Community groups and neighbors are coming together to help children and families feel safe during Halloween celebrations, with some families choosing to opt out of trick-or-treating altogether amid fears of immigration raids.

WTTW News recently explored some of Chicago’s independent costume shops that are open year-round and can help outfit any customer’s dreams — or nightmares.

The scariest thing about Halloween is the number of pumpkins that wind up in landfills every year. Enter the pumpkin smash. Collected gourds will be taken to compost facilities.

Take your jack-o’-lanterns to one of the dozens of pumpkin smash events happening Saturday in Chicago and the suburbs.

Here’s a list of hair-raising reasons to climb out of your casket and explore the necropolis.

This weekend, nearly 80 sites across the greater Chicago region will be collecting pumpkins for composting, part of a nationwide push to keep food waste out of landfills.

The scariest thing this Halloween is the weather forecast for trick-or-treaters.

From carnivorous plants to blood-sucking sea creatures, nature serves up plenty of frights, lots of them found right here in Illinois.

The National Weather Service isn’t even trying to sugarcoat the forecast for Halloween. It’s all downhill from here.

Chicago police on Wednesday announced Mario Munoz, 34, has been arrested and charged with a felony count of arson and a misdemeanor count of criminal damage to property.

Caretakers will pass out more pumpkins to animals during Brookfield's “Boo! at the Zoo” event Saturday and Sunday.

According to police, the person initially ignited several sidewalk autumn or Halloween displays along with some street corner garbage cans. The last three fires have been set with decorations on the front porches of homes.

Find your own darn pumpkin patches and corn mazes. This is a list for adults who love the spooky season just as much as those costumed kids with their candy bags.

The tunnel of gory scenes snaking through the northwest side church basement is one of, if not the, longest-running haunted house experiences in Chicago. What began in 1979 with just a few classic horror characters in the St. Pascal’s boiler room has transmogrified into a 15-minute tour of terror run entirely by volunteers in support of the parish school.

Attention chocoholics: Chicago has announced a citywide Halloween costume contest, with 10-pound bars of chocolate being dangled as the top prize.

Ghouls, wounds and zombies are just another day at the office for an Albany Park special effects shop.