Los Angeles’ Scariest, Thrilling, Tastiest, Most Fun Halloween Event 2023 (Updated)
Our guide to Halloween 2023 in Los Angeles has you covered with the best treats, the most inspiring costumes and the best neighborhoods for fun, frights and memorable nights.
Haunted houses a big part of the season here — with theme parks and Hollywood professional effects artists.
Let the countdown begin!
Universal Studios’ Halloween Horror Nights
Legend has it you should never go alone to Universal Studios Hollywood’s Halloween Horror Nights, Southern California’s scariest Halloween event. Summon your scream squad and you might survive.
You’ll be able to navigate multiple scare zones and mazes, including ones based on The Last of Us, Stranger Things, Evil Dead Rise, The Exorcist: Believer, Chucky, the classic Universal Monsters.
8 Terrifying Haunted Houses and the Terror Tram
Enter haunted houses inspired by the biggest names in horror, plus the Terror Tram is back and scarier than ever. You’re never quite sure if your spine is tingling with dread or sheer excitement.
Since 2011, guests have played their part in the most visceral, captivating and unique live experience in the world. A living, breathing world of fantastical horror where stories come to vivid life
Devoted fans will be swallowed into various stories and connect with characters both dire and beloved as they track down the mysterious author behind the Delusion series and learn of a disturbing agenda.
West Hollywood loves Halloween, and the City of West Hollywood is thrilled that Halloween is back with Halloween Carnaval 2023!
The City’s incomparable Halloween Carnaval is one of the most unique Halloween gatherings in the world.
Halloween Carnaval is free to attend and will take place on Tuesday, October 31, 2023 from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. on a one-mile stretch of Santa Monica Boulevard between N. Doheny Drive and N. La Cienega Boulevard.
Staged on Santa Monica Boulevard/Historic Route 66, Halloween Carnaval will feature a stage at the intersection of Santa Monica Boulevard and N. San Vicente Boulevard with a live DJ set, food trucks and thousands of wildly dressed Halloween revelers for a one-of-a-kind experience.
There will also be Halloween celebrations at businesses, bars, restaurants and entertainment venues throughout the City!
The City invites Halloween Carnaval-goers to get into the spirit and show off costumes by uploading photos to social media sites with the hashtag #wehohalloween.
Cake Moss Hosts Spook-tacular All Hallow’s Weed in the Heart of West Hollywood at The Artist Tree
It’s time to get spooky at West Hollywood’s favorite cannabis lounge! Cake Moss hosts this year’s Hallo-weedparty at The Artist Tree, which includes tricks and treats of all sorts in the form of spooky themed cannabis cocktails, entertainment, and some ghostly surprises.
Costumes are highly encouraged, as The Artist Tree is hosting a contest that starts at 8pm. Enter if you dare to be fabulous and leave with some goodies and perhaps even a chance to be entered into the West Hollywood Community Costume Contest on Halloween night that will feature celebrity judges.
Join Emerald Village West Hollywood as they host their First Annual Halloween Harvest Haunt.
On Tuesday, October 31, 2023, they are taking over one block of the West Hollywood Halloween Carnival for Los Angeles’ first legal and licensed cannabis consumption event!
Pick your products from 8 West Hollywood dispensaries and 30+ Cannabis Brand and Experiences. Partake legally inside the event and enjoy music by DJ Ben and DJ Paulo Ramirez, our Citywide Community Costume Contest and Drag Show hosted by RuPaul Drag Race’s Jasmine Masters!
6:00 PM – Doors Open
8:00 PM – Costume Contest
9:00 PM – Drag Show
10:00 PM – Cannabis Sales End
11:00 PM – No Entry after 11 PM
12:00 AM – Event Ends
This Halloween see spooky films screened in a cemetery. This October, Cinespia will be showing Halloween and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, The Ring at L.A. State Historic Park and Rosemary’s Baby at the Orpheum.
“Come, we fly!” Over the years, watching Hocus Pocus during the Halloween season has become a tradition for everyone, including us here at RCC. And now we have an even better reason to play this classic because it turns 30 this year! Come out to celebrate its anniversary at one of our many screenings throughout October!
Walt Disney Concert Hall’s The Phantom of the Opera.
