ZELIENOPLE — Frightful sights and scary nights are coming back to the area this Halloween as Zelienople and Harmony prepare for another installment of the Northern Nightmares festival.

The event features Halloween-themed ghost hunting tours, horror movie flicks, pumpkin carving contests and an "un-beauty pageant" spanning several weekends in October, culminating on Halloween with an afternoon parade and trick or treat.

The annual event features a candlelit haunted tour of Harmony and Zelienople that runs every Friday and Saturday night until the end of October. The tour lasts about 45 minutes, and tickets, which cost $15 per adult and $9 per child, are available at the Strand Theater's ticket office at 119 N. Main St., Zelienople.

The Strand Theater will play a much bigger role in this year's festival, as it's the first time in 25 years the theater has been open. The theater will show a flurry of frightful films every Friday and Saturday night for the rest of the month. Tickets are $5 per person.

The Strand won't have any movies on Oct. 23 and Oct. 24. That Friday and Saturday, the theater will host The Phantom's Leading Ladies, a trio of Broadway actresses from the famous "Phantom of the Opera" play. The trio has performed collectively in hundreds of shows across the country and abroad at prestigious venues like Radio City Music Hall, Carnegie Hall and the Royal Albert Hall.

The ladies will perform at 8 p.m. Oct. 23 and 24 and will hold a 2 p.m. matinee Oct. 24. They will sing everything from Broadway classics to Beatles songs during an evening of "surprises and flirtatious fun with exquisite musicianship, humor and class," said Ron Carter, president of the Strand Theater Initiative.

Tickets range from $34 to $39. A special champagne reception with the ladies also is slated after the Oct. 23 performance, where patrons can mingle with the actresses for a cost of $64 a ticket.

Northern Nightmares also will feature the Fright Night Tent at the corner of Main Street and Grandview Avenue in Zelienople.

The tent will host live entertainment, including live bands, ghost stories and the un-beauty pageant every Friday and Saturday night for the rest of the month. The un-beauty pageant is Saturday and starts around 6:15 p.m. A registering fee of $5 applies to each contestant.