For Halloween lovers, there is just one main drawback with spooky season: It ends. However in a metropolis the place the change in seasons is extra of a shift in mind-set anyway, it doesn’t should. The place there’s a will to have fun Halloween all yr lengthy in Los Angeles, there’s a manner.
There’s a novel, distinctly SoCal character to what haunts Los Angeles. A spot as youthful and as sunny as L.A. shouldn’t have so many ghost tales to inform. But few would deny that one thing darkish and eerie pulsates slightly below the balmy floor of the Metropolis of Angels. Some would possibly argue it stems from L.A.’s historical past as “the serial killer capital,” giving rise to such darkish true-crime legends because the Evening Stalker and Hillside Strangler (amongst many others). Others blame town’s infamous incapacity to protect its iconic historical past and native communities, with numerous landmarks and neighborhoods bulldozed for the sake of a brand new freeway or business improvement, leaving residents with solely the fading reminiscence of their bygone golden ages. Most put the blame on Hollywood, which isn’t solely a notoriously cutthroat and exploitative trade but in addition the birthplace of so many collective nightmares because of many years of horror movies.
Because the leisure trade faces one more existential disaster threatening to show Tinseltown right into a ghost, plainly what actually haunts L.A. are echoes of the identical unhappy story repeated time and again by means of the ages: the meteoric rise of some titans of trade inevitably ending in a catastrophic downfall, whereas town caught within the wake of their smash is left to select up the items.
No matter its root trigger, on the coronary heart of each nice haunting is one important aspect that Los Angeles has all the time had in spades: nice storytellers.
The Queen Mary
(Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Occasions )
What’s extra quintessentially bizarre L.A. than a 90-year-old WWII ghost ship completely docked in, of all locations, Lengthy Seashore? The Queen Mary is the crown jewel for historical past and lore lovers alike within the SoCal space, with a mythic legacy that spans from the tragic mass casualties she prompted within the fog of battle to, many years later, being mishandled by the Home of Mouse as a failed Disney attraction. After tens of millions of {dollars} of repairs during the last eight years, the Queen is again and higher than ever, with year-round ghost excursions just like the family-friendly Haunted Encounters and extra in-depth Paranormal Ship Stroll. The actually daring ought to take a look at their resolve with “57 Ghosts” (a reside theater efficiency exploring the documented deaths on the ship by means of a seance) and the Gray Ghost Venture (the place you’ll be able to take part in a real, evidence-based paranormal investigation that’s been underway since 2020). The masochistic scare-seeker may even e-book an in a single day keep on the just lately reopened room B340, which legend claims to be essentially the most haunted resort room — although, because the tour guides clarify, this popularity initially stemmed from it being rigged for scares below Disney’s stewardship.
Even after removing of all of the smoke and mirrors, although, stories of terrifying hauntings proceed to at the present time. This spooky season, the ship shall be celebrating the return of its Darkish Harbor Halloween pageant (which had been changed by Shaqtoberfest), Haunted Cocktails within the Artwork Deco Remark Bar and a two-hour-long Graveyard Tour. However there are benefits to visiting the ship in its off-seasons, whether or not to keep away from the hellish hours-long visitors jam for parking or to expertise occasions just like the Transatlantic Trip or New 12 months’s Eve bash the place huge band dance events transport friends again into the ghosts’ timeline.
1126 Queens Freeway, Lengthy Seashore, queenmary.com
Spooky Meter: 5/5. These looking for out scares on the Gray Ghost won’t ever depart dissatisfied.
Hollywood Eternally Cemetery 
The grave of Johnny Ramone, with a life-size sculpture of him enjoying the guitar, at Hollywood Eternally Cemetery.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Occasions)
Because the resting place of so many well-known Angelenos, from Judy Garland to Griffith J. Griffith, this 1889 cemetery abounds with myths of stressed spirits. However in typical L.A. style, Hollywood Eternally Cemetery is much less a spot for mourning the useless and extra a spot for experiencing gratitude for the residing, or fairly, for the individuals who have come from all walks of life to make this metropolis nice.
