Denizens of the South Sound, behold: Our guide to this season’s biggest and best Halloween happenings in and around Tacoma is here. Whether you're looking to get chills from haunted attractions (like Frighthouse Station), party into the wee hours (like at Kuinka's Halloween Ball with Vaudeville Etiquette) or go trick-or-treating with your little ones (like the annual Proctor Treats costume parade), we've got you covered. You can also find more events on our complete Tacoma Halloween calendar.
OCTOBER 18
FILM
Friday Night Frights: Phantasm
Horror movie fans received an unexpected bumper crop in 1979, with the perfect Lovecraftian ickiness of Alien. Maybe just as important, though, was the release of Phantasm, a fumbling, seemingly hand-made shot of cinematic moonshine that somehow managed to hit a dream logic sweet spot. Given a spiffy new 4k remaster to coincide with the latest (and purportedly final) sequel, it retains its power to make you stay the hell away from your closet after dark. ANDREW WRIGHT
Blue Mouse Theatre
FOOD & DRINK
Zoo BOOze & Bites 2019
Support the Zoo Society by enjoying wine, whiskey, beer, and food tastings from local restaurants. There will also be Halloween-y games, raffles, and more. Costumes are highly encouraged.
Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium
OCTOBER 18-19
HAUNTED HOUSES & TOURS
City Ghost Tour
What ghostly beings haunt the streets of Tacoma? Find out if you dare on this spooky tour.
Downtown Tacoma
OCTOBER 19
FILM
Free Family Flick: Corpse Bride
Victor (voiced by Johnny Depp) is about to marry a lovely young woman named Victoria (Emily Watson). Following a strange series of accidents, Victor instead finds himself hitched to Corpse Bride (Helena Bonham Carter), a woman who died years ago on her wedding day. Victor is scared shitless, but Corpse Bride couldn't be happier. The wicked characters aren't nearly as wicked as they could've been, and the songs aren't particularly memorable, but the animation is classic Tim Burton (and absolutely stunning at moments—his use of shadow and light has vastly improved). Take your little ones to this Free Family Flick presentation just in time for Halloween. MEGAN SELING
Grand Cinema
PUMPKINS
NW Glass Pumpkin Patch
Feast your eyes on thousands of hand-blown glass pumpkins and other fall emblems for sale, crafted by local artisans.
McLendon Hardware
OCTOBER 24
PARTIES
Blossoms & Haunts
Beloved bookstore King's Books will team up with Wright Park's Seymour Conservatory to present a night of chilling tales you might not know about the plant-filled space. You can even sip a spectral-inspired beverage to get in the mood.
Seymour Conservatory
OCTOBER 25
HAUNTED HOUSES & TOURS
Ghost Hunt in Steilacoom
Established in 1857, Steilacoom is Washington State's oldest city, making it a hotbed of alleged ghostly activity. Starting at Topside Bar & Grill, this tour through the city's historic downtown district will make stops at the Albert Balch home, the Bair store, and "a mysterious building in the woods" before reaching the freakiest (aka most haunted) destination: the Orr Family home and wagonship.
Downtown Steilacoom
MUSIC
Decent At Best x All Star Opera's Halloween Get Down & Giveback
Local bands Decent At Best, All Star Opera, and Peasantboys will join up this Halloween for a warm clothing drive and live show benefitting Tacoma's Rescue Mission. Best costumes of the night will win prizes & props from McMenamin's, Papa Bueno Tequila, and more. If you'd like to donate, bring scarves, beanies, gloves or mittens, jackets, sweaters, coats, socks, blankets, long underwear, or any barely used, water-resistant winter gear.
McMenamins Elks Temple
OCTOBER 25-NOVEMBER 3
PERFORMANCE
The Rocky Horror Show
Spike up your anticipation for Halloween with some naughty mad science antics and the Time Warp.
Tacoma Musical Playhouse
OCTOBER 25-NOVEMBER 10
PERFORMANCE
Evil Dead: The Musical
This R-rated, comedic live stage show is based on the cult classic horror films about a cabin in the woods where the dead return. There's even an audience "splash zone," where getting bloody is likely.
Tacoma Little Theatre
OCTOBER 26
FILM
Weird Elephant: Evil Dead 2
Rejoice Deadites and Kandarian Demon enthusiasts! It’s time to watch the greatest and funniest horror sequel of all time—1987’s Evil Dead 2. It’s a gore-soaked, maniacal package of fantastic featuring Bruce Campbell and his chin, more quoteables than The Big Lebowski, Sam Raimi's 1973 Oldsmobile Delta 88, the scariest noises ever committed to film, and buckets of ooey-gooey blood. COURTNEY FERGUSON
Grand Cinema
THROUGH OCTOBER 26
HAUNTED HOUSES & TOURS
Haunted Forest of Maple Valley
Walk down a mile-long haunted trail, knowing that your proceeds will help support youth organizations like Girl Scouts of Western Washington.
