The best Halloween events in London for ghost stories, films and scares

London Month Of The Dead’s annual programme returns this spooky season to get you in the mood for Halloween with a programme of more than 60 fascinatingly macabre events investigating our city’s relationship with death. The line-up offers a plethora of ghostly tours that will take you around crypts, cemeteries, undertakers, execution sites and other eerie locations across the city, alongside talks  exploring everything from the study of human decomposition and the psychology of fear to the theme of murder in art and the criminal history of necrophilia. Highlights of this year’s programme also include a five hour immersive workshop where you can try your hand at some forensic anthropology, a screening of the original Nosferatu with live musical accompaniment, a magic show inside West Norwood Cemetery, an insect mounting workshop at the Kensal Green Cemetery and a circus-themed Halloween party at Soho’s Century Club. It doesn’t get more gothic than that! Check out the full programme here. 

Is there a more appropriate way to spend Halloween than amongst hundreds of freakish dead specimens? We think not. This October, the Natural History Museum will be keeping its doors open after hours for an adults-only fright night. There’ll be a live band, a silent disco and a vampire ball as well as scientists dotted about the place to chat you through the beasts on display, and a chance to get up close to the museum’s ghoulish collection of jarred pickled creatures.

London nightlife big hitter The Cause is no stranger to throwing killer parties and this mega day-to-night Halloween extravaganza will more than prove that. Headlining proceedings this year are nu-disco/indie electronica outfit Hercules & Love Affair. More details are yet to be unveiled, but previous editions have seen funfair rides, food stalls, games and circus performers, as well as a frighteningly good cast of DJs on the decks.

Recommended: The best Halloween parties in London

From last year’s Halloween Screamings at the Prince Charles to its Flightmare on Old Street the year before, north London-born craft brewing giant Beavertown always does something special for the spookiest night of the year, and 2025 is no different. This year, the brewery has jumped on the immersive bandwagon, taking over Shoreditch venue Kachette to stage a 90-minute immersive experience set across ‘five twisted rooms, each offering a surreal new reality to explore.’

It’s keeping pretty hush about what exactly that entails, but visitors are promised ‘unexpected encounters and side quests’, with the journey culminating in a pop-up Beavertown Bar where DJs will be spinning tunes, with some exciting surprise guests headlining each night. Feel like sticking your neck (oil) out? Tickets include a drinks token, two cans of Beavertown and a snack. 

Following a successful debut last year, the producers of Kew Gardens’ beloved Christmas trail are bringing back their Halloween trail through the iconic botanical gardens. It’s a light trail, basically, but a souped up one: we’re promised eerie illuminated trees, ghoulish installations, fire performers and more, with a troupe of actors on hand to stoke up our horrors (in a family friendly way, of course).

There are three timeslots: Daylight sessions run during the daytime and are intended for younger audiences who want an absolute minimum of spookiness (or simply not be hoe too late); Twlight slots are between 6pm and 7.30pm and things are definitely getting a bit scarier (ie darker); finally the Moonlight slots run after 7.30pm when it should be fully dark.

Time Out is putting its own cobwebby stamp on spooky season with ​a new outdoor cinema season called The Trick or Sweet Film Club, with Time Out x NERDS. It’s running from October 23-31 at London Bridge’s buzzy outdoor venue Vinegar Yard, is curated by our film editor and boasts a line-up of tried-and-tested frighteners with a family-friendly flavour, including Ghostbusters, Gremlins and Addams Family Values. Tickets are a devilish £6.66, with lots of surprises promised and NERDS as far as the eye can see. There will be prizes for the best costumes, so dust off your Stay-Puft suit accordingly.

Following its annual summertime horror bonanza in August, London’s primo horror film festival – dubbed ‘the Woodstock of Gore’ by no less an authority than Guillermo del Toro – is once again resurfacing, Kraken-like, for a spooktacular weekend of Halloween screenings at the Odeon Luxe West End. The line-up for this year’s event will be announced in late September, but horror afficionados can expect a handful of terrifying indie movies, typically including one or two UK premieres. Bedwetters need not apply, and, needless to say, the festival has an 18 rating. 

What's creepier than a theme park after dark? One filled with extra-creepy live action mazes, that's what, and Thorpe Park is delivering the terrifying goods once again this Halloween with its special Fright Nights late openings. There are five special mazes to shriek your way through, but even the regular rides can provide some creepy fun. Hop on the park's Saw-themed ride with swinging pendulum blades, the Ghost Train or the Zombie-filled The Walking Dead rollercoaster. If that doesn’t scare you shitless, there’s always the notorious 236ft-high Hyperia, plummeting you into a dark abyss at 80mph. 

