Fright night’s dead ahead

Where to go for bats, vamps and monster mashes, or a ghostly encounter

By Ron Wolfe (Contact)

LITTLE ROCK — Tonight is Halloween, another gooey haul of treats.

The bag spills out giggles for tricksters, eeks for

imps, clammy clan fun for Addams families, and blood-curdling shrieks in the night for grown-up goblins.

Halloween comes from ancient Celtic rites to trick the spirits of the dead. Give a ghost a good time, they figured - maybe then, he’ll go away.

American celebrations turned the old bonfire rituals into trick-or-treat, and American marketing made Halloween a monster sales event.

Halloween is the year’s third biggest party day (after Ne w Ye a r ’s Eve andSuper Bowl Sunday), according to the Hallmark greeting card company. Not just children give a boo, but most adults wig out as well, according to surveys from the National Retail Federation and National Confectioners Association.

And if you give a ghost $5 billion a year in sales of candy, costumes and decorations, well - he’s apt to stay a little longer. Some of tonight’s haunted houses will open their creaky doors again Saturday night.

Here’s where to find the skeleton crews at work tonight and this weekend:Shows the event is free.

Signals a charge for admission.

CLOSE TO HAUNTED HOME Big Boo!-seum Bash, 6-8:30 p.m. today, downtown Little Rock. Central Arkansas Transit shuttle buses take trick-or-treaters to Halloween festivities at ninemuseums and other haunts. Sites include: the Old State House, Museum of Discovery, Clinton Presidential Center, Little Rock Visitor Information Center at Curran Hall, MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History, Central High School National Historic Site, Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, Historic Arkansas Museum and Museum of Black Arkansans(EMOBA). Call (501) 370-3222.Halloween party, 6:30 tonight at Riverfest Amphitheatre, with country artist Cara Martin, costumes and two movies on the outdoor screen: theoriginal versions of 13 Ghosts and Halloween. Call (501) 744-2220.

EMOBA’s Haunted Cathedral, 7:30 p.m.-midnight today and Saturday. Live and animatronic heebie-jeebies lurk in the gothic surroundings ofdowntown Little Rock’s 87-year-old First Baptist Church. Details at www.emoba.org. Call (501) 372-0018.

Murder at MacArthur Park, 6:15 p.m.-midnight tonight in the Old Arsenal in Little Rock’s MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History.

Threecourse dinner comes with ghost stories on the side, and guests tour the building in search of clues to solve a murder. Details at www.littlerocktours.com. Call (501) 868-7287.

Catch Me If You Can murder mystery through Nov. 16 at Murry’s Dinner Playhouse, Little Rock. Call (501) 562-3131.

Boo at the Zoo, 6-9 p.m. today at the Little Rock Zoo. Rides, games and treats, “Creatures of the Night” program, Haunted House and not-so-haunted Little Pumpkin’s Play Patch. Call (501) 661-7203.Sherwood Halloween Carnival, 6:30-8:30 p.m. today in Sherwood Forest in - knock-knock, guesswho? - Sherwood. Haunted black-and-orange egg hunt, costume contest, Monster Mash dance. Call (501) 835-8909.

Haunted Hospital, 6 p.m.-midnight or later tonight and Saturday at old Memorial Hospital, North Little Rock, benefits the North Little Rock Police Athletic League. Call (501) 537-6208.

B-Flats Halloween, classic rock and party favors, 8:30 tonight at The Afterthought, Little Rock.Call (501) 663-1196.Peabody Boo Bash Rivertop Party, costumes and light show, 8 tonight at the Peabody LittleRock hotel. Call (501) 906-4000.

“’Tis now the very witching hour of night.” - Shakespeare JUST A HOLLER AWAYHalloween Hike, 7-8:30 tonight at Pinnacle Mountain State Park just west of LittleRock. Hikers set off in stalking feet from the Arkansas Arboretum trailhead to learn about creatures of the night. Call (501) 868-5806.

Schaefer’s Corn Maze, 1-8 p.m. tonight and continuing through Nov. 9 in Mayflower.Haunted hayrides tonight and Saturday. Details at www.schaeferscornmaze.com. Call (501) 269-7903.

Halloween at Petit Jean tonight at Petit Jean State Park near Morrilton.Is Petit Jean Mountain haunted by the ghost of a crazy pirate? Arrr! Brrr! Call (501) 727-5441.

