Balls and Chains

by Juliet Fletcher

No one likes to feel tethered to normal routine on Halloween. It's why you'll find suburbanites gadding about in haunted cornfields, reserved types daubing themselves in fake blood and laissez-faire citizens happily lacing themselves up in constricting costumes -- corsets for girls perhaps outweighed by abhorrent furry cartoon suits for those who believe they can pull it off.

This year, you're more likely than in the past to find yourself swilling champagne while dissecting Kill Bill with a werewolf: The All Hallow's Eve high society will be out in force for Henri David's Halloween 2003, an evening gloriously devoted to chic tailoring suitable for wear at every hellmouth (Fri., Oct. 31, 9 p.m., $50 or $20 if in costume, Grand Ballroom, Wyndham Plaza Hotel, 17th and Race sts., 215-732-7711). Meanwhile, one long drive down a tree-darkened road away, Marsha Brown will invite into her New Hope restaurant vampires, demons and other fuggly-faced guests, all thankfully disguised as their favorite stars and starlets, for her Hollywood Saints and Sinners Masquerade Ball (Fri., Oct. 31, 8 p.m.-2 a.m., $150, Marsha Brown, 15 S. Main St., 215-862-7044). And back in the NoLib haunt of Artists at Work, organizers promise Halloween in Shocking 3-D, courtesy of Marc Brodzik, Janet Fitch and other collaborators -- enough to distinguish their art-and-live-music-led costume party (Fri., Oct. 31, call for time, $15, Artists at Work, Second and Poplar sts., 215-625-3931).

For those who want to celebrate this most dusky of festivals a day late (in broad daylight), the Rittenhouse Row Halloween celebration will benefit Project H.O.M.E. through the auction of pumpkins carved by celebrity chefs from spots including Twenty Manning, Brasserie Perrier and Genji. There'll also be face-painting by Francis Jerome (Sat., Nov. 1, 11 a.m.-2 p.m., Westin Philadelphia, 99 S. 17th St., 215-735-4899). And -- as part of a now-familiar city tradition -- Rosenbach Museum & Library presents Release the Bats, a cultural festival devoted to Dracula. For its film components, see Screenpicks on p. 49. And for some up-close and outre Halloween thrills, catch the tail of Spiral Q's Dracula puppet parade (Fri., Oct. 31, 5:30 p.m., starting at Rosenbach Museum & Library, 2010 DeLancey Place, leading to the Prince Music Theater for a screening of the classic 1931 film Dracula, 215-732-1600). As with all the best Halloween tales, this one bears retelling.