By Mik Hyldebrandt
With Halloween just around the corner, Atlanta is bursting at the seams with fun events that are not just frightening but quite the thrill.
Sleepy Hollow Experience
If you haven’t been to this fabulous fall fright fest, you have to try it. The adaptation of Washington Irving’s tale is far from a sit-down play but engages the audience in fun, playful, and sometimes frightening ways. It’s a wonderful Halloween tradition running now for the fifth year in a row, and the tickets usually sell out, so get yours now!
Sept 28 – Nov 5
Tickets and info at serenbeplayhouse.com
“Afterlife” by Critical Crop Top
The woman-run and Atlanta-based production company Critical Crop Top specializes in socially conscious comedy that focuses on social justice, gender roles, sexual orientation, race, politics, and other issues that are at the forefront of our community, and explores them through sketches, music, poetry, satire, and, well, fart jokes.
Oct 21 at the Highland Inn
Oct 22 and Oct 28 at Ballroom Lounge
Tickets and info at criticalcroptop.com
Netherworld Haunted House
Halloween is almost here, so it’s time to get your fright on! And Netherworld is definitely the place. The haunted house is eerily realistic, and the amount of props, lights, and even extras match a full-on Hollywood production – if you don’t get scared here, it’ because your blood already runs cold!
Netherworld is open now, closes Nov 5
Tickets and info at fearworld.com
Containment Haunted House
This is a different kind of haunted house that not only gives you jump-out-of-your-skin frights but also plays with your perception of things. Each container presents the visitor with a new and increasingly scary scenario that is bound to frazzle nerves and peak adrenaline rushes.
Containment is open now, closes Nov 4
Tickets and info at containmenthauntedhouse.com
Cirque du Soleil LUZIA
A fantastical journey into an imaginary Mexico that brings both familiar and new faces, places, and sounds of Mexico to life through surrealistic, visual revelations filled with grand surprises and mind-bending acrobatics. If it sounds like we are gushing, it’s because we are! Cirque du Soliel always brings performances to the next level, and LUZIA is no exception.
LUZIA is ongoing and closes Nov
Tickets and info at cirquedusoleil.com/luzia
Atlanta Symphony Hall Live Presents Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas
The tricky thing about this unique event is that it combines a movie with a classical concert – and it is quite the treat! For only a couple of nights, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra will perform the score to Tim Burton’s classic “The Nightmare Before Christmas” live, while the film plays on a big screen in Symphony Hall.
Oct 27 & 28
Tickets and info at ticketmaster.com