by LORRAINE CARPENTER

All events, unless otherwise indicated, take place on Saturday, Oct. 29.

Neon lets their love for Halloween show with Let’s Get Phys ical on Friday, Oct. 28 at SAT. Win costume prizes to the tune of DJs T, Plastique de Rêve and Jordan Dare, and local live band Cut Throat Republic (Jordan Dare, Sean Kosa, Mateo Murphy and Pat Wreck!), who’ll play some hardass synthpop for your hip-swinging pleasure (10 p.m., advance: $15, door: $20).

The eighth annual Gloom costume ball will pack Millennium’s house/techno and hip hop/R&B/ reggae rooms, boasting VJs, giant screens and a dozen DJs including the U.K.’s Clare Large, Uppercut, Crowd and Spazmodik (10 p.m.–10 a.m., advance: $15, door: $25).

The second annual Spook Da House soirée invites you to invoke the spirit of traditional Samhain in its mysterious 600-capacity space, to be revealed 24 hours in advance (10 p.m.–10 a.m., advance: $25, door: $35). It’s another two-room terror trove, featuring DJs Jon Jonas, Mat Ste-Marie, Jung, Angel Moraes etc., with visuals by Kas. Details: 688-0044, 567-9096, blended.ca.

Don’t forget to dress up for the fifth annual Shiver Show, an almost uncomfortably cool hip hop Halloween party featuring $2,000 in costume prizes, and six categories: Best, Best Group, Funniest, Sexiest, Scariest and Shittiest (costume contestants are asked to arrive by 11 p.m. for judging). Expect Eye 2 Eye live, and DJs Lenny and You Know Who at the decks (10 p.m., advance: $10, door: more). Details: eye2eyeproductions.com, 991-3937.

For a more reptilian chill, the Caméléon masquerade ball rolls into the Bonsecours market (350 St-Paul), with DJs Saban, Dr. Freez & Elektric Bones, Stéphane Cocke, Pfreud and Gabo plus prizes (10 p.m.–6 a.m., $20).

Embryon 3 is a 16+ party (no drugs, alcohol or “bad attitude”) at 7205B St-Jacques, for $45 until Oct. 28, or extra bones at the door. Apart from the eight DJs (including Lab 4 and Indica) spinning sounds ranging from acid techno to “Satanic hard trance,” zombie-flick fans can feast on the horror of The Devil’s Rejects on a giant screen with giant sound. Details: houseofsins.com.

Back at SAT, a team of dedicated VJs and trance, house and breaks DJs (including Italy’s Eduardo) will get the monstrous masses moving at the second annual Amazone Halloween Ritual (9 p.m., $12 with costume, $15 without). While Stereo gets Scareo with DJs David Morales and Danny Rampling (2 a.m.), Circus Afterhours’ Strapped and Trapped ($40) is the place to be if tight clothes and sharp teeth turn your crank (or crank your fear factor). DJs Joeski, Vivie-Ann and Frank Famery will provide the soundtrack for this all-night “vampire leather lust” masquerade, where the best dressed will hobble away with $5,000 in prizes.

Those seeking thrills and chills in Laval can look to Tops on Friday, Oct. 28 ($7), when $5,000 in prizes will be awarded to the top three costumes, or Redlite on Saturday, where DJ Mark Anthony hosts Ritual (2–11 a.m., $25).

Club creeping

Turn that trick into a treat at Exit’s annual Pimp & Ho party, a two-day affair featuring DJ Kurtis C. on Friday, DJs B-Ware & Kwite Sane on Saturday, and cash prizes for best streetwear on both nights.

There’s no sex in the club, but the flirting and foreplay get hot and heavy at Monde Osé’s Immortality party (details: mondeose.com). Costumes are mandatory at this “feast of flesh” “for attractive, open-minded women and couples” on Friday, Oct. 28 at Joy Nightspot (advance: $50/couple, door: $65). On a similar tip, Eclipse (1082 Rosemont) invites women and couples to Sin City on Saturday, with DJ Hugo Bass and $1,000 in costume prizes (9 p.m., advance: $10, door: $15).

Masked and costumed ladies, aka Touloulous, take the lead and sweep gentlemen off their feet at Balattou’s 11th annual tropical Touloulou Halloween ball, tonight, Thursday, Oct. 27 (9 p.m., $5, costumed women: free). To a salsa, souk and merengue soundtrack, men are obliged to accept every invitation to dance with Touloulous. Women with the prettiest costumes, best disguises and fullest dance cards will win cash.

It won’t be so tropical outside, but Piknic Electronik is throwing a costume/dance party at their Place de l’Homme/Île Jean-Drapeau site (1–9 p.m., $7, raincheck: same time on Sunday, Oct. 30). Expect DJs MightyKat and Luc Raymond along with Freddy Krueger, Mike Myers, Jason Voorhees and Leatherface. And you thought those guys were metalheads.

For critters of the rock ’n’ roll kind, hit l’Escogriffe’s retro smash Do the Monster Mash! with DJs Laterreur and Choyce (10 p.m.). Cabaret’s long-running C’est Extra, hosted by Mademoiselle Julie, packs in more ghoulish go-go (9 p.m., $8, with flyer: $6, students: $3). Over at la Tulipe, MCs Hasard and Caméléon present the petrified sounds of Pop 80 (10 p.m., $7, with flyer: $5), while Café Campus dooms its dancers with Discothèque Infernale, a crazed costume party with contests, surprises and specials (8:30 p.m., $5). Green Room, meawhile, will reward the raunchiest get-up at their Raunch’n’Roll party (10 p.m., free) with DJs Matt Silver and Mlle Bacon.

