The Colonial Theatre's October Gets More Grown-Up After Dark

Which October Saturday can you take a ten-year-old to the Colonial Theatre on Stockton Boulevard? There is exactly one, and only until 6 p.m.

The 1940 movie house that Comstock's places "between Oak and Tahoe parks" has five Love Horror Events dates on its October 2026 calendar. The age rules follow the clock. Early afternoons are open to almost anyone. After 8 p.m. the shows are 18+ or 21+, and at least one is already sold out. Once you know that, it's easy to plan a month at the venue down the street.

Four Saturdays and a Friday

Love Horror Events has the Colonial booked on October 10, 17, 23, 24 and 31, and its calendar shows nothing else there in October. Four of those dates are back-to-back Saturdays. The fifth, Cabaret Macabre on the 23rd, falls on a Friday. Here is the month sorted by start time, since start time also predicts the age rule:

Prices come from the Love Horror Events TicketSpice pages and include fees. The city's Sacramento365 calendar lists some of these events at lower prices. Before you plan around a price, check the ticket page, which is the one that has changed.

Noon is when the doors are widest

Each of the two daytime events opens to a slightly different crowd.

On Saturday, October 10, the Sacramento Horror Film Festival Best of Shorts Edition opens its doors at noon and starts at 12:30 p.m. Sacramento365 lists it running until 10:30 p.m. A pass costs $32.07, which is $30 plus a $2.07 fee. The ticket page says the films are for mature audiences and that parental discretion is advised, but it gives no minimum age. So the decision is up to parents. That's a different situation from a hard cutoff. The Sacramento365 listing said the full film lineup would come out in September. If a ten-hour block of short horror films is a family question, the lineup is worth reading first.

On Saturday, October 17, the Colonial has the widest daytime door of the month. The Sinister Pop-Up Market runs from noon to 6 p.m. and is all ages. The Sinister Film Festival starts at 12:30 p.m. inside the theatre and runs "until late." One $16.99 general-admission ticket, $15 plus a $1.99 fee, covers both. The films carry the same mature-audience note as the week before. The listing describes vendors selling original artwork, handmade goods, horror collectibles, "creepy curiosities," strange decor and apparel, made by "crafters, collectors, designers, creature creators" and other independent makers. If you want a Halloween costume piece or a front-porch prop that no one else on the block will have, this is the October date for it. Families can shop the market and skip the screening room.

Both daytime events are Saturdays, a week apart, and both start within half an hour of noon. After that, the schedule moves well past dinnertime.

After 8 p.m., the room narrows

The three evening events start between 8:30 and 9 p.m. Each one has a stricter age rule or a thinner ticket supply than anything in the afternoon.

Cabaret Macabre 2026, presented by Nevermore Gorelesque, plays Friday, October 23, at 8:30 p.m. It is 21+, the only event of the month with that limit. TicketSpice lists three tiers: general admission at $25.49, Lenore VIP at $36.74 and Raven VIP at $45.49. Raven VIP was already sold out.

Rocky Horror with Amber's Sweets comes the next night, Saturday, October 24. The show starts at 9 p.m., VIPs enter at 7:45 and general admission enters at 8:15. General admission at $36.99 is sold out. When the page was checked, five $51.99 VIP tickets were left. Neither listing gives a minimum age for this date.

Rocky Horror Halloween with Amber's Sweets closes out the month on Saturday, October 31, with the same 7:45 VIP and 8:15 general entry times and a 9 p.m. show. Sacramento365 lists it as 18+. Tickets cost less than on the 24th, $26.99 general and $41.99 VIP, and general admission was still for sale. If you have trick-or-treaters to walk early on Halloween, the timing still works for an adult evening. The 8:15 general entry comes after the usual porch-light hours.

These are the shows that sell out. The Oct. 24 general admission is gone, and so is one Cabaret Macabre VIP tier. Most of the afternoon tickets you can still buy at the door. For the evening shows, buy the week before.

A 1940 room that was built for families

The way the calendar sorts by age stands out more because of how the Colonial was first built.

The Pacific Coast Architecture Database dates the building to 1939–1940 and credits architect Herbert E. Goodpastor. The Sacramento Public Library's historical photo record says it opened as a movie theatre in June 1940 with 850 seats, air cooling, and a soundproof mezzanine "crying room," a glassed-off space where parents could keep watching while they settled a fussy baby. The building had a room set aside for the youngest moviegoers before it had any of its current programming.

The same record says the theatre sat inactive for years before reopening as a music hall in 2000. The theatre's own site says much of its original charm has been preserved, and it lists the space for private rentals. In October, those 1940 bones host a market in the afternoon and a shadow-cast Rocky Horror at night, two very different crowds under one marquee.

Café Colonial shares the building. Comstock's described it in December 2024 as a spot that also gives "underground musicians" a place to play. At the time, co-owner Anna Thompson had rolled out a new menu with house-made sauces and a full vegan side. The menu may have changed since that profile ran. The café's role as the room next to the stage is the part that has held. In February 2026, CapRadio reported that Café Colonial books about 250 bands a year. Comstock's notes that the theatre and the café are owned by different entities.

What the bookings do for the building

October also matters because of the money behind it. That February CapRadio report was part of a Solving Sacramento series asking what the city would lose if struggling arts venues closed. It profiled Jim Cornett, who owns Harlow's and The Starlet Room downtown, is a part owner of Café Colonial, and helps manage the Colonial Theatre. A 2025 National Independent Venue Association survey found only 36% of venues nationwide were profitable.

The report also asked what might help struggling venues. Cornett’s answer was short:

"Honestly, the best thing you can do is support. Go to shows."

A run of horror bookings, four of them on consecutive Saturdays, is the kind of steady draw that answer describes. A $16.99 market ticket on the 17th or a late VIP ticket on Halloween both count toward keeping an 86-year-old building on Stockton Boulevard open.

For a daytime October outing closer to Aggie Square, the Center for Land-Based Learning runs its Mobile Farmers Market at 4480 2nd Ave. on Wednesdays from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. through November 11. The listing says everyone is welcome. On October 14, Aggie Square also has a live cooking demo with Chef Santana and the Center for Land-Based Learning, set for the same lunch hour.

Old buildings like the Colonial last because someone keeps finding new uses for rooms that were designed for something else. That same work, reading a 1940s structure for what it can still become, is a big part of what Lisa Rayman does for clients with older homes in Tahoe Park and along Stockton Boulevard. Whether you're curious what your home is worth today or thinking through a renovation or rebuild, Lisa is glad to talk it over. Get a Free Home Valuation & Build Consultation, and enjoy the Colonial this month.