Halloween dates back more than a thousand years where the occasion is widely believed to have originated from the pagan Celtic festival of Samhain marking the end of harvest season on Nov 1. On this day, people believed that the souls of the dead returned to their homes, so they wore costumes and lit bonfires to keep them away.
Today, Halloween on Oct 31 is a celebration with adults and kids dressing up for fun, going trick or treating for candy, and scaring each other for sheer entertainment. While locals here don’t typically go trick or treatin’, we certainly love a good fright. Here are some spook fests for all age groups.
Downtown East’s Halloween Scream Fest 2023: Spooky encounters around every corner
Oct 26 to 29, 10.30am to 10pm
Halloween Scream Fest 3 is an immersive, interactive haunted house experience that will test your courage like no other. Organised by The Vault Singapore, encounter your deepest fears as you enter the 1,700-square-foot “built from ground up” haunted house by Fullhouse Studio.
Intricately designed and modelled after Singapore’s HDB blocks, each of the three zones is themed differently. Working under pressure and fear to escape the house within a limited time will test your creativity and teamwork skills as there are spooky new encounters around every corner. Once you escape and are starving, head to the F&B and retail booths at Open Plazas 1 and 2. Brands include The Original Vadai, Kream.sg, and Don’s Oven. NTUC cardholders get 10 percent off (code “NTUC10” at checkout). Tickets at $48 (Standard Pass) and $58 (Express Queue Pass) are available here.
Orchardgateway X The Blue Pocket’s Gateway to Hell: Reliving the gruesome ’60s
Oct 14 to 31, 6.30pm to 11.30pm (Mon to Fri), 12pm to 11.30pm (Sat to Sun, till 1am on Halloween weekend)
Shoppers at this event are invited to a 1960s-themed haunted house in a bid to stop a demonic schoolgirl from wreaking havoc in our world. With six curated zones, a photo booth and a Virtual Reality room, this first-ever haunted house installation at Orchardgateway will bring guests up close and personal with familiar yet unsettling characters of the time and in fantastically detailed settings — albeit in new, spine-chilling iterations — as they venture through to stop the evil spirit.
Watch out for strange occurrences at the mall in the lead-up to Halloween weekend (Oct 14, 15, 20, 21 and 22) as scare actors will be roving around in the hunt of their next scare victim. Tickets can be bought at gatewaytohell.eventbrite.com.
CQ @ Clarke Quay’s SpooktoberFest: A spine-tingling day-to-night celebration
Oct 28
SpooktoberFest, an annual highlight at CQ @ Clarke Quay, returns on Oct 28 for a spine-tingling day-to-night celebration inspired by the iconic Addams Family. First, come dressed as your favourite Addams Family character and join a 45-minute Bold Fitness HIIT workout to stand a chance to win complimentary two-week Bold memberships and eCapitaVouchers, or bring a friend along for a complimentary BOLD Smoothie.
Then embark on a group-friendly scavenger hunt of “The Thing” around CQ @ Clarke Quay, and stand to win attractive prizes. Strut your spooky style and get spotted for the Best Halloween Costume Competition. Enhance your outfit at the Airbrush Tattoo Stations before grooving along to pulsating sets by local bands and DJs. Get more information here.
Haw-Ror Villa 2: Journey into Hell’s Museum
Oct 27 to 29, 7pm to 12am
This iconic cultural destination has put together a spine-chilling event aptly named “Haw-Ror Villa 2” with a fun-filled line-up of activities all around the park that will delight all ages. Expect themed Art Jamming workshops, Tarot Reading, a curated Booth Market, a free escape themed game, Treats and Tricks, and simply a hell lot of scares! Brave souls are invited to come explore the depths of the afterlife at Hell’s Museum from 7pm to 12am on Oct 28 and 29. Buy tickets here.
Singapore Discovery Centre’s Harrowing Halloween 3: A spine-chilling journey that tests your sanity and bravery
Now till Oct 29, 7pm to 11pm
If you and your gang love scaring yourselves silly, Harrowing Halloween 3 promises a fear-filled adventure, thanks to the talented youths of Singapore Polytechnic, Republic Polytechnic, and ITE College East. Working together, they co-created the concept and used technology and AI-generated graphics for an even more terrifying experience.