Numerous occasions are held on the Cathedral Mausoleum, Masonic Lodge and Fairbanks Garden, most popularly the Cinespia outside movie screenings, which have expanded past simply summertime to incorporate a whole month devoted to horror classics in October, with the 2024 lineup beginning Oct. 5 with 1974’s “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.” On Oct. 26, the cemetery will host its twenty fifth Día de Los Muertos celebration, touted to be the most important of its type in america, with greater than 100 altars erected by members of the group in addition to musical performances by Grammy-winning artists. On any given morning, you’ll be able to catch one of many free day by day yoga lessons supplied on Fairbanks Garden, be part of locals strolling their canine and admire the free-roaming peacocks flaunting their stuff. Should you’re fortunate, you’ll be able to even spot an lovable member of the feral cat colony that’s lovingly sorted by the cemetery’s groundskeeper.
6000 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles, hollywoodforever.com
Spooky Meter: 3/5. There’s no higher solution to take a look at your mettle as a horror film aficionado than to attend a nighttime screening whereas ft away from the corpses who helped deliver these scares to life on the silver display.
Greystone Mansion and Gardens 
(Iris Schneider / Los Angeles Occasions)
This gorgeous Tudor-style Beverly Hills property turned public park is likely to be the lesser recognized of oil tycoon Edward Doheny’s L.A. mansions, nevertheless it’s the one the place photographs rang out one fateful evening in 1929, leaving two males useless, a thriller for the ages and, in keeping with many, some very stressed spirits. Doheny, the unfastened inspiration for “There Will Be Blood” (which used the Greystone as a filming location), discovered himself embroiled in a scandal that threatened jail time. Quickly after, each his son and his son’s secretary had been discovered useless within the visitor bed room in what the police deemed a murder-suicide, although many consider the official narrative to have been a cover-up.
At the moment, Greystone’s opulent gardens and jaw-dropping metropolis views are open to all from 10 a.m. to six p.m., with self-guided excursions of the primary ground supplied as soon as a month. Should you’re searching for an audio information with all of the scandalous particulars, theories and ghost tales in regards to the case, take a look at the BBC’s eight-episode “Oil in the Blood” collection from the “Assume Nothing” podcast. Town of Beverly Hills hosts many different beautiful occasions right here year-round, from screenings of movies that function the mansion to play readings and even gardening lessons.
905 Loma Vista Drive, Beverly Hills, beverlyhills.org/greystonemansion
Spooky Meter: 3/5. It isn’t simply loss of life that haunts this place. It’s the darkish shadow of the American Dream, which price Doheny the whole lot in the long run.
Heritage Sq. Museum 
(Richard Harbaugh / Getty Photos)
Tucked away in a nook of Montecito Heights are eight pristinely preserved Victorian-era buildings, every with their very own story to inform in regards to the Southern Californians who lived in them throughout our first century of statehood. Although the Cultural Heritage Basis that preserves this residing historical past acknowledges the numerous “tales of interesting paranormal occurrences that have happened at our museum,” it nonetheless insists that not one of the buildings is haunted per se, however fairly “‘visited’ from time to time by their original owners.”
More and more, Heritage Sq. Museum is changing into a sizzling spot for the occult-curious because of common occasions just like the Magic Market Pop-Up (which, after Oct. 6, will return to the situation in spring 2025), ghost excursions, outside film screening nights (most just lately that includes Guillermo Del Toro’s gothic “Crimson Peak”) and seasonally themed performances together with horror operas, ballets and spooky immersive reside theater. However the general vibe is greatest encapsulated by the spirit of Belle Boy, the museum’s late and beloved orange cat, who reportedly nonetheless haunts his favourite room within the Octagon Home; some guests declare to have felt him brush previous their legs in a chilly gust of air.
3800 Homer St., Los Angeles, heritagesquare.org
Spooky Meter: 2/5. The stained-glass church outfitted with a wood altar inside is by far essentially the most cursed nook.
