Janelle Monáe spent about four hours getting into a creature costume this year, part of a Halloween season that now stretches across Los Angeles for weeks rather than a single night. The singer and actress is hosting a string of events this October, including her third consecutive Cinespia horror screening and the second edition of her Wondaween festival, as she works to become, in her own words, as synonymous with Halloween as Mariah Carey is with Christmas.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Monáe appeared at a sold-out Cinespia screening of the 1976 horror film Carrie in a fake-blood costume, continuing a residency she has kept for three years running. The outdoor screening series has operated among the mausoleums of Hollywood Forever Cemetery's Fairbanks Lawn since 2002, a run Hoodline has noted in its own coverage of L.A.'s outdoor-movie culture. Monáe's Cinespia history includes an appearance as the “Witch Supreme” alongside original Craft star Rachel True the year before her October 2025 appearance.
A Creature-Themed Carnival With a Secret Address
Monáe's biggest production this year is the second annual Wondaween, a free costumed event open to fans 21 and older, themed this time around a creature carnival. She said she expects attendees to show up as anything from insects to Frankenstein, and told the Times the theme was inspired by a creature encounter that guided her physically and spiritually this year. An online raffle for tickets opens Thursday, and the event itself, happening Thursday, October 29, will take place at a secret location somewhere in the Los Angeles area rather than a publicized venue.
That secrecy is a departure from last year's debut, when Wondaween unfolded at the Santa Monica Pier under a Vampire Beach theme. That inaugural outing, subtitled Vampire Beach, drew 1,000 guests to a sold-out event with rides and brand partnerships including Bacardi, Vacation, and Wingstop, according to TheWrap. Monáe performed at that event in character as Vampira Wave, the outlet reported. The Wondaween name itself traces back to her creative collective, the Wondaland Arts Society, which also encompasses Wondaland Pictures, Wondaland Records, Wondaland Games and more, the Times notes.
Building Toward Halloween Night
Before Wondaween, Monáe has a 1970s-themed game night planned at Soho Warehouse next Saturday, October 24. She also hosted a free educational panel called The Brains Behind the Blood at USC's Eileen Norris Cinema Theatre, a program that spotlights horror filmmakers and special-effects artists working in sound design, prosthetics, and costuming craftsmanship, according to USC Cinematic Arts. The panel has now run in both October 2025 and October 2026, giving her Halloween programming an educational component alongside the spectacle.
Monáe told the Times that costuming transforms her and lets her creative identities be realized, and that she wants to promote finding real-life community and gathering around joy and creativity. She added that Wondaween's main vision is bringing people together in person to connect and bring each other joy, and that Halloween gives people permission to be silly and use their imaginations. The festival, she said, has allowed her to connect with like-minded people who believe in transformation.
A Multi-Year Costume Legacy
None of this is new territory for Monáe, who has built a reputation for elaborate, cinema-inspired transformations well before Wondaween existed. In October 2024 she debuted a screen-accurate E.T. costume on The Jennifer Hudson Show and on social media, a look she had originally planned for 2023 before postponing it due to the SAG-AFTRA actors' strike, per Nerdist. Her costume catalog also includes the Grinch, and she appeared as Diva Plavalaguna from The Fifth Element in 2022.
She has also moved into immersive attractions, partnering with Thirteenth Floor Entertainment Group on Monáe Manor, a custom haunted house maze themed around an eerie house party, staged in both 2024 and 2025 at the Los Angeles Haunted Hayride in Griffith Park, per Halloween Every Night. Last October she performed live as Sally opposite composer Danny Elfman's Jack Skellington at the Hollywood Bowl's concert of Disney Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas in Concert, according to lovebscott.
Her costumes come together with help from designer and tailor Alex Navarro and stylist Alexandra Mandelkorn, collaborators the Times credits with realizing her annual transformations. Monáe, who grew up in Kansas City, will cap the season with a private Halloween-night party called Creature Camp and plans to hand out candy to trick-or-treaters — her favorites, she told the Times, are Swedish Fish, Kit Kats, Skittles, Twizzlers, and pink Starburst.