READ Haunted House, 7 p.m. to late tonight and Saturday in Malvern to benefit the Literacy Council of Hot Spring County Inc. Call (501) 332-4039.

Peebles Farms Fall Festival and Pumpkin Patch, and 20-acre corn maze in the shape of an ivory-billed woodpecker, 8 a.m.-midnight tonight in Augusta eastof Searcy. Call (870) 919-6162.St. Francis County Museum in Forrest City - so haunted, it has a resident team of ghost hunters, Paranormal Research in Unknown Phenomenon (PRUPH).A Night at the Museum, from 9:30 p.m. into the wee hours tonight, invites guests to join the team in a search of the former Rush-Gates House, built in 1906, for evidence of spirits - possibly the ghosts of old-time Dr. J.O. Rush’s patients. The doctor built his home near the train tracks to care for injured railroad workers, whose screams may have given rise to the building’s stories of strange and shadowy shapes in the windows. Call (870) 261-1744.

“There are nights when the wolves are silent, and only the moon howls.” - George Carlin DOWN A LONG, DARK ROADMurder and Mayhem Trolley departs the Fort Smith Museum of History at 7, 8 and 9 p.m. today. Tour guides tell gruesome historic facts, murder storiesand eerie local legends as the trolley winds through the Belle Grove Historic District, past houses said to be haunted. The trip includes a come-hither look at Miss Laura’s, the former bordello that is home now to the Fort Smith Visitors’ Center.

Call (479) 783-7841.

Pumpkin Hollow in St. Francis in Arkansas’ darkest northeast corner. Farm activities, 9 a.m.-6 tonight; haunted attractions, 7-10 p.m. For adults - Bubba’sButcher Barn and Forest of Fright. For youngsters - the Friendly Fairytale Forest. Details at www.pumpkinhol low.com. Call (870) 598-3568.

Fright Night, 6-9 p.m. today at Arkansas Post Museum State Park in Gillett in shuddery southeast Arkansas. Carnival games, facepainting, ghost stories and two haunted houses - one funny, one scary. Call (870) 548-2634.

Halloween Trail of Terror, 6-9 p.m.

today in Hardy - so far north, only the hardiest souls dare go. Terrors includethe troll under the bridge. Call (870) 856-3811.

Trick or Treat on the Square, 3-5 p.m. today, downtown Fayettteville.

Call (800) 766-4626.

Raycliff Manor haunted house spirits 70 miles north from its old grounds in Eureka Springs to permanent digs in Joplin, Mo., 7-midnight tonight and Saturday. Details at www.raycliffmanor.com.

Call (417) 624-1414.

“Hold on, man. We don’t go anywhere with ‘scary,’ ‘spooky,’ ‘haunted,’ or ‘forbidden’ in the title.” - Shaggy to Scooby-Doo.

Thrills for the armchair crowd

Too pooped to prowl this Halloween?

Here’s how to raise goose bumps without having to get up - at the movies and home on TV: BIG SCREEN SCREAMS The Haunting of Molly Hartley. A teenage girl (Haley Bennett) finds out not every

school spirit is the rah-rah

kind.

Saw V. The series grinds on

with another round of grue

some games.

High School Musical 3: Se

nior Year. A treat for ’tween

ers, but the scariest prospect

for parents who have to sit

through it. Could be worse- eeek! - could be on ice.

MOLDY OLDIES Turner Classic Movies’ cable television goose-bumpa-thon: Wake up and stretch with The Cat People (1942), 6:30 a.m. today; hang with The Devil Bat (1940), noon; and trundle off with The Dunwich Horror (1970), 11:45 p.m.

Tips for making monsters vanish

They’re back! - the monsters of Halloween! What to do, what to do?

“I will find your earth-box and drive that stake through your heart.” - Van Helsing in Dracula (1931).

“A werewolf can only be killed by a silver bullet, or a silver knife ... or a stick with a silver handle.” - Gypsy woman in The Wolf Man (1941).

“Shoot ’em in the head ... Beat ’em or burn ’em. They go up pretty easy.” - Sheriff in Night of the Living Dead (1968).

But only one trick really works to make them go away: Candy.

Weekend, Pages 62 on 10/31/2008