If winding your way half-blindly through a haunted house on Halloween gives you the sniveling fantods, consider downshifting to lighter-hearted Shocktober shindigs. Your lily-livered friends at the Weekly Volcano have you covered. It may surprise you, for example, to learn Halloween's a great night for theater entertainment, thanks to performers who'll jump at any opportunity to play dress-up and make enjoyable holiday spectacles of themselves. New Muses impresario Nic Olson moonlighted at Tacoma Little Theatre to direct the groovy, gory Evil Dead: The Musical, based on Sam Raimi's 1981 horror flick and '87 sequel. It's the franchise that launched Bruce Campbell to chin-ematic stardom. At TLT, ghoul-slaying S-Mart stocker Ash is played by Zachary Edson. Says Chris Serface, the theater's managing artistic manager, "You could sit and watch the movie, but then you won't have the chance to sit in the Splatter Zone and experience the 4D sensations of fog and being drenched in blood." Hmm ...
Meanwhile, director Jon Douglas Rake of Tacoma Musical Playhouse did the "Time Warp" again by staging The Rocky Horror Show: The Musical. We need hardly tell you it follows naïve couple Brad Majors and Janet Weiss, played here respectively by Arron Rorick Clark and Allyson Jacobs-Lake, as they run afoul of Dr. Frank N. Furter, a mad scientist with a predilection for ladies' lingerie (the multitalented Harry Turpin). Or, if it's closer to your haunted mansion, Auburn Ave Theater (10 Auburn Ave., Auburn) will run the same show over Halloween weekend.
If family-friendlier fare is needed, Lakewood Playhouse offers the Swedish kiddie classic Pippi Longstocking at 7 p.m., Oct. 30 and Nov. 1 and 2; plus a 2 p.m., Sunday, Nov. 3, matinée.
Now, back to the realm of the blood-curdling: Parkland/Spanaway Library (13718 Pacific Ave. S) is running a free movie marathon comprising horror classics Nosferatu, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, Poltergeist (1982), Night of the Living Dead and Psycho from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Oct. 31. Were you aware this library was constructed on indigenous burial grounds; and though the headstones were moved, the moldering remains themselves stir below, preparing to claw from the earth and wreak vengeance upon unsuspecting bibliophiles? No? Well, it's not actually true. Ah, but wouldn't those movies be scarier if it were? You could also catch a marathon of '90s, Canadian/Nickelodeon anthology show Are You Afraid of the Dark? at South Hill Library (15420 Meridian E in Puyallup). The DuPont Library will be part of that city's downtown trick-or-treat event Halloween afternoon (3:30-5 p.m.), and Lakewood Library (6300 Wildaire Rd. SW) is handing out copies of a free comic book Halloween day.
Steel Creek Tacoma (1114 Broadway) promises a top prize of $500 at its "Halloween Night Costume Contest & Party," while Olympians can strut their stuff at Northwest Beerwerks (420 Steele St. SE). Your tiny li'l monsters can show off their costumes at the Toddler Pumpkin Parade (Morgan Family YMCA, 1002 S Pearl St., Tacoma) or on the Gig Harbor waterfront. Cabela's in Lacey (1600 Gateway Blvd. NE) is taking kids' photos for free with the Peanuts gang, or tots can visit pier-dwelling beasties at Boston Harbor Marina (312 73rd Ave. NE, Olympia). Trick or treat!
EVIL DEAD: THE MUSICAL, 7:30 p.m., Thursday-Saturday, Oct. 31-Nov. 2; 11 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 2; 2 p.m., Sunday, Nov. 3, Tacoma Little Theatre, 210 North I St., Tacoma, $22-$27, 253.272.2281, tacomalittletheater.com
THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW: THE MUSICAL, 7:30 p.m., Thursday-Saturday, Oct. 31-Nov. 2; 2 p.m., Sunday, Nov. 3, Tacoma Musical Playhouse, 7116 Sixth Ave., Tacoma, $25, 253.565.6867, tmp.org