Where to Find Spooky, Scary and Hellish Halloween Attractions in Los Angeles (Before it’s Too Late)

• Universal Studios Hollywood’s Halloween Horror Nights

  Image Credit: DAVID SPRAGUE/Courtesy of Subject

  Through Nov. 3, from $77
  100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City
  The freaks do come out at night on the Universal Studios Hollywood lot every season as the park is transformed into “Southern California’s scariest Halloween event” once the sun goes down. Stars like Pedro Pascal, Sydney Sweeney, Jack Quaid, Nicole Richie and Kumail Nanjiani have booed their way through recently to check out the eight walk-through haunted house attractions, four “sinister scare zones,” rides and other surprises like Terror Tram: Enter the Blumhouse, The Purge: Dangerous Waters and Late Night With Chucky. Other attractions include A Quiet Place, Ghostbusters Frozen Empire, Insidious the Further, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Legacy of Leatherface and more.

• Beetlejuice Beetlejuice: The Afterlife Experience

  Image Credit: Courtesy of Beetlejuice Afterlife

  Through Nov. 3, from $25
  Ovation Hollywood, 6801 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles
  The timely (and 11,000 square foot) activation pops up hot on the heels of the release of Tim Burton’s latest big-screen adventure featuring the foul-mouthed maestro of the undead. The Afterlife Experience gets guests up close to the recently deceased for entertainment, movie set recreations, themed merch, food and drinks and more.

• Los Angeles Haunted Hayride

  Image Credit: Photo Credit: Kelly Balch and Thirteenth Floor Entertainment Group

  Through Nov. 2, from $36.99
  Griffith Park, 4730 Crystal Springs Dr., Los Angeles
  The sprawling pop-up is back with a variety of activations and experiences including a new collaboration with Janelle Monae on Monae Manor “where it’s Halloween every night” with talking walls, bumping music and a “twisted soiree” that may even feature a cameo from the host. There’s a trick-or-treat maze, Madame Aurora’s Séance Theatre featuring a spiritual medium, Midnight Falls General Store with a s’mores station, mini escape games, performances by undead irreverent lounge singer Monte Revolta, and Hellbilly Halloween featuring the long-rumored cannibal family, among other attractions.

• Queen Mary’s Dark Harbor

  Image Credit: Courtesy of Subject

  Through Nov. 2, from $49
  1126 Queens Highway, Long Beach
  The sprawling grounds around the iconic ship in Long Beach are transformed into a Halloween-a-palozza featuring haunted mazes, “hundreds of monsters,” immersive attractions, live entertainment, VIP experiences, themed bars, secret speakeasys, lounges, carnival rides, ax throwing, food and drinks. This year marks a boo-tastic return after a four year hiatus. Among the highlights: Lullaby features a “sinisterly playful ghost of Scary Mary” who rises from a swimming pool to accost passengers; Infirmary features “the wicked spirits of a sadistic surgeon and his accomplice” who torment the living; and Feast starring a cannibalistic chef who has grown frustrated with first class passengers. Who can relate!

• Mr. Bones Pumpkin Patch

  Image Credit: Courtesy of Mr. Bones Pumpkin Patch

  Through Oct. 31, from $10
  10100 Jefferson Blvd., Culver City
  The seasonal activation is an L.A. institution dating back to its founding 1987. It has since become a hotspot for celebrities and families to experience farm life, kid-friendly entertainment, music, art installations, food and, naturally, gourds for acres. “We are full of new tricks up our sleeve,” owner Lyra Marble says on Instagram.

• Delusion: The Red Castle

  Image Credit: Courtesy of Delusion: The Red Castle

  Through Nov. 2, from $109
  Stimson House, 2421 S. Figueroa St., Los Angeles
  An interactive horror play written and directed by Jon Braver that offers audience members the chance to participate or simply take in the scares as they come. Set in the mid 20th century, the story follows a brilliant psychologist named Dr. Frederick Lowell who has been banished from his community due to his unorthodox methods. Along with “his most prized patients,” Lowell finds refuge in an abandoned castle only to experience tragedy when his wife tumbles and dies there. “With your help and abilities, he may be able to bring back the greatest love of his life.” But remember: “Resurrection hardly ends well.”

• Reign of Terror Haunted House

  Image Credit: Courtesy of Subject

  Through Nov. 2, from $42
  285 N. Moorpark Road, Thousand Oaks
  The expansive scare headquarters ­— billed as “the ultimate haunted house for L.A. and Southern California” — features 142 rooms and 11 interconnected haunted attractions including a “forest of fear.”

• Medieval Torture Museum

  Image Credit: Courtesy of the Medieval Torture Museum

  Daily, from $29.99
  6757 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles
  The name says it all but there are more details to shred: The museum is designed to help visitors “enter the minds of fanatics, madmen and murderers” as they pass through a curated collection of confinement and torture devices, or as the website states, “an unprecedented collection of cruelty based on historical documents and engravings.” Oh my!

