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Manhattanites Get Ready for Weekend Full of Halloween Events

By Ben Fractenberg | October 29, 2010 12:57pm | Updated on October 29, 2010 2:05pm

By Ben Fractenberg and Jennifer Glickel

DNAinfo Reporter/Producers

MANHATTAN — With the city's famous Village Halloween parade pared down this year, New Yorkers might want to find some alternative places to show off their costumes.

If you're still itching for some parade-type action, check out the Halloween Happy Hour Pub Crawl starting Friday afternoon at 300 W. 43rd St. Registration is from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. and the pub crawl runs until 4 a.m.

Want to start the Halloween celebration a few days early? GalleryBar on 120 Orchard Street is hosting the official after party for the Red Bull Trick or Treat competition starting at 10 p.m. Friday night. The Red Bull Trick or Treat is a competition featuring top BMX street riders that will take place earlier in the evening in Brooklyn.

For brave souls, a labyrinth of horrors, aptly titled Blood Manor, takes you through 20 rooms of gore in Chelsea. The manor is located at 542 W. 27th St. and will be open Halloween weekend from 6 p.m. until 2 a.m.

The Museum of Modern Art will be haunted for the weekend for "A Monster Mash," which features costume cocktail parties on Friday and Saturday nights followed by screenings of select horror movies from the museum's collection. Friday's flick options are "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" (1974) or "Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster" (1965) and on Saturday night visitors can catch either "Night of the Living Dead" (1968) or "Ghostbusters" (1984). The cocktail parties, which will feature the music of GHE20 GOTHIK DJs, begin at 9 p.m. each night and the movie screenings start at 10:30 p.m.

Upper Manhattan revelers can join the “Halloween Bar Crawl & Bumrush” organized by the Upper Manhattan Experience, which kicks off at 9 p.m.

If you’re looking for something more kid friendly, the city is putting together a haunted forest at the Inwood Nature Center. The ghouls will haunt northern Manhattan this Sunday from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Kids can also get some Halloween-themed exercise on Saturday at the North Meadow Recreation Center in Central Park. Children ages three and up will have the opportunity to participate in soccer "ghoul" kicking, "freak" throw contests, and more between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m.

Feel like dressing up in leather and taking to the high seas?

The Circle Line and World Yacht are hosting a Rocky Horror Picture Ball on Sunday. The movie will be played on both decks of World Yacht's Princess Charter, with a dance party after the movie and prizes for best costume. The cruise leaves Pier 81 on West 41st Street and sails from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Still figuring out your costume?

Halloween Adventure manager Tony Bianchi said Lady Gaga has been a big seller this year, though he doesn’t recommend trying to remake her famous meat dress.

"If the weather’s warm you’re gonna draw a lot flies," said Bianchi. "How would you like your date to smell like raw meat?"

If something a bit more racy is your speed, there are some interesting, and surprising, options.

"Sexy costumes are selling well," said Janelle Rowley, the manager of Halloween Adventure on 34th Street. "Superwoman, Catwoman, Wonder Woman, Freddy Krueger."

When asked what could possibly be sexy about Freddy Krueger, she explained that the costume involves a tight sweater dress that is slashed up in a revealing way — and, of course, includes a glove with plastic blades attached to it.

Bianchi said his stores didn’t have too many New York City-themed costumes and was at a bit of a loss about do-it-yourself outfits.

"I think a roach is pretty quintessential," he said, after thinking for a while.