24 Of Our Favorite Halloween Events In Los Angeles

Halloween is just around the corner, and we've got you covered for spooky events around the city throughout the month of October—from horror film fests to creepy concerts and dance parties. Check out our list of next-level haunted houses, too. (And we've got a guide to non-spooky events, too)

Beyond Fest

Beyond Fest is a film festival that celebrates the genres of horror, sci-fi and fantasy. And although the event launched earlier last week, it'll continue through to October 4. There are a few screenings we're looking forward to this week, including a showing of 1987 flick The Monster Squad at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood on October 3 at 7:30 p.m.; Jonah Ray and Kumail Nanjiani of Comedy Central's The Meltdown With Jonah and Kumail will be there to discuss their love for the horror genre before the screening. The Monster Squad director Fred Dekker will also be there to answer all your burning questions about the classic. Tickets for that one cost $11. And on October 4 at 7:30 p.m. at the Egyptian Theatre, Beyond Fest will be holding a free screening of The Town That Dreaded Sundown (a remake of the 1976 original) in advance of its official theatrical release. It's based on the true story of a serial masked killer who wreaked havoc through the town of Texarkana, Texas. The folks who made Insidious and American Horror Story made this film, so know you're getting into something creepy, for sure. Producer Jason Blum and director Alfono Gomez-Rejon will also be there for a Q&A session. More info can be found here.

Horror Film & TV Exhibit At Hollywood Museum

You can get an up close and personal look at 20 of some of the most iconic horror films and TV shows at Hollywood Museum's newest exhibition, "Monsters, Mummies and Mayhem: Your Worst Nightmares Come to Life." Opening on October 1 and running through November 16, costumes and props from movies and TV shows—including The Nightmare on Elm Street, The Walking Dead and Carrie—will be on display. General admission tickets are $15, but if you show up wearing a costume from October 24 to October 31, you can get $5 off admission. For more information, visit Hollywood Museum's website here.

Scaryaoke

The California Institute of Abnormalarts (CIA) is combining our love for karaoke and all-things creepy by hosting a "Scaryaoke" night every Thursday at 9 p.m. They're launching their first event on October 2, and it sounds like you'll be getting more than just some haunting singalong tunes. There will be musicians, tarot card readers, bearded lady burlesque dancers (okay, you've got our attention), as well as magicians and fire breathers. Plus you get to tour the CIA venue and check out spooky and weird things like clown mummies and dead things in jars. It costs $5 to get in and they'll also be selling some cheap drinks there. CIA is located at 11334 Burbank Blvd in North Hollywood. For more info, visit CIA's event page and Facebook page.

Shriekfest

Up-and-coming filmmakers and screenwriters get a chance to show off their indie horror shorts and feature-length films at Shriekfest—and get the chance to win some prizes. This 14th annual horror film festival will be held on October 2 to October 5 at the Raleigh Studios in Hollywood. You can purchase a Friday pass for $20, or a Saturday pass for $40 and a Sunday pass for $40 that gives you access to shorts and features. More info here.

Los Angeles Haunted Hayride

If you're the type who gets your kicks from getting the beejezus scared out of you from in-your-face scare tactics, then the Los Angeles Haunted Hayride might tickle your fancy. (BTW, this isn't for the faint of heart.) This hayride takes you through an eerie and transformed Griffith Park in Los Feliz, where ghouls and monsters jump out at you and basically make you pee your pants. The event runs from October 3 to October 31. A $30 general admission ticket will get you a hayride and also entrance to "Purgatory," which includes a house of mirrors, musical acts, psychic readers, and food and beverage vendors. The $42 all-attraction pass will get you into those things, in addition to a maze, a walk through an "insane asylum," and the "Seven Sins Sideshow" where you'll get to see some disturbing things from "flesh and furniture melting into one" to "the human pig machine puking riches from its muzzle," according to its website. More info can be found here.

