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With H-Day itself falling on a Friday, you can rest in peace that there's plenty of ghoulish goings-on both here and abroad in Pantagraphland, with some of it spilling over, like a bucket of blood, into Saturday.

Following is a disinterment of some of the grislier highlights:

Sinister cinema

Fright fans needing a scream-worthy screen fix this weekend have several offbeat options available in the 48 hours ahead.

• Still cutting a wide swath through the nation's box office is an arrival from last weekend, "Saw V," the latest offering in the torturous franchise starring Tobin Bell as this generation's Freddie/Jason heir, Jigsaw.

• Joining Jigsaw this weekend is "The Haunting of Molly Hartley," a teen terror tale aimed at a broader demographic, per its PG-13 rating. Singer-actress Haley Bennett, late of "Music & Lyrics," stars as a teen queen about to come into a horrifying heritage on her 18th birthday.

• The Normal Theater is playing it for laughs at 7 p.m. tonight and Friday with the jittery Don Knotts classic, "The Ghost and Mr. Chicken" (see this week's Billboard column for a celebration of same).

• Bloomington's Palace Cinemas is swinging open the coffin lid at midnight Friday and Saturday for showings of the lush 1979 remake of "Dracula," starring dapper Frank Langella in his "Saturday Night Fever" coiffure as the Count.

• Speaking of capes, Illinois State University's Capen Cinemas is turning over its Double Feature Friday series to the holiday this Friday, via the kid-friendly Disney oldie "Hocus Pocus" at 7 p.m., followed by the sterner, R-rated stuff of "The Strangers" at 9 p.m.

• Finally, for old-school fright fans, Clinton's new Eagle Theaters is digging up a real treasure - the original 1931 Boris Karloff edition of "Frankenstein," showing at 8:30 and 10:15 p.m. tonight and Friday.

Threatening theater

If you like your horror live and in the (sickly pale) flesh, there are several offerings at large this weekend.

• Illinois State University's sanguine revival of "Dracula" (previewed two weeks ago as a GO! cover story) flies high for three more performances in the Center for the Performing Arts Theatre before slamming the coffin lid shut. The blood flows at 7:30 p.m. tonight through Saturday (with a special pre-show Halloween party at 6:30 p.m. Friday only; call (309) 438-2535 for details/tickets/blood donations).

• While ISU is resurrecting Bram Stoker's "Dracula," Eureka College is piecing together a new version of Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein," with performances at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and Wednesday through Nov. 8 in Pritchard Theatre on campus.

Creepy kidstuff

For the tiny terrors in your life, feast your fangs on these activities:

• Uptown Normal's annual Treat Feast, from 5 to 6:30 p.m. tonight, invites costumed small people to haunt participating merchants until they fork over the sweet stuff.

• The Bloomington Public Library is (g)hosting a free Halloween costume parade and story time at 10 a.m. Friday in the library's Community Room.

• The McLean County Arts Center in Bloomington's Cultural District is scaring up a mix of sweets and season art-making activities for kids from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday, with a concurrent treat for moms and dads: an Arts Center open house party.

Monstrous music

Music hath charms to spook the savage beast, we always say. To wit, check these out:

• The Illinois State University Symphony Orchestra is raising the baton on a ghoulish gala at 8 p.m. tonight in ISU's Center for the Performing Arts Concert Hall, remodeled for the occasion into a creepy cave-like sanctum. Audience members are invited to come in costume, a la the orchestra and conductor Glenn Block, all the better to groove on the likes of "Night on Bald Mountain" and "Danse Macabre."

• Both ISU and Illinois Wesleyan University have scheduled seasonal jazz concerts designed to make you jump.

As in, jump up and jive.

At 8 p.m. Friday, ISU's triple-threat Jazz Ensembles I, II and III perform in the CPA Concert Hall, while, concurrently, the IWU Jazz Ensemble follows suit in Westbrook Auditorium on campus (with a 7:30 p.m. start time).

Costumes are urged at both.

Eerie edifices

Though Bloomington's long-running Creatures Crypt slammed the tomb lid down for good last year, there are several large-scale haunted extravaganzas within easy driving distance.

• Clinton's ever-popular Terror on Washington Street (513 W. Washington St., to be precise) dishes up its special blend of grue-stew from 7 to 9 p.m. tonight and 7 to 11 p.m. Friday.

• Chillicothe's Spider Hill, in Three Sisters Park, offers no less three separately ticketed haunted attractions, plus family-friendly Boo Barn, from 7 to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

• Forest City's epic downtown Fright Night has gained infamy for its two no-holds-barred haunted houses, its "Museum of Horror," its no-turning-back walking trail and its hayrack rides from hell. Hours of doom are 7:30 p.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday.