Hollywood Gothique

Halloween-themed tours, scavenger hunts, and performances, sometimes indoors, sometines at outdoor locations

So, you’re Halloween high has ended, and you feel your morose soul descending into the abyss of withdrawal. The zombies have returned to their graves. The vampyres have fled to where the ghouls and Afrits rave. The restless spirits have shuttered up their haunted house. The cannibal crazies have disappeared into the maze of the backwoods. The delusions have disappeared, and the ghosts ships have all set sail. What is left? What is left?

I just wanted to take a moment to offer a brief, belated review of this year’s Halloween & Mourning Tour at the Heritage Square Museum this weekend. Heritage Square, which preserves Victorian mansions built in Los Angeles near the turn of the previous century, has offered this self-guided tour every Halloween for the past eight [...]

Ghoulish piano player aboard Ghost Ship
I thought I had said everything I had to say about Ghost Ship, the new Halloween attraction in Newport Beach that completed its final voyage of the season last night, but I stumbled upon something in an apparently irrelevant article that seemed worth noting. In a Salon.com review of “Lulu,” [...]

The Captain of the Ghost Ship, seeking volunteers to join his crew
A final update for those considering a trip out to Newport Beach to enjoy the much maligned Ghost Ship:
As last we noted, the opening weekend reactions prompted Ten Thirty One Productions to promise a new and improved attraction during its second week of operation. Although [...]

Dates: October 21 through November 5
Location: Mountain View Mausoleum and Cemetery, 2300 N. Marengo Avenue, Altadena, California
Wicked Lit’s innovative productions – based on the works of Poe, Lovecraft, Dickens, etc – fully immerse the audience in different times and locations, creating a unique brand of shuddery entertainment, quite distinct from other Halloween events in Los Angeles.

Dates: October 14-16, 21-23, 28-30
The Ghost Tour at Stathearn Park brings to life the history of Simi Valley, told by dead souls from the past. The experience is not intended to be frightening, but it does hit the right mood for Halloween. People interested in history and/or in enjoying Halloween without being assaulted by costumed maniacs, will find this event to be a pleasant and educational diversion.

Date: October 29, from 9am to noon
Location: 1095 E. Willow Avenue, Long Beach, CA 90806
Link out: Click here
Description: On Saturday, October 29, Long Beach’s two oldest cemeteries transform into a Living History tour that allows living tourists to stroll about listening to tales of the dead.
From the website:
Amidst old tombstones, tour participants gather [...]

I just wanted to offer a brief update on my review of the Ghost Ship’s maiden voyage last weekend. As I mentioned there, some customers were disappointed with the debut of the new Halloween event. These customers posted negative comments on the Ghost Ship Facebook page and at Yelp.com; there is also an extensive diatribe at [...]

"The Body Snatcher," based on Robert Louis Stevenson
Tonight, Wicked Lit returns to the Moutain View Mausoleum and Cemetery for another October season of immersive theatre productions. Rather like TAMARA, the play staged in the American Legion Hall in Hollywood back in the 1980s, Wicket Lit productions take place in an actual location, requiring the audience [...]

Watch your step – and those hands – as you descend the stairs.
You should go see Delusion, the new Halloween haunted house that just opened in Los Angeles.
No, really. Stop reading this now, and go buy your tickets.
What more do we need to tell you? I mean, you know us, right? Have we ever steered [...]

Dates: October 14-15, 21-22, 28-29
The Ghost Ship is an enjoyable novelty: a short pleasure cruise with a Value-added Halloween theme. The enjoyment one receives is much as one would expect on any cruise: the refreshing chill of a cool sea breeze on the observation deck; the glittering lights of docks and buoys reflected off the ocean; the relaxed, transitory camaraderie of fellow travelers sharing a deck on a ship sailing over water smooth as glass. The happiest audience will be one that enjoys these regular attractions and appreciates the Halloween elements as a bonus.

Dates: Friday-Saturday, October 21-22
Hours: 7-9pm
Location: Stough Canyon Nature Center, 2300 Walnut Avenue Burbank, California 91501
Link out: Click here
Description: The Burbank Volunteer Docents present “Haunted Adventure,” a hike through the haunted Nature Center and grounds. Games, animals, face painting and more while waiting for tour! Children 12 years & under must be accompanied by an [...]

