Best Halloween Events in New England
GoLocalProv Lifestyle Team
Best Halloween Events in New England
It’s time to start planning now to make sure your calendar is full of spooky events.
Whether your tastes run from the scary to steampunk to film festivals to family activities, GoLocal has you covered with our roundup of the best Halloween attractions in the area.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTHighlights include the Steampunk Mansion Mashup, Canalloween, Roger Williams Park Zoo Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular, and the Rock and Shock Horror Convention.
Here are GoLocal's top picks.
Best Halloween Events in New England
Roger Williams Park Zoo Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular
Beautifully carved pumpkins light up the night at the Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular at Roger Williams Park Zoo, October 2 through November 2.
The 2014 presentation, titled “Jack-O-Lanterns from A to Z,” will delight new and repeat visitors alike. Scenes filled with intricate pumpkin art will be arrayed in alphabetical order, with highlights from history and popular culture, and another section will honor inspirational figures.
Popular annual features will return, as well as the show’s dazzling grand finale, the Laughing Tree. Hundreds of glowing jack-o-lanterns on the ground and high up in the trees surround carved giants (well over 1,000 pounds) amid spooky fog and music, punctuated by its iconic catchy beat and laughter.
Canalloween
Worcester’s Canal District will become the home for Worcester’s biggest Halloween party on Saturday October 25th beginning at 2 pm.
Now in its third year, the event will feature a 5K Scary Monster Dash – where runners are encouraged to dress up in costumes – beginning at 2pm on Front Street, post race fun at some of the Canal Districts’ restaurants, and a parade at 4pm.
“The Canal District in Worcester is the perfect venue for this sort of event”. The scale of the streets makes for a fun environment,” said the event’s organizers. “Once you add in the restaurants, clubs and bars, there will be something for everyone.”
Children and adults are encouraged to show up in costumes to run in the race and to march in the parade.
Steampunk Mansion Mashup
The Lippitt House Museum will host the Steampunk Mansion Mashup on October 18 from 8 pm to 11 pm.
In collaboration with Red Fork Empire, a collective of creative individuals who express themselves through the wide ranging avenues of Steampunk culture, the Museum will showcase this alternate world where Victorian culture collides with science fiction and the present. Steampunk musicians, performers, and artists will provide entertainment and general wonderment in a free flowing format. Cash bar.
Dress in your Steampunk finest, festive attire, or simply come as you are. Advance purchase $15, day of event $18. Reservations can be made at lippitthouse.org or by calling 401-453-0688.
Providence Improv Guild's Redrum: Oath
The Providence Improvised Guild will present an improvised and interactive psychological thriller set in the bowels of a creepy cult, the Pilgrims of the Oath.
“Redrum: Oath” – the second in P.I.G.’s annual “Redrum” Halloween series – runs every Thursday and Friday, October 16 through Halloween night, at the Southside Cultural Center (393 Broad St, Providence, RI).
The Story: It’s a busy but ominous time for the Pilgrims of the Oath. In its zeal to achieve the higher spiritual plane of “normalization,” tensions are on the rise, factions are forming, and its bizarre practices are growing more…extreme. Audiences will determine the fate of the cult and its members, ensuring a very different creepy and suspenseful show each night.
Audience Note: The show invites audiences to move around from room to room in the basement of the Southside Cultural Center, following characters and situations as they please. They will get to be flies on the wall in a three-dimensional cult setting. Due to the nature of improvised theater, parental discretion is advised.
Tickets are $15 and are available at www.ImprovPIG.com and redrumoath.bpt.me. Each performance lasts approximately an hour.
11th Annual Rock and Shock Horror Convention and Rock Concert Series
The Rock and Shock, October 17 to October 19, is a three day horror and music convention featuring celebrity signings, film screenings, concerts, and panels.
The convention, which will run from October 17 to October 19, is located at both the DCU Center and the Worcester Palladium.
EcoTarium's Great Pumpkin Fest
The EcoTarium will present the Great Pumpkin Fest on October 25 from 2:00 to 9:00 pm.
The event will include a variety of family activities.
-Creative displays of more than 1,000 carved pumpkins, lit after dark
-Full access to museum and grounds
-Free digital planetarium shows (limited seating)
-Spooktacular science programs
-Pumpkin-carving demonstration
-Trick-or-treating (while supplies last)
-Entertainment and fun for all ages!
