Things to do in Los Angeles today

The masters of alfresco rooftop movie viewing have returned for another season of screenings to LEVEL in Downtown L.A. 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 (with optional blankets for purchase to up the coziness). 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 Griffith Park tradition, which has been running for 18 years now, centers on a relatively lengthy hayride, which runs on select nights from September 18 to November 1. The premise: A witch has summoned spirits of the underworld, who’ve hidden themselves among Halloween decorations in the town’s foothills. While it used to be tucked into the relatively intimate Old Zoo area, the attraction has since moved to the larger Crystal Springs Picnic Area. With the larger space, it can feel a bit empty, and the flatter terrain does make it easier to spot upcoming scares, as opposed to the hillier nature of the Old Zoo. That being said, there are some genuinely cool and creepy moments on the hayride, even if in places it favors set pieces over scare actors. In addition to the hayride itself, there are a few mazes, which are a bit jump-scarier. This year’s event features a brand-new addition, “Fallen Angel,” set in a fictitious Sunset Strip theater, where fans try to resurrect a heavy-metal band killed by their pyrotechnics.  The event’s various other attractions are centered around the jack-o’-lantern–filled Midnight Falls Town Square. Returning favorites include the Scary-Go-Round, the Hellbilly Halloween maze and Elvira’s Trick or Treat Mayhem, which was a highlight last...

The only thing better than a haunted attraction is a haunted attraction on a giant boat—which has its own haunted history. You’ll find all the usual horrors here—think fog, mazes and countless monsters roaming around. What sets Dark Harbor apart is its use of its surroundings; the dark, cramped confines of the Queen Mary are already pretty spooky even without monsters—just be prepared to climb a lot of skinny staircases. And the production design is top-notch. For its 13th anniversary, the event dives further into the ocean liner’s lore with reimagined mazes set both on shore and in the ship’s swimming pool and corridors. New this year is the “Shipwrecked: Brace for Impact” maze, as well as carnival rides Alien Abduction and blacklight bumper cars. When you tire of the terror, seek out and sip spirits at secret speakeasies, fill up on fairground food, or catch spooky live entertainment.

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 a month this fall (Oct 2–Nov 1), 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 the ground and cobbled together into a house. Last year, the event introduced a new route, and for the 2026 edition, the popular neon-hued Rhizome light sculpture will move into the dramatic Oak Grove, and the labyrinth will feature immersive new sculptures by Helsinki-based artist Alexander Reichstein. The gardens’ model trains will again be illuminated during the event. Timed tickets ($29–$52, kids 2–12 $19–$37) are on sale now. This year also sees the introduction of a new “anytime” ticket that can be used on any date—though at a pricey $85, it makes a case for just committing to a day and time. Look out for the expanded Día de los Muertos ofrenda altar near the entrance on your way to the two main jack-o’-lantern areas. 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 gourds whose designs are inspired by pop culture characters (plus a station where you can see them being carved). There are a few...

This traveling horror-themed Halloween cocktail pop-up stops at Melrose Umbrella Co. again this October. The women-owned concept—created by industry veterans Erin Hayes and Kelsey Ramage—is taking over the Beverly Grove bar, serving up expertly mixed cocktails amid metal music and spooky decor (including the famous 12-foot-tall skeleton from Home Depot). Drink highlights include the Bone Temple, made with Teremana Blanco Tequila, and Abyssa’s Obsession, made with pumpkin-infused Kraken Black and Gold Spiced Rums—plus fun glassware you can purchase for yourself. Spirit-free options are also available. And if you can’t get enough Black Lagoon, there’s another SoCal outpost at Midnight Oil in Long Beach.

