Seven of the Spookiest Events Happening in Melbourne This Halloween
From blood-curdling simulations to horror movie screenings and spooky parties, here's where to get your scares this Halloween.
Seven of the Spookiest Events Happening in Melbourne This Halloween
From blood-curdling simulations to horror movie screenings and spooky parties, here's where to get your scares this Halloween.
There's something for everyone to get around when it comes to Halloween, whether it's eating nauseating amounts of lollies, flexing your arts and crafts skills and fashioning yourself a costume, or pulling that five-piece (mask included) Batman get-up out of storage and donning it to feel like the superhero you really are.
Trick or treating never really caught on here, but we'll be damned if we won't use it as an excuse for a spooky time. There are plenty of parties, tours and immersive events happening around town for you to get amongst. Here's a list of some of the best things going on in Melbourne for Halloween, ranging from the not-so scary (party at Legoland) to the truly terrifying (an immersive show in an abandoned warehouse).
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Inside an abandoned North Melbourne warehouse, you’ll find a dreamworld that takes its cues from the notoriously thrilling, dark-hearted works of Edgar Allan Poe. It channels more contemporary cult classics, too — think David Lynch, Stanley Kubrick and Stranger Things.
Each room within the labyrinth will alternate between the mysterious, the ghoulish and the sublime. Expect to plunge into a pink ball pit, crawl through tunnels and dance with the dead in a blood-red chamber.
Exploring themes of madness, death, impermanence, guilt and memory and with hints to uneven floors, small spaces and many ‘troubled characters’, A Midnight Visit won’t be for the faint-hearted. But, for those daring enough, a whimsical and seductive whirlwind experience awaits.
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This Halloween, the sound of chainsaws will echo through the Palais Theatre — plus plenty of screaming, demonic spirits and unhinged mayhem, too. To celebrate every horror fan’s favourite occasion, the St Kilda venue is playing host to a ghoulish movie-and-music combination like no other. Not only will Sam Raimi’s 1981 splatter classic The Evil Dead hit the big screen, but an ensemble of musicians from the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra will play a reimagined version of the scary flick’s score.
The latest in the MSO’s growing series of film-focused live performances, this show is extra special, with the score’s original composer Joe LoDuca also making an appearance. Nearly four decades since he first whipped up the perfect soundtrack for a chilling vacation in the woods, he’ll hit the keyboards to revisit the movie that first brought him to fame — and helped make stars out of Raimi, actor Bruce Campbell and then-assistant editor Joel Coen (yes, one of the Coen brothers) as well.
The Evil Dead has spawned two Raimi-directed sequels, a 2013 remake and Campbell-starring TV series Ash vs Evil Dead, because it really is impossible to destroy the Necronomicon — even when you’re toting a trusty boomstick. But the original film remains an absolute horror delight in its own right, as does its tale of five holidaying college kids who head up to a secluded cabin, only to find themselves unexpectedly facing off against evil.
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Not content with terrifying Melburnians with just one unsettling shipping container installation, the folks at Realscape Productions are about to bring another disquieting experience to the city. While it also involves stepping inside a 40-foot steel box, sitting in pitch darkness and listening to a particularly immersive soundscape, this newcomer — called Flight — offers something distinctive.
If you’re not fond of flying or don’t cope well with the possibility of things going awry in the air, you might want to stay away. If your nerves and stomach can handle all of the above, step onboard. You won’t actually be jetting anywhere, of course; however you will be strapping yourself into a section of a real commercial airliner, then pondering the many possible outcomes if the cabin suddenly happened to lose pressure. Created by Glen Neath and David Rosenberg, like Seance, Flight draws upon the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics while taking attendees on a multi-sensory journey.
Flight lands at Southbank’s Queensbridge Square from Wednesday, October 30 to Sunday, December 8, with departure times at half-hour intervals.
Buckle up, and prepare to have your head completely messed with — unless you’re claustrophobic, pregnant, or suffer heart or back conditions, in which case you’ll have to firmly stay on the ground.
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If you’ve ever had a sneaky little go with some small person’s Lego blocks once they’re all tucked up in bed, Legoland sees you, tips you their hat… and raises you an adults-only night at its Melbourne Discovery Centre. And, because it’s the time of year for it, the venue is throwing in some Halloween shenanigans as well.
With no children to get in the way (or outdo your creations), you’ll be able to have free rein of Legoland to check out the 4D cinema and rides, take a factory tour and build to your heart’s content in the brick pits. Challenge yourself by taking on the master builder or a speed build, and vie for the prizes up for grabs — there’ll even be a scavenger hunt so you can go full inner child mode.
This adults-only evening will be getting spooky, too, with a Duplo Farm scary adventure, plenty of chances to take terrifying pics, and a quest to spot skeleton, ghost, zombie and mummy mini-figures in a city made out of 1.5 million Lego bricks. Wear a frightful costume to win prizes, and take part in a silent auction — with ex-display sets up for grabs.
It all takes place from 6.30pm on Friday, November 1 — and BYO shameless excitement, taste for glory, and creativity to enter the model of the month competition. It’ll be a fierce one.
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Who says Halloween celebrations can only go for one night? Not Fitzroy bar Bimbo. Seeing as the spooky night doesn’t fall on a weekend this year, Bimbo is suggesting you celebrate for an entire week.
From Monday, October 28, the bar will be hosting a costume party every night of the week until Sunday, November 2. The best look gets a $100 voucher — that’s 25 x $4 Bimbo pizzas, if you’re doing the math — so start planning those costume changes, stat.
Get down for Halloween-themed drink specials (some complete with lychee “eyeballs”), different DJs each night (check out the website and pick your poison), and say “trick or treat” at the bar between 7pm and 8pm for a free pot of beer. Happy Halloween indeed.
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Collingwood’s Schoolhouse Studios is throwing a whammy of a shindig for Halloween. The small warehouse is undergoing a temporary facelift to morph into a veritable lair of mayhem. Expect horror, gore, costume awards and a haunted house, so keep a steady hand on your wine glass if you’re the jumpy sort because you may just end up drenching yourself in shiraz.
Performers at the Ghoulhouse include drag trio The Beastie Girls as well as DJs Cupids Cut, Hannie Tray and Brontesaurus Sex.
Tickets are just 20 bucks and you’ll be helping raise funds for a not-for-profit arts organisation, too — so you can be assured you’re doing the right thing by maybe calling in sick to work on Friday to sort out your costume.
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The Dromana 3 Drive-In is worthy of a trip down the Peninsula at any time of year, but it’s busting out the big (and truly spooky) guns this year for Halloween. The cinema and the gang at HauntZone have built two mazes: ‘Infected’ and ‘Darkness Manor’. It’s probably safe to assume this won’t be a casual amble through a hedge maze.
From Wednesday, October 30, you can catch Halloween-appropriate flicks each night including a special 40th anniversary screening of The Amityville Horror, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, Zombieland Double Tap and Ready Or Not.
Come down with a carload, head into the two mazes before your flick and prepare to scream your guts out — bring a mate you feel comfortable holding on to for dear life because there’s a whole list of disclaimers that come with maze entry.
The haunted attractions will set you back $18, in addition to film tickets, and are only around until November 4.
Top image: ‘A Midnight Visit’ by Georgia Sassenfeld.
