School is back in session, marking the end of the sizzling summer season and the beginning of the crisp fall sweater weather. While San Diego slowly transitions from summer to fall with the green leaves changing to their autumn brown, the city also prepares for the spookiest season of all, Halloween.
While the majority of the holiday’s events cater to the older crowd, there is fun offered for young children and the whole family. Haunted attractions can be found throughout the city at varying costs.
Among the activities are a Harvest Festival at Silver Gate Elementary School on Friday, Oct. 19 from 5 to 8 p.m. ” complete with a haunted hallway.
At Sunset View Elementary, the 49th annual Halloween Carnival takes place with costume contests, haunted house and other activities. That event takes place Saturday, Oct. 27 from 4 to 7 p.m.
MONSTER BASH
In the Gaslamp Quarter, Southern Comfort presents the seventh annual Dos Equis XX Monster Bash on Saturday, Oct. 27 from 6 p.m. to midnight on the outskirts of the Gaslamp Quarter at 7th Avenue between Market and J streets and on Island Avenue between 6th and 8th avenues.
Attendees at this 21-and-up event can indulge in Southern Comfort cocktails and cold Dos Equis and rock out with some of Southern California’s hottest live bands. Guests can also check out the “Day of the Dead Stage” featuring DJ Wonderbread, DJ Brent Bartel, DJ Marc Thrasher and DJ Cobra spinning house and hip-hop music to get the party started.
The Bash will also feature bar-top go-go girls shaking their stuff while dressed as some sexy monsters.
Those guests dressed to the nines in the Halloween spirit have the chance to win a grand prize of $3,000 in cash during the Monster Bash Costume Contest.
Wristbands for the event are available for $20 in advance and $25 at the door. The wristband is also a ticket to food and drink specials as well as free entrance into the Gaslamp’s best nightclubs and hotspots. Participating restaurants and nightclubs include Aubergine, Café Sevilla and the Sevilla Nightclub, Dick’s Last Resort, Martini Ranch and The Onyx Room, among others.
Guests must have a valid ID to enter. For more information and ticket sales call (619) 233-5008 or visit www.gaslampquarter.org.
HAUNTED HOTEL
The Haunted Hotel opened on Sept. 28 and will continue through Oct. 31. For this, the 15th year, The Haunted Hotel is ruled by horror movies. Guests can check out this year’s hotel based on this year’s most gruesome movies. They will find themselves running from the inhabitants of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Slaughter House.
The Haunted Hotel operates Sundays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. and Fridays and Saturdays from 6 p.m. to 1 a.m. The Hotel is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays except for Oct. 29 and 30.
The Haunted Hotel is located at 424 Market St. between 4th Avenue and Market Street in the heart of the Gaslamp Quarter. Tickets are $13.99 at the door. This event is not recommended for children under 10. For more information call (619) 696-SCARE (7227) or visit www.hauntedhotel.com.
HAUNTED TRAIL
Channel 93.3 presents the Haunted Trail in Balboa Park, San Diego’s only all-outdoor haunted attraction. Like the typical haunted house attractions where performers dressed in ghoulish garb jump out to scare guests and give them a fright, visitors of the Haunted Trail get the same experience while navigating a mile-long trail through a twisted grove of pines and gnarled oaks.
The trail opened when the sun went down on Sept. 28 and runs through Oct. 31. The trail is not for children or the faint of heart and is not recommended for children under 10.
The trail runs on Sundays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. and Fridays and Saturdays from 7 p.m. to midnight.
The trail is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays except for Oct. 29 and 30.
The Haunted Trail is located at Marston Point, just east of 6th Avenue and Juniper Street in Balboa Park. Tickets are $13.99 at the gate, deals are available online.
For more information call (619) 696-SCARE (7227) or visit www.hauntedhotel.com.
HAUNTED SAN DIEGO GHOST TOURS
While the Haunted San Diego Ghost Tour runs all year long, as the Day of the Dead approaches its popularity grows. This popular tour aboard the Ghost Bus journeys through Old Town San Diego, the historic Gaslamp District and through a quiet unassuming neighborhood (with an ominous presence), according to the Trusted Tours web site.
A guide shares stories of paranormal experience and allows guests to disembark the Ghost Bus to get up-close and personal to what are believed to be documented haunted locations. Guests will learn the tales of who lived, who died and who is still believed to haunt these spooky locations.
Stops include the Horton Grand Hotel, the William Health Davis House, the Villa Montezuma, the El Camp Santo Cemetery and the Whaley House. Tours will not entire the sites visited, except for the William Health Davis House.
