Within the Land of Ash
Taking over three Brooklyn warehouses, this intricate overnight party requires that you show up in an exquisite costume based on the “afterlife” theme. Get your part right and you’ll be treated to thirteen “afterlife”-themed art installations, roaming body-painted performance artists, a massive-scale sculpture by the Madagascar Institute, aerial performance vignettes by the Lady Circus, a performance by the cast of Fela!, and one warehouse dedicated to a Night Market: a labyrinth-like bazaar of interactive installations. 10/30 at 7 p.m.; locations TBA; $15-$25; get tickets here
4th Annual Halloween PubCrawl
Prizes are awarded for the best costume at this crawl (and you’ll want to try your best: This year’s winner gets a thousand bucks), which encompasses over 100 bars in Manhattan, starting Saturday at noon. Buy a ticket on the website ahead of time, then register at one of eight starting locations for a map and a wristband that entitles you to free admission at all locations, $2 Bud and Bud Light drafts (prices go up $1 after 9 p.m.), and two-for-one well drinks. Costume-contest registration will take place at the SideBar location, so check in there if you think you’ve got what it takes. Then grab your complimentary Dixie cup and follow the drunken mummies. 10/30 at noon; various locations; $15; get tickets here
The End of the World
The premise: The world is ending and the zombies are taking over, but luckily there are secret bunkers where the humans can take refuge and party the night away. One is located at the Masonic temple in Brooklyn and lasts from “10 p.m. until we all die.” There’s no dress code, but they give the brilliant suggestion of dressing up AS a zombie, so when they find you, they’ll think you’re already dead and won’t try to eat your brains. See how that works? 10/30 at 10 p.m.; Brooklyn Masonic Temple, 317 Clermont Ave., at Lafayette Ave., Fort Greene; $10-$15; get tickets here
Halloween Goes Hollywood Celebrity Midnight Yacht Cruise
A costume is mandatory for boarding (plus you’ll want to wear one for the look-alike contest), but “celebrity” is loosely defined here, as you’re instructed to arrive dressed as your favorite characters from stage, screen, cartoons, sports, or pop culture in general. Show up at 11:30 and party on three decks until 4 a.m. It’s a shindig under the moonlight, so beware of werewolves in disguise. 10/30 at 11:30 p.m.; Harbor Lights Yacht, SkyPort Marina, 23rd St. at FDR Dr.; $25; get tickets here
The Horror Show
For those that like to watch, Anya Sapozhnikova (of the Brooklyn collective the House of Yes) has written and directed a bourbon-soaked love triangle set in a half-abandoned 1900s New Orleans brewery and “built out of darkness, sex, and hot jazz.” Stumblebum Brass Band provides the score for the show, which incorporates aerial acrobatics, classical ballet, a marching band, and magic. 10/21-10/29, Th-S at 8 p.m.; 260 Meserole St., at Bushwick Pl., Bushwick; $20-$35; get tickets here
Nightmare: Superstitions 2010
Perversions prevail and body fluids fly at Nightmare: Superstitions, over two dozen rooms of an insane asylum turned theater of the macabre. All the actors are “patients” who have broken an ingrained superstition. This year the main event is preceded by a three-room funhouse, where inmates run wild in a smaller carnival-style setting. Check out nightly promotions on their website, then step into your nightmares … if you dare. Through 11/6, times vary; NoHo Event Center, 623 Broadway at Houston; $15-$100; get tickets here
More Haunted Happenings
When the lights go out, the wax figures come to life at Madame Tussaud’s After Dark. (Okay, not really but there will be other terrifying treats to keep you on your toes.) In Long Island City, Murray Hill hosts the Starving Artists Halloween Ball, complete with a panel-judged costume contest. Le Poisson Rouge is offering up goth rock, burlesque, and a live avant-garde fashion show in the Rocky Horror Picture Show’s 35th Anniversary Bash, and Joe’s Pub imagines Paula Abdul as a young Quaker in love with a blood sucker in Straight Up Vampire. Chilling!