Walt Disney Concert Hall
Each year the Walt Disney Concert Hall adds a little bit of Frank Gehry architecture to Halloween with a silent film screening accompanied by organist Clark Wilson for an extra eerie feel. This year, take a seat for the silent 1925 masterpiece The Phantom of the Opera.
Break out the hairspray and spend Halloween with Elsa Lanchester and Boris Karloff!
This year, our hugely popular annual celebration of horror and live music at the breathtaking Theatre at Ace Hotel presents film director James Whale’s chilling The Bride of Frankenstein, with one of the most iconic “wedding” scenes in cinematic history.
As this 1935 horror classic plays out larger than life on the silver screen, the magnificent musicians of the LA Opera Orchestra, conducted by Jenny Wong, perform Franz Waxman’s groundbreaking original soundtrack score live. It’s the ultimate cinematic experience!
Tim Burton’s the Nightmare Before Christmas Live with Danny Elfman
Tim Burton’s the Nightmare Before Christmas Live with Danny Elfman
Danny Elfman steps back into the role of Jack Skellington for a live performance and screening of The Nightmare Before Christmas at the Hollywood Bowl.
Featuring Elfman, Catherine O’Hara (Sunday), Halsey (Fri/Sat), Fred Armisen, Riki Lindhome (Fri/Sat) and Ken Page with a live orchestra!
Come early for Halloween Fun featuring a costume contest hosted by Greg Proops (“Who’s Line is it Anyway?”) and explore the Hollywood Bowl transformed into Halloween Town for in an incredible trick-or-treat adventure, fun for kids of all ages!
Winner! Hank’s & Executive Chef Isaias Peña as Second Consecutive Win for “BEST BURGER”
Hank’s & Executive Chef Isaias Peña Celebrate Second Consecutive Win as “BEST BURGER” in Los Angeles Times’ “Best of the Southland 2023!
In a delectable triumph of culinary excellence, Hank’s Restaurant at Palisades Village has clinched the coveted title of “BEST BURGER” in the Los Angeles Times’“Best of the Southland 2023”Readers’ Choice Poll for the second year in a row.
The man behind this phenomenal burger, Executive Chef Isaias Peña, and his team at Hank’s have reason to celebrate, and it’s a victory well-deserved!
Executive Chef Isaias Peña – Photos Courtesy of Hank’s
Hank’s, named in honor of Owner Rick Caruso’s father Hank is located at Palisades Village in the Pacific Palisades and was created to offer guests elevated American classics, handcrafted cocktails, draft and bottle craft beers and premium wines served by Coravin offering something for everyone.
Photos Courtesy of Hank’s
Executive Chef Isaiah Peña’sHank’s Single and Double Diamond Burger is a perfect elevated beef blend of wagyu, brisket and short rib accompanied with Tillamook cheddar, caramelized onions, butter lettuce, Roma tomatoes and Hank’s special sauce on potato bun. To celebrate this exciting honor Chef Peña will be offering a Hank’s “BEST BURGER” Special which will include a Hank’s Single or Double Diamond Burger, Choice of Side (Fries, Onion Rings, or Salad), and Beverage (Wine, Draft Beer, or Non-Alcoholic Drink) for $25.00per person all throughout the month of November 2023.
“The Hank’s Team and I are honored to receive this award for the 2nd year in a row and many, many thanks to everyone that voted,” says Peña.
“We take great pride in the making of our burgers at Hank’s, and we also have a new menu that has something for everyone featuring steaks, seafood, and a selection of small and shared plates, along with our new cocktail list, so we invite you all to come enjoy!”
Hank’s is open every Monday through Thursday from 11:30 am to 9:00 pm, every Friday from 11:30 am to 10:00 pm, every Saturday from 9:00 am to 10:00 pm, and every Sunday from 9:00 am to 9:00 pm. For more information about Hank’s or to make reservations, please call 424.363.7166 directly or visit www.HanksPalisades.com.
Jerry Brown: The Disrupter, directed by Marina Zenovich screens at DOC NYC Nov 13-14
JERRY BROWN: THE DISRUPTERis a candid and emotionally compelling portrait of Jerry Brown, two-time, four-term Governor of California.
Jerry Brown is a man ahead of his time.
Jerry Brown is a man ahead of his time. A natural disrupter, Jerry kickstarted the national debate about climate change and spiraling inequality back in the 1970s.
