If you prefer your candy corn served with a side of gore and love feeling your pulse going into overdrive, this Halloween season The Big (poisoned) Apple has a couple of spine-tinglers you won’t want to miss.

Sleep No More - This immersive theatrical journey through a provocatively retrofitted hotel offers theatergoers entrance into a macabre, film noir-inspired adaptation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth. From Punchdrunk, the creatively notorious UK theatre group (they advocate the constant shifting of lines between space, performer, and spectator), this awesome theatrical brush with the famous blood-lusty drama allows audience members to “move freely through the epic world of the story at their own pace, choosing where to go and what to see, ensuring that everyone’s journey is different and unique.” Intriguing and haunting (vs. out-and-out horrifying), feel free to bring your inner child, but leave the little ones at home. No one under 16 will be admitted. From Oct. 26-31, they’ll host a week-long masquerade with special acts following regularly scheduled performances. (Thru 11/12) The McKittrick Hotel, 530 W. 27th St., 212-352-3101; sleepnomorenyc.com

Nightmare: Fairy Tales - An annual event from the luridly eccentric mind of Timothy Haskell, this is the first time his “Nightmare” haunted house series has returned the seemingly innocent fairy tales we grew up on to their grotesquely gruesome origins. As it happens, many of the stories spun by Aesop, the Brothers Grimm, and Hans Christian Andersen began as “racy and violent tales intended to keep children from misbehaving.” Thus, we are invited to explore a dark forest and a series of cottages designed to thrust audiences into the original scenarios of horror. Notably, the 2011 Nightmare includes a bonus -- described as “a sensory assaulting 5-D theatre experience called The Experiment.” A prelude to the sinister trek through the woods, The Experiment takes place in a small lab, where audience members are part of a research focus group testing the limits of one’s threshold for fear. BYOD: Bring Your Own Defibrillator. (Thru 11/5) Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center, 107 Suffolk St., 212-352-3101; nightmarenewyork.com