Modern scare tactics

IT’S a balmy September evening just after sundown, and Gabriel Gonzalez and his family peruse an aisle of pirate accessories, skull-headed walking sticks and fake tattoos. More than five weeks remain until Oct. 31, but on the shelves of the seasonal retail store Spirit in Glendale, Halloween is no apparition.

“I’m just surprised there’s not any Christmas stuff out yet,” Gonzalez says.

There are more early birds over in the adult costume section (typical choices: Pirate Wench, Sexy Convict and Instant Big Daddy), where Joe Aleman and Erika Ponte are feeling the pressure. “Honestly, we’re here because last year they ran out of the costumes we wanted,” Aleman says. How early did they begin looking in 2006? “Three weeks before Halloween,” Ponte chimes in.

All Hallow’s Eve, once largely an occasion for children to dress up, go trick-or-treating and spend the next couple of days on a sugar high, has swelled into a monthlong orgy of partying, role-playing and conspicuous consumption -- and not just at Spirit, which boasts 500 stores in 46 states and kick-starts the spooky season on Labor Day weekend. Attractions at theme parks run for weeks; theatrical productions riff on themes ghostly and ghastly; and all manner of cross-cultural revelry feeds our seemingly insatiable desire for scary stuff.

According to the National Retail Federation, Halloween has become a $5-billion business, twice what it was in the mid-1990s. Can that financial boom be attributed to the disembodied hand of the market? Was Adam Smith planning for the day our party guests could be welcomed by store-bought Bleeding Reaper fountains and gather around our skull-shaped chip-and-dip platters beneath Haunted Chandeliers?

“Commercially, everything is more of a season now, so you can sell things longer, and we’re taking advantage of that to an extent,” acknowledges Jaclyn Lafer, associate producer of “Hollywood Hell House,” a satirical re-creation of real-life evangelical “fright houses.” “Hell House” opens today at the site of a former Mexican restaurant on La Cienega Boulevard.

But Lafer says they’re also shilling for something much deeper. “Hollywood Hell House” premiered in L.A. just before the 2004 election, and they’re happy to be coming back on the cusp of California’s early 2008 presidential primary. “When you think about what is scary now and what are people’s demons now, I think that people are scared more than ever by what our leaders are doing,” she says. “I think it’s important to get these issues out of the ether and into people’s faces.”

As terribly important as this sounds, it must be noted that this production -- which last time around featured less-than-somber artists such as Bill Maher, Andy Richter, Sarah Silverman and David Cross rotating through a rakish cast reenacting demonic raves, hellish homosexuality and unholy abortions -- also plays upon a very Halloween-ish impulse to mock the hallowed.

“Cultures have specific rituals which function as inversions,” says Ken Erickson, a cultural anthropologist and chief executive of Pacific Ethnography, where he conducts research for companies. “At these times, all the usual rules no longer apply.”

Such societal escape valves channel frustrations and naughty impulses in often fabulous ways.

Bigger, scarier

Enter West Hollywood, the little neighborhood cross-dressing pageant that could. A mere 20 years ago, a few visionary gay men inadvertently created what’s now officially billed as “the largest Halloween street party in the world.” Long gone are its simpler days of a bit of parading followed by a spot of bar-hopping. WeHo now hosts a weeklong series of events, such as pumpkin carving, a doggy costume contest, live bands, food booths, a youth carnival, and drag racing (think people in drag, racing) to lead up to its annual extravaganza, where according to the visitors center, some 500,000 people a year descend upon the anything-goes carnival along Santa Monica Boulevard -- now sponsored by the likes of Clear Channel and Miller Beer.

“One year one of my friends dressed up like Aunt Jemima. Here’s this Latino guy with the full, original style, costume, huge pancakes made out of Styrofoam,” Erickson says. “It was so wrong.”

For many, this is precisely what makes Halloween so right -- with few religious, familiar or traditional customs, this bastardized bacchanal, which incorporates elements of Celtic mythology, Native American gastronomy and Latin American imagery (just to name a few), lends itself to individualizing, repackaging and reinvention.

