a real scream

18 scream-worthy events for a frightfully fun Halloween weekend in Houston

Get your scream on at 13th Floor Haunted House Houston.

13th Floor Haunted House Houston/Facebook

It's time to break out those costumes, Houston. Halloween is here and myriad events and spectacles are vying for your patronage. From haunted houses to pet-friendly activities to boozy bashes, these 18 events are a real scream.

Some events are already on; many start Thursday, October 28 and run through Halloween weekend.

The 13th Floor Haunted House features three separate attractions, including Dead in the Water, Bad Blood, and The Dollmaker. It also features axe throwing, mini escape games, the shooting game Zombie Apocalypse Live, and Bar13, where patrons 21 and over can enjoy spooky libations before or after experiencing the haunted house. Through Saturday, November 6. 7:30 pm (7 pm on Halloween).

The Big Bounce America’s 2021 tour stop continues in Houston, Friday through Sunday at AVEVA Stadium. To celebrate Halloween, the largest touring inflatable event in the world will give out prizes for “best dressed” costumes and candy, alongside its four inflatable attractions. 9 am.

Over in Rosharon, Creepy Hollow Haunted House features three haunted attractions — 288 Scare Factory, Dark Woods, and Pitch Black — as well as Freak Show, Creepy Hollow World Of Oddities, Voodoo Lounge, Axis Pole, and Fire by the Pits. Through Saturday, November 6. 7:30 pm (7 pm on Halloween).

Haunted Trails boasts acres of mortifying scenes and unnatural creatures await eagerly to quench the monsters' undying thirst for screams. What lurks among these trees? What sinister beings have you in their sights? It also features Pyscho Hollow 3D and the new Escape the Guillotine escape game puzzle. Through Sunday, October 31. 8 pm (7:30 pm on Halloween).

During the day, Haunted Houstonopoly will be decked out in seasonal decor and ready to welcome little ones of all ages with Halloween photo ops and plenty of family-friendly fun. When the sun sets, it’s transformed into an interactive fright fest for 16-and-older souls, as sets change and creatures lurk in the darkness, waiting for players to roll the dice and attempt to make their way around the game board. Through Sunday, October 31. 5:30 pm.

The Heights House Hotel & Space Cowboy will host two Halloween events on Saturday. The first is “A Dog Pop,” a Halloween party for dogs at 11 am. There will be a variety of vendors, DJ and three categories of dog costume contest with cash and other prizes. Later that evening, there will be a “Noche de los Muertos” Halloween party at 7 pm. The party will also include several vendors, a DJ and costume contests with cash prizes, as well as Loteria.

House of Spirits: A Haunted Cocktail Soirée is a peculiar experience unlike any other. Visitors can freely roam a bizarre residence and experience a night of themed cocktails, mystifying magic, sinister séances, tarot readings, strange roaming specters, live music, hidden secret games, giant Ouija boards, and more. Guests are encouraged to dress up for the soirée in any time period specific fashion, costume, or elegant dress. Through Saturday, November 6. 6 pm (3:30 pm on Halloween).

On Thursday night, the Houston BARC Foundation presents Tails from the Crypt, its second-annual, Howl-o-ween cocktail party. Along with frightfully fantastic cocktails and fun surprises, there will also be a thrilling auction full of items sure to disappear quickly like a ghost into the shadows. 5:30 pm.

The Houston Scream Fest prides itself on being the first haunted event in Texas with a midway featuring carnival games and a food court with adult beverages. Guests can also participate in the Zombie PaintBall attraction. Through Saturday, November 13. 8 pm.

Channelview’s Houston Terror Dome is the most terrifying of all Houston haunted houses. They will have improved rooms, new effects, and new characters. New for 2021 is the Nightmare Alley Selfie Saloon, a one-of-a-kind experience that combines a haunted bar with haunted house themed selfie adventures. Through Sunday, October 31. 7 pm.

The Kemah Boardwalk’s annual Boo on the Boardwalk celebration returns with Freaky Fridays, Scary Saturdays and Spooky Sundays, each night featuring free activities, live music and ghostly entertainment. Guests of all ages can enjoy a variety of festive and spooky thrills, including the Little Boo Haunted Fun House, Halloween-themed crafts, balloon artists, vampire stilt walkers, creepy creatures, and live concerts. Through Sunday, October 31. 6 pm (2 pm on Halloween).

Speaking of Kemah, Kemah Aquarium will present the Halloween Kids Bash on Sunday, offering families Halloween events and activities. Ghouls and boys can enjoy a variety of games and activities including Keeper Chats, trick-or-treating, Halloween-themed arts & crafts, and more. Mummies of the year can also treat their little ones to .99 cent kids meals at the Aquarium Restaurant with the purchase of an adult entrée. 11 am.