Outdated Zoo picnic space and hike 
(Jess Joho / Los Angeles Occasions)
Rusting cages and graffiti-ravaged enclosures are all that stay of the abysmal failure that was the Griffith Park Zoo (now generally known as the Deserted or Outdated Zoo) ever because it opened in 1912. The notorious Griffith J. Griffith — who in a bout of paranoia as soon as shot his spouse within the eye — all however pressured town to simply accept his “gift” of a dilapidated ostrich farm. Regardless of being refitted for 15 animals (together with bears, lions, monkeys, elephants and reptiles), it was nonetheless criticized as an unsightly, underfinanced eyesore. Legend has it you’ll be able to nonetheless hear the growls and roars from contained in the decaying cages of the mistreated. The picnic space captures that distinct uncanniness of L.A.’s hauntings, with a ravishing expanse of garden juxtaposed towards the dilapidated remnants of a mogul’s dying empire. When you can stroll straight as much as the location through a flight of stairs from the small car parking zone adjoining to Merry Go Spherical Lot 2, you can too attain it from above by climbing the straightforward 1.5-mile loop that diverges from the Fern Canyon Trailhead close to Merry Go Spherical Lot 1.
Merry Go Spherical Lot 1, off of Springs Drive/Griffith Park Drive, Los Angeles, laparks.org/griffithpark
Spooky Meter: 3/5. A beautiful (if nonetheless unsettling) picnic spot by day, there’s a purpose the annual Haunted Hayride makes use of this location to terrify after darkish.
Philosophical Analysis Society 
(Christina Home / Los Angeles Occasions)
The not-a-cult Philosophical Analysis Society situated in a Mayan-style courtyard in Los Feliz could appear mysterious from the surface wanting in. However from the within, this nonprofit arts and tradition group seems to be nothing greater than a various group of inquisitive minds blissful to spend a whole Saturday listening to lectures about loss of life and dying on the Memento Mori Pageant hosted in its 200-person auditorium. PRS boasts a packed calendar of esoteric occasions, like a month-to-month Loss of life Cafe meetup (full with tea), mystical workshops, obscure movie screenings, theatrical readings of literature and folktales, macabre puppetry, magic lantern exhibits and far more. The library (open Thursday-Friday) is a purple-hued treasure trove of uncommon tomes spanning a variety of thought-provoking subjects, whereas the bookstore (open Tuesday-Friday) is tended to by volunteers who welcome your questions and curiosities.
3910 Los Feliz Blvd., Los Angeles, prs.org
Spooky Meter: 1/5. No ghosts, in keeping with reporting by The Occasions’ Deborah Netburn — however the PRS does have the cranium of a German mass assassin someplace.
Clifton’s Republic 
(Jess Joho / Los Angeles Occasions)
There’s little doubt that Clifton’s is “cursed,” for those who ask present proprietor Andrew Meieran, whose a number of makes an attempt to reopen this iconic redwood-themed Nineteen Thirties DTLA landmark have been thwarted by flooding from burst pipes, the neighborhood’s struggling financial system and a worldwide pandemic. “This is what happens when you, politely speaking, piss off the spirits here,” Meieran defined, pointing to a weird 7-inch mound warping the hardwood ground in his workplace. Apparently, he’d made the error of shifting furnishings across the room proper earlier than the scheduled summer time 2024 relaunch, and inexplicable gear malfunctioned beneath the vintage bar cupboard. This new mishap left solely the historic Pacific Seas tiki bar prepared for restricted weekend reservations. “This place has a life of its own. It’s alive, fully aware and responsive,” Meieran claims.
