Moving well into Spooky Season, there’s plenty of chills to be found throughout this week’s picks.
Deadly: It’s Dinner to Die For at The Improv Centre! Celebrating its 45th anniversary season, Deadly Dinner Party invites audiences to an extravagant feast of deadly laughter at the mansion of an eccentric millionaire – Fridays and Saturdays at 7pm until October 30.
Frights: Until November 1, the family-friendly Halloween Spooktacular returns Canyon Frights at Capilano Suspension Bridge Park! Stoll spookily lit trails, experience playful scares and an eerie atmosphere as the park’s rainforest becomes a haunted wood – will you escape!?
Witch: FLYOVER is scaring up some family fun for the Halloween season as HowlOver flies back to Vancouver’s favourite immersive theatre. Like the ghosts of hallows eve, the experience is fleeting, only visiting this realm for a limited run, October 15 to November 1.
Fright: Ride through the darkness, navigate fog-filled pathways, and discover what lurks around every corner of 7 haunted houses, 19 rides and attractions, roaming monsters, and immersive live entertainment, at PNE Fright Nights on until October 31
Fangs: In previews from October 22, Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors scares up laughter at The Arts Club Theatre Company’s Lindsay Family Stage at Granville Island
Train: Until October 30, The Beaumont Studios presents Flushment Day, an immersive show taking the audience room to room to experience the 7 sins with Theatre, Burlesque, Cabaret, Music, Comedy as they look to escape on the Last Train to Utopia
Silent: Vancouver Civic Theatre Presents Silent Movie Mondays: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920) starring John Barrymore, on October 26, at the Orpheum Theatre. The perfect spooky season activity watch a classic silent horror movie at the near century-old theatre while a haunting soundtrack is played live on the historic Wurlitzer organ – an instrument originally created to accompany silent films and the last in Canada still in its original home.
Romantic: Tonight, it’s last show of a record-breaking five show run of, Bruno Mars’ The Romantic Tour at BC Place, bringing the tours’ USA/Canada leg to a close, with support from Andersen Paak – as DJ PeeWee – and Raye.
Write: The 39th Vancouver Writers Festival is underway, bigger than ever before with 150 authors taking part in 94 events based around its Granville Island hub, there is something for every lover of the written word to find until October 25
Read: The Korean Consulate in Vancouver celebrates Korean Heritage Month with the inaugural Vancouver Korean Book Festival, events throughout October including Jari – a graphic novel exhibition featuring three Korean authors; PARK Kun-woong, KIM Hong-mo and PARK Ju-hyun at 1420 Bridge Street, Granville Island.
Roar: Friday Night Lions are back at BC Place, join the playoff bound BC Lions on Friday October 23 as they host Winnipeg Blue Bombers for the final regular season game of the year
Crackers: From October 18 to November 14, Nuncrackers at Metro Theatre welcomes back the Little Sisters of Hoboken (Nunsense) for a holy, jolly holiday variety show with spirited musical numbers, tap-dancing nuns, and plenty of seasonal cheer
Trial: At The Cultch Historic Theatre, until October 25, presented by Rumble Theatre and ITSAZOO Productions comes a love story as strange as it is seductive, The Effect – audiences go inside a clinical trial where the line between emotion and chemical manipulation begins to blur.
Latin: Continuing until November 2, Latincouver celebrates Latin American Heritage Month with a host of community programming around the Vancouver and Burnaby.
Comedy: Taking over The Vogue Theatre October 23-25 for five shows, Josh Johnson’s Comedy Band Camp is a stand up and live music experience that brings together all the community of being in one big band and all the nostalgia of summer camp.
Stuff: Canadian comedy duo Matt Baram and Naomi Snieckus offer an interactive, improvisational look at life, love and grief in their excellent two-hander show, Big Stuff to the Arts Club Theatre Company’s Olympic Village Stage at the BMO Theatre Centre until November 1st
Rome: October 24, 29, and November 1, the Vancouver Opera season opens with Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca, the thrilling tale of passion, politics, and betrayal set against the turmoil of 1800s Rome.
Dance: The DanceHouse 2026/27 season begins October 23 & 24 with ODE, a new contemporary dance work from Montreal’s Compagnie Catherine Gaudet, on the Vancouver Playhouse stage.
Time: Until October 25 at Jericho Arts Centre, Donald Margulies’ Time Stands Still presented by Curious Cats Theatre Collective, and directed by Curious Cats’ co-artistic directors Maryth Gilroy & Karen Hamm.
Solo: Friday and Saturday, the Dance Centre’s 2026-27 Global Dance Connections series continues with Last Solo by Wen Wei Dance. Taking the stage as a senior artist, in his final solo work, Wang turns his attention to aging, mortality and the connection between body, mind and the universe.
Motown: Swing back in time when New Westminster’s Anvil Theatre celebrates the sounds of Detroit with “A Night of Motown,” featuring Terrell Edwards, Saturday, October 24
Pucks: The Vancouver Canucks hope to add a game to the win column when they host Detroit Red Wings on Thursday October 22 and Minnesota Wild on Sunday October 25 at Rogers Arena
Sing: American singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress Phoebe Bridgers’ The Lost Tour plays Rogers Arena on Sunday October 24
Country: West Virginia-based country-folk artist Charles Wesley Godwin: The Christian Name Tour comes to The Orpheum Theatre October 24
Local: For just a few more days, find the farm fresh bounty of the season at Vancouver Farmers’ Markets on Wednesdays Downtown at the Art Gallery, Thursdays at Olympic Village, Saturdays at Riley Park, Trout Lake & West End, and Sundays at Mount Pleasant & Kitsilano
Photography: It’s the last chance to visit The Polygon Gallery, for a showing of one of Canada’s most influential photographers, Greg Girard, in the first-ever survey of his work, only on view until October 25.
Mouth: Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art presentsthe world premiere of Every River Has a Mouth: the visual languages that connect us, guest curated by Snuneymuxw artist Eliot White-Hill, Kwulasultun, on display until February 14, 2027
Climate: On display until March 20, 2027 at The Reach Gallery Museum in Abbotsford –Interglacial, is a stunning new exhibition from Vancouver-based environmental artist and activist Desirée Patterson. The exhibition examines the present moment as a critical point in history, as global climate change puts the future well-being of our planet at risk