To help you get the most out of your trip, we've ranked the rides that will be staying open late.

Find more Halloween events happening in London

Pumpkin patches, UV discos and marshmallow-toasting stations will be joining the furry inhabitants at London Zoo for its ‘Boo at the Zoo’ Halloween programme. Pick and paint the perfect orange ​​gourd, make a ‘flapping bat’ in craft workshops and join a silent disco. Or, find out more about the Zoo’s nocturnal animals by prowling around its darkened The Cassons area and hear about the mysterious lives of nighttime creatures in special expert talks. 

As usual, beloved central London repertory cinema The Prince Charles will be showing more frightening films than Dracula has had bloody dinners during month-long season of spooky cinema this October. The wildly eclectic programme features almost 100 titles this year, encompassing everything from horror classics to niche B movies, all-night marathons and, of course, its famous Sing-A-Long-A Rocky Horror Picture Show (Oct 31 and Nov 1). 

Highlights of the programme include the original 1977 Suspiria (various dates Oct 4-Nov 1), The Night of the Living Dead (Oct 26), the original 1922 Nosferatu performed with a live score (various dates Oct 6-Oct 31) and several all night marathons, including all six Final Destination films (Oct 25), a mystery space-themed bonanza (Oct 4) and another mystery line-up on All Hallow’s Eve itself (Oct 31). 

There’ll also be several screenings on 35mm, including The Exorcist (various dates Oct 11-31), The Shining (various dates Oct 10-Nov 6) and Texas Chainsaw Massacre (various dates Oct 13-31). And that’s just a few options; there really is something for absolutely everyone acxross the month. Excluding wusses. 

Recommended: The best scary film screenings in London for Halloween 2025

As Halloween approaches, immersive experience Phantom Peak gets even more eerie… Each autumn, this interactive show celebrates its Lunar Festival, with ghosts and ghouls taking over the minds and nightmares of the townsfolk. There's a creepy themed menu, as well as ten new trails and spook-filled mysteries to explore.

Get adult tickets for £36.52, down from £42 to Hallowed Peak, only through Time Out Offers.

Hounslow adventure park Hobbledown Heath has had an autumnal makeover complete with a huge pumpkin patch. Great squashes have taken over an expansive meadow on the River Crane, right beside the Hounslow Heath nature reserve. Grab a wheelbarrow and wend your way through the rows of brightly-coloured gourds and take your favourites with you. Book a combined ticket and you can make your pumpkin-picking sesh into a full day out, by sticking around to enjoy Hobbledown’s ultimate adventure playground and zoo, too. Or click through for more places to select a gorgeous gourd this October.

Ghouls, skeletons and creepy critters will be lurking the grounds of Kenwood House this October half term. Winding through the brand new light trail, you’ll have to navigate your way through a spider tunnel, brave a slime web, wander down a warped laser garden and brace yourself for a fair few frights and eerie surprises. Hot toddies, hot chocolate and a banquet of street food options will be on sale to keep you warm and full. Spooky costumes are, of course, strongly encouraged.

Horror movies aren’t just for Halloween. In fact, as Ari Aster’s ‘Midsommar’ proved, the summer can be just as scary as the rest of the year. There really is no bad time to settle down on the sofa and scare the bejesus out of yourself by watching something frightening. Thankfully, Netflix has loads of brilliant and bonkers horror movies available to stream, no matter whether you’re into gorefests, the paranormal or heart pounding psychological scares. From genre classics like ‘The Blair Witch Project’, to modern favourites like ‘The Conjuring’ and ‘Hereditary’, there’s bound to be something for you on our list of the best horror movies streaming on Netflix UK right now.

Recommended: The best horror films of all time.

Unearth your inner Frankenstein at this special Halloween edition of the museum’s adults-only Lates programme, which will fill its walls with dressed up revellers. There are two terrifying films on the line-up: Bride of Frankenstein and Batman Begins (tickets £10-£20). Book a sesh at Wonderlab (£7.50) to see incredibly spooky science experiments close up. Plus, there’ll be a fancy dress contest and the usual Lates fun in the form of a silent disco, craft activities, and discounted tickets to the ‘Power Up’ exhibition, just in case things get a bit too horror-tastic for you.