Ghosts allowing, the grand reopening of the Monarch Bar and Gothic Lounge is now set for Oct. 18, together with a year-round Spirits & Spirits expertise that pairs historic cocktails with haunted tales. There’s an simple, intoxicating mystique embedded into each inch of the five-story constructing, which as soon as primarily served as a cafeteria and group hub frequented by a number of the metropolis’s biggest creatives, from sci-fi creator Ray Bradbury to Walt Disney. Meieran used to jot down off a number of the extra sensationalist legends about Clifton’s, like rumors of a mistress’ stays being scattered within the ballroom. Till, that’s, he confirmed that he himself had swept up stated ashes with out realizing it on the time. Now, he lets the haunting name the photographs, because it guides him to reviving the constructing nevertheless it sees match. “I know when it’s happy, and I know when it’s not,” he says. “It loves people. It loves to be inhabited. It loves to be explored. It loves playfulness.” And he discovered the laborious manner that Clifton’s additionally refuses to let any of its spirits be forgotten.
648 S. Broadway, Los Angeles, cliftonsrepublic.com
Spooky Meter: 4/5. The ballroom on the second ground is reportedly essentially the most lively spot, because of the specter of a girl who’s reputed to point out up in images.
The Wolves 
(Jess Joho / Los Angeles Occasions)
Standing the place the historic and purportedly haunted Resort Alexandria’s ballroom as soon as noticed her glory days internet hosting the likes of Charlie Chaplin, this Belle Epoch-style Parisian cocktail bar isn’t afraid of leaning into spooky antiquity. Employees and patrons report feeling chilly spots and hair-pulling close to a portray that hangs within the again, and co-owner Isaac Mejia even had three completely different mediums verify that the ladies’s toilet is haunted by just a little woman. In keeping with one medium, the ghosts are blissful to see how their antiques that embellish the bar are nonetheless admired and lovingly cared for through common sprucing by Mejia. With fancy period-themed drinks just like the Twenties Cocktail and among the best burgers in Los Angeles, it’s a spot any soul, residing or useless, can be blissful to hang-out ceaselessly. It’s additionally ideally located for a spooky bar crawl, with goth karaoke bar the Veil and the historic (and haunted) speakeasy Rhythm Room L.A. only a block away.
519 S Spring St., Los Angeles, thewolvesdtla.com
Spooky Meter: 4/5. That is the one location on our checklist the place the reporter skilled doubtlessly paranormal exercise, when a martini glass slid throughout the desk seemingly of its personal volition. Although, to be truthful, it might’ve simply been the results of a sweaty cup from the warmth wave.
SugarMynt Gallery 
(Jess Joho / Los Angeles Occasions)
Located subsequent to the unique Pasadena residence featured in John Carpenter’s “Halloween,” this horror media-focused artwork gallery by native SaraRose Orlandini looks like moving into certainly one of your scary film slumber events of yesteryear. The present exhibit, “Nostalgic Nights in Haddonfield,” encompasses a cozy VHS nook that invitations viewers to curve up with an ’80s/’90s-kid reminiscence of experiencing these life-changing classics for the primary time. The gallery’s everlasting assortment spotlights the particular FX artists, set designers and behind-the-scenes photographers who’ve outlined the essence of Halloween for not simply Angelenos however the world over. Except for unique scripts, screen-used costumes and a devoted “Hocus Pocus” room, you’ll additionally discover antiques just like the Twenties Dennison‘s Party Magazine that’s credited with originating a lot of America’s modern-day Halloween traditions. Those that can’t get sufficient throughout enterprise hours may even keep in a single day on the gallery’s ScareBnB.
810 Meridian Ave., South Pasadena, sugarmynt.com
Spooky Meter: 1/5. Like a heat blanket on a cool autumn evening, you’ll be lulled into a way of safety that doesn’t finish in a leap scare right here.
Cobb Property, a.okay.a. the Haunted Forest Path 
(Jess Joho / Los Angeles Occasions)
Not a lot stays of the once-grand 1910s Cobb Property, except for the gated entrance, a few crumbling stone partitions, one staircase and delightful mountainside views alongside the breezy hourlong hike colloquially known as the Haunted Forest Path. Regardless of tales of seances, secret societies, satanic rituals and homicide, the Altadena Historic Society traces rumors of its supposed haunting to after the Marx Brothers bought it in 1956, earlier than demolishing the decaying mansion in a failed bid to rezone it for a cemetery. In all chance, stories of screaming, chanting and unusual lights might be attributed to the location changing into a well-liked vacation spot for mischievous teenagers and vandals. The 1.5-mile loop forks to the left of the Sam Merrill Trailhead and ends on the lined reservoir.
