Wednesday, October 12: So you're a bit of a scaredy-cat when it comes to this Halloween business? Ms. Day will go easy on you -- today. Head to Zick's Great Outdoors' scarefest, dubbed Spookodyssey (at 16498 Clayton Road, Wildwood; 636-458-1445 or www.zicksgreatoutdoors.com; $6), from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Sure, there'll be monsters and music as a part of the actual Odyssey, but you also need to watch out for the locals: They may have wandered onto the grounds to add their own brand of fright (they don't call 'em "wild" for nothing!).
Thursday, October 13: To paraphrase Justin Hawkins of The Darkness, Mr. Night believes in a thing called fear. And so we head to The Darkness (1525 South Eighth Street; 314-631-8000 or www.scarefest.com; 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. weeknights; $10 to $14). After you get the piss scared out of you in Soulard's most famous haunted house, mosey into Soulard proper for a refill via adult beverages. Go ahead, get an early start on the weekend -- it's the holidays.
Friday, October 14: The past two days' frights on Night & Day's Tour de Fear® were of the artificial variety (the monsters in The Darkness weren't real; get a grip). However, the spirits at tonight's Dark Room Session in the Lemp Mansion's attic (3322 DeMenil Place) are real -- and real scary. The session begins at 11 p.m., and tickets cost $25 per living person (no charge for the spirits, bwah-ha-ha!); call St. Louis Spirit Search at 314-776-4667 to make a required reservation.
Saturday and Sunday, October 15 and 16: What could be scarier than a bus tour? Ha, just kidding. No, really, Ghostride Tours offers 7 p.m. bus tours of downtown and south St. Louis (departing from the Arch Garage on Fridays and Saturdays; visit www.ghostridetours.com or call 314-849-3211 for more information) that reveal the grim and grisly secrets of our little river town. Advance reservations are required, and your $45 ticket also gets you wine and cheese.
But if you're scared of the bus (or hungry for more macabre stories), try the Sunday Cemetery & Symbolism Tour of Calvary and Bellefontaine cemeteries. Journey by limousine (from the same garage) to hear the terrifying tales of real-life (well, real-dead) St. Louis celebrities interred in these boneyards. Tickets for the 2 p.m. departure are $45, and you get wine and cheese with this one, too.
Monday, October 17: Now that you've experienced the dead, the undead and all those in between, it's time you learned about those who can see the future and beyond the grave. Psychic Terry Iacuzzo, who was born on Halloween, reads from and signs Small Mediums at Large: The True Tale of a Family of Psychics, her memoir about her foreseeing kinfolk. The reading is held at 7 p.m. at Left Bank Books (399 North Euclid Avenue; 314-367-6731 or www.left-bank.com).
Tuesday, October 18: To round up your week o' fright, visit a round-up of a different kind: the dead cowboy round-up at Tombstone Haunted Ghost Town! As you drive out to 5901 Lindwedel Street in Imperial (near the I-55 Imperial/Kimmswick exit), prepare yourself for the pizza, er, petrifying night you are about to experience. Admission to the town is $10 to $14, and the ghosts let you in from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. during the week. See The Darkness' phone number and Web site for more information.
