Halloween, All Hallows Eve, is a festival of masks and the dead (and candy) that arrives every year on October 31. It’s the last festival before the dark days of winter.
It is said that on the night of October 31st to November 1st, the veil between the world of the living and the dead is at its thinnest – and that the ancestors take a break from their eternal rest to take a look at us. November 1st is All Saints Day, a Christian celebration of the dead and the saints.
In Montreal, we love Halloween for the colorful festivities that come with a party for the ghosts and demons of the past, and because we know that afterwards the days will dramatically shorten and the icy wind of winter will blow across the city.
And the mini-smarties, costume parties and scare tac tics take us back to childhood…
We know, we know, Halloween isn’t around the corner – but the spooky season has already begun, and we’ve got plans to fill up on spiritual terror before the last festival of the sweet season.
September 27-28: Autumn Creative Market
The pop-up lab cocréatif montréal organizes its 5th artisans’ market with an autumn theme. Perfect for picking up our stripedBeetlejuice scarvesand candles for our next seance.
Where? Pop-Up Lab Coworking, 4510 rue Cartier (Mont Royal metro station)
When? September 27-28, 2025, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
October 1-4: Festival Nocturna Montreal
Sciences Maudites, one of Montreal’s favorite witch haunts, hosts a 4-day shadow festival in early October. We drop by to enjoy the delights of life, and to get ready for Halloween (or rather Samhain, the great witches’ sabbath).
🕸️MERCREDI October 1: Candle magick & tarot workshops, boutique specials
🕸️JEUDI October 2: Immersive mediumship session
🕸️VENDREDI October 3: Palmistry & witch’s mist workshop
🕸️SAMEDI October 4: Closing party with MYSTIC & DARK FANTASY costume contest, ✨mini market of witchy artisans, on-site presence of tattoo artist @moonfarm_tattoos and her flash for the occasion, buffet, GOTH VINTAGE clothing sale, selfie booth, charm station & 40 gifts for the first 40 participants.
To book the workshops and/or the mediumship session, please write to julie.lumosoracle@gmail.com
Where? Sciences Maudites, 3731 Notre-Dame St. W.
When? October 1 to 4, 2025 / Wednesday, noon to 5 p.m., Thursday and Friday, noon to 7 p.m., Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
October 4: Emoween 2025 at Cabaret Berlin
The highlight of the evening at Cabaret Berlin is the costume contest, and this year we’re calling for ” spookier, sexier, more emo“.
Where? Cabaret Berlin, 1982 rue Sainte-Catherine Est
When? Saturday, October 4, 10 p.m. to 2 a.m.
How? Tickets start at $12.42, and can be purchased here!
*Coming to Moonbrew Magic for a rosemary latte
Long gone are the days when women were burned at the stake for reading books and boiling herbs gathered in the forest on the advice of their grandmothers. Much of the occult revival of recent years (tarot, astrology, crystals, spells) has taken place on social networks under the name “WitchTok” – but a café/store you can visit irl in Montreal is changing the game.
Drop in for a sage or rosemary latte at Moonbrew Magic, and you’ll also leave with an oil to attract love or a candle to talk to the ancestors…
Where? 271 Avenue Duluth Est
When? Open Tuesday to Sunday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
October 25: Halloween Classics at Théâtre Rialto
From Saint-Saëns’ Danse Macabre to Danny Elfman’s Beetlejuice theme, this candlelit concert in one of the city’s oldest theaters will set the mood for the long night of October 31…
Where? Théâtre Rialto, 5723 Avenue du Parc
When? Saturday, October 25, 2025, at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m.
How? Tickets start at $50, and can be reserved here!
*Visit a Haunted House
Halloween celebrations include masks and costumes – and, of course, scares.
Nowadays, all this can be found in our Haunted Houses! We’ve got until Halloween to visit them all…
- Hotel Dracula (RV and kid-friendly), Wednesday to Friday, 1pm to 9pm, weekends 10am to 9pm (already open)
- La Frayeur à La Ronde, weekends from October 4 to 16, and Monday, October 13
- The Haunted Village: The Curse ( over 18s only), Fridays and Saturdays from September 26 to November 1, 2025 (+ Sunday, October 12), 6:30-11:30 p.m.
- MalefyciaChannel 9 (an immersive theater experience for adults only), October 3, 4, 10, 11, 17, 18, 19, 24, 25, 26, 30 and 31
*We visit Montreal…Haunted
The city of Montreal is perfect for scare stories and strange legends, because it was created by a melting pot of immigration and industrialization at a thousand miles an hour. Montreal’s “underground city”, desperately sought after by tourists from all over the world, began as a dynamited hole in the middle of the business district whose bottom you couldn’t see – now it’s Place Ville-Marie.
For those who want to explore the spooky side of Montreal, one company offers a one-stop-shop for all things haunted, spooky and historically tragic in the city – and it’s called Haunted Montreal.
Paranormal investigations, haunted pub crawls, group tours and walks… there’s something for everyone to scare up!
You can also visit Montreal’s haunted sites on your own… if you’re brave enough!
*We’re going to see Créature films in midnight cinema
Between September 5 and November 2, Cinéma du Parc’s latest cycle of midnight movies features 7 horror films. These are horror classics and creature features in all their forms…
The films will be screened on Friday and Saturday evenings at 9:30pm, and in the matinee at 2:30pm on Sunday. The complete program is available here;
- September 5-6-7 – Day of the Dead (1985) by George A. Romero
- September 12-13-14 – The Host (2006) by Bong Joon-ho
- September 19-20-21 – Rosemary’s Baby (1968) by Roman Polanski
- September 26-27-28 – The Thing (1982) by John Carpenter
- October 3-4-5 – American Psycho (2000) by Mary Harron
- October 24-25-26 – Ringu (1998) by Hideo Nakata
- October 31, November 1-2 – Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) by Francis Ford Coppola
Where? Cinéma du Parc, 3575 Avenue du Parc
When? September 5 to November 2
How much? tickets are $15.25 for general admission
*Visit Old Montreal with ghost stories at mini-price
Wednesdays and Saturdays starting at 7pm, you can take a tour of Old Montreal and listen to ghost stories that mix history and fiction.
The tour lasts about an hour, and there’s something for everyone: witches, criminals, tormented souls… It’s a bit of a theater show too, and tickets start at $4.
To reserve, click here!*A visit to Citrouilleville, September 13 to November 2
Every Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and on Thanksgiving Monday too, you can stroll among the pumpkins, take a tour of the maze and take home the perfect pumpkin to carve.
It’s only a 40-minute drive from Montreal, and well worth the trip to this “town” that looks a bit like the village built by Alec Baldwin in the original Beetlejuice , but in pumpkins…
Where? 560 69th Avenue, Saint-Zotique
How? Adult tickets at $13, and tickets here!
Happy spooky season and happy Halloween!