“It’s been a developing trend in theme parks for a number of years,” says Eliot Sekuler, vice president of public relations at Universal, which is bringing back its hugely successful Halloween Horror Nights. “It’s a natural for the very very simple reason that it allows us to create great location-based entertainment, which is what we do.”

At Universal, perverse set designers get free reign over the legendary back lot that gave birth to horror icons such as Dracula, Frankenstein and Norman Bates. This year’s new meanies -- Jason, Freddy and Leatherface -- not only get to follow in the original Psycho’s footsteps, but also get to go marauding through an ill-fated insane asylum and a reborn Crystal Lake. It’s mobbed to the point that patrons are willing to cough up $129 for special passes enabling holders to jump the heart-stopping lines.

All those thousands of Southern Californians queuing up into the witching hours have Eric Prevratil convinced that area theme parks aren’t even competing anymore. In a megalopolis of 13 million, keeping the doors open longer and starting a few days earlier, he believes, is just a consequence of doing the math. “Every theme park has got its own unique take on things and people want to make the rounds and see them all,” says Prevratil, who created the Queen Mary’s fog-riddled, character-driven, seven-maze Shipwreck.

Shipwreck began as a simple haunted engine room in 1995, but it wasn’t long before that wasn’t good enough for Prevratil. That each year producers must constantly offer grander sequels is just a given. With the influence of Hollywood, “people in L.A. expect more here,” Sekuler says. “They expect a greater degree of creativity and more detail.”

These attention-grabbing spectacles can get blamed for distracting us from the real reason for this season -- grand traditions like TP-ing the neighbor’s yard. “There are all these other commercialized opportunities, and they suck the air out of everything else,” Erickson says. “There are probably a number of neighborhood events, but they are hard to find, because L.A. swallows them up.”

Nightmare Avenue

When most of the houses on Carroll Avenue were built, Halloween was little more than a reason for Scottish and Irish immigrants to throw a ball and raise a glass to the motherland. But for the last couple of decades, the highly wrought 1880s Victorians in Angelino Heights have been known for traffic-stopping neighborhood Halloween high jinks. Painted Ladies are adorned in spider webs; ghostly specters and spooky sounds seemingly emanate from beneath creaky wooden porches.

“Last year, my kids were scared to go into that house,” Maria Ramirez says, pointing to the stately green Queen Anne-style manor at 1320 Carroll Ave.

In this Echo Park enclave, trick-or-treating isn’t merely a way to spend the evening, it’s a community tradition. Festivities begin the night before, when the neighbors mingle, drinking cider and watching the houses transform. When Rebecca Stone and her husband Dave moved in last year, the locals immediately started swinging by to say two things: Welcome to the neighborhood, and have you heard about our Halloween?

“We saw decorations start going up in early October, and thought we’d better step it up,” Rebecca Stone says. “It’s totally charming, a real community.”

Much to Nestle’s relief, the single most popular activity on Halloween itself remains sitting at home, doling out empty calories and refined sugar in discreet packages to small children. But the Halloween season continues to grow partly because whooping it up every fall is so ingrained in our cultures -- there are 31 days of Oktoberfest for the Germanic among us, five days of Diwali for Hindus, still a few left over moon cakes from the Chinese mid-autumn festivals.

And because, even in Los Angeles, “we’re only a couple generations removed from agricultural societies,” Erickson says, pulling out the hay wagons and livestock and fashioning “adventure corn mazes” in the farmlands that ring L.A. County seems natural.

Thanks to the city’s Mexican roots, L.A.’s Halloween has a ubiquitous cousin in Dia de Los Muertos. Technically to be celebrated Nov. 1-2, otherwise known as All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day, respectively, the Day of the Dead usually starts early on Olvera Street with nightly candlelit processions. In Pasadena a monthlong Day of the Dead exhibition runs at the Latin American-oriented Folktree Gallery. It’s been that way since the 1980s, for uniquely American reasons.