A three-time presidential candidate – who created the blueprint for today’s grassroots campaigns – Jerry Brown also achieved the remarkable feat of twice being elected Governor of California: at the very different ages of 36 and 72.
former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
For over five decades Brown has proven his willingness to sacrifice everything – even getting elected – for the causes to which he’s devoted.
In this candid and emotionally compelling portrait
In this candid and emotionally compelling portrait, Brown opens up about his remarkable fifty-year political career, his singular private life and the lessons learned from a life in the public eye.
former Governor Jerry Brown
Told through archival footage spanning decades, this feature length documentary includes present day interviews with former Governor Jerry Brown, former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, former Governor Gray Davis, former Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, former Treasurer Kathleen Brown, actor and writer Peter Coyote, journalists Todd Purdum, Miriam Pawel, George Skelton and many others.
former Assembly Speaker Willie Brown
Filmmaker Marina Zenovich:
I don’t set out to make films about complicated men but complicated men are among the most compelling subjects to me. I love exploring their motives and choices.And Jerry is one of those.
I always wanted to make a film about Jerry Brown but zeroed in on the idea when he ran for Governor in 2010—the idea being what if you were lucky enough to have the same job at 72 that you have at 36?
That’s what interested me.
And that evolved into this. Jerry Brown has always fascinated me.He is an idealist, he’s an original thinker and he wants to make change. He was a disrupter before people knew what that word even meant.
Did he get everything right? No. Did he try his best? Yes.
I think he will be looked back at as someone who should have been President.
Marina Zenovich is a critically acclaimed two-time Primetime Emmy award-winning filmmaker. Her films have been praised for their powerful storytelling and their thoughtful, sensitive approach to difficult subjects and controversial people. Marina’s recent films include LANCE(ESPN Films/Hulu), a psychological portrait of cyclist Lance Armstrong;Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind(HBO),Water and Power: A California Heist(National Geographic), and Fantastic Lies(ESPN)—about the Duke Lacrosse scandal.
Jerry Brown: The Disrupter, directed by Marina Zenovich screens at DOC NYC Nov 13-14
Secret to BBQing a Juicier Chicken? Shark Tank’s Turbo Trusser revealed by Brian Halasinski and Kirk Hyust.
Want juicier chicken? Yes. More flavor? Yes. Get it all setup in seconds? Yes. Two guys who love good food decided to tackle the problem.
Luckily, a Chef and a Builder were on the team. And luckily the team has business smarts, creativity and can-do spirit. Lastly, the team got global attention by winning their way onto hit TV show Shark Tank where Kevin O’Leary got excited by the flavors, the team and their product.
Today Turbo Trusser partners Brian Halasinski and Kirk Hyust stopped by for a conversation about delicious food, creating a great team and the secret to cooking.
The below conversation was edited for length and clarity. Find the full conversation on our YouTube channel.
Can you guys share a memory about how being in the backyard with your family and friends inspired you to create the Turbo Trusser?
Brian Halasinski: Kirk and I have been working together on inventions for the last eight years and oftentimes we’ll have an idea that’ll come up and we’ll text each other and we’ll write it down in a notebook and then we’ll come and visit it later.
It just happened that I was getting ready to make chicken for my family and I was going to do a rotisserie chicken and I was trying to figure out how to tie this bird up with traditional strings. So I got my iPad and I’m watching a video.
I have to pause the video. My hands are covered in chicken juice. And after it was all done, it wasn’t done well.
I texted Kirk because he’s a trained chef from the culinary Institute. There’s gotta be a better way. We started working on the Turbo Trusser from there.
After your success on Shark Tank, Turbo Trusser has become a global hit. How have your backgrounds inspired where you are today?
Kirk Hyust: I’ve been a building contractor for 25 years. Before that I was a chef. I got burnt out [being a Chef] and then I started building things and that’s how Brian and I met. I renovated his house for him.
I was in the middle of inventing a wrench and Brian saw it [and said], ‘I want to start inventing too. You want to be inventing partners.’
We still haven’t quit our day jobs. We work seven days a week. Luckily working for us a lot of the time is cooking. Which is good.
You mentioned you are a trained chef. Tell us about your chef side.
Kirk Hyust: I went to the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. Classical French cuisine. We’re from Ohio, so I like meat and potatoes and hearty casseroles.