Friendly Halloween costumes are encouraged! Bring a flashlight to light your way at night and be sure to dress for the weather. This event takes place rain or shine.
Tickets can be purchased at the door on the day of the event, or in advance online or at the EcoTarium Ticket & Information Desk. Tickets are for one-time use, with no re-admittance during the event. For more information, please call 508-929-2700.
No coupons or discounts may be applied for Great Pumpkin Fest, and there are no refunds. Proceeds benefit the EcoTarium.
Cost: Tickets are $15 per person, $12 for EcoTarium members. Children under 2 are free.
RI International Horror Film Festival
A symphony of cinematic horror slashes its way across the big screen as the FLICKERS: Rhode Island International Film Festival (RIIFF) will unveil its 15th Annual RI International Horror Film Festival from October 20-26th.
In addition to its traditional spooky film fare and the world premiere of “Another World,” the first horror film ever made in Israel, this year's festival includes a return and two-day expansion of its popular H.P. Lovecraft Walking Tour presented in collaboration with the RI Historical Society, an expanded focus on Sci-fi and fantasy films, free after-school programs for kids, a Date-Night of Horror with a costume competition, and two Forums that look behind-the-scenes of creating horror films in the Ocean State featuring Steven Feinberg, Executive Director of the RI Film and Television Office and award-winning writer/director, Chris Sparling.
The FLICKERS: RI International Horror Film Festival is an eerie-sistable salute to what is an often-overlooked genre that will include a bevy of World and U.S. Premieres of short, feature-length and documentary films. In all 69 films have been selected from over 600 submissions and, and they represent 19 countries including the United Kingdom, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Poland, Spain, Japan, Hungary, Israel, France, Sweden, New Zealand, Brazil, and the United States.
Factory of Terror
Enter at your own risk!
This indoor haunted house offers a frightening and spooky experience with realistic, detailed rooms featuring cutting edge special effects and horror creatures at every turn!
The Factory of Terror's three locations include Worcester, Fall River, and West Warwick.
Boo Bash
Play bewitching games galore, have hands-on fun with imaginative arts and “witch crafts,” explore an eerie environment, mix it up in the mad scientist’s laboratory and much more.
Come in costume and have a blast at the biggest Halloween bash around!
The Ghoullog at Cranmore Mountain
The Ghoullog is an unforgettable hour-long experience, leading unsuspecting guests through a series of dark rooms, scary mazes and other unknown places.
The story is, "All community residents and facility visitors be advised: 3 Mercer Home residents have escaped detention in maximum security East Wing, where the most violent criminals are held. These individuals may have released other inmates as well. They are convicted psychopathic murderers, possibly armed. Mercer Home is in lockdown. Extreme fear is advised."
Spooky Zoo
Spooky Zoo is back, offering daytime outdoor autumn activities for the whole family! Come trick-or-treat with us, plus enjoy a packed schedule of other seasonal activities, including music and seasonal entertainment, costumed characters, a magician, games, creepy crawly animal encounters, pumpkin treats for the animals and more!
Activities are free with Zoo admission and all children (12 and under) dressed in costume get in for half price.
Spooky Zoo will run October 25 and 26 from 10 am - 3 pm.
Lake Compounce Haunted Graveyard
The Haunted Graveyard got its start in 1991, when Ernie and Carol Romegialli’s daughter, Johanna, was diagnosed with Juvenile Diabetes.
According to Ernie, "We started decorating our yard in Middletown, Connecticut for Halloween, thinking it would keep Johanna's mind off candy. Every year, the displays of decoration just kept getting bigger and bigger. It outgrew our yard and has since evolved into Southern New England’s largest Halloween attraction. Today, Johanna, at age 28, is an active member of the Graveyard team."
Rides include Boulder Dash, Zoomerang, Ghost Hunt, Wild Cat, Twister, American Flyers, Bumper Cars, Wipe Out, Thunder N’ Lightning, Rev-O-Lution, Wave Swinger, Carousel, Enterprise, Down Time, Giant Wheel, Pirate Ship, Sky Coaster and Zoomers Gas N’ Go.
The Haunted Graveyard at Lake Compounce is open weekends through November 1st.
