Looking for a ghoul time? Get your fear factor Fluttering with these haunted happenings.
By G.K. Sharman
Make no bones about it! Halloween has shocked and slashed its way to cultural celebratory superiority. Candy and costumes help. But events—those bonding experiences that we share with family, friends and perfect (or perfectly creepy) strangers—help make the season frightfully special. You’ve got a crypt full of options to celebrate ghosts, goblins and things that go bump in the night. Here are a few from Central Florida with a cultural twist.
PHANTASMAGORIA
You can have it grim and grimmer.
Some ghost stories are born of imagination. Others are true, right? Phantasmagoria, the area’s beloved and bedeviling Victorian horror troupe, will offer a wicked and whimsically macabre mashup of both varieties during its 15th season of scaring us silly.
The main stage production, Grim and Grimmer Tales, will take audiences into a darkened attic for a blend of literature, folk tales and legends.
“We’re returning to a format we haven’t done in many years,” notes founder and director John DiDonna. “We’re telling multiple stories that will all wrap up into one big story.” Victorians liked dark stories dealing with children, he adds, which will give younger members of the troupe a chance to shine.
Limited engagements are planned in five locations: The Bay Street Players/State Theater in Eustis (Saturday and Sunday, October 5 and 6); Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts in Orlando (Thursday, Friday and Saturday, October 10, 11 and 12); the Tampa Theater in Tampa (Sunday, October 20); the Athens Theater in DeLand (Thursday and Friday, October 24 and 25); and the Reilly Arts Center in Ocala (Sunday, October 27). Other dates are pending.
In historic Sanford, which boasts its own totally real ghosts, Phantasmagoria will be in residence during three-hour cruises aboard the Barbara-Lee, a sternwheeler whose home port is on Lake Monroe.
“The ghost cruise is going to be a blast,” promises DiDonna, whose work always delivers the goods. (He was once dubbed “Orlando’s boogeyman” by the Orlando Sentinel.)
Besides eerie legends of the St. Johns River, cruisers can thrill to tales of a haunted house—since torn down—that was once home to DiDonna’s former mother-in-law. He’ll also reveal secrets about his own “delightfully haunted” 100-year-old abode, which harbors an apparition whom he calls “the Lady on the Stairs.”
Cruises are set for lunch on Thursdays in October and dinner on Sundays, plus lunch and dinner cruises on Halloween. For more information regarding tickets and performance times, visit phantasmagoriaorlando.com.
ENZIAN
You’ll need a cocktail for these fright flicks.
Scary movies are to Halloween what carols are to Christmas: traditional and indispensable. And there’s nothing like seeing them on the big scream—uh, screen.
Enzian’s annual 13 Films of Halloween “is coming in hot” on Tuesday, October 1, with The Craft, promises (or warns) Deanna Tiedtke, the arthouse cinema’s director of public relations. Showtime is 9:30 p.m.
Streaming in 35mm, the 1996 cult classic is part horrorfest and part Mean Girls, adds Tiedtke of the flick, which involves a trio of wannabe witches who are looking for a fourth member of the coven.
They find her in a new girl at their Los Angeles high school. What could possibly go wrong? Plenty, as you might expect, especially after the fiendish friends cast a spell that makes a classmate lose her hair. The rest of the lineup offers everything from ghastly and gory to family-friendly and kinda goofy, including Frankenweenie and The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Themed cocktails, now available in the lobby as well as from Eden Bar, enhance the experience. No booze for you? Pick one of the many mocktails offered by the venue’s mixologists.
The month is stuffed full of horrific happenings, including parties. Little monsters can enjoy a daytime event with lunch, a not-so-spooky movie and a costume parade. If you’re over 21, don your craziest or most sinister costumes and carouse past the witching hour. Dates had not been announced at press time.
Enzian is located at 1300 Orlando Avenue, Maitland. For more information, call 407.629.0054 or visit enzian.org.
HARRY P. LEU GARDENS
There are monsters hiding in the woods
Last year’s Happy Frights and Haunting Nights, a collaboration between Creative City Project and Leu Gardens, was such a howling success that it’s being redone—or, perhaps more accurately, reanimated.
“We had more than 40,000 people in attendance last year,” says Creative City Executive Director Melyssa Marshall. “We were expecting the show to be a hit. We were very surprised it was such an enormous hit.”
This year’s affordable festivities kick off on Friday, September 27 and run through Halloween.
First up is the family-friendly Happy Frights. Timed entries start at 5 p.m. for a leisurely, immersive walk through the gardens that features a mysterious swamp with “wildlife,” a crazy carnival with clowns (now that’s scary), a hedge maze, hip-hop dancing aliens plus—let’s get our priorities straight here—eight places to trick or treat.
Haunting Nights, for ages 13 and up, begins at 7:30 p.m. and features Bigfoot (yes, the real one) near Lake Rowena, gargoyles flying through the trees, those same crazy clowns and icky, spooky spiders—including one that’s 12 feet tall.
Too tame? Don’t bet on it. “A fright might be around the corner,” says Ha’ani Hogan, Creative City’s external affairs director. Fall food and drink are available, as well as music and margaritas—for the grown-ups—to celebrate Día de Muertos.
Leu Gardens is located at 1920 North Forest Avenue, Orlando. For more information, call 407.246.2620 or visit leugardens.org. However, tickets for Happy Frights and Haunting Nights must be bought online at halloweeninthegarden.com.
