London Month of the Dead - The Red Lantern

THE RED LANTERN A Halloween Ball inspired by Japanese Horror On Saturday the 31st October 2026 at The Sanctum Hotel, Soho The red lantern has illuminated Japan’s streets, temples and nocturnal entertainments for centuries, but on Halloween night its glow will lead somewhere altogether darker. Taking over the Sanctum Hotel in the heart of Soho, enter a shadowy realm of Japanese ghosts, demons and supernatural folklore, where taiko drums thunder through the darkness, shamisen players summon strange melodies and spectral Butoh dancers move among yūrei, oni and masked apparitions. Inspired by the eerie beauty of traditional kaidan ghost stories and the unsettling cinema of Onibaba, Kwaidan, Ringu and Ju-On, the night will unfold through performance, storytelling and cursed objects. This London Month of the Dead, our Halloween night will begin to glitch: televisions flicker, telephones ring and something with long black hair is crawling out of the darkness. There are two ways to enter The Red Lantern. Begin the night at 7pm with our Cabaret Dinner, a three-course Halloween feast served amid an evening of strange and supernatural entertainment. Cabaret Dinner tickets include entry to the Ball afterwards. Or, for those who prefer to venture straight into the darkness, Ball Only tickets grant entry from 8.30pm, when the Red Lantern burns brighter and the night truly begins. Tickets including a three-course cabaret dinner, starting at 7pm, are £75. Ball-only tickets, with entry from 8.30pm, are £30 Early Bird. Please click here to purchase. DRESS CODE Halloween finery, phantoms, monsters & creatures of the night. While The Red Lantern draws its inspiration from Japanese ghosts, folklore and horror, the dress code is Halloween rather than specifically Japanese. Consider the theme an invitation, not an instruction: yūrei, oni and creatures from Japanese cinema are welcome, but so are vampires, witches, revenants, demons, decadent ghouls and nightmares of your own invention. Interpret Halloween however you please: elegant, elaborate, sinister, surreal or spectacular but you must dress up. This is a Ball, after all, and the living should make just as much effort as the dead.

THE RED LANTERN
A Halloween Ball inspired by Japanese Horror
On Saturday the 31st October 2026 at The Sanctum Hotel, Soho

The red lantern has illuminated Japan’s streets, temples and nocturnal entertainments for centuries, but on Halloween night its glow will lead somewhere altogether darker. Taking over the Sanctum Hotel in the heart of Soho, enter a shadowy realm of Japanese ghosts, demons and supernatural folklore, where taiko drums thunder through the darkness, shamisen players summon strange melodies and spectral Butoh dancers move among yūrei, oni and masked apparitions.

Inspired by the eerie beauty of traditional kaidan ghost stories and the unsettling cinema of Onibaba, Kwaidan, Ringu and Ju-On, the night will unfold through performance, storytelling and cursed objects. This London Month of the Dead, our Halloween night will begin to glitch: televisions flicker, telephones ring and something with long black hair is crawling out of the darkness.

There are two ways to enter The Red Lantern. Begin the night at 7pm with our Cabaret Dinner, a three-course Halloween feast served amid an evening of strange and supernatural entertainment. Cabaret Dinner tickets include entry to the Ball afterwards. Or, for those who prefer to venture straight into the darkness, Ball Only tickets grant entry from 8.30pm, when the Red Lantern burns brighter and the night truly begins.

Tickets including a three-course cabaret dinner, starting at 7pm, are £75. Ball-only tickets, with entry from 8.30pm, are £30 Early Bird. Please click here to purchase.

DRESS CODE
Halloween finery, phantoms, monsters & creatures of the night.

While The Red Lantern draws its inspiration from Japanese ghosts, folklore and horror, the dress code is Halloween rather than specifically Japanese. Consider the theme an invitation, not an instruction: yūrei, oni and creatures from Japanese cinema are welcome, but so are vampires, witches, revenants, demons, decadent ghouls and nightmares of your own invention.

Interpret Halloween however you please: elegant, elaborate, sinister, surreal or spectacular but you must dress up. This is a Ball, after all, and the living should make just as much effort as the dead.