You might have seen ads on Instagram over the past couple of months for Hospital of Emotions—a colorful, cartoony flyer that heralds a site-specific art pop-up located in a real hospital with the tagline “a place to heal your heART.” The conceit intrigued me off the bat: 70 artists (both local and international) given hospital rooms as a canvas to transform as they wished. Hospital of Emotions ads are also referring to it as “the experience of the year.” We’re only in May so that’s still TBD, but I do think the exhibition—which is inhabiting the former St. Vincent Medical Center in Westlake and is officially open to the public as of May 27—is well worth your time. While the entire experience is hospital-themed—you walk through a waiting room and are given an intake form and hospital wristband, employees are in doctors’ coats—it’s not the cheesy type of immersive exhibition (read: selfie factory) that you might expect. Instead you’ll find 80 rooms filled with thought-provoking, visually dazzling and, yes, eminently photogenic installations. But there’s both style and substance here. And though the tickets are definitely on the pricey side, there’s so much to see—I spent nearly two hours there during my visit—that it (almost) makes up for it. The rooms are organized by theme; you start at the top of the building in the “Resilience Department” and make your way through clusters of rooms inspired by feelings like joy, sadness, anger, grief, fear and hope. The emphasis on...

Right in time for Halloween season, the Academy Museum seeks to answer the question “Why do horror films matter so deeply to so many?” in this immersive look at the genre whose cultural cachet is always increasing. Knowingly employing horror tropes and exploring the lasting appeal of scary movies, the show is divided into six subcategories of horror—gothic, psychological, science, slasher, religion and ghosts. Expect re-creations of iconic settings where visitors will encounter creatures, monsters and objects from their favorite horror flicks and, in typical Academy fashion, a behind-the-scenes look at the storytelling and production processes of films from the original Frankenstein to The Shining to Get Out. After revisiting nearly every horror title (and slasher mask) you can think of, there’s only one way out of the exhibition—and it drops you into the middle of your own scary movie. At the end of a long hallway, you’ll find the Blood Room, a disconcertingly realistic re-creation of a slasher’s crime scene, with fake blood covering the walls and pooling onto the floor. The show is sure to be a huge hit with horror aficionados. And if you’re a horror hater? Well, according to Academy Museum President Amy Homma, you just haven’t found your horror yet. By splitting the genre into six wide-ranging categories, the exhibition shows that what qualifies as a horror movie isn’t one-size-fits-all. So if you, say, can’t handle anything with a ghost (guilty), you might be drawn...

Walk across the grounds of the scenic King Gillette Ranch in Calabasas as the Santa Monica Mountains hideaway is illuminated with thousands of hand-carved jack-o’-lanterns. (Fun fact: Calabasas has a pumpkin-filled history—it’s actually named after the Spanish word for the gourd: “calabaza”.) Night of the Jack returns with a reimagined mile-long trail this year, plus food trucks and a “Spookeasy,” too.  For 2026, the family-friendly event is also introducing Jack’s Carnival, with around a dozen kid-friendly rides and games, plus new lantern art, photo ops, projection mapping and a new display in the illuminated field.  Timed tickets are required each night. As is the case with all similar experiences, they’re not cheap and fluctuate ($34.50–$57) depending on the day of the week and time of night. The cheapest tickets are for the 6pm “Almost Dark” session, where you embark on the trail as it flickers to life during golden hour. The most expensive are the “anytime” tickets, which let you arrive at any point during the night—those cost up to $83. Expect to spend an hour to an hour and a half at the experience, though that could double on weekends (and closer to Halloween) when the entry crowds and food truck lines tick up.

Head to Gloria Molina Grand Park for a two-week display of over a dozen altars created by professional artists and community organizations. The displays officially kick off on October 24, during Grand Ave Arts: All Access, complemented by an afternoon of face painting, paper weaving and sugar-skull decorating, plus live mariachi music (11am–4pm). On November 1, the event closes with Noche de los Muertos, which will feature cultural performances, local artisans selling goods at a mercado, and more family-friendly activities. All of the festivities are free.

Peruse altars in the plaza of El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument at this Day of the Dead celebration, which incorporates pre-Columbian, Aztec, Mayan and Catholic traditions. Expect plenty of festive wares from the merchants on Olvera Street, along with altars that go on display each morning and a candlelight procession every night for nine nights. Stop by during weekends for face painting (for a fee) and theatrical performances. And on Halloween, there’ll be a 5K race through the area, which you can register for here.