“I’m Eastern European and the second generation to be born in Los Angeles, but I celebrate the Day of the Dead because I like the concept,” says Folktree owner Rocky Behr, a former psychologist. “It’s about the circle of life. It’s not a weepy, cry-ey time. Families come together and celebrate. It’s about an acceptance of death.”

In fact, celebrators can spend weeks crafting the sometimes poignant, sometimes whimsical, always intricate altars used to honor deceased friends and family, and Behr’s gallery will be showcasing contributions from artists of various ethnic stripes. Because this time of year, everyone can get in on the act.

Or as Spirit marketing director Tonia Farinha points out, “It’s the second-largest decorating holiday after Christmas.”

mindy.farabee@latimes.com

--

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Boo

A frightening selection of seasonal activities:

Theme parks

Knott’s Scary Farm

The granddaddy of them all. 7 p.m. to 1 a.m. Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays; 7 p.m. to 2 a.m. Fridays, Saturdays and Oct. 29-30. Ends Oct. 31. 8039 Beach Blvd., Buena Park. $51, or $46 pre-sale. (714) 220-5000; www.halloweenhaunt.com.

Six Flags Fright Fest

Roller coasters in the dark, eat a cockroach for front-of-the-line passes. Opens Saturday. 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fridays through Sundays and Oct. 29-31. Ends Oct. 31. 26101 Magic Mountain Parkway, Valencia. $29.99 online, $59.99 in person. (661) 255-4111; www.sixflags.com.

Queen Mary Shipwreck

Haunts at sea. 7 p.m. to midnight (later some nights). Friday through Sunday and Oct. 12, 13, 19-21, 26-28, 30-31. Ends Oct. 31. 1126 Queens Highway, Long Beach. $35 ($20 on preview nights). (562) 435-3511; www.queenmaryshipwreck.com.

Disney’s Halloween Time

For a more benevolent All Hallow’s Eve. Hours vary. Daily through Oct. 31. 1313 S. Harbor Blvd, Anaheim. $81 to $91, one-day park-hopper pass; $39.99 Mickey’s Halloween Treat only ($29.99 online). (714) 781-4400; www.disneyland.com.

Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights

Ghouls on the back lot. 7 p.m. to close (time varies) Friday and Saturday and Oct. 12-13, 19-20, 26-28 and 31. 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City. $51, or $39 to $46 online. (800) 864-8377, Ext. 5; www.halloweenhorrornights.com.

Harvest festivals

Halloween Harvest Festival at Pierce College

10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays, 10 a.m. to midnight Fridays and Saturdays. Ends Nov. 4. 20800 Victory Blvd., Woodland Hills. $20 adults, $18 children for admission to all rides and attractions. (818) 999-6300; www.halloweenharvestfestival.com.

Mr. Bones’ Pumpkin Patch

Pony rides, a straw maze and an on-site carving service to class up your jack-o-lantern. 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily except Oct. 16. 702 N. Doheny Dr., West Hollywood. (310) 276-9827, www.mrbonespumpkinpatch.com.

Underwood Family Farms Harvest Festival

Hot tamales and mini-doughnuts, a tractor parade and a cowboy weekend, all with a portion of the proceeds benefiting nonprofits, including the local Lions Club and Boy Scouts. 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily through Oct. 31. 3370 Sunset Valley Road, Moorpark. $8.50 weekends, $3 weekdays. (805) 529-3690, www.underwoodfamilyfarms.com.

Cultural goings-on

Alpine Village Oktoberfest

Daily shenanigans through Oct. 28. 833 W. Torrance Blvd, Torrance. (310) 327-4384; www.alpinevillage.net.

The Folk Tree

Gallery exhibition. Opens Saturday. 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays through Wednesdays; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays; noon to 5 p.m. Sundays. Ends Nov. 3. 217 S. Fair Oaks Ave., Pasadena. (626) 795-8733.

