Halloween in Burbank: A Horror Fan’s Guide to the Media Capital of the World

Explore Horror Row

In Burbank, you don’t have to wait until October to indulge your darker side. Here in the Media Capital of the World, horror has a following all its own. You’ll find museums devoted to the macabre, shops filled with costumes and collectibles, dark art, oddities, metaphysical treasures, and an entire stretch of Magnolia Park that horror fans know simply as Horror Row. Come fall, Burbank’s year-round affinity for the strange and spooky kicks into higher gear, with Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood adding one of Southern California’s biggest Halloween experiences just next door. So, whether you like your Halloween creepy, campy, cinematic, or genuinely terrifying, make Burbank your home base and explore at your leisure. Start in the Magnolia Park district, where a remarkable collection of independently owned shops has turned several blocks of Magnolia Boulevard into a destination for horror fans from near and far.

At the center of it all is The Mystic Museum, part museum, part oddities shop and part immersive horror experience. Explore rotating exhibits, paranormal and occult collections, elaborate photo opportunities, and a permanent collection that includes vintage Ouija boards. Its sister experience, Camp Horror, adds even more fright to the mix.

Then keep walking. Halloween Town has been supplying costumes, masks, props, decorations, and horror collectibles for more than 25 years, with two Burbank storefronts on Magnolia Boulevard. At Horror Boodega, the scares come with a heavy dose of nostalgia, mixing horror culture with the snacks, collectibles, and pop-culture memories of the ’80s and ’90s.

And for something decidedly stranger, step inside Vulture Culture Oddities, where ethically sourced taxidermy, unusual artifacts and curiosities fill the shelves. The shop even has a few resident spirits…or so the story goes. Then there’s The Green Man Metaphysical Shoppe & Apothecary, a family-run boutique and gathering place filled with herbs, crystals, ritual supplies and all manner of metaphysical discoveries. Movie fans will recognize it, too as The Green Man appears in the horror hit Obsession as the shop where the film’s mysterious One Wish Willow is purchased. The movie filmed at several locations around Burbank, making this one Halloween stop where the Media Capital of the World quite literally becomes part of the story. Horror Row isn’t a seasonal pop-up. It’s here all year, which is exactly what makes it so wonderfully Burbank.

Beyond Horror Row

What began as a concentration of horror shops in Magnolia Park has grown into a broader creative scene, with unusual finds and experiences to discover elsewhere in Burbank. Hyaena Gallery, for example, specializes in dark, lowbrow and outsider art, with work that ranges from the macabre to true crime and counterculture. It’s the kind of gallery where the unexpected is very much part of the point.

Take the Scares to the Big Screen

And then there’s Hollywood gore.

Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood runs select nights now through November 1, 2026, bringing eight haunted houses, sinister scare zones, and the legendary Terror Tram to life after dark.

This year’s lineup draws on some formidable names in horror, including Sinners, Stranger Things, Hellraiser, Evil Dead, and Ozzy Osbourne, while Art the Clown takes over the Terror Tram.

With Universal Studios Hollywood directly adjacent to Burbank, an afternoon exploring Burbank’s homegrown horror scene can lead straight into a night inside some of the biggest worlds in horror.

 

Make a Weekend of It

There’s too much Halloween to pack into one day.

Start with Horror Row and Magnolia Park, venture farther into Burbank’s wonderfully offbeat side, grab dinner before heading to Halloween Horror Nights, then come back to your Burbank hotel. You’ll be perfectly positioned to keep exploring the next morning, whether that means a visit to Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood, shopping, brunch or discovering another side of the Media Capital of the World. Because Halloween may come once a year. But in Burbank, the spirit of the season is always close at hand.