A four-storey haunted house rave in The Rocks for Halloween

While the usual suspects plan their Halloween parties to celebrate another year of frightful fun, a new player has emerged with a devilishly different take on the occasion.

The heritage-listed Old Merchant House in The Rocks will be transformed into The House of Horrors from October 31 to November 2. Billed as several nights of sweaty, techno-fueled dance parties, the series of spooky raves is part of the wider Ghost in the Rocks festival taking over the historic precinct this year, transforming those cobblestoned streets and tight alleyways into a bonafide ghost town (albeit one that will not be empty).

For the first time ever, it looks like Sydney is throwing a Halloween party perfectly synced with the city’s strong nightlife resurgence. The House of Horrors promises an immersive set-up across multiple floors, all designed to fright and delight in equal measure framed by historic sandstone walls.

There will be themed rooms. The Ghost Room, for example, will be centred around a dancefloor strewn with eerie lighting effects and shadowy figures. The more malevolent-named Slaughterhouse Room will have blood-stained walls for a more macabre take on a techno rave. The Abandoned Hospital will feature cocktails delivered via syringes and live performances from so-called “deranged doctors”. Then you’ve got the top floor—the Vampire Den—fashioned as a Jekyll and Hyde-inspired attic with dripping candles and blood bag cocktails served from a coffin-shaped bar.

With heavy ambient details in place, all four floors of The House of Horrors will have DJs pumping well into each night with techno, house and R&B.

Typically used as a heritage-listed educational centre and office space, the Old Merchant House has had many lives since it built in 1848. It’s been residences, a museum and even a boarding house. That means plenty of opportunities for ghosts to get stuck in these walls, and if you’re (un)lucky you might just stop one while you’re out there throwing shapes on the Slaughterhouse floor.