The Nightmare Before Christmas Archives

Halloween Events in Los Angeles 2016

Halloween, Los Angeles Events, Los Angeles Halloween, Los Angeles Weekend Planner, Music

Oct 282016

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Los Angeles is a great place to celebrate Halloween and with so many things to do it can get hard to choose. Here are some suggestions:

Friday (10/28/16)

It’s sold out on Saturday and Sunday but there are tickets available tonight to see Danny Elfman perform as Jack Skellington, Catherine O’Hara as Sally, Ken Page as Oogie Boogie, and Paul Reubens as Lock while a live orchestra plays in sync with the film for Halloween at the Hollywood Bowl: “Tim Burton’s A Nightmare Before Christmas”

L.A. Girlfriend along with Nicky Blitz and Disco Shrine are playing The Goth Ball at Resident where costumes are encouraged

LACMA is screening Pan’s Labyrinth in conjunction with their exhibit Guillermo del Toro: at Home with Monsters

Saturday

The Santa Monica Zombie Crawl starts at 6pm and has food and drink specials all night as well as an after party ($12 for the wristband)

Villains Tavern in the Arts District is having a free Halloween bash with Rumprollers Organ Trio and a traditional NOLA jazz band

The Boulet Brothers 16th Annual Halloween Ball is at The Globe Theater which will be turned into a night club/haunted mansion. The party includes three floors of DJs, “interactive horror areas”, carnival games, performances and more, with Clive Barker and Drag Race star Violet Chachki in attendance for a meet and greet ($30)

Cinefamily is showing Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie

Sunday

Cinefamily has two showings of the 1959 Vincent Price film The Tingler with their seats wired to simulate the effect used at the original film’s screening which had seats equipped with buzzer shocks for certain key moments in the film

cARTel Collaborative Arts LA is hosting SpiritSpirit: a cocktail and ghost story pairing at Think Tank Gallery with performances, music, a DJ, craft cocktails, “Summon the Spirits” immersive game, and one prize each for the best dressed- theme and non-theme ($15) . You can also combine it with Think Tank’s escape room and get $5 off with code SPIRITX2

All weekend and Halloween

The theme for this year’s free Haunted House presented by Rotten Apple 907 in Burbank is The Not So Enchanted Forest. Although it is free to go, donations are requested- this year’s charity is VBAS (Volunteers of Burbank Animal Shelter)

The Los Angeles Haunted Hayride in Griffith Park has a “Secret Society” theme this year and for the first time ever passengers will leave the safety of the hay wagon for a section of the trip. There is also a haunted suburb to go trick or treating in, a haunted maze, and more.

Think Tank Gallery is hosting Trap House-a combination art show/ escape room running all day and night. The sci fi/ horror themed art show is free. The escape room is a ticketed half hour experience with a human trafficking and organ harvesting theme.

If you missed The Nightmare Before Christmas at the Hollywood Bowl you could see it in 4D at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood

Halloween (Monday)

The biggest event in the city has to be the West Hollywood Halloween Carnaval– a massive free street party (500,000 people!) on Santa Monica Blvd. with multiple music stages and a chance to see some of the most creative costumes around. Palihouse nearby has tickets for their rooftop party ($20) and there are also additional parties at several places in the area. Definitely don’t drive there though- it gets pretty hectic!

Organ virtuoso Clark Wilson is improvising a soundtrack for a screening of the classic silent film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari at the Walt Disney Concert Hall

LA Opera’s incoming Artist in Residence, Matthew Aucoin will create and conduct a new score for chamber orchestra for the film Nosferatu at The Theatre at Ace Hotel

LACMA is showing The Bride of Frankenstein with extended access to the Guillermo de Toro (5-8pm) included in the ticket price ($15-20)

Los Angeles Weekend Planner

Los Angeles Weekend Planner, Music

Oct 292015

Vulkano- Choir of Wolves

Things to do in Los Angeles this weekend (10/29-11/1/15)-

One quick note before the list- check out my Halloween and Día de Los Muertos post for what there is to do around town for those holidays

Thursday

The Night Gallery downtown is screening Zara Hayes film about painter Derek Boshier “What Do Artists Do All Day?” followed by a Q&A with her, Boshier, and Christoper Finch

Mexican artist Astrid Hadad’s cabaret performances begin at REDCAT (through Sunday 11/1)

Israeli photographer Adi Nes is speaking at Shoshana Wayne Gallery in Bergamot station

Dr. Piotr Naskrecki, nature photographer and entomologist, is speaking at the Annenberg Space for Photography (free)

Friday

Swedish band Vulkano are opening for British band Cheatahs at The Echo

Machine Project is teaming up with CAFAM for a night of pumpkin carving and “some exciting and ghastly chemistry experiments“, $20 includes the pumpkin

Ska orchestra Western Standard Time are playing a free show at One Santa Fe downtown

A Club Called Rhonda is having a pre-Halloween event called Death Becomes Her at the Globe Theater downtown with a lot of indie-electro DJ fun ($35 pre-sale/$50 at the door)