Dark & Eerie German Cinema At LACMA

Attention cinephiles: LACMA is screening spooky classic German expressionist films from the 1920s and 1930s throughout the month of October. They're kicking off the "Haunted Screens: Expressionism in the German Cinema and its Influence" series with the first movie, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), on October 3. Throughout the month, you'll get a chance to catch filmmaker F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu (1922) to Werner Herzog's 1979 colored remake of the vampiric film. There's also Murnau's heaven-and-hell movie, Faust (1926), and the 1994 remake from Czech director Jan Švankmajer. Tickets cost $5. More information on the films and showtimes can be found here.

Creepy Esotouric Tours

Esotouric, the local company that gives you some juicy Los Angeles crime history tours, will be hosting a couple of eerie ones this month. In their "Echo Park Book of the Dead" one on October 4 at 12 p.m., folks will be guided through the stories of dark crimes and mysteries that took place in the area, like "Edward Hickman’s kidnapping of little Marion Parker and the bizarre 'Man in the Attic' love nest slaying, plus dozens of incredible, forgotten tales of Angelenoes in peril," according to the company's website. On their "Real Black Dahlia Crime Bus Tour" that happens on October 11 at 12 p.m., Esotouric will be guiding people through the mystery of the 1947 murder of Elizabeth Short, taking them to all the spots where she was last seen and where her bisected body was found. Tickets are $58. More info can be found on their website here.

Hollywood Forever Cemetery Walking Tour

While this cemetery tour isn't just for Halloween, we love the idea of checking out the graves of famous old Hollywood stars during this spooky holiday season. On October 4 and onward until the end of the year, film historian Karie Bible will take you through the iconic Hollywood Forever, visiting grave sites of famous folks like Cecil B. DeMille and Marion Davis. She'll also talk history, scandals and mysteries. Admission to the cemetery costs $15, reservations aren't required and the tour lasts for about two hours. For more information on the schedule and details, visit this website here.

Haunted Red Line Tour

The Ghost Urban Hunters of Los Angeles (GHOULA) is doing a cool haunted tour on the Metro Red Line every Sunday in October at 7 p.m., starting on October 5. The tour is free (however, donations are accepted) and all you have to buy is a $7 Metro Day Pass (and an $1 for the TAP card if you don't have one already). The crew will be meeting at the palm tree-lined island in front of Union Station, and then as a group, you'll all get on the Red Line (jumping on and off at different stops as you travel to North Hollywood) and be guided on a tour where you'll get to hear about the haunted history of Los Angeles. More info can be found on GHOULA's blog and Facebook page.

Zombie Fashion Show from Tom Kirlin on Vimeo.

Zombie Fashion Show

Check out the hottest fall fashions for the undead at the Zombie Fashion Show on October 11. There will be 50 Hollywood make-up artists transforming beautiful models into terrifying creatures. There will also be art on display and DJs. The event is being held at 8 pm at LOT 613 in downtown. Admission is $10, and the event is for the 21+ crowd. For more information, visit the event's Facebook page and check out the video above from last year. —Emma Gallegos

Halloween Art Exhibit At Creature Features

Creature Features, a monster-themed shop out in Burbank, will be holding their 7th annual October Shadows Halloween art show on October 11 through November 2. The exhibit will feature paintings, sculptures, masks, folk art and dolls that celebrate All Hallow's Eve. The show is curated by Halloween historian Stephanie Anne Joens. For more info, visit this event page.

Screamfest

Screamfest's annual festival is called the "Sundance of Horror." This year it's being held from October 14 to October 23 at TCL Chinese 6 Theatres in Hollywood—you'll get the chance to check out a bevy of new horror films—like The Creep Behind The Camera, which takes place in 1960s Glendale. Tickets for each screening are $11. More info on the films can be found here.