[ October 30, 2011; 10:00 am; ] Dates: October 29-31
Hours: opens 1o:00am Saturday & Sunday; open all day Sunday, until midnight on Monday, Halloween Night
Location: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 5905 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90036
Description: To celebrate the final weekend of their Tim Burton Exhibition, the Los Angeles County Museum of Arts presents some fanciful Halloween-themed festivities, including parties, performances, [...]

Voices of Pioneer Cemetery
Bad news, fright fans: the Voices of Pioneer Cemetery Flashlight Ghost Tour, whose debut we rather enjoyed last Halloween, will not be back for 2011.  A series of monologues, with actors giving voice to those interred in Pioneer Cemetery, this graveyard tour was designed to benefit the cemetery (raising money to find/identify some [...]

Dates: Saturdays and Sundays throughout October
Location: Mountain View Mausoleum 2300 North Marengo Avenue Altadena, CA 91001
October Shadows IV, this year’s edition of the annual “Celebration of Halloween in Art,” features contributions from dozens of artists, including many with Hollywood experience: makeup man Rick Baker (THE WOLFMAN), production designer William Stout (RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD), and special effects artist Stephen Chiodo (KILLER KOWNS FROM OUTER SPACE).

Dates: October 21 through November 6

Location: Mountain View Mausoleum and Cemetery, 2300 N. Marengo Avenue, Altadena – California

Description: Wicked Lit returns with another Halloween’s worth of horrifying theatrical productions based on classic literature by authors Charles Dickens, H.P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allan Poe, Robert Louis Stevenson, M.R. James, and Mark Twain. This year,for the first time, Wicked lit offers 6 adaptations: “The Cask of Amontillado,” “The Unnameable,” and “The Chimes.” Production B offers three new ghastly tales: “The Body Snatcher,” “Casting the Runes,” and “A Ghost Story.”

[ October 29, 2011; 12:00 pm to 4:00 pm. ] Location: Heritage Square Museum 3800 Homer Street, Los Angeles, CA
Dates & Hours: Saturday & Sunday, October 29-30, noon to 4pm
Link out: Click here

Description: Heritage Square Museum presents its 2011 Halloween & Mourning Tours, which provide an educational and entertaining look at Victorian perspectives on death, funerals, and Spiritualism. Heritage Square consists of preserved mansions, forming [...]

Dates: October 8, 9, 15, 16, 22, 23, 28, 29, 30
Times: 6 – 8:30 pm
Description: Out of the Box Events presents another series of Halloween scavenger haunts – one of the most unique ways to spend Halloween in Los Angeles. According to their press materials, Los Angeles is the #5 most haunted city in [...]

Location: 724 E. Edgeware Road, Los Angeles, CA 90026
Dates: October 22 and 23
Hours: 4-6:30pm
Link out: Click here
Description: In association with the Los Angeles Conservancy, Out of the Box events presents another of their seasonally spooky events. Are you familiar with the “evil of the thriller” house? Perhaps you prefer to be “charmed” by the ghosts [...]

Dates: October 22-23, 29-30.
Hours: tours depart at 1, 2, 3 & 4pm
Location: Homestead Museum, 15415 East Don Julian Road, City of Industry, CA
Link out: Click here
Description: The Homestead Museum presents its annual Halloween-themed tour, which depicts the change in American attitudes toward death between the 1840s and the 1920s, as examplified by two historic houses, [...]

Dates: October 19-31
Location: 2218 S Harvard Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90018
Link out: Click here
Description: 2011 sees a new Halloween event in Los Angeles: DELUSION, a “haunted play” that promises adventurous fright fans an interactive experience unlike traditional haunted house attractions. Although consisting of a walk through a turn-of-the-century mansion, DELUSION offers more than actors in [...]

Dates & Hours: October 7, 14, 21 & 28 at midnight
Location: The Comedy Store, 8433 W Sunset Blvd Los Angeles CA 90069
Link out: Click here
Description: The Comedy Store on The Sunset Strip resurrects Haunted Midnights, the combination of floor show and flashlight tour, which made its debut last year. In between jokes and entertainment, [...]

Location: Hollywood Forever Cemetery, 6000 Santa Monica Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90028
Date and Hours: October 8, 10am to noon
Link out: Click here
Description: Here’s a different way to get into the Halloween spirit. On Saturday, October 8, the Art Deco Society of Los Angeles presents its 28th Annual Hollywood Forever Cemetery Tour. Guests will visit the [...]