Things to do in Los Angeles today

Stroll through a mile-long trail filled with all things pumpkins, including an illuminated forest of jack-o’-lanterns, during Descanso Gardens’ annual Carved. For three weeks this fall (Oct 6–29), the event lines a loop of the botanical garden with pumpkins in all sorts of forms: as a sea monster rising from a pond, in thick clusters on ground and cobbled together into a house. For the 2023 edition, Carved has slightly reconfigured the route, with an expanded Día de los Muertos ofrenda altar near the entrance (you can leave your own remembrance photo) and a new, larger area for the neon-hued tangle of the Rhizome installation. You’ll find two main areas of jack-o’-lanterns. The first is a forested section lined with expressively carved (but fake) pumpkins, some of which have been arranged into wonderfully whimsical characters (a crow-like scarecrow and a pumpkin holding its own head, among them). Meanwhile, there’s a pavilion in the rose garden with real ones whose designs are inspired by pop culture characters (plus a station where you can see them being carved). There are a few familiar sights if you’ve ever attended Descanso’s other holiday tradition, Enchanted, but tweaked for Halloween (stomp along the trunk-encircling platforms in the oak grove and you’ll hear shrill cackles instead of sparkly sounds). Like Enchanted, the music is moody (but not spooky or scary; this is definitely made for families) and the installations are artfully assembled: Sure, they could’ve just

This Denver experience makes its L.A. debut with hand-carved jack-o’-lanterns lining a pathway at the Whittier Narrows. Though you can pay a little extra to park closer, there is free parking available at the park if you’re up for a little bit longer of a walk.

The masters of alfresco rooftop movie viewing have returned for another season of screenings in Downtown L.A., the Arts District and El Segundo. Known for excellent film choices and a steady supply of snacks and booze, Rooftop Cinema Club is your snazzy, comfortable and less stressful alternative to other outdoor movie screenings. You don’t even need to bring your own camping chair—Rooftop Cinema Club provides you with your very own comfy lawn chair (though you’ll need to bring your own blanket for the ultimate cozy experience). And instead of listening to the movie over loudspeakers, you’ll get a set of wireless headphones so you never have to miss a word. Find the full schedule on their site, or in our outdoor movie calendar.

This haunted Griffith Park hayride once again returns to the mid-’80s fictitious town of Midnight Falls, which borrows a little bit of the road culture of Sons of Anarchy and the isolation of Twin Peaks. The Old Zoo tradition, which has been running for 15 years now, centers on a relatively lengthy hayride, which runs on select nights from September 22 to October 31. The premise: A witch has summoned creatures that’ve hidden themselves among Halloween decorations in the town’s foothills. This year’s event promises new wagons (with new seating options), updated effects and new horror scenes. The event’s various other attractions will be centered around the jack-o’-lantern–filled Midnight Falls Town Square, with a creaky old funeral parlor set up in the Midnight Mortuary haunted house as well axe throwing, water balloon-based paintball and the Hellbilly Halloween maze. Can I wear a costume? No. Costumes, facepaint and props are not allowed. How much is parking at the Haunted Hayride? Parking is free but limited in the trio of nearby lots (Merry-Go-Round lots 1, 2 and 3). On Fridays, Saturdays and on Halloween, you can take advantage of a shuttle from the northwest corner of the much larger L.A. Zoo parking lot.

He’s a Lakers legend, an NBA commentator, a rapper, a DJ and a mid-’90s movie genie, and now you can add haunted house MC to that list: Shaquille O’Neal will once again be hosting a Halloween event in Long Beach this fall. Shaqtoberfest will take over the grounds outside of the Queen Mary from late September through Halloween with a mix of family-friendly attractions and after-dark haunts. Now that the oceanliner is open again, there’ll be programming on the Queen Mary this year, too, including a search for spirits in the belly of the ship. From the same producers as the L.A. Haunted Hayride, the experience includes a mix of trick-or-treating, games, food and drink, live entertainment and haunted trails. By day, the experience will lean more kid-friendly with a focus on trick-or-treating. By night, the lights and music turn up and the attention switches to the half-dozen haunted areas. (Perhaps one of them will be Shaq shooting free throws? We kid, of course.)

