A séance in High Park, a haunted Island tour and seven other spooky things to do this Halloween

A séance in High Park, a haunted Island tour and seven other spooky things to do this Halloween

Photograph courtesy of Netflix

The Stranger Things soundtrack, live
1This year’s edition of Unsound, a concert series that combines electronic music and video art, offers concertgoers some pre- and post-Halloween fun. On October 27, Mica Levi and the Unsound Toronto Ensemble provide a new score for the 2014 Scarlett Johansson film Under the Skin, while on November 3, Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein play the synth-heavy, 1980s-inspired music from Stranger Things. $35–$45. Friday, October 27 and Friday, November 3. St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts.

An eerie Island boat tour
2Travel back to the early 1900s for a haunted tour of Toronto Island. Toronto Island Stories: Murder at the Lagoon takes visitors on a narrated boat ride around the Island, exploring the strange murder of the Gibraltar Point Lighthouse’s most infamous keeper. Friday, October 27 to Tuesday, October 31. $25. 175 Queen’s Quay West.

Game of Thrones bash
3The Gladstone Hotel transforms into Westeros for Dragonstone Halloween Bash, a Game of Thrones–themed costume party. Guests will don their best medieval garb for a night of live music, dancing and costume contests, featuring an actual Iron Throne. Just pray that it doesn’t turn into the Red Wedding. Friday, October 27. $25–$35. Gladstone Hotel.

Photograph by Gabby Frank

A city full of haunted houses
4It happens this time every year: several of Toronto’s top tourist attractions get a dangerous ghost infestation. Guests can be chased by a maniac with a chainsaw at Screemers ($32.95, Exhibition Place), rub shoulders with Dracula and the Creature from the Black Lagoon at Legends of Horror ($45, Casa Loma, shown above), or fend off hundreds of horrifying monsters at Halloween Haunt (from $34.99, Canada’s Wonderland). It’s the most fun you’ll ever have being startled by dudes in masks.

Second City’s scariest hits
5Abbott and Costello, the Wayans Brothers, the Simpsons—they’ve all found humour in horror. On Halloween night, Second City presents an evening of its greatest terror-themed hits from years past, revived Frankenstein-style from the Second City archives. Friday, October 27, Monday, October 30 and Tuesday, October 31. $15–$38. Second City.

A haunted walk through High Park
6High Park is a pleasant place to walk a dog or see some Shakespeare, but it’s also home to a plethora of legends, strange happenings and perhaps even ghosts. The Haunted High Park tour explores the myths and old traditions of the historic Colborne Lodge, and features a spooky Victorian séance by Eldritch Theatre’s Doc Wuthergloom. Friday, October 27 to Sunday, October 29. $32.50. High Park.

A pick-your-own-horror-flick adventure
7A century’s worth of spooky cinema unspools in Toronto’s rep theatres over the next few days. TIFF will play a double-bill of Night of the Living Dead and the Canadian 3-D oddity The Mask (Oct. 31); the Revue has Tod Browning’s silent classic The Unknown (Oct. 29); the Carlton is showing the silent Phantom of the Opera (Oct. 29) and the Marlon Brando Island of Dr. Moreau (Oct. 30); and the Royal has a handful, including The Addams Family (Oct. 28), John Carpenter’s Christine (Oct. 28), and “the blaxploitation Exorcist,” Abby (Oct. 27).

Shaun of the Dead zombie party
8When the zombie apocalypse hits, the only sensible thing to do is hole up in a pub, drink a nice cold pint and wait for it all to blow over. The Movie Experience—an immersive theatrical performance by the Secret Sessions theatre—takes over the Monarch Tavern for a live event based on Edgar Wright’s Shaun of the Dead. Dress as a zombie or a 2004-era British office drone, have a drink and interact with professional actors playing the characters made famous by Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. Until Saturday, October 28. $60. Monarch Tavern.

The city’s most colourful Halloween
9The Village turns into a six-block, pedestrian-only bash for Halloween on Church, Canada’s biggest block party for All Hallow’s Eve, where the costumes are sure to be next level. The festivities start at 6:30, and the Village’s stores, coffee shops and bars are open until 2 a.m. Tuesday, October 31. Free. Church and Wellesley Village.