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Yearning for a gyro? Weaning off wiener schnitzel but not there yet? Satisfy your cravings for Greek and Central European cuisine at the 13th annual Ethnic Food and Dance Festival, Saturday, Oct. 8 from noon to 4 p.m. at St. Innocent's Orthodox Church (free admission).

The popular "Taste of Orthodoxy" event features an array of Central European and Greek food booths, including the 4th of July gyro booth and the Russian tea room serving up Italian tiramisu and traditional lemon pound cake, and an Austrian booth offering wiener schnitzel and potato salad. Other Greek specialties include dolmades, keftedes and baklava. In addition to beer and wine, you can treat your tastebuds to ouzo. For those who can't handle the potency of pure ouzo (few of us can), drink it like the Greeks do, poured over ice with a splash of water and sipped as an aperitif with meals. (I credit my own affinity for all things anise on my baptism by a Greek Orthodox priest in a Byzantine church in Athens. My indoctrination started young.)

"For life is more than food" (really?), the church's choir will offer hourly Byzantine chant performances during guided tours of the historic temple, the oldest standing church in Eureka, built in 1883. And local international folk band Chubritza will keep things lively, playing traditional instruments and offering dance lessons. For more information on the festival, visit www.eurekafirstchurch.com.

• Photo by Evan Wisheropp

Lurking around an old mill at night is creepy enough, but add cleavers, liches and deranged lunatics and you've got a night of total terror. Don't miss the Haunted Mill Tour at Blue Ox Millworks every Friday and Saturday from 7 to midnight, Oct. 7-29, with an additional night of scares on Oct. 31 ($12). No kids under 13. No kidding.

Say goodbye to summer, the season of darkness is upon us. To celebrate, the Eureka Theater wants you to get your freak on every Friday night in October at its Frightful Friday Flix series.

The sequence of screamers opens in the nick of time with Tim Burton's ultra-stylish, unflinching take on Stephen Sondheim's bloody opera Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Friday, Oct. 7 at 7:30 p.m. ($5). It stars Burton's favorite dark and creepy leading actors, Johnny Depp (in the title role) and Helena Bonham Carter.

• Sweeney Todd

Next up is a special Robo-Cat's Horror Theater presentation of John Carpenter's Christine, playing Friday, Oct. 14 at 7:30 p.m. ($5). Hosted by the one-and-only T. Great Razooly and featuring prizes and special features to be announced, this one is sure to send your fear of possessed and obsessed inanimate objects into overdrive.

Phantasm, a low-budget indie film that went on to receive acclaim and gain a strong fan following, is digitally remastered and ready to give you nightmares about sinister small-town morticians with God complexes and arsenals of dead bodies at their disposal (never a good thing) on Friday, Oct. 21 at 7:30 p.m. ($5). This showing features a live talk and Q&A with special guest Roberto Quezada, the film's assistant editor and visual consultant.

And capping off the freaky Friday fun is the ultimate cult classic and audience participation midnight movie champion, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Oct. 28 at 7:30 p.m. ($5). Tease out your Magenta hair, grab some thick-rimmed nerd glasses and prepare to swoon over Tim Curry's iconic legs and lips. Let's do the Time Warp again.