🧛 A vampire art museum opens in Doylestown | Things to Do

Hello hello!

It’s officially Halloweekend! I’ve been making mulled cider and carving pumpkins this week. My massive candy and chocolate stash has been slowly disappearing somehow… must be a sugar fiend ghost. My favorites are the crispy rice chocolates like Crunch and Krackel bars. Oh, and Kit Kats. I always traded for those as a kid. What’s your go-to candy or chocolate for the holiday? Let me know!

This weekend visit a new vampire art museum, see a compelling documentary about a tree-climbing scientist, try to get some rare whiskey, and sample delicious dishes at the Philly Halal Food Festival.

Meet Edmondo Crimi. The antiques dealer has amassed a vast collection of creepy, demonic, and monstrous objects that he’s now showing to the public. This weekend, he’s opening the Vampire Art Museum and Paranormal Activity (VAMPA) in Doylestown featuring eight rooms overflowing with the strangest and spookiest artifacts and artworks of vampires, demons, witches, skeletons, and more dating back to the 1700s. As my colleague Stephanie Farr explains, it’s truly a wild sight.

🌳 Climb into the skies with Treetop Barbie: Andrew Nadkarni directed a short documentary about his aunt, pioneering tree-climbing ecologist Nalini Nadkarni. It’s a lush, beautiful look at the view 200 feet up in the rainforest. The film also uncovers the difficult truth of why Nalini began escaping into treetops in the first place. Between Earth & Sky screens at the Philadelphia Film Festival on Saturday, including a Q&A with director Andrew.

🔥 Stay warm: Today’s weather might be confusingly warm for the season, but temperatures are starting to cool overall, so you might be looking for restaurants with heated outdoor seating. We rounded up a list of more than 90 spots where you can stay cozy dining outside.

🥃 Don’t throw away your shot: The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board wants you to buy its ultra-rare whiskey. You can enter a lottery for a shot to win one of 4,429 rare and discounted bottles, like the Eagle Rare Straight Bourbon 17 Year Old 2022 Release, Blanton’s Gold Straight Bourbon, and so many more. Be quick! Enter by Friday at 5 p.m.

📷 Like mother, like son: See the startling, challenging, and insightful artworks reflecting the life and death of Black men from a mother-son artist duo Deborah Willis and Hank Willis Thomas in PAFA and AAMP’s joint exhibit, “Rising Sun: Artists in an Uncertain America.”

🦅 For the girls: Girlsgate is the women-only Eagles tailgate party where fans are dancing to Taylor Swift, putting on green body glitter, and cheering E-A-G-L-E-S.

🩰 Point of interest: Inquirer dance critic Ellen Dunkel gives us an inside look at BalletX’s fall season, introducing us to new dancers and previewing the best of what’s upcoming.

🍴 Feast at this fest: The first-ever Philly Halal Food Festival is this weekend in Phoenixville. Try a wide variety of dishes, from Uzbeki samsa (like a samosa) to soul food to Philly cheesesteak nachos.

📅 My calendar picks this week: Explore the East Passyunk Fall Fest, sample sweet cider at Philly Cider Week Fall Street Fest, and see a cemetery concert at Ghosts in the Hood.

If you were walking around Germantown this week, you might’ve noticed some new creative signage. Welcome to Afromation Avenue. The Mural Arts project began last year in West Philly as the brainchild of Brittni Jennings, an African American history teacher at Constitution High School, and Kristin Kelly, an elementary school teacher also based in Philadelphia. Now 40 new brightly colored signs of positive affirmations have arrived in Germantown with messages like “Embrace the youth,” “You are worth caring for,” and “Be who makes you happy.” The works are by artists Nomad and kita Rich.

🍫 Don’t fret: Worried you might run out of candy on Halloween? If you get particularly ravenous trick-or-treaters, there’s a way that you can get free candy delivered.

👻 Spooky, not scary: If jump scares aren’t your thing, there are still tons of Halloween related events you can enjoy with the scare factor turned down. Take a candlelit ghost tour of Fort Mifflin, don a disguise for a masquerade ball, party on a haunted ship or find another fun way to celebrate this weekend.

🧟 Spooky and scary: For thrill seekers, we’ve got you covered, too. Find all the fear at these haunted Halloween attractions.

🕯️ Creepy bar crawls: Check out a Haunted Barbie Halloween, a Bloody Mary challenge and more boozy fun around town.

🎃 Last-minute trip to a farm: Pickings might be slim at this point in the season but there’s still time to get some pumpkins and gourds from area farms, and some of them even have corn mazes.

🦇 Artsy horror: Watch Nosferatu with a live score, catch some scary new movies at the Philly Film Fest, or explore other spooky performances.

Which one of these characters is NOT a vampire?

A) Bill Compton of True Blood

B) Louis de Pointe du Lac of Interview with a Vampire

C) Spike of Buffy the Vampire Slayer

D) Guillermo de la Cruz of What We Do in the Shadows

📮 To let me know which of the above is correct, write me back.

This week, I’m planning to have a horror movie marathon with some beloved less-scary classics like Hocus Pocus and Practical Magic sprinkled into my schedule. What are you watching? Let me know!