There’s something for every ghost and goblin at Margaritaville Lake Resort during the Second Annual Halloween Adventure, going down on Saturday. The all-day shindig will have a Supernatural Morning Stretch, Pumpkin Painting, a Family Costume Contest, a Halloween Bar Crawl and an Adult Costume Contest. 9 am.

Ouzo Bay and Loch Bar will go all out on Halloween night. The Halloween party will include a toga-wearing stilt walker dressed as Barbarella’s Pygar and special performances featuring a belly dancer and a sword and candle show. Additionally, Loch Bar will transform into a retro-futuristic “Loch Barbarella” costume party featuring retro sci-fi posters, disco balls and entertainment by stilt walkers. 8 pm.

Phobia Haunted Houses features five single attractions, including Dawn of the Machine, Mind Control, Genetic Nightmare, Clown Mania, and Darke Institute, as well as the triple attraction Exile, featuring Darke World, Savage Ground, and Contagion. Through Saturday, November 6. 8 pm.

Formerly known as the Kingwood Asylum, Purgatory Scream Park in Porter is a nationally-ranked haunted house featuring intense and realistic haunted houses. The experience features over 27,000 square feet of pure terror and lasts around 40 minutes. Through Saturday, November 6. 8 pm.

Redrum Fear Park in Richmond features four different attractions, including Twisted Circus Rewired, Cinegore, Deadwood Asylum, and Redrum Lazer Fury. The park offers a wide array of entertainment, as well as live music, outdoor seating, food, outside crowd actors, merchandise, and indoor climate-controlled restrooms on-site. Through Saturday, November 6. 7 pm.

For the weekend, Space Center Houston’s Galaxy Frights features a number of Halloween-themed activities. Visitors can dress up and join the costume parades in the main plaza, see Spidernaut, NASA’s spider-like robot prototype, and visit multiple candy stations for socially distanced and safe trick or treating. 10 am.

event-planner families holidays

Movie Review

Michelle Pfeiffer visits Houston in new Christmas movie Oh. What. Fun.

Photo courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios

Michelle Pfeiffer in Oh. What. Fun.

Of all the formulaic movie genres, Christmas/holiday movies are among the most predictable. No matter what the problem is that arises between family members, friends, or potential romantic partners, the stories in holiday movies are designed to give viewers a feel-good ending even if the majority of the movie makes you feel pretty bad.

That’s certainly the case in Oh. What. Fun., in which Michelle Pfeiffer plays Claire, an underappreciated mom living in Houston with her inattentive husband, Nick (Denis Leary). As the film begins, her three children are arriving back home for Christmas: The high-strung Channing (Felicity Jones) is married to the milquetoast Doug (Jason Schwartzman); the aloof Taylor (Chloë Grace Moretz) brings home yet another new girlfriend; and the perpetual child Sammy (Dominic Sessa) has just broken up with his girlfriend.

Each of the family members seems to be oblivious to everything Claire does for them, especially when it comes to what she really wants: For them to nominate her to win a trip to see a talk show in L.A. hosted by Zazzy Tims (Eva Longoria). When she accidentally gets left behind on a planned outing to see a show, Claire reaches her breaking point and — in a kind of Home Alone in reverse — she decides to drive across the country to get to the show herself.

Written and directed by Michael Showalter (The Idea of You), and co-written by Chandler Baker (who wrote the short story on which the film is based), the movie never establishes any kind of enjoyable rhythm. Each of the characters, including competitive neighbor Jeanne (Joan Chen), is assigned a character trait that becomes their entire personality, with none of them allowed to evolve into something deeper.

The filmmakers lean hard into the idea that Claire is a person who always puts her family first and receives very little in return, but the evidence presented in the story is sketchy at best. Every situation shown in the film is so superficial that tension barely exists, and the (over)reactions by Claire give her family members few opportunities to make up for their failings.

The most interesting part of the movie comes when Claire actually makes it to the Zazzy Sims show. Even though what happens there is just as unbelievable as anything else presented in the story, Showalter and Baker concoct a scene that allows Claire and others to fully express the central theme of the film, and for a few minutes the movie actually lives up to its title.

Pfeiffer, given her first leading role since 2020’s French Exit, is a somewhat manic presence, and her thick Texas accent and unnecessary voiceover don’t do her any favors. It seems weird to have such a strong supporting cast with almost nothing of substance to do, but almost all of them are wasted, including Danielle Brooks in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo. The lone exception is Longoria, who is a blast in the few scenes she gets.

Oh. What. Fun. is far from the first movie to try and fail at becoming a new holiday classic, but the pedigree of Showalter and the cast make this dismal viewing experience extra disappointing. Ironically, overworked and underappreciated moms deserve a much better story than the one this movie delivers.

---

Oh. What. Fun. is now streaming on Prime Video.

movies film