The Texas Theatre in Dallas is going all in for Halloween, packing its final weekend of October with horror screenings, live music, drag, ballet and an all-night marathon that stretches from dusk to dawn on Oct. 31. The historic Oak Cliff theater has scheduled horror films and special events throughout the Halloween weekend, turning the holiday into a multi-day affair rather than a single night of scares.
The centerpiece is Joe Bob’s Halloween Spooktacular, which the theater’s own listing says returns to the Texas Theatre in Dallas on Oct. 31, according to thetexastheatre.com. The all-night event includes five feature films and spooky shorts, per the same listing. Notably, the Dallas Observer refers to the event as Joe Bob’s Halloween Spooktacular 2 and reports it will run from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., a detail the theater’s own page does not specify.
Whatever its exact name, the marathon promises more than just movies. The theater’s listing says the night will feature special performances by comedy magician Mac King and the burlesque troupe Boo-lesque, while the Observer’s account describes a program packed with feature films, spooky shorts, and the drive-in tangents and trivia fans have come to expect from Joe Bob Briggs and Darcy the Mail Girl.
What's Actually Playing
Among the titles listed for the marathon are A Nightmare on Elm Street paired with May May’s Nightmares, along with a live music segment billed as The Music of Hey Arnold Live!, according to the theater’s event page. The full lineup and running order for the overnight marathon were not detailed beyond those titles, so moviegoers hoping to catch a specific film at a specific hour may want to check in closer to showtime.
WFAA notes that the Texas Theatre, located in Dallas, will host a dusk-till-dawn party as part of its broader Halloween weekend push, a description that lines up with the all-night format both sources point to. The theater's live-events calendar also includes Sleepaway Camp: The Midnight Mass Experience, showing that horror programming paired with themed live presentations is a running feature of its schedule, not a one-off for Halloween.
A Weekend of Horror Before Halloween Night
The Spooktacular caps off a string of themed horror screenings the Texas Theatre has run throughout October. Earlier in the month, on Oct. 9, the theater paired Trick ‘r Treat with a live Q&A featuring director Michael Dougherty, according to the Observer. Tonight, Oct. 28, the venue is showing A Nightmare on Elm Street alongside the May May’s Nightmares Drag Show, with tickets listed as starting at $20.
Tomorrow, Oct. 29, composer Fabio Frizzi and his band are scheduled to perform Frizzi2Fulci at the theater, with tickets starting at $39.75, the Observer reports. That follows a screening of Bride of Frankenstein with a Bishop Street Ballet preshow that the theater held on Oct. 25, where tickets started at $22, per the same outlet. Together, the lineup shows the Texas Theatre leaning into live performance as much as film projection for its Halloween programming this year.
Details such as current ticket availability for the Spooktacular, final pricing, and whether earlier shows in the lineup sold out have not been confirmed. For now, horror fans looking to close out October in Dallas have a packed slate to choose from, ending with whatever the Texas Theatre and Joe Bob Briggs have planned for the dusk-to-dawn finale on Halloween night.