The Whaley House is open to visitors but operates independently of the tour with separate admission fees.
From now until Memorial Day the tours run Thursdays through Sundays departing at 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. Tours do not run on Mondays through Wednesdays except Oct. 29-31.
The tour runs approximately 1.5 hours and departs from the Best Western Hacienda in Old Town, 4041 Harney St, located at the corner of Harney and Juan Streets. Check-in begins 15 minutes prior to departure.
Tickets for the tour are $29 for adults and $26.25 for children ages 10-13 and seniors. The tour is not recommended for children under 10.
For more information visit www.trustedtours.com.
DEL MAR SCREAM ZONE
For the 10th year Del Mar Scaregrounds presents The Scream Zone, with one new attraction this year. The House of Horror is a typical haunted house with the scariest ghouls, ghosts and zombies jumping out at ever turn. The Haunted Hayride takes riders through some of the spookiest and creepiest areas of the fairgrounds. New this year is The Chamber with unique scenes creepy enough to celebrate the Scream Zone’s 10 years of scares.
The Scream Zone is open Oct. 5-7, 12-14, 18-21 and nightly Oct. 24 through 31. It opens at 7 p.m. and closes at midnight on Fridays and Saturdays and 11 p.m. other nights. Admission prices range from $13.99 for one attraction or $26.99 for admission to all three attractions.
For more information visit www.sdfair/screamzone
SCARY FILMS
Sept. 30 marked the opening of Sledgehammer Theatre’s first annual Holiday Spectacular “Seven Crimes: A Celebration of Murder, Mayhem and Mutilation,” as well as the reopening of the Tenth Avenue Theater downtown.
“Rather than paying tribute to the season of peace and love, we are celebrating the month of sin and decadence the way only Sledgehammer can,” said Scott Feldsher, Sledgehammer Theatre’s artistic director, in a press release.
“Seven Crimes” is an evening of three classic Grand Guignol plays, translated and adapted from the French by New York poet/playwright David Rosenthal.
The Grand Guignol was a theater in Paris, which specialized in naturalistic horror shows, according to the online encyclopedia wikipedia.
The name is often used as a general term for graphic, amoral horror entertainment.
“Seven Crimes” will run through Nov. 4, with show times on Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 7 p.m. except for Nov. 4 at 2 p.m. Tickets range from $10 to $25.
For more information or to buy tickets visit www.sledgehammer.org.
The Star of India and the Maritime Museum of San Diego presents the Halloween edition of Movies Before the Mast, allowing moviegoers to enjoy scary movies with nautical themes projected on special sails aboard this floating movie theater.
On Friday date night on Oct. 26, John Carpenter’s horror classic “The Fog” (1980-R) starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Adrienne Barbeau will be presented. Friday date night is intended for adults only. A full bar will be on board for those 21 and up.
On Saturday family night, Oct. 27, “Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster” (1969-PG) will be shown. Family night is for all ages and no alcohol will be served.
Gates open at 7 p.m. and movies start at 8 p.m. Adult tickets are $13, maritime museum member price is $11 and tickets for children 12 and under are $8, $6 for museum members.
For more information or to purchase tickets in advance visit www.sdmaritime.org.
FAMILY-FOCUSED HAUNTS
As the only haunted house attraction in San Diego County that caters to young children and families, Monster Manor is back for its seventh year of haunted Halloween fun.
Monster Manor is an all-volunteer charity Halloween attraction that benefits local community groups.
Lite Frite is a daytime attraction at Monster Manor designed to expose younger children to the lighter side of Halloween as the manor transforms into Pirate’s Landing, where kids will have to help rescue the governor’s beautiful daughter from nasty pirates in search of the legendary treasure of Lord Blight. Appropriate for toddlers to pre-teens, kids walk from room to room where they will encounter pirates, buccaneers, swashbucklers and fortune-telling gypsies.
During the Night Haunt evening attraction appropriate for children 13 and up, guests tour the cursed Victorian mansion of the Ghastleys, which includes the Hellevator, Frank’s Laboratory and the Boiler Room.
Visitors might bump into giant man-eating rats, flying vampires, flesh-eating zombies and possibly even the cannibalistic Ghastleys.
Monster Manor is located at 8235 Mira Mesa Blvd. in the Target shopping center.
Lite Frite runs Oct. 20-21 and 27-28 from 12:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. Tickets are $5. The Night Haunt runs Oct. 12-13, 19-20 and 26-31 from 7 p.m. Tickets are $10.
For more information visit www.monstermanor.org or call (858) 693-8558.