Your best nightmare
There are still about three weeks to go until Halloween. So there is plenty of time to get into the Halloween spirit and visit those scare-tastic attractions that pop up each year.
Of all the attractions, the biggest and, perhaps, most elaborate are those at Hong Kong's two leading theme parks.
Hong Kong Disneyland
(Open 6-11pm, Thursdays-Sundays)
Disneyland brings Halloween chills with a host of Headless Horseman-themed attractions. The horseman takes centre stage by leading the Glow in the Park Parade, complete with Jack Skellington, the pumpkin king of Halloweentown - from The Nightmare Before Christmas film - and dancing zombies.
Main Street, USA, becomes Ghost Town (after 2pm), transporting you back to the 1900s. In Main Street Haunted Hotel (after 2pm), a woman's ghost lurks in spooky corridors and dark rooms.
Tomorrowland's Party Zone features Japanese dance group Kagemu performing its 4-D interactive show Black Sun, which combines dance, martial arts, music and projected images.
You can also bring out your scariest side and give family and friends a fright with a Halloween makeover at Boo-tique (open 6.30-9.30pm).
No trip to Disneyland is complete without a visit to Space Mountain. The park's roller coaster has been transformed into Ghost Galaxy. A spooky soundtrack of ghosts and ghouls may appear at any turn, giving this ride a thrilling twist.
General admission includes access to Haunted Halloween, but tickets for the Halloween special can also be purchased separately. For details, go to park.hongkong disneyland. com/hkdl/html/Halloween/en_US/index.html
Ocean Park
(Open 5.30pm-midnight, weekends and public holidays)
Entering its 11th year, Ocean Park's Halloween Bash promises screams like never before. The park teamed up with City University's School of Creative Media to put together Nightmare in 3-D, which features virtual-reality technology, called Cave 0.5 (Cave Automatic Virtual Environment).
Visitors enter a 3-D computer-generated haunted house, where they are surrounded by audio-visual display panels with scary images. A Carnival of the Damned show includes stunning special effects, giant puppets and a 360-degree water screen.
The park is also running a series of competitions. Dancers will battle it out in the second Demon Street of Dance Competition, with the grand finale on October 29. Contestants in their favourite costumes will be judged in the Wicked Image Design Contest, which ends on October 30.
Madame Tussaud's
Hong Kong
(Open 2.30-10pm, daily)
Wax museum Madame Tussaud's hosts a Halloween-themed section until the end of the month. In Scream@Frankenstein's Lab, actors dressed up as monsters are hidden among the wax figures. You won't know who is real or not until someone pops out and has you running for your life. Not recommended for younger teens.
