Spooky

As if the real world weren't frightful enough, now comes a UPN "reality" series titled "The Paranormal Borderline." Picture this: "Little short off-white beings, naked guys with big black eyes doing things to these people on a table," plus animals being killed and drained of blood by a "short, vicious monster with glowing red eyes" that also flies and looks like a kangaroo with claws, is part feather and part fur, has spikes down its neck and is named "the goat sucker."

The title character of "The Woman in Black" appears for only a few quick moments of the thriller at the Road Theatre in North Hollywood. Although she's often swathed in murky light, you can tell immediately that she's up to no good. She's so scary that you might look at the program, only to discover that no actress and not even a character name is listed in what looks like a two-man cast. No actress emerges from the wings for a curtain call. No woman's glossy photo is posted out front.

Every year around Halloween, Dr. James Isaacs' veterinary clinic turns into a kind of triage for pets that have been maimed or fallen sick. Some animals are brought in with serious digestive problems from eating theobromine, an ingredient in chocolate candy that has a toxic effect on animals. Others become sick after eating plastic, aluminum foil or other kinds of candy wrappers or candle wax. Halloween, the veterinarian said, is not a good holiday for pets.

Few bands or directors making music videos seem to have much interest in incorporating narrative anymore. But don't tell that to Portishead, the freshman band whose haunting and hummable "Sour Times (Nobody Loves Me)" is leaving a sweet aftertaste on the pop and alternative charts. The video clip comes with a demanding story line, the jumpy continuum of which calls for more attention span than Beavis and Butt-head might collectively muster on their verybest day.

The Vampire Archives The Most Complete Volume of Vampire Tales Ever Published Edited and with an Introduction by Otto Penzler Vintage: 1034 pp., $25 paper "You have heard, no doubt, of the appalling superstition that prevails in Upper and Lower Styria, in Moravia, Silesia, in Turkish Serbia, in Poland, even in Russia; the superstition, so we must call it, of the vampire," wrote Sheridan Le Fanu in his classic "Carmilla," first...

Dimes, quarters, perhaps the occasional buck. . . . That's what generally lands in the cups, hats and guitar cases of the dozens of street musicians around Hollywood. Recording contracts are a much rarer matter, though. But that's just what came to a young man called Spookie one day last fall when he set up in front of Columbia Records' offices in Century City. And this week his debut album, "Spookie," hits the streets.

“Matilda: The Musical,” the stage incarnation of Roald Dahl's famed storybook, made its Broadway debut Thursday at the Shubert Theatre. The London import, minted by the Royal Shakespeare Company, follows a troubled girl genius whose gifts are lost on her idiotic parents and a tyrannical boarding school headmistress played by British actor Bertie Carvel in drag. The musical, with a book by Dennis Kelly and a score by Australian comedian and composer Tim Minchin, features a kid-centric cast, including four girls who share the title (and telekinetic)

In Part I, the Mormon Church had been unsettled by the purported discovery of a series of 19th-Century documents. Produced by a young collector named Mark Hofmann, they appeared to question official church history. In 1984, Hofmann had revealed the Salamander Letter, which gave a new, startling account of Prophet Joseph Smith's discovery of the gold plates.

Spooky the Owl, the 38-year-old mascot of Boston's Museum of Science and the oldest great horned owl in captivity, has died after a career that included 25,000 performances before delighted crowds. Spooky, whose antics were seen by about 30 million visitors, was brought to the museum as a 3-day-old hatchling in 1951 and quickly became a major attraction. Officials said he died at the museum Wednesday. Great horned owls normally live only 10 years in the wild.

Anyone in Woodley Park early Saturday may think Halloween has come a week early. Runners, some clad in costumes, will circle Lake Balboa in an effort to raise money for, and awareness of, the LAPD's Jeopardy Program. Organizers of the 10K Spooky Sprint hope the inaugural event will become the chief annual fund-raiser for Jeopardy, which aims to give young people alternatives to gang activity or dropping out of school.