King for this review.