Los Angeles Horror Show & Music Fest

A horror, sideshow, vaudeville, and steampunk-themed music festival? Count us in. The folks behind the "Los Angeles Horror Show & Music Fest" will be hosting an all-out scare fest at the Hollywood Sports Park in Bellflower on October 18 from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. The space will be transformed into what they the "Haunted Hollywood Sports Park" with areas dedicated to creepy mazes and monster scare zones. There are some "killhouses" and "shoothouses" in the mix, where they "immerse you into a storyline, arm you with a loaded Airsoft gun, Paintball marker, or laser tag gun that you can use to defend yourself against any of the monsters located within each Killhouse," according to the event's website. There will also be musical acts from a dark and dancey punk band to a vaudeville and steampunk-themed band and a zombie lounge singer. Their "Horror Show" performers which include a drunken vaudeville magician, "sexy psychic snake charmers," and a fire-breathing cabaret dancer. Tickets for the Horror Show & Music Fest portion cost $25, and Their four mazes and three scarezones, cost an extra $29. Also, if you want to get your mock killing spree on at the Killhouse or Shoothouse, that costs an extra $10. For more information, visit their website here.

Long Beach Zombie Walk

Fans of all-things undead will get to celebrate not one but three days of zombie-filled activities at Long Beach's annual Zombie Walk at the Rainbow Lagoon in Shoreline Village. The fest kicking off October 24 and running through October 26 will feature a zombie prom (complete with the crowning of a zombie prom king and queen), zombie movie screenings (like Shaun of the Dead and Night of the Living Dead), over a dozen bands performing with names like The Goblyns and The Rhythm Coffin, and even wrestling matches between monsters and zombies. Oh, and of course, there will be the the Long Beach Zombie Walk itself on October 25, where you can use all that bloody face paint you've been saving all year during a 35 to 45-minute walk (er...zombie stumble) with fellow undead fans through Shoreline Village. One-day general admission tickets are $15. For more information, visit their website here.

Night Of The Living Zoo

Want to go to the zoo for Halloween, but don't want to deal with kids? The Los Angeles Zoo is hosting an event for the 18+ crowd on October 24 that includes music, theatrical performances of Edgar Allen Poe stories, tales about nature's real-life blood-suckers as well as something called "fearsome feedings," which sounds like someone may be getting thrown to lions. Oh and there's booze: you get two drinks with the price of admission, which is $46 ahead of time and $51 at the door. The event kicks off at 7 p.m. and runs until 11 p.m. —Emma Gallegos

KCRW's Masquerade Ball

The lineup at KCRW's annual Masquerade Ball is shaping up quite nicely with live performances from Fool's Gold to Tom Vek, and DJ sets from the likes of Bonobo and TOKiMONSTA. The costume ball and dance party takes place on October 25 from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. at the Legendary Park Plaza Hotel downtown. They will also have other performances to keep you entertained—like circus performances, Lucent Dossier, and burlesque dancers—as well as food trucks and a costume contest. Tickets at this 21+ event cost $100 and the proceeds benefit KCRW; purchasing the ticket also automatically gives you a year-long KCRW membership. A limited number of tickets will be available for purchase at the door for $125. More info here.

Halloween Food Fest In Koreatown

As long as we have a costume with stretchy pants, we're all set for a Halloween food festival. The folks behind KTOWN Night Market are putting on a two-day, stuff-your-face street food event in Koreatown on October 25 from 2 p.m. to 12 a.m. and on October 26 from noon to 9 p.m. They'll be blocking off seven blocks of 6th Street between Normandie and Vermont avenues, with food vendors like Ramen Burger, Shinsengumi, Eight Korean BBQ, Swirl Potato and Mama Musubi whipping up dishes. There will also be pop-up shops and carnival games, and costumes are highly encouraged. Tickets cost $3 online and $5 at the door for each day. More info can be found here.

Bootie LA

Bootie LA is one of our favorite dance parties in the city where you get to listen to fun mash-ups and dance your night away. It's a non-pretentious, bi-monthly event at the Echoplex. For Halloween, they'll be throwing a party on October 25 at 9 p.m., and costumes are highly encouraged (there's a chance to win $200 in their costume contest that night). Tickets are $20 in advance and $30 at the door. More info can be found here.