Cobb Property Trailhead, 3302 Lake Ave., Altadena
Spooky Meter: 2/5. Allegedly, the staircase is haunted by the indignant spirit of Charles H. Cobb, who pushes and even yells at trespassers to depart.
Mystic Museum 
(Jess Joho / Los Angeles Occasions)
An ideal date spot for oddity-inclined {couples} and buddy teams, the Mystic Museum is your one-stop store for witchy wares, occult requirements, cursed antiques, horror film merchandise and human bone collections. Its immersive exhibit within the again is value testing, with an intricately designed interactive maze that adjustments seasonally however at present showcases scenes from traditional teen horror campus motion pictures. The caffeine- and sugar-addicted would possibly need to cease by the close by Horror Vibes Espresso, the place the workers is pleasant, the patrons are gothy and the themed drinks are far tastier than they sound.
3204 W. Magnolia Blvd., Burbank, themysticmuseum.com
Spooky Meter: 3/5. The exhibit shouldn’t be fairly as much as par with the craftsmanship of Common’s Halloween Horror Nights, nevertheless it’s nonetheless stuffed with Instagrammable moments.
Hollywood Roosevelt Resort 
(Jess Joho / Los Angeles Occasions)
As one of many few famously haunted Hollywood inns nonetheless left standing and principally intact, the Roosevelt is a beautiful relic value treasuring. Providing respite from the tourism raging proper outdoors its entrance doorways on the Stroll of Fame, once you step into the Roosevelt you are feeling transported to the Golden Age of Hollywood. Visitors might be discovered dancing to the weekly free jazz nights within the foyer, which is throughout from the ballroom that hosted the primary Oscars ceremony. The energetic Spare Room speakeasy on the mezzanine has two bowling alleys out there for reservations, whereas traditional movie screenings and exhibits happen on the Cinegrill Theater. Employees acknowledge that, as a part of their onboarding, they do be taught all the resort’s lore and ghost tales, particularly tales of Marilyn Monroe, who had her personal penthouse on the resort and reportedly can nonetheless be seen making use of her make-up within the mirror hanging on the mezzanine staircase. However many additionally declare to have had their very own paranormal experiences, particularly the safety and cleansing workers, who say that the exercise is most frequent throughout the quiet hours of early morning.
7000 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles, thehollywoodroosevelt.com
Spooky Meter: 2/5. The actual terrors are stored outdoors, on this notoriously hellish stretch of Hollywood Boulevard.
Museum of Loss of life 
(Erek Michael / Los Angeles Occasions)
Whereas this suggestion comes with each disclaimer and set off warning possible, we couldn’t not embody this relic of kitschy Hollywood Boulevard shock tourism. Regardless of shifting to a brand new location on Selma Avenue, its guts stay the identical unrelenting parade of human horror and depravity became a spectacle on your leisure. Amid shows of the whole lot from violent crime-scene images to cannibalism, serial-killer art work and actual post-mortem footage, you’ll discover the toilet located beside a wall of human skulls rotating in protecting instances like rotisserie chickens. You don’t come to this museum for schooling, contemplation or something redeeming by any means. However there’s a sure honesty in its confrontation. “Here are your monsters, L.A.,” the Museum of Loss of life appears to say, with reveals usually showcasing the Los Angeles Occasions’ personal headlines. That is what we inflict on one another — if not actually, then by means of the morbid fascination that’s led to a whole cottage trade of exploiting the worst crimes towards humanity.
6363 Selma Ave., Hollywood, museumofdeath.web
Spooky Meter: 5/5. It’s unattainable to depart this place feeling undisturbed by the expertise.