Feature
Staged horror, ghost stories, murder mysteries and the one-night events that only happen this week — sorted by how frightening they actually are, with the age limits each venue sets.
Built to scare you, and they do. Age limits here are set by the venues, not by us.
Ambassadors Theatre · 2hr 20min (incl. 1 interval) · from £31 · Caution advised under 15
The found-footage franchise staged live, and the only West End show built from the ground up to frighten you. It plays either side of Halloween, so check the exact date you want is on sale before you plan around it.
Worth knowing. Loud noises, sudden darkness, blood and gore, and references to mental health.
Tickets and dealsBush Theatre · from £25 · 16+
A horror rom-com at the Bush: a woman moves in with her girlfriend during Hungry Ghost month and brings something back with her. It closes on 31 October, which makes the last night the most obvious Halloween booking in London.
Worth knowing. The Bush publishes a content-warning sheet for this one — worth reading first if you are sensitive to body horror.
Tickets and dealsThe Curiosity Shop, Bethnal Green · 23 Oct – 1 Nov · 12+, under-16s accompanied throughout
A walkthrough built for the season, in which you are a condemned soul waiting to be processed into the underworld. Live actors, no seats and no fourth wall — the closest thing London has to a proper haunted house.
Worth knowing. Sudden scares, near-total darkness, strobe, gore, confined spaces and crawl tunnels, and actors who may brush past you in the dark. The venue says plainly it is not a family attraction.
Book at The Curiosity Shop, Bethnal GreenAvery Hill Mansion, Eltham · 9 Oct – 1 Nov · 13+, under-16s accompanied
The Irish scare-attraction brand brings its London debut to a mansion in Eltham: two haunted-house routes, five smaller hidden experiences and an outdoor Halloween village between them. It is a whole evening rather than a show.
Worth knowing. Intense scenes, loud effects, strobe, theatrical smoke and uneven ground. The organisers advise against it for anyone with a heart condition, epilepsy, severe anxiety or claustrophobia.
Book at Avery Hill Mansion, ElthamGhosts, demons and the supernatural, played for spectacle or laughs rather than dread.
Phoenix Theatre · 3hr (incl. 1 interval) · from £50 · Ages 12+
The Netflix prequel, and the best piece of stage illusion in London — the effects are the reason to go, and nobody quite works out how the big one is done. More suspense than horror, which makes it the safer choice for a nervous teenager.
Worth knowing. Gunfire audio, explosions, haze, strobe and strong language, and it depicts various mental health conditions. Three hours with an interval, and it closes on 27 December.
Tickets and dealsPrince Edward Theatre · 2hr 30min (incl. 1 interval) · from £28 · Best suited to 12+
Demons, the afterlife and a striped suit, played entirely for laughs. Nothing here will frighten anyone, which is the point: it is the Halloween show for people who do not want to be scared, and the one most likely to have a fancy-dress crowd in the stalls.
Worth knowing. Strong language, adult humour and drug references rather than scares.
Tickets and dealsPalace Theatre · 2hr 55min (incl. 1 interval) · from £25 · Ages 8+
Dementors come off the stage and over the stalls, and the magic is done in front of you rather than on a screen. From 9 October it is a single three-hour show rather than two parts, so it finally works as one evening out.
Worth knowing. Recommended for eight and over. No content warnings have been published for the new one-part staging yet.
Tickets and dealsApollo Theatre · from £25 · 12+
Not a horror show, but the most unsettling thing on this list: an evening of suggestion and misdirection from the performer who has spent twenty years making audiences doubt what they just watched. Opens 10 October, so it covers the whole season.
Tickets and dealsNo jump scares — just bodies, candlelight and a long dark night of someone else’s soul.
County Hall · 2hr 20min (incl. 1 interval) · from £19 · Ages 10+, parental guidance advised
Agatha Christie staged in the old council chamber at County Hall, with the audience seated as the jury. The room does most of the work: oak panelling, low light and a murder trial happening at your eye level.
Worth knowing. Strong language, a reference to hanging, and haze used for atmosphere.
Tickets and dealsBarbican Theatre · 1hr 40min (no interval) · from £30 · 14+
Hamlet set to Radiohead, and a ghost story before it is anything else. It opens on 31 October at the Barbican, which is either a coincidence or the best-timed first night of the year.
Tickets and dealsSt Martin's Theatre · 2hr (incl. 1 interval) · from £35 · Ages 7+
A snowed-in guest house, a body and a secret the audience is asked to keep. Seventy-odd years on it is still the best introduction to a murder mystery, and at two hours the easiest evening here.
Worth knowing. A gun is used, and the plot involves child cruelty. Suspense rather than horror.
Tickets and dealsHampstead Theatre · from £10 · 14+
A whaling crew trapped in polar ice, dropping one by one, sharing visions that might be scurvy and might be something else. It opens on 30 October at Hampstead Downstairs, a small studio that suits the claustrophobia.
Tickets and dealsDated events rather than runs, so these sell out early and do not come back.
Greenwich Theatre · 31 October, 7.30pm · 14+
Four siblings hold a séance after their father dies in suspicious circumstances. One performance only, on Halloween night itself, which is about as on-the-nose as theatre programming gets.
Book at Greenwich TheatreThe London Dungeon, South Bank · 17 Oct – 1 Nov · Recommended 12+, no under-5s
The Dungeon’s Halloween takeover, this year built around the Unlucky Mummy. Actor-led rather than animatronic, with a ride in the middle of it, and included in standard admission.
Worth knowing. Live actors working for screams as much as laughs, in the dark, at close range.
Book at The London Dungeon, South BankLyric Theatre · 2 November · None stated
A one-night singalong concert through the darker end of musical theatre — Sweeney Todd, Little Shop, Rocky Horror, Phantom, Addams Family. It lands two days after Halloween, so treat it as the weekend afterparty.
Book at Lyric Theatre