Lot 1 Cafe is hosting “A Nightmare Before Halloween”, a free show with Dante Elephante headlining

Friday through Sunday

Stan Lee’s Comikaze Expo is back at the LA Convention Center. Stan Lee, Carrie Fisher, Elvira, William Shatner and more will be in attendance

Saturday (not too many non-Halloween events- for Halloween go here)

Hard Day of the Dead EDM festival begins- Deadmau5 is headlining Saturday with Hot Chip, Future, Flying Lotus, Nero and more; on Sunday Skrillex headlines with A$AP Ferg, Glass Animals and Groove Armada among the many other performers

Jello Biafra & the Guantanamo School of Medicine are playing along with Fartbarf and others at Alex’s Bar in Long Beach (also Friday)

Melvins are headlining a show at The Echo

Sunday

Johnson Hartig, founder of the clothes label Libertine, is in conversation with famous clothes designer Bob Mackie at LACMA for Hartig’s book Libertine: The Creative Beauty, Humor, and Inspiration Behind the Cult Label (free)

Artist Molly Barnes is speaking at Rosamund Felsen Gallery downtown

The Rock ‘n’ Roll Flea Market is back at the Regent Theater ($2- or free if you eat next door at Prufrock Pizzeria)

Kristen Hersh is in conversation with LA Weekly’s Andy Hermann at Book Soup for her book Don’t Suck Don’t Die: Giving Up Vic Chesnutt and playing later at The Echo

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

Halloween in Los Angeles

Halloween, Holiday Guides, Los Angeles Events, Los Angeles Halloween

Oct 242015

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Halloween is a big deal in Los Angeles with tons of fun things to do. Here are a few suggestions-

Haunted Attractions

Running until Halloween is the Los Angeles Haunted Hayride in Griffith Park. It has five attractions this year including a maze, the House of Shadows, and a Trick or Treat “experience” ($30 for the hayride or $43 for all attractions)

Dark Harbor on the Queen Mary provides haunted horror with monsters and mazes on the boat until Nov. 1st ($20 for “happy haunting hour” or $24 and up depending on extras)

A unique take on being scared is The Alone Experience. After signing a waiver that says you can get wet, be touched, painted on- you are immersed in a 45 minute walk through (and at times crawl through) alone. This review will give you more of an idea of what the experience is like. Running through Nov.1st. ($50)

If women’s issues frighten you there is KillJoy’s Kastle: A Lesbian Feminist Haunted House based on the Christian hell house. An un-dead Valerie Solanas splits you into groups and gives an introduction to what you are in for followed by a feminist zombie folk sing-a-long in the courtyard. Afterwards a crazed women’s studies major leads you on a tour through various rooms filled with “gender-queer apparitions, ball-busting butches, and never-married, happy-as-hell spinsters” among many other frights. Get there by 8:30pm to guarantee entrance. It runs from Oct.23-25, and Oct. 28-30 (free)

The amusement parks also have Halloween themes –Knott’s Scary Farm, Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights and Six Flags Fright Fest will all work hard to scare you.

Horror Movies

Electric Dusk Drive-In is showing Rosemary’s Baby on Oct. 24th ($9 for astroturf, $13 for your car)

Starting Tuesday (10/27) on the roof of the Montalban Theater in Hollywood Rooftop Film Club is showing movies with a horror theme including The Thing, Nightmare on Elm Street, Psycho, Friday the 13th and on Halloween, Beetlejuice ($17)

The Wiltern is showing An American Werewolf in London, The Cabin in the Woods, The Descent and Demons for their pre-Halloween bash, Wiltern Night of Horror. There will also be a costume contest and dance party. ($30)

Oct.30th the New Beverly Cinema has a horror triple feature- Curse of the Demon (1957), Carnival of Souls (1962), and Night of the Living Dead (1968) all for $8

On Halloween (10/31)

West Hollywood’s Halloween Carnaval is a huge free event with a large part of Santa Monica Blvd closed to traffic for costumed chaos. This year’s theme is the Rocky Horror Picture Show. There are also six stages of live music and entertainment if the bars and people watching are not enough.

Street Food Cinema is showing Shaun of the Dead at Exposition Park

The Aero Theater in Santa Monica is showing The Shining

Cinespia is showing The Rocky Horror Picture Show at Hollywood Forever Cemetery ($25)

El Capitan is showing The Nightmare Before Christmas in 4D (it’s pretty magical when it snows in the theater) through Nov 1

One of the more expensive options is Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas Live with Danny Elfman at the Hollywood Bowl. Elfman is playing with the orchestra as the film is shown and the Bowl will be decorated like Halloween Town (as of this writing cheapest tickets available were $80)

The Center for the Arts Eagle Rock is having a Haunted House in a former library with local high school students doing the scaring ($10)

The Well is hosting a Halloween party at the Figueroa Hotel with a long list of musical performers on 3 stages ($40)

The Ace Hotel Downtown is having a Black & White Ball for Halloween with DJs Daniel T, Peanut Butter Wolf, And Vitto and Druzzi. Tarot readings, aura photography and more. Black and white attire required. ($25)