Film Noir Bingo Makes Watching Noir Movies Even Better

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Film noir movies are filled with drama, suspense, violence and misfortune. That’s what makes them so thrilling to watch and so memorable. However, I’m someone who occasionally needs to play an episode of a cheery ’60s sitcom after watching something somber or disturbing in order to sleep soundly at night. To balance the dark nature of film noir, I created Film Noir Bingo. Each spot on the four unique bingo cards below has a common scenario from noir movies. Play this movie bingo game during Noirvember while you revisit your favorite noir film or watch one you haven’t seen.

See my list of must-watch noir films to stream for ideas on what to watch while you play the game.

Film Noir Bingo Game

How to play noir movie bingo

Playing Film Noir Bingo is simple. First, select a bingo card below. Turn on a noir film and each time something happens in the film that corresponds to a spot on your card, mark it out or cover it with a scrap of paper or other token. The middle spot is free, as with most bingo games, so you can mark it out at the beginning. The first person to get three in a row and yell “bingo” wins the game.

I made four unique cards so you can play with a group. To play on your phone, take a screenshot or press down on the card images to save them to your camera roll. You can mark out the spots using the editing tool in your phone’s camera or another editing app. Alternately, you can print out the cards and either mark out the spots with pencil or cover them with scraps of paper, coins, game pieces from board games or other small items.

More ways to play

Play multiple rounds after the first win; trade cards with the other players and continue playing for the duration of the film until someone else gets a bingo.
You can easily turn this into a drinking game. Before the film, pour yourself a drink. A gin rickey or classic martini are good options to stick within the theme. A drink with a lower ABV, like a winter sangria, might be a smarter idea. Each time you mark a spot on your card, take a sip. Once you have a bingo, it’s bottoms up! Please drink responsibly. I am not liable for any bingo-related accidents.
Make this a social distancing game. Send this post to your friends and have each person select a different bingo card to play with. Decide on a noir film to watch together over FaceTime or Zoom while you play.

Film noir bingo cards

You may be wondering, what sorts of things are on the game cards? To create these movie bingo cards, I thought, “What are certain scenes or elements that occur in almost every noir film?” A few things immediately sprung to mind, like when a character lights a cigarette, or someone makes a phone call. Then I thought of things that happen less frequently, but frequently enough, like when one of the characters is named “Johnny.”

I made these cards using the Canva app, which I use for a lot of different projects. You may be inspired to create your own additional cards with other common elements of noir after playing with my cards below. Open the Canva app and type “bingo” in the search bar to see the customizable templates.

Happy playing! If you play Film Noir Bingo, share a photo and tag me on Instagram @thedapperdahlia.

Card 1