Olvera Street

Dia de Los Muertos. Nightly processions, entertainment and community altars. Start and closing dates to be announced. Call for details. Olvera Street Gallery Entrance, downtown L.A. (213) 625-7074; www.olvera-street.com.

Stage productions

Hollywood Hell House

8:30 to 10:45 p.m. Thursday through Saturday; shows every 15 minutes. The Haunted Acapulco Restaurant, 385 N. La Cienega, West Hollywood. $22.50. (323) 960-7822; www.hollywoodhellhouse.com.

Neighborhood events

West Hollywood Halloween Costume Carnaval

Youth carnival, costume contests for humans and dogs, “drag” race and pageant. Oct. 27 through Oct. 31; see website for specifics. (323) 848-6534; www.weho.org/halloween.

Echo Park

The most decorated Victorians in Angelino Heights stand on Carroll Avenue on either side of Douglas Street.

Los Feliz

Community-based smoke machines, strobe lights and inflatable beasts turn the intersection of Ambrose and Kenmore and its environs into an annual block party.

Mar Vista

The Fox family leaves its rooftop tarantula up all year, but Halloween night between 7 and 10 p.m. is the only opportunity to catch this legendary Westside haunted house extravaganza in all its glory. 3607 Ocean View Ave., L.A.

Haunted houses

Spooky House

Murderous asylum inmates run amok in the San Fernando Valley. See website for hours. 21512 Nordoff St. $20. www.spookyhouse.com.

The Haunt

Compete for the best scream, costume or talent among three haunted houses plus rides, live music and games. See website for hours. Parking lot of the Northridge Fashion Center, at the corner of Tampa and Nordhoff, Northridge. Free admission to Screamfest; haunted house tickets start at $10. (323) 272-7326; www.hauntsusa.com

Other fare

Silent Movie Theater

Weeklong scary movie binge featuring art house horror, classic Asian creepiness and silent Danish witchcraft. With DJs at intermission, drag queens as hosts and occasional burlesque performers. Starts Oct. 25. 611 N. Fairfax, West Hollywood. (323) 655-2520; www.silentmovietheater.com.

Hollywood Forever Cemetery

Several events, including a Dia de Los Muertos celebration and both the regular schedule of tours and the annual Art Deco Society’s Halloween variety. 6000 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood. www.cemeterytour.com.

Grier Musser Museum

Spooky Victorian bric-a-brac. Noon to 4 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays. Halloween exhibit ends Oct. 31. Haunted house tour, 1 to 4 p.m. Oct. 28. 403 S. Bonnie Brae St., L.A. $10 adults, $5 children; $12 adults, $6 children for tour. Reservations required. (213) 413-1814; www.griermussermuseum.com.

Lucha VaVoom

Sexo y violencia and MST 3000. 8 p.m. Oct. 30-31 and Nov. 1. Mayan Theater, 1038 S. Hill St., L.A. $30 to $60. www.luchavavoom.com.

California Institute of Abnormalarts

A month’s worth of weirdness like offbeat belly dancers interpreting scary stories, horror films for the ADD-afflicted, and costume-clad dancing, all in a sideshow setting. 11334 Burbank Blvd., North Hollywood. (818) 506-6353, www.ciabnormalarts.com.

Miss Kitty’s Parlour

It’s a little bit Halloweenish all year-round at this kinky Friday night cabaret/nightclub, so you can only imagine what’s going to happen in October. The Dragonfly, 6510 Santa Monica Blvd. Cover varies. www.misskittysparlour.com.

Vanguard

Warehouse turned moody discotheque hosts the Young A.R.M. Costume Party and Deep’s third annual house music masquerade ball. 8 p.m. Oct. 25 and 9 p.m. Oct. 28. 6021 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood. Cover varies. www.vanguardla.com.

Also

Costume designer Cat Devereaux posts her annual compendium of L.A.-area Halloween events at www.alleycatscratch.com.