• West Hollywood’s Halloween Carnaval

  Image Credit: Emma McIntyre/Getty Images

  Oct. 31, from 6—11 p.m. with more information here
  West Hollywood
  The City of West Hollywood is mounting a big Halloween return to Santa Monica Boulevard in 2024. Thousands of costumed revelers are expected to descend on the city’s one-mile stretch between North Doheny Drive and North La Cienega Boulevard for the free public celebration. It will feature a live DJ set, food trucks, and thousands of wildly dressed people in Halloween costumes for a one-of-a-kind experience. Information about parking, street and facilities closures, transportation and safety is available in the news section of the city’s website.

• Hollywood Forever Cemetery Presents 25th Annual Dia de los Muertos

  Image Credit: Courtesy of Subject

  Oct. 26, from $53.60
  6000 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles
  This year’s installment is rolling out as an all day event beginning at 10 a.m. and closing at midnight. In the hours therein, visitors can peruse the offerings including an altars exhibition, ceremonial procession, cathedral art exhibition, arts and crafts vendors and participate in a costume contest. Name acts will also entertain the crowd including Pedro Fernández, Los Lobos, Reyna Tropical, Ambar Lucid, El Santo Golpe and Tania Libertad.

• Afterlife Transfer Trolley

  Image Credit: Courtesy of Subject

  Billed as a “free and immersive hop-on, hop-off haunted experience” that takes riders up and down the iconic Sunset Strip. “A scary good time awaits” for those interested parties for trips scheduled for Oct. 26, 27, 31 and Nov. 1-2. Throughout the trolley’s journey, bars, restaurants and hotels along The Strip will be serving up Halloween-inspired food, drinks and special events. Also spooky: Guests can snap a pic with two unfortunate riders who never made it off of the hearse. Character actors in full costumes will tell a variety of spooky stories meant to delight on the drive. For a full schedule, click here.

  This story appeared in the Oct. 23 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.

• Six Flags Fright Fest Extreme

  Through Nov. 3, from $45
  26101 Magic Mountain Parkway, Valencia
  Six Flags Magic Mountain’s Halloween makeover hosts 11 haunted houses and nine certified scare zones, some of which are inspired by Hollywood horror including Stranger Things, the Conjuring universe, Saw, Army of the Dead and more. Thrill seekers can also go for rollercoaster spins in the dark while the more cautious can snack on themed food and drinks.

• House of Spirits: A Haunted Cocktail Soirée

  Through Nov. 2, varying prices starting at $59 depending on day
  Nocturne Theatre, 324 N. Orange St., Glendale
  Picture this: You and your pals skip the bar this Halloween season and instead head to a “macabre haunted estate” where you can imbibe while taking in a two-hour experience that includes music, magic, spooky characters, entertainment and other interactive surprises. Oh, and there’s a Ouija board and opportunity to speak to the other side — aka the inhabitants of the house — if that’s your thing. Costumes, cocktail attire or period garb encouraged!

• CBS Presents Creep x ‘Ghosts’

  Through Oct. 27, from $70
  West Adams neighborhood, Los Angeles
  CBS and Just Fix It Prods.’ Creep L.A. have teamed on a 60-minute show in two mansions in L.A.’s West Adams neighborhood. At one address, the lobby of Ghost’s Woodstone Bed & Breakfast will be recreated to offer photo moments and show memorabilia to guests. Guests are then escorted to cross over to the “dark side” of the street for a true ghost story experience in an immersive environment. A lot can be learned from the content advisories that include extended standing, uneven terrain, walking, crawling, blindfolded, intense sound and strobes, fog, moments of darkness, sudden movements and wet or damp conditions.

• Knott’s Scary Farm

  Through Nov. 2, from $59.99
  8039 Beach Blvd., Buena Park
  The amusement park has had decades, literally, to perfect its Halloween activation thanks to conjuring up more than 50 years of scares across 57 acres. In addition to 10 indoor mazes and five designated scare zones, guests can ride rollercoasters in the dark, snack and sip on themed food and drinks, and pick from four live shows including Conjurers, Le Magnifique Carnaval du Grotesque, The Hanging: The Errors Tour and Yours Cruelly, Elvira Xxperience.

• Urban Death Tour of Terror

  Through Nov. 1, $28 at door
  Zombie Joe’s Underground Theatre Group
  4850 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood
  Arguably not for all audiences (or the squeamish), the tour has been teased as “scarier, a little freakier” than last year’s per director Denise Devin with Zombie Joe himself having said that the current climate of fear and anxiety has inspired the horror maze and the actors that populate it. “We really tried to bring the darkness and that excitement to the stage as entertainment. It’s almost like Urban Death received a facelift,” he says on YouTube. Note the disclaimer: Graphic content, trigger warnings and full nudity. We’re scared!

• Museum of Death

  Daily, $21 “per body”
  6363 Selma Ave., Los Angeles
  Again, the name sort of says it all but inquiring minds might want to know that the archive consists of body bags, coffins and skull collections, a “theatre of death,” antique mortician tools, Manson family photographs, crime and morgue scene images, artworks, letters and ephemera from serial killers, graphic car accident images, cannibalism artifacts and more. Mature audiences only and “not for the faint of heart.”

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