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After last year’s deluge of Halloween drive-throughs, we’re thrilled over the return of traditional seasonal events—particularly as one of our favorites is set to bring its best car-friendly bits into a walkable format.
Freeform’s Halloween Road is back, and for the fourth edition it’s turning last year’s drive-through route at Heritage Square into an outdoor, on-foot event that borrows a couple of elements from its before-time indoor edition, Halloween House.
From October 1 through 5, you’ll be able to wander the grounds of the Victorian village to find scenes and characters inspired by Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas, Hocus Pocus, The Addams Family and Ghostbusters (all staples of the cable channel’s October-long 31 Nights of Halloween movie marathon).
While last year’s event was free, this year’s expanded version sees a considerable cost bump to $37, with a prepaid beer and wine package available, as well. Tickets go on sale September 1 at 10am (and we really can’t stress enough how quickly this is likely to sell out).
We found last year’s drive-through to be a remarkably enjoyable pick-me-up during a pretty dour time, and easily the most polished Halloween offering—but we did wish we could’ve spent more time at the relatively speedy in-car event. Thankfully, this year’s on-foot version should offer opportunities to more slowly soak up the spooky (but not scary) setting; event organizers say it should take you about 45 minutes to tackle it all.
This year’s new additions include an extended Hocus Pocus drag show that sees the Sanderson Sisters recreating scenes from the movie, a beer and wine garden that includes a preferred viewing area for said show, a recreation of Finklestein’s lab from The Nightmare Before Christmas and a photo op in front of the Addams Family mansion (or rather, a tower-topped Victorian home that makes for a pretty compelling stand-in). You’ll also find twice as many trick-or-treating stations, plus interactions with characters from all of the movies mentioned above.
As for returning favorites, expect to once again see the Sanderson Sisters’ cottage and adjoining graveyard, the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man and the Ecto-1, and a ton of Nightmare Before Christmas scenes, including Spiral Hill, Halloween Town Hall, Oogie Boogie’s Lair and Lock, Shock and Barrel’s Treehouse.
Until then, check out some more illuminated, fog-drenched photos from last year’s Halloween Road.