Royal Arch Park (Maple Valley)
OCTOBER 26
COMMUNITY
LeMay Trunk or Treat
Instead of going door to door, costumed children can experience trick-or-treating in a new way by snatching treats from the trunks of vintage vehicles decked out for Halloween.
LeMay Marymount
HAUNTED HOUSES & TOURS
Auburn Halloween Harvest Festival
Enjoy games, crafts, rides, and "trunk-or-treating" in the park at this family-centric festival.
Les Gove Park (Auburn)
PARTIES
Halloween '80s Video Dance Attack and Costume Contest
Portland's longest-running weekly dance party will come to Tacoma for a special Halloween edition. Flail your body around to the hits of yesteryear in your best costume.
McMenamins Elks Temple
The Jive's Annual Halloween Party
Tacoma's beloved coffee pot-shaped bar kinda looks haunted all year round, so you know it'll be the perfect place to sing freaky karaoke songs in your Halloween costume.
Bob's Java Jive
THROUGH OCTOBER 27
HAUNTED HOUSES & TOURS
Maris Farms Haunted Woods
From a flashlight corn maze to a trek through the haunted Buckley woods, the farm will provide a month's worth of scary activities.
Maris Farms (Buckley)
My Morbid Mind
Saunter through a creepy old barn curated by "Master of the Macabre" Kevin Noah. The annual haunted house, which started out as a display on Noah's front porch, is replete with several new rooms, animatronics, pneumatics, special effects, and more to freak you out.
Eight Marvin Rd SE (Lacey)
THROUGH OCTOBER 31
FESTIVALS
Schilter Fall Harvest Festival
The 180-acre farm hosts a harvest festival that offers a pumpkin patch, an old-fashioned hayride, a corn maze, and lots of seasonal treats. This year's corn maze is dedicated to the ALS Association.
Schilter Farms (Olympia)
HAUNTED HOUSES & TOURS
Haunted Forest At Grand Farms
The forest will be adorned with creepy medieval characters (blood-thirsty queens and courts!) and things that jump out at you (dragons!). If you're totally freaked out, comfort yourself with treats from food trucks and sip complimentary coffee and hot chocolate.
Grand Farms (Vaughn)
Rutledge Farms Haunts
The farm's pumpkin patch and corn maze may look harmless by day, but at night they become host to undead creatures and ghouls skulking about. Choose between zombie paintball and a haunted corn maze (or opt for both).
Rutledge Farms (Olympia)
VISUAL ART
Titlow Beach IllumenArt Pumpkins
Head out after dark to see artist-carved, illuminated pumpkins on the water.
Titlow Park
OCTOBER 31
KIDS & FAMILY
Halloween Fun at Lincoln District Tacoma
Kiddos can visit Lincoln District businesses marked with orange balloons for special treats. Bring canned goods and other non-perishables for a local food bank.
Lincoln District
Halloween Hurrah!
Kids and families in the South Sound can spend All Hallows' Eve admiring spooky plants, gobbling sweet treats, and playing games.
Seymour Conservatory
Point Ruston Treats
Shops along Point Ruston will hand out Halloween candy to trick-or-treaters.
Point Ruston
Proctor Treats
Show off your costume and scoop up treats at Tacoma's annual trick-or-treat parade in the Proctor District.
Proctor District
MUSIC
Kuinka's Halloween Ball with Vaudeville Etiquette
Defiantly alternative string band Kuinka make "backyard folk" elevated to an almost orchestral level with input from classic string band instrumentation, weighty percussion, the integration of electronic sound production, cello, and six-string ukulele. Join the local quintet and alt-Americana band Vaudeville Etiquette for a harmony-filled Halloween.
McMenamins Elks Temple
THROUGH NOVEMBER 2
HAUNTED HOUSES & TOURS
Fright Fest 2019
Wild Waves will offer six weekends of thrills this fall for kids and adults alike, including a nightly "parade of ghouls."
Wild Waves Theme Park (Federal Way)
Frighthouse Station Haunted House
Tacoma-dwelling ghosts and ghouls will lurk in the shadowy corners of two equally creepy haunts.
Frighthouse Station
NOVEMBER 2
FILM
Weird Elephant: One Cut of the Dead
There is no sub-genre of horror as exhausted as zombies. This might be appropriate considering the subject matter, but it’s also disappointing if you want to, you know, like watching zombie movies. Director Shinichiro Ueda did his part to give the zombie canon a jolt with 2017’s One Cut of the Dead, a satire about filmmaking that blends gags and gore just as tightly as (if not even tighter than) Edgar Wright’s Shaun of the Dead. BOBBY ROBERTS
Grand Cinema
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