Do you have a favorite dish?
Kirk Hyust: Fettuccine Alfredo and Turbo Trusser chicken.
Brian, can we touch on your background and how how you ended up with TurboTruster?
Brian Halasinski: I have been in the pharmaceutical sales industry for the last 20 years. I have a fairly flexible schedule to where I’m on the road and can be on the phone and be multitasking quite a bit when I’m working.
I’ve had that entrepreneurial spirit in a way. Then when I met Kirk, he had invented this wrench and he was working on my house and he was there for it was a pretty decent sized project.
So over time we became friends. I became interested in the whole process of inventing.
And then with that, you could actually take your invention and license it to somebody, basically renting out your idea and collecting a royalty. Kirk and I always thought that would be great.
We did a couple of products and we licensed them. Didn’t end up working out […]. We learned a little bit about the failures. And then ultimately that day I texted Kirk and said, listen, we got to come up with a better way to trust a chicken or Turkey. And we looked out there and there was nothing available other than butcher’s twine, which has been the way it’s been done for a hundred years.
A huge majority of people cook chicken and turkeys the wrong way. That’s my assumption.
When we compare your final chicken to a poorly done chicken what’s the difference?
Kirk Hyust: Trusting actually is a technique that brings all the meat together. If you don’t trust a bird, you’re actually cooking five pieces of meat separately. You got two wings, you got two legs and thighs and a breast. What you do, when you truss a bird, you actually bring all the pieces together and it cooks as one piece of meat, so it’s cooked more evenly and it’s juicier.
If you don’t cook it, if you don’t tie it up, if you just throw it in the oven or on the grill, what happens is all the meat cooks separately. The breast is gonna be done before the legs. The wings probably are going to dry out and they’re going to be inedible. Because when you use the Turbo Trusser the wings are great.
It makes one ball of meat essentially and cooks it as one piece of meat instead of five.
Is it the ego of the grill master? Or how do we help people realize they can have a better bird?
Kirk Hyust: That’s a really good question because we get that a lot. People have never even heard the term truss. To truss a bird.
Your bird’s gonna be a lot better, but it’s gonna take you about five minutes to do it when it takes 20 seconds to use our product. Especially a Thanksgiving Turkey because that will dry out a lot faster than a chicken.
Brian Halasinski: With the Turbo Trusser, the way it’s designed it’s going to hold the stuffing in place too. So the stuffing’s not going to dry out the way it closes the cavity.
If you’re going to do a rotisserie, you absolutely have to tie that bird up or your legs and wings are going to be just flopping around the whole time.
Can we talk a little bit about the process going from zero to where we are today?
Brian Halasinski: It was when we came up with the concept.
First, we started making prototypes. We made them out of cardboard. Then we made them out of wood. Kirk’s got all these tools so we could easily cut things. Then through trial and error with prototypes that we could make cheaply, we ended up with a very similar design to what we have today.
Then from there, we found a local fabricating shop that was able to laser cut out some samples for us so we could actually cook with them. We did all these things, refining the process and refining the product down to where we wanted to make it. Then we had to make a decision: make this here in the U.S. or go overseas.
Kirk and I made a decision based on our beliefs and our values that we wanted to make it here in the U.S. Being in Ohio, we were close to Cleveland, Ohio. This was the rust belt. There’s still a lot of manufacturing here.
So within one hour of our headquarters, we were able to source everything we needed to mass produce and launch this product to the world from Canton, Ohio.
Kirk Hyust: We had six prototypes by the time we got to our seventh one. That was the one that we stuck with. We just kept refining the prototypes until we landed on the seventh one, which is that what in the stores or online.
Can you tell us a little bit about from prototype one to seven? How did we get there?
Kirk Hyust: When you’re doing a prototype, obviously you have to solve a problem. When you build a product, it has to work correctly or you’re going to get bad reviews.
But we started out with a couple different designs. We bought a chicken and a turkey; and we put this contour gauge on the leg, so that made the dips that you see now where the legs go into. Then we were in my shop, cutting it out and it looked like [bird] wings so we ended up putting the heads on it because it already had wings that the legs sat into the cradle.
It’s a lot of detail.
Kirk Hyust: Yes, exactly. We just got our patent […] issued for the very first time. Even if it’s a piece of stamp metal and 2 wires. How intricate it really is.