In The Haunted Houses, embark on a spine-chilling journey through Lakeview Learning and Enrichment High school, where your sanity and bravery will be tested to the max. Then enter the Interactive Scare Zone besieged by the catastrophic wrath of climate crisis, where an ominous tale unfolds.
Other activities include an XD Theatre simulation that takes you to an alternate reality; short horror films, produced by Singapore Polytechnic students, at the auditorium; and Fringe Zone with carnival games, activities, and food trucks.
During the day on Oct 21 and 29, become an investigator and solve the Dark Waters Mystery Case – a live-action gameplay about a deadly disaster. You are advised to keep a safe distance from the evidence in Area 510 and watch out for the infected.
Get your tickets ($35 for the event pass, $60 for the D.I.E. Pass that includes a guided tour and exclusive event merchandise, and $55 for a day-to-night pass online.
The Polliwogs VivoCity Spooktacular Halloween Party: Hilarious monster chases and daring challenges
Oct 28, 7.30pm to 9.45pm
Magic and mischief collide at The Polliwogs @ VivoCity. In a live adventure, young adventurers must brace themselves to take on daring challenges, solve intricate puzzles, engage in hilarious monster chases, and even win prizes worth $600 in The Polliwogs Town’s spookiest spots. Each challenge conquered brings them one step closer to collecting the coveted ingredients needed for a candy wonderland like no other.
Tickets cost $68 for one child and one adult; additional adult ticket is $12. Early bird special tickets until Oct 21 cost $58. The ticket price includes a Halloween live adventure ticket, a show ticket, return tickets for one child, a goodie bag, and a lucky draw ticket. Book here.
Universal Studios Singapore Halloween Horror Nights 11: The mother of all haunted houses
Now till Nov 4
Halloween Horror Nights 11 is filled with spine-chilling attractions, including haunted houses that will blow you away. The Weeknd: After Hours Til Dawn Nightmare is one of the most anticipated, a collaboration between the Grammy award winner and Universal Studios Singapore Halloween Horror Nights. It features five all-new rooms inspired by Dawn FM, his fifth studio album. The only way to escape his purgatory of pain is to navigate a horrifying psychedelic maze, no doubt inspired by his macabre mind.
Other haunted houses include Netflix’s All Of Us Are Dead, which places you in the halls of Hyosan High that are overrun by zombies, Rebirth of the Matriarch, DIYU: Descent into Hell, and Grimm Encounters, which takes your favourite fairy-tale characters and turns them into corrupted creatures.
Three scare zones await you as well: Dead Man’s Wharf, haunted by Madame Dragon, a legendary Chinese pirate, The Hacker, where an AI creature rules over a terrifying cyber-hellscape, and The Cursed Kiramam with its tormented villagers.
There will also be two live shows, Judgement Day and The Hacker: Game Over. Then it’s on to Die-ning in Hell, a multi-sensory dining experience.
Tickets are available at $89 for peak nights and $79 for non-peak nights. Grab your tickets here.
Universal Studios Singapore Trick or Thrills: Meet-and-greets, epic dance battle, and Halloween bites
Now till Nov 5
Families can enjoy Halloween daytime fun at Universal Studios Singapore (USS)’s Trick or Thrills event at Resorts World Sentosa. It includes meet-and-greets with Illumination’s Minion Monsters, Sesame Street friends, Universal Monsters, Scorpion King, and The Sorceress.
Also, look out for an epic dance battle between The Candy Crooks and The Lolly Bandits and a percussion show. Besides a candy giveaway, the best-dressed guest of each day goes home with a spooky treat.
What’s a party without food? Trick or Thrills has Halloween-themed dishes, such as the Minion Monsters Chicken Sandwich, Spooky Eyeball Pasta, Graveyard Hot Dog, and Monster Ice Cream with candy eyeballs. Then stop at the Candylicious store in the USS’s Hollywood zone and make three big candy grabs in a pumpkin bucket for $9 (from Fridays to Mondays until Nov 5 Nov). Before you leave, shop the memorabilia store for must-have merch.
Trick or Thrills is included with regular admission to Universal Studios Singapore; $98 per adult and $76 per child, so you also get to enjoy the rides and other attractions in the theme park. Each ticket includes a Halloween set meal and a $5 Kuromi merchandise voucher. Child tickets also include a pumpkin bucket (while stocks last) or a $5 USS retail voucher. For more information, visit www.rwsentosa.com/trickorthrills.
