Five Ingredients for a Perfect Halloween

Séances

In Flood of Spirits, writer/director Rebecca Maag summons the spirits of the Austin Dam failure of 1900 and uses the tale of a séance gone awry to evoke the catastrophic flood. She debuted the intimate interactive theatrical experience earlier this year as part of FronteraFest at Hillside Farmacy, and now takes its historical chills to the grander stage of the Driskill.

Pumpkins

The original jack-o’-lanterns were made from turnips, so it’s lucky for everyone that the easy-to-carve pumpkin has become the official gourd of the season. Texas Pumpkin Fest celebrates the orange fruit, with rides, photo ops, pumpkin smashing – and, of course, there are pumpkins to take home.

The Old Ways

On the grounds of Scream Hollow sit three buildings exploring the history of Halloween, spooky season costuming and traditions, and haunted attractions. This is the Texas Halloween Haunt Museum, the world’s only institution dedicated to preserving the history of this most chilling holiday.

Scary Movies

It’s twins of evil at AFS Cinema with two series of Halloween-themed programming. Big Screen Classics turns to the dark side with four stone-cold masterpieces regardless of genre – The Shining, The Omen, The Exorcist, and Poltergeist. Meanwhile AFS’s latest programming strand, Fright Club, continues to introduce younger audiences to frights with Jacques Tourneur’s Cat People.

Creepy Dolls

Estate sales expert and Chronicle cover star Carl McQueary has a soft spot for all those poppets and puppets that are left over after a house clearance, and for one night only he’s allowing visitors into the Morningwood Dolls’ Home for the Retired, Haunted, and Unfit, his collection of the weirdest articulated toys you ever saw. Wait. Did that one’s eyes move?

This article appears in October 20 • 2023.