Kirk, between your chef skills and your contractor skills. A perfect combination of bringing those two skill sets together.
Kirk Hyust: It is. We have sales and numbers and Brian’s also creative. […]The technical stuff, the websites, we develop everything together, but we have our strengths, he has a master’s degree in business. So he’s trained really well for that.
So it’s lie our strengths and weaknesses definitely fit together with each other.
Can we just talk through in the most simple, basic steps, how to use the Turbo Trusser?
Kirk Hyust: It’s really very simple. I usually buy a five pound bird. [With] smaller birds, it still works. It goes up to a 10 pound chicken.
Then you take the plastic off, pull the packet of giblets and everything out of the inside. Rinse it off. Pat it dry with a paper towel and if you have time, put it in the refrigerator and let the skin dry out. Put the Turbo Trusser on it, hook the legs in, hook the wings.
Use duck fat or some kind of a binder to put your spices on it. Salt and pepper, your favorite rub, something spicy, something sweet. Coat it with some kind of oil, or ghee or olive oil.
Put it in the oven at 375 for an hour and a half until it hits 165 degrees. That’s pretty much in a nutshell how easy it is.
Brian Halasinski: The Turbo Trusser is just three pieces. You got the main piece. Then you have two hooks. The hooks are going to go through the holes on the body of the chicken. You’re going to put the sharp end through the hole. It’s going to lock into place with the other end.
So it’s simply, put the two hooks into the Turbo Trusser body. You hook them onto the wings. The legs go into the cradle and in 20 seconds, you’re done.
How do we get that strong-willed Backyard Grillmaster to give the Turbo Trusser a try?
Brian Halasinski:Just telling them to keep it simple and go back to what people have been doing for 100 years. And that’s using string to tie it up. Only we came up with a simpler solution. So it’s what everybody’s been people don’t do it because they’re intimidated, but now they don’t have to be. The turbo truss are so easy to use.
Anybody can use it. Even if you have dexterity problems, you’re never going to figure out how to, you’re not going to be able to tie up a bird if you have problems with your fingers, right? older people, maybe they have arthritis and it’s hard for them to tie a knot. Now with the turbo trusser, you can do that without fear and you can, it’s simple and effective.
As we wrap up, tell me about the Shark Tank experience.
Kirk Hyust: It was crazy.
Brian Halasinski: I’ll give you a high level view. We launched our product on November 1st of 2021.
Right away we went online and we applied for Shark Tank. It was 100% online. Before COVID they would do open casting calls like Like American Idol.
About 50, 000 people apply. They narrow that down to about 125 people that tape [a TV segment], and maybe 100 or so will end up airing on television for the season that you’re in.
So we apply, we have no sales, we don’t hear a word from them for a couple months. So we launched the product. We did pretty well. We sold like $50,000 worth of Turbo Trussers in the first two months of being in business with nobody ever heard of us.
We went back and we re-applied again, we got some sales numbers. Eventually they called. I Six months after we initially applied, they called us.
You basically work down through the process every week. They’re giving you something new to turn in, to make a video.
Our first video, we came up with the idea to wear the chicken and turkey costumes. We said we wanted to stand out. We know that Shark Tank is television. If it’s not good TV, people aren’t going to watch it. They loved it.
We made it all the way down through. We went all the way out to California and taped [our episode]. We ended up getting a deal with Kevin O’Leary, which was incredible.
Kirk Hyust: Brian’s a salesman. I’m not used to that. So when I was on Shark Tank, I messed my lines up. I went blank for a couple seconds. I missed my cue to go over to my spot and I was really flustered, but I recovered, but man, that was the worst part.
Tell us the website, social media, where to find you, where to browse your products, where to learn more about you.
Brian Halasinski: The first thing for our product is TurboTrusser.com.
You can make your decision if you want to buy from our website, or you can go to Amazon Prime across the country.
You can find us on all the regular social media at Turbo Trusser on Facebook, Instagram, TikToK
You can find me, Brian Halasinski on LinkedIn, connect with us and be happy to chat or answer any questions with anybody.
You can reach out if you have any questions. I write a lot of the PPAs (provisional patent applications) and stuff. So any kind of questions, how to cook a good bird we’re accessible. We want to help we want to help anybody out there that we can, because we’ve had a lot of people help us along the way.