Walk across the grounds of the scenic King Gillette Ranch as the Santa Monica Mountains hideaway is illuminated with thousands of hand-carved jack-o’-lanterns. Nights of the Jack returns with an on-foot, mile-long trail this year (with food trucks and a “Spookeasy,” too).  For 2023, Nights of the Jack has added an augmented reality scavenger hunt to the trail, as well as a Día de Los Muertos scene, lantern art and an area that it’s dubbed “the Enchanted Forest.”   Timed tickets are required each night. As is the case with all similar experiences, they’re not cheap and fluctuate ($30–$45) depending on the day of the week (they’re also available at 20% off from August 14 to September 1). Expect to spend an hour to an hour and a half there, though that could double on weekends (and closer to Halloween) when the entry crowds and food truck lines tick up.

“POKÉMON X KOGEI | Playful Encounters of Pokémon and Japanese Craft” puts the focus on a pair of Japanese cultural exports and the collision between a decades-old gaming franchise and centuries-old crafting techniques. For video game fans, the phrase “Pokémon exhibition” is probably all the convincing they need to swing by JAPAN HOUSE. But the Hollywood cultural center’s gallery has used the imagined world of Pokémon to assemble a superb spotlight on the traditional Japanese craft techniques—like ceramics, textiles, lacquer and metalwork—behind the 70 or so works on display (for example, how crafts’ reliance on the earth’s basic materials and forces are similar to the game’s elemental types). The free exhibition, which debuted at Japan’s National Crafts Museum earlier this year, heads to Hollywood from July 25, 2023 to January 7, 2024 (given the likely popularity, timed reservations are recommended). Note that some of the more delicate objects, like textiles and lacquerware, will be rotated off view in the fall. Among the 20 Japanese artists featured, highlights include textile designer Reiko Sudo’s “Pikachu Forest” of 900 strands of lace; metal artist Taiichiro Yoshida’s copper sculptures of Eevee and its three first-generation evolutions; Keiko Masumoto’s playful porcelain plates and fire-type Pokémon jars; and Kasumi Ueba’s ornately-painted creature-shaped pottery. You can expect pieces with adorable starter Pokémon like Rowlet, Litten and Popplio as well as some of the se

Its past installments have found attendees stealthing their way through a Victorian home and embarking on a Blade Runner-esque bounty hunt. And now this celebrated immersive horror theater event will once again return for an event at a nearly 150-year-old mansion. Delusion, an interactive seasonal event that combines elements of immersive theater with a more story-based approach to a walk-through haunted house, will again take over the Phillips Mansion, an 1875 estate in Pomona. “Nocturnes & Nightmares,” which opens on September 21 and runs well past Halloween, takes a somewhat meta approach to the ongoing saga. The anthology story centers around the Author, a mysterious figure who made all previous Delusion installments a reality—and though he’s gone missing, his ghastly creations haven’t. Director and action coordinator Jon Braver, who hatched Delusion in 2011, has again teamed up with the Los Angeles Haunted Hayride producers Thirteenth Floor Entertainment Group for a staging that bills itself as a terrifying tapestry of stories. You can also float between rooms of the mansion to find some lingering story threads and lots of eerie puppets—plus music, merch, food and drinks—as part of the Spectral Soiree component of the evening. You can upgrade to a VIP ticket to get a peek behind the scenes and interact with actors and crew, and even opt to play a corpose if you’d like. Tickets, which start at $90, go on sale soon.

Join Grand Park for a nearly two-week display of 19 altars erected within the park. The altar displays officially kicks off on October 21 with an afternoon of sugar skull workshops and performances (11am–4pm), including Grupo Folklorico Huitzillin, Mariachi Arcoiris de Los Angeles and LA Opera-presented tenor Jonathan Lacayo. The altar displays close with a screening of the 1960 film Macario (Nov 2 at 7:30pm), presented by the GuadaLAjara Film Festival.

Friends of Residential Treasures: Los Angeles is back with another map of storybook-style homes—and this time they’re focusing on some towers and turrets. Amber Benson, the Witches of Echo Park novelist and a mid-series regular on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, has once again curated a guide to five castle-like houses, spread between the Hollywood Hills and University Park. The actual route and selections will become available on October 4 (it’s free if you sign up on FORT:LA’s site). To be clear, the map won’t grant you access inside of each home, but it will help you set an itinerary for gawking at them from the sidewalk. The full route requires use of a car, and we’d be particularly carefully navigating the winding, narrow streets around a trio of sites clustered close together in Hollywood. On the other hand, once you actually get to these specific spots, they’re pretty good launching points for trails and stair hikes.