It’s time for the “Halloween Wars” season 15 premiere, as we have seven new teams making their way into the Food Network kitchen to compete for the $25,000 grand prize. Host Jonathan Bennett is back, along with judges Shinmin Li and Aarti Sequeira, guiding and judging these teams through the challenges and obstacles of this new season.
‘Halloween Wars’ 2025 Premiere
For the “Halloween Wars” season 18 premiere, the teams will be challenged with creating a scene depicting their favorite monsters when they were in school.
This episode will also include a challenge for the teams to up the stakes even more. They will be tasked with having to create at least two characters on their board and using a classic school snack in their tasting element, according to Food Network.
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD: THIS LIVE RECAP WILL BE UPDATED THROUGHOUT THE EPISODE, SO DO NOT KEEP READING IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO READ SPOILERS.
September 21 Live Recap – Premiere Episode
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A New Season of Teams
Jonathan Bennett and the judges are in place. The new teams have arrived. The first four teams competing in tonight’s challenges will be: Poisonous Perfection, Undercakers, Oven Coven, and Graveyard Shift.
For tonight’s challenge, they will be tasked with creating a scene depicting their favorite monsters from their school days. The teams must have at least two distinct, fully-realized characters on their board and use a classic school snack in their tasting element. Each team will get a baking assistant to help them in any way they need.
For the school snack and age group, the teams were assigned:
- Team Graveyard Shift – Elementary School, and granola bars
- Team Undercakers – Pre-School, and Mandarin oranges
- Team Poisonous Perfection – High School, and chocolate milk
- Team Oven Coven – Middle School, and string cheese
Time to Get to Work on ‘Halloween Wars’
The teams have their school-age group and the school snack to be added to their tasting element. Now they have seven hours to get to work.
They come up with their plans of attack. Then it’s time to get their pumpkins and start on the displays.
Jonathan, Shinmin, and Aarti are excited to be back for another season. Tenisha from The Undercakers talks about being a content creator and makeup artist. Aarti loves the way she is painting the display with the cream butter and is excited to see how it comes out.
Meanwhile, Jamie is working on a glass window for the display, which has a tree painted on it. However, while putting it together, it cracks! She decides to work with that crack and make it a spooky cracked window. She changes the design to work in the crack, and it looks good.
Returning Contestants
While Jamie has been on “Halloween Wars” and made the finale twice, she is hoping the third time is the charm this season. David Smith competed on season 3 of “Halloween Wars,” but after 12 years, he is back for another chance.
Willy is the pumpkin carver for Grayveyard Shift. This is the first time on the show, and he is tasked with carving a skull for the school and a skeleton. Poisonous Perfection is trying to make their tasting element taste not only like chocolate, but like chocolate milk.
Nils from Undercakers has competed on the show before also. His dad passed away recently, so he is competing this season for him and to make him proud.
Halfway There
The time is going fast, and the teams are now concerned about getting everything in place. Poisonous Perfection is behind on characters, so Jamie steps up to help out and get things in place.
Undercakers are trying to get things placed on their board. As the judges comment on how big their characters are and how full their board is, the team agrees. However, it’s too late and they try to figure out a plane to keep them that size, like they blew up for Halloween.
For Graveyard Shift, they had planned on doing three characters. However, they are running out of time and need to axe one of the characters. The judges are worried by getting rid of one character, their board will look empty. The team is also worried, so they start making some other aspects to add to it.
Judging Tonight’s Looks on ‘Halloween Wars’ Season 15
The teams all rush to get their displays in place. They make their adjustments and get everything in order, so now it’s time for the judges to give their feedback:
- Team Poisonous Perfection – Aarti said there is spectacular pumpkin carving here. There are so many elements here, and it’s this close to being too full. Shinmin said she wanted to know more of what age group this was for. For the tasting element, they seemed to enjoy it. Shinmin wanted something a little more textured that reminded her of chocolate milk.
- Team Undercakers – Aarti said they are so stinkin’ cute. The backdrop is stunning, but they need to communicate that this is a school playground. Shinimin said the sugar work is gorgeous, but they need to work on proportions. For the tasting element, Aarti loved that he kept the oranges intact. Shinmin said it was very well thought out, as Jonathan said it’s the best book he has ever read (as the tasting element was designed as a book).
- Team Graveyard Shift – Shinmin said Willy is the fastest pumpkin carver, and it’s perfection. She thought it looked unfinished and felt something was missing. Aarti said they were flexible, and that was the ticket. The story gets lost, though. For the tasting element, Shinmin said the bite is heavy, and it feels like a lunch snack. Aarti said they made a good version of a granola bar.
- Team Oven Coven – Shinmin said she loves all the details of the characters. Aarti said she loves the way they play with colors. She wanted it to be conveyed they were middle schoolers. For their tasting element, Shinmin said she didn’t get the cheese at first, and the caramel overwhelmed the cheese. Aarti said it was great.
Results on ‘Halloween Wars’ Tonight
The judges have looked at each display and the winner of tonight’s challenge is Poisonous Pefection! They also loved Oven Coven, so they are safe tonight also.
That leaves us with Graveyard Shift and Undercakers. The judges had a hard time understanding the characters, as they weren’t interacting at all. Because of that, Team Graveyard Shift has been eliminated tonight on “Halloween Wars” season 18.
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