The City That Never Sleeps will be wide awake for Halloween.
A wide variety of seasonal events, from horror movies to haunted houses, will climax in the 33rd annual Village Halloween Parade, a spectacle that even conservative viewers consider outrageous.
The largest Halloween celebration of its kind, the Greenwich Village parade proceeds along Sixth Avenue, also known as Avenue of the Americas, from Spring Street to 22nd Street. It could even outdraw New Year's Eve in Times Square, with police predicting more than 1.5 million spectators and revelers in the area's tiny streets and alleyways.
Those still in a partying mood might wander to Webster's, a legendary Manhattan nightspot where they can dance til dawn.
Although the parade is the most famous of New York's Halloween parties, it is merely the capper to a myriad of related events. Here's a quick look at the don't-miss list:
• All month long, the man-made Blood Manor will draw curiosity seekers to its Hotel Asylum, 3D Circus of Death, Dusk 'til Dawn Room, and Skull Alley
• The New York City Horror Film Festival includes a mix of science fiction, thrillers,
and horror films from Oct. 18-20 at TriBeCa cinemas in Lower Manhattan
• The Merchant's House Museum, allegedly the most haunted house in Manhattan,
hosts candlelight tours Oct. 20-21 and Oct. 27-28, a mock 19th-century funeral on
Oct. 29, and readings from mystery writer Edgar Allan Poe on Oct. 31
• On Oct. 28, three days before Halloween, Joyce Gold History Tours presents "Macabre Greenwich Village," with guides recounting murders, graveyards, and
ghost sightings
• A day later, Big Onion Walking Tours features "Halloween Weekend in Green-Wood Cemetery," exposing unknown information about the graves of Leonard Bernstein, Dewitt Clinton, and Louis Comfort Tiffany, among others
• Two performances of "An Evening With Poe," starring Edgar Allan Poe impressionist Kevin Mitchell, will be held at the Mount Vernon Hotel Museum and Garden Oct. 30-31
• At the Jekyll and Hyde Pub, where Halloween is celebrated all year, fans will feel special effects, eat monster burgers, and rub elbows with Tobias the Werewolf, Dreadmina the Vampire, and a gargoyle named Claw
• The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine hosts its annual Halloween Extravaganza and Procession of Ghouls, featuring the film Nosferatu and a display of costumes and special effects, at 7 and 10 p.m. on Oct. 27
• Kids will love Boo at the Zoo, with magic shows, costume parades, storytelling, pumpkin painting, and visits from black cats, bats, owls, and spiders at the Bronx Zoo Oct. 21-22 and Oct. 28-29
• Also for youngsters are the Halloween Haunted House at the Queens County Farm Museum, Oct. 28, 29, and 30, and the Oct. 31 holiday party at the American Museum of Natural History, where exhibit halls will stay open til 7 and allow time for trick-or-treating, special shows, and arts and crafts.
For further information, see www.nycvisit.com or visit information centers at 810 Seventh Avenue, near 53rd Street, or in kiosks at City Hall Park in Lower Manhattan and at the Apollo Theater in Harlem (253 W. 125th St.).