Divan Orange promises a wildly eclectic, electrifying Halloween dance party with Royal Air Togo spinning world beat, meaning a rabid melee of baile funk, Cambodian rock, Hungarian hardcore and more. All that and a costume contest (9:30 p.m., $3).

Add some real spice to your Halloween stew with the Lounge King, hosting Dia de Muertos to celebrate the third anniversary of his Mix96 radio show. That’s at Mi Burrito Café (1327 Ste-Catherine E.) on Sunday, Oct. 30 (5:30 p.m.), with burritos, tamales, margaritas and chiller, killer sounds.

Bands of death

Zombies will eat up and rock out at Café Chaos’s Zombie Feast party, featuring Unhuman and guests on Sunday, Oct. 30 (8 p.m., $5), with a Spooky Boogie Nights horror film screening downstairs at 10 p.m. That very same night, Zoobizarre invites the undead to a flesh-eating extravaganza featuring the Hot Springs, the Expectorated Sequence, Whiskey Trench, Greg Cocaine and Scream Baby, Scream! (9 p.m., $5). At l’Hémisphère Gauche, Montreal’s the Brains will launch a new LP, as will Gutter Demons, playing a ghoulish Halloween gig with les Prostiputes and the Devil’s Hot Rod at Fouf on Monday, Oct. 31 (8 p.m., $5).

L’Escogriffe hosts a Halloween Air Party starring Air Guitar Heroes (with members of Phylactère Cola and more) and members of Echo Kitty, Sainte Catherines and other bands DJing on Friday, Oct. 28 ($8). Back at Fouf (9 p.m., $10), les Goules and DJ Carbonator will gouge out your eardrums while Merlin provides the appropriately shocking visuals. There’ll be $500 in prizes and the usual F1 specials. Alternately, you could catch the electro-fied, industrialized glamour of Dandi Wind at Zoobizarre (10 p.m., $5), or the gothic glam bang of Bordello at Buried Alive with DJs Mr. Black and Uriel at Saphir on Friday, Oct. 28 (10 p.m., access to both floors, with DJs Plastik Patrik and Pat Dynamite downstairs: $6). Also on Friday, the Chinese Stars, Ex Models, Duchess Says and Mahi Mahi play El Salon (8 p.m., $12), where there’ll be diabolic DJs, costume contests and more. Hémisphère Gauche unleashes Monstres à Gogo with les Séquelles on Monday, Oct. 31 (9 p.m.). The Witches Ball at El Salon celebrates sorcery (and the Celtic New Year) with a free ritual at 8 p.m., and bands Triskalia, Moira and Sex Oven (9:30 p.m., $10).

Over at Main Hall, karaoke comes back from the dead with the Yourockeeokee band (10 p.m., $5), while skunk rockers Trip the Off become the Ramones at the Academy Club’s Halloween Gala on Monday, Oct. 31, and that’s not the only terrifying, tantalizing tribute this Halloween has in store: On Sunday, Oct. 30, the Braineaters play the Misfits at l’Hémisphère Gauche (9 p.m., $5), War Pigs do Ozzy and Sabbath, with openers Batallion, at la Place à Coté (9:30 p.m.) and the Project take on Velvet Revolver at the Hard Rock Café’s Runnin’ With the Devil Halloween bash, which promises $1,500 in prizes (for $7, $2 with last week’s Mirror ad). And over at Kola Note on Friday, Oct. 28 (8:30 p.m.$15), the gruesome, glamorous Bhalloween Masqué will feature two sets by David Bowie tribute band Diamond Dogs, interspersed with classic glam rock courtesy of DJ Glisten, plus multimedia performances, on-site make-up artists, contests and door prizes.

Chilling horror theatre

Automatic Vaudeville Studios have some spooky cinematic delights in store at their Hi-Class Halloween Screeming tonight, Thursday, Oct. 27 at la Sala Rossa (9:30 p.m., $10, costume: $8). Amid their “grand guignol of moral debasement and classy entertainment” will be local band the Donkeys and musical performers Big Gold Hoops & Kosher Dill Spears.

Finally, frightfully, the second annual Grand Masquerade is expanding beyond the bounds of last year’s inaugural edition, with the free outdoor site in Old Montreal full of vampires, druids, ghosts, games, stories, fortunes, torture chambers and funeral processions to terrify kiddies and grown-ups alike at Place Jacques-Cartier near Notre-Dame from 6 to 11 p.m., Oct. 27–30.

Indoors, there are two 18+ costume balls (both 10 p.m., $15) at Bonsecours market (325 de la Commune)—the gothic horror of Sacrifice Night on Friday, Oct. 28, featuring Dame Violette, le Club Sin, Théatre Sans Fil, DJs Mini, Kaotik and Mr. Black, and, they say, a live human sacrifice; and on Saturday, Le Theatre de l’infini, a grotesque cabal of robots, superheroes and mutants with DJs Champion and Frigid, with le Cirque Éloize and VJ thisisnodesign mounting a scary spectacle both nights. For heaps more info on Grand Masquerade, go to www.grandemascarade.com, and try to side-step hell on your way.

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