HALLOWEEN HAUNTS

Across Los Angeles County, Halloween spirits come alive this week with haunted houses, horror stagings and visual delights. Here are a few ghostly tours, all designed for scary fun:

1. CHAMBER OF HORROR

* 10th and Beacon streets, San Pedro

The Beacon House men’s alcohol and drug recovery program will sponsor a haunted house in the center’s Victorian home, built in 1896. Every Halloween, residents of the nonprofit recovery program transform the rooms into mazes and halls of horror. The scary fun begins Sunday with refreshments and treats at 6 p.m. Admission is $1 for adults and 25 cents for children.

2. TERROR CRUISE

* 1238 Lincoln Blvd., Santa Monica

Volunteers of the Santa Monica Jaycees will lift your spirits at the Boys and Girls Club of Santa Monica as they take you through three levels of shipwrecked rooms. Thursday and Friday from 6 to 10 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Admission: $2.

3. HAUNTED PATHS OF TERROR

* 23812 Friar St., Woodland Hills

Take a stroll through Bob Koritzke’s and Dave Rector’s sixth annual neighborhood haunt, with floating lanterns, attacking spiders, computerized skeletons, a torture room and a graveyard of terror. Free.

4. CASTLE FRIGHTMARE

* 17330 Victory Blvd., Encino

Spooks and goblins will invade the National Guard Armory as brave spirits embark on a terror tour of the castle in search of a murderer. Volunteers from the West San Fernando Valley Rotary Club will create Castle Frightmare to benefit the T.J. Martell Foundation, Neil Bogart Memorial Fund and Valley-area charities, Thursday through Sunday from 6 to 11 p.m. Adults $7, children $5. For information, call (818) 501-1831.

5. HALLOWEEN EVE FETE

* 10236 Charing Cross Road, Holmby Hills

Wine, dine and dance your way through the lavish Playboy Mansion on a secluded hilltop for a Supernatural Celebration on Halloween Eve benefiting Children of the Night, a nonprofit organization dedicated to assisting runaway teen-agers. The witching hour begins at 8 p.m., but reservations are limited. Cost: $150. For information, call (818) 908-4474.

6. THE WITCH’S COTTAGE

* Walden Drive and Carmelita Avenue, Beverly Hills

In the middle of Beverly Hills, without shrubbery or walls to hide a view, sits the fairy-tale home of the witch who tried to eat Hansel and Gretel. The year-round spirit of Halloween lingers in this 3,800-square-foot house with its steep, gabled roof and lawn bisected by a moat. It was built by set designer Henry Oliver in 1921 as a film production office in Culver City and was later moved to become a residence in Beverly Hills. Drive or stroll by this visual delight, which plays host to many local trick-or-treaters.

7. WILLARD’S PLACE

* 637 S. Lucerne Blvd., Los Angeles

From 1971 to 1976, this Victorian in Hancock Park served as the setting for such classic horror films as “Willard,” in which Bruce Davison plays a young man with the supernatural ability to communicate with rodents, and the sequel, “Ben.” It was also the stomping grounds for the Addams Family in a Halloween TV special. “For years, trick-or-treaters were afraid to knock on the door because they feared rats would attack them,” said owner Peggi Hirsch. But now the house has been given a new coat of paint in hopes of taking some of the fear away. Members of the Windsor Square and Hancock Park Historical Society will transform the park-like front yard into a graveyard of horror suitable for neighborhood children.

8. WAREHOUSE OF TERROR

* 10150 Lower Azusa Road, El Monte

The San Gabriel council of the Boy Scouts of America is transforming 39 rooms of a warehouse into eerie dungeons of fright. Ghosts, goblins and ghouls will provide thrills and chills Thursday and Friday from 6 p.m. to midnight and Saturday and Sunday from 3 to 6 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. to midnight. Admission: $5.

The county parks department, many cities’ parks and some indoor shopping malls are offering supervised programs for safe celebrating, with activities that include costume parades, contests, movies, carnivals, rides and magic shows. Call local park or mall offices for information.