Rock 'n' Roll Half Halloween Half-Marathon & 5K

If getting a good workout is your jam instead of eating copious amounts of Halloween candy, then the Los Angeles Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon might be something you'd be interested in. The yearly half-marathon starts on October 26 at 7 a.m. at L.A. Live, with a course running through downtown. It's the type of race where local bands—that perform alternative, classic rock, punk, funk, blues, and jazz—at every mile marker. Little Hurricane, a bluesy rock band from San Diego, will be headlining the event. A new addition this year is the the option to run a 5K if you're not quite ready to commit to 13.1 miles. Costumes are highly encouraged. The half-marathon costs $115 and the 5K is $45; registration closes on October 19 or whenever the race sells out. And hey, it's for a good cause, too: the proceeds go to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA). More info on the event can be found here.

Murder Ballads & Dark Songs At The Echoplex

The New Los Angeles Folk Festival is hosting its fifth annual Halloween event, "Murder Ballads & Dark Songs," at the Echoplex on October 28—and this year's theme is "true crimes of passion." They're celebrating all things doom and gloom by having musicians perform some deliciously dark and ominous songs about death, murders and betrayal. Tickets are $9 online and $11 at the door. They haven't announced the lineup yet, but check on their website here for more info in the coming weeks.

LACMA Costume Ball

If you've been dying to dress up as an Andy Warhol pop-up piece or Edvard Munch's "The Scream" for Halloween, you'll feel at home at this event. LACMA's been running an annual Costume Ball every Halloween for the past 11 years where they encourage guests to dress up as a famous work of art, roam around the galleries after hours, and dance to some live music out in the courtyard and in the galleries. This year's event takes place on October 31 starting at 9 p.m. Musicians Oneohtrix Point Never, Thug Entrancer, SFV Acid and Napolian will be playing some tunes; and there will be cash bars and food purchases available until 1 a.m. General admission tickets are $100, LACMA Muse members can purchase them for $60, and LACMA members can get tickets for $80. They go on sale on October 1. More info here.

Lucha VaVOOM

Lucha VaVoom is all about "sexo y violencia." The show brings together Mexican masked wrestling, stripteases and comedy. (For a taste of what to expect, check out pictures from their Cinco show.) This year's performance will feature Peaches. There are performances at 8 p.m. on October 29 and 30 at The Mayan Theater downtown, and the shows are 21+. Tickets start at $40. —Emma Gallegos

West Hollywood Halloween Carnaval

If there's something we can count on at WeHo's annual Halloween Carnaval, is that things get wild and weird at this yearly fest. This free event will be held on October 31 from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. along the closed-off Santa Monica Boulevard between Doheny Drive and La Cienega Boulevard. Make sure to wear a costume (or you'll stick out like a sore thumb), so you can join other people in some badass outfits parading down the boulevard. For more info, visit the city's website.

SpectreFest

SpectreFest is a two-month long celebration of film and music helmed by Cinefamily and the SpectreVision folks (which includes actor Elijah Wood). The festival launched in early September, but it continues on through October 31. Although the featured films aren't pegged to any particular genre, SpectreFest does have some horror and cult classics on its lineup. There's a double feature on October 9 at the Silent Movie Theatre in the Fairfax District, where both Nazi zombie films, Dead Snow and Dead Snow 2: Red Vs. Dead will be screened for $14. That includes a Q&A session with the director and cast members of Dead Snow 2. On October 25, animation historian Jerry Beck will be screening creepy and bizarre Halloween-related cartoons on vintage prints in 16 mm and 35 mm for $12. There's also a special Halloween event on October 31 that hasn't been announced yet, so check their website in the coming weeks to get the details once they release them. More information can be found here.

Eds Note: The ticket prices for the LACMA Costume Ball have been updated.