It’s the spookiest time of the year, this year’s bumper crop of orb weavers have decorated our mountains in cobwebs, and we’re sharing our favorite local haunts for getting into the spirit of the season. From theme parks to garden supply stores, we’ve materialized activities for ghouls and goblins of all ages. Please note that most of these attractions run through Halloween, or the weekend before.
Before you leave the house for fun and festivities, consider a costume. Halloween costumes can be a lot of fun, but many end up in the landfill after one or two uses. Moreover, most Halloween costume-in-a-bag kits from seasonal stores are made out of synthetic materials that do not decompose, such as nylon and acrylic. Before going out for Halloween fun, try shopping in your own closet for a costume. Easy options can include:
Video Game Plumber: a red tee shirt paired with a red baseball cap and blue overalls
Pumpkin: wear all orange, plus a green or brown hat for a stem
Evil Henchman: wear a yellow tee shirt, blue overalls, and safety goggles
Kitty Cat: all black or all orange outfit, plus eyeliner whiskers and nose and hair in space buns for ears
Wednesday Addams: a black blouse (bonus points for a white collar) with a black skirt, and hair in braids
Pirate: striped shirt with linen pants, plus a strategically tied scarf. Our TNT staff likes to reuse renaissance faire costumes for Halloween. This works especially well, as it’s a costume that can both be reused and built on with new items and accessories every year.
Painting: Dress in your finest old timey clothing and carry around an empty picture frame from the garage to hold up. Works especially well with artful use of a blue headband, yellow scarves, and pearl earrings to give off Vermeer vibes.
Decades Costume: dig through the back of your closet for the clothes you wore in high school. Class of ’97? Bring on the flannels and choker necklaces. Class of ’77? Get groovy with some bell bottoms and macrame. This is a fun option to loan to a child, who may get a kick out of showing off their parents’ vintage clothes. Cue the old photo re-creation posts.
Other low-waste options include getting creative with makeup, purchasing costume pieces that match your style and can be incorporated into your regular wardrobe afterwards, or stopping by a used clothing store like Topanga’s own Hidden Treasures.
Thrillseekers are bound to enjoy the assortment of high-production value scare events throughout the Los Angeles region. We’ve ranked the top ones below, based on scare-factor, beginning with least frightening. Please see event websites for specific restrictions regarding costumes.
- Oogie Boogie Bash at Disney’s California Adventure in Anaheim, California is a family-friendly event appropriate for goblins and ghouls of all ages. The event offers exclusive merchandise and parade, and features treat trails that even adults can have fun collecting goodies at. Of note, this is the only event at which adults are also permitted to wear costumes to this Disney park, subject to policy.
- Knott’s Scary Farm at Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park, California is appropriate for mature young adults, with adult supervision. The event features scare zones, mazes, exclusive merchandise, dark roller coasters, and themed food and beverage offerings. Knott’s Scary Farm offers a “No Boo! Necklace” for an additional cost, designed to deter monster performers in scare zones. The necklace does not work in mazes. Costumes are prohibited.
- Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios in Universal City, California is the most local of the scare events we’ve chosen to highlight. The event features “scare mazes” full of ghouls and goblins to fright and delight. This year’s scare mazes are themed after Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, Insidious: The Further, a Quiet Place, and more. Costumes are permitted at this event, subject to policy, which may change. We do not recommend this event for anyone under the age of 18, or those who do not enjoy scary movies.
- Dark Harbor at the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California is the baddest of the bad, notoriously the most frightening of the scare events in this list. The Queen Mary itself is famously said to be haunted, even outside of the spooky season, so adding extra horror to the ship is bound to be terrifying. We definitely do not recommend this event for anyone under the age of 18, or those who do not enjoy scary movies. Costumes are not permitted at this event.
- Closer to home, Westfield Topanga Mall is offering fun and festive activities for families: Pinstripes, with its 12 bowling lanes, 4 bocce courts, full-service bistro, and large event space, is offering a promotion from October 26 – 31: kids eat free when they come in costumes. Topanga Social is hosting an eerie evening of fun, music, and dancing to celebrate Halloween. On October 31, from 2-8 PM, they will be offering a costume contest with prizes, as well as candy giveaways for children in costume.
Pumpkin fans rejoice! Nights of the Jack returns to King Gillette Ranch, evenings in October. Tickets are available online, and the event is a one-mile self-guided walk through experience featuring lights, pumpkins, and more. The event is intended for participants of all ages, though a “Spook-easy” bar is available onsite for attendees 21+. Not enough pumpkin fun for you? Forneris Farms in Mission Hills offers the San Fernando Valley’s longest-standing pumpkin patch, since 1966. Forneris Farms also offers a real corn maze, themed after Peanuts this year. Please note that Forneris Farms is a working farm, with a farm stand, the whole business is cash only.
For some arts and culture, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County is playing host to a couple seasonal events: Boney Island, the Spider Pavilion, and Haunted Museum. Boney Island is held in the nature gardens of the museum and requires separate ticketing from museum admission. The museum is not open during the event. Boney Island will feature animal encounters, decorations, performances, light displays, and more. The Spider Pavilion is an add-on to museum admission for an additional fee, and gives the public the opportunity to observe and learn about our eight-legged neighbors in a controlled, non-threatening environment. The museum’s Haunted Museum event on Saturday, October 19, is a ticketed, reservation-based event open only to museum members. The event will include a scavenger hunt and a 21+ area with “boos” available for purchase. For more information on events at the Natural History Museum, please visit NHM.org
Further festive arts and culture events can be found at The Music Center. The Walt Disney Concert Hall will be hosting silent film specialist Clark Wilson as he performs an original organ score for a live-to-picture presentation of Nosferatu (1922) – widely considered the most terrifying vampire film of all time—it’s going to suck. The Ford Theater will be offering presentations of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining (1980) on Wednesday, October 30, and Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein (1974) on Thursday, October 31. Please note that neither film screening at The Ford Theater will be presented with live performance components.
You don’t have to stray far from home in order to have a ghoulishly good time. Activities you can enjoy at your own haunted house include spooky puzzles, baking a bat-ch of cookies, streaming a television series (Gilmore Girls, anyone?), or watching a classic halloween movie. Some of TNT’s favorites include Hocus Pocus (1993), Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983), and Bell, Book and Candle (1958). Animation fans should check out Paranorman (2012) for a family-friendly film, or Coraline (2009) for those who enjoy being frightened. Spooky games are also fun crowd-pleasers, excellent choices for Halloween are Clue or a murder mystery dinner party. Pumpkin carving is an excellent way to scare away evil spirits on Halloween. Are you scared of knives? Painting pumpkins is also excellent, or take it a step further and cover it in eco-friendly, plant cellulose-derived glitter.
Regardless of what age, or how easily frightened you are, there’s something for everyone this Halloween season. Please remember to exercise extra caution and vigilance while driving on Halloween and “Halloweekend,” no Halloween festivities are worth risking an accident. Have fun, be safe, and don’t pick up any hitchhiking ghosts.
