Midsummer Scream 2024

My personal favorite event of the year, Midsummer Scream, returned with a vengeance July 26-27, 2024! For you fellow nerds out there, yes, that means it overlapped with San Diego Comic Con - how did that impact the con, if at all? What was new? How spooky was the Hall of Shadows in 2024? We’ll answer all of that and more below, however if you just want to know what we rated the event overall, as well as our favorite haunts in the Hall of Shadows you know what to do, hit that TLDR. And if you’re extra curious how this year stacked up against last, jump to that blog post HERE.

First things first, YES we noticed some of our favorite vendors missing from Midsummer Scream because of the conflict with SDCC. Bummer! However, we found the impact to be pretty minimal. If anything, MSS was more packed than EVER before, perhaps due to fans flying out for one event and hitting both. Both Friday and Saturday, as well as weekend and Gold Bat VIP passes were SOLD OUT! Usually Friday is the day you can count on being a little more calm and getting your shopping in, but not this year! Speaking of shopping, let’s dive right in to the breakdown of this year’s event…

Vendors - Something that jumped out to me immediately was that it seemed the vendors brought their absolute A game with their booth setups this year. I do feel like photo ops were missing from the middle of the show floor, but the booths themselves were really detailed and creative. The layout of the floor was a bit different this year, which made it feel fresh. We also had an unaccepted menace attending this year, THE FIRE ALARM. We wondered if it was a faulty alarm + the new layout of the floor (and the Paramount booth was PUMPING that fog). For those that did not attend, the fire alarm sounded bright and early on Saturday when it was just Gold Bat attendees (so between 10 and 11) and they temporarily closed entrances to make sure we were safe. It unfortunately continued to sound throughout the day, causing some issues with panels, but we were unaffected and didn’t really notice it with all of the other loud sounds in the Hall of Shadows. Some favorite vendors of ours this year were Discount Cemetery, who did live screen printing and had a really fun photo op with their van, and Drew Rausch is one of my favorite artists and was so glad to see him back vending MSS!

Hall of Shadows - The Hall of Shadows is the back portion of the Long Beach Convention Center that they turn the lights off and invite haunted houses and mazes from across the country to set up a taste of their upcoming attraction. A fan favorite portion is the entryway, previously done by Cal Haunts, and the baton was passed for MSS 2024 to Fear Farm. Fear Farm is moving their haunt to a different location this year, and it was nice to see someone else’s creative take on the entrance. Unfortunately, it was not in our top favorites for entryways of MSS. Cal Haunts set the bar incredibly high, and for us this year was a bit of a miss with it’s Duskfall Hollow farm theme. What we did really enjoy was that Fear Farm set up a haunted walkthrough upon entry to the left (so if you don’t want to walk through, you didn’t have to) and that was fun! Overall it just didn’t have as much interaction and detail as I really expect. One thing EVERYONE was talking about was that Lionsgate was entering a haunted maze this year, and they absolutely brought their horror game. This was on the same scale as a HHN or Knott’s Scary maze, it felt LONG and the sets were incredibly detailed. They mostly showcased their Saw and Strangers franchises which was absolutely perfect and a real treat to be able to experience in this way. And everyones favorite part of all, IT WAS SCARY. In years past, I have barely jumped in some of the Hall of Shadows mazes, and this year, I screamed bloody murder more than once. (Please check our socials for the footage) BY COINCIDENCE, we planned a Scooby Doo cosplay the same year that The Dreich Society brought a Scooby Doo maze to MSS which was a highlight for me; they perfected the balance of funny and spooky that we all know and love about Scooby Doo. One thing we noticed was that the outer facades of all the haunts were lower and therefore less eye catching, it almost gave the floor an empty feel. That being said, we actually felt like the interior design and scare factors were very much increased! Maybe next year we will get both! They also re-situated The Decayed Brigade show at the back, which may have contributed to a more open/empty feeling.

We thought it would be fun to choose our favorites in the Hall for Best Overall, Scariest, and haunt we are most likely to attend based on their MSS preview. While it may not be fair, Lionsgate took both Best and Scariest, but Santa Ana Haunt really impressed us with the fun factor of the bar install, so we hope to check them out this fall!

Food/Drinks - HUZZAH! Finally a labeled vegan option at the Long Beach Convention Center! We noticed that all the Convention Center menus were themed this year! We appreciated that the food names were themed and the digital menus had cobwebs and spooky things like that. Details like that really elevate events for me. At the cafe in the lobby we stumbled upon a vegan meatball sub which has vegan cheese, and it was honestly pretty legit AND THEMED. They included quite a few meatballs and the bread made it a little more elevated. We didn’t ask, but we assume that with the vegan cheese, that might mean you could have the staff make you a vegan pizza or modify some of the other dishes. Death by Chocolate was vending this year and they had a few (vegan) dark chocolate options, Horror Coffee and Deadly Sweets both had vegan drink options, and I saw someone post about a vegan candy that a vendor was selling but unfortunately I can’t remember their name! Between the show hours and the after party, we popped into Kalaveras for some guacamole, chips, and vegan tacos which is located directly across from the Convention Center.

A favorite for us is when the Hall of Shadows has a themed bar, and this year Santa Ana Haunt created the bar space and it was SO COOL. Overall it was a simple interior facade with an implication of a masquerade party, but situated on either side of the bar they had windows that you could look into their actual haunt walkthrough. BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE - they also had a button on each window that provided a different scare function to the folks walking inside the maze. I really thought this was so smart, so clever, and so fun. It seemed to be a really big hit with everyone, and the actors inside would also interact with the maze. We also walked through and it was obvious where the windows were, so you kind of expected the jump scare, so if I want to be really picky I could say that the windows should have been hidden from the other side better, but whatever. It was still effective and incredible. There was a magician walking around the bar doing card tricks as well, and if you know anything about me, you know that I am fascinated by the simplest magic tricks. We had the pleasure of securing a table to enjoy drinks two separate days of the con, and the magician did two different card tricks for us. Honestly that is the kind of unique and fun vibe that makes me look forward to MSS all year long.

Panels - I said this last year, but even more so this year, I feel like they really upped the variety of panel/experience options. There were quite a few crafting stations, how-to panels, podcast recordings, and of course the Main Stage offerings. I really enjoy sitting in for the upcoming haunted attraction panels (shockingly) and never have any real trouble getting a seat with the Gold Bat priority access. There were MANY panels this year for upcoming haunt attractions. However, we didn’t even bother to sit in on the Halloween Horror Nights panels this year. I largely am not a huge fan of HHN so this doesn’t hit for me like it does for other folks wanting to report on the latest news of this event. I would recommend skipping the wait in line for this unless you are an avid fan! A favorite of ours is always the drag show that hits the Main Stage, and while not a panel, the surprising star of the show for Dreadful Danny was the Scream Warriors activation that they had in the room next to the Grand Ballroom. This was marketed as “the most terrifying audio experience” by LVCRFT to promote their new album. It was genuinely a treat, the sound quality was exceptional, and it was actually terrifying because they relied on near pitch blackness and strobe lighting in a small space. Another unexpected favorite for us was the Know Your Handbook: The Game Show for the Recently Deceased which was accessible for those that attended the after party. We thought this was really well rehearsed, interactive, and very fun!

Next year Midsummer Scream will be more of a Late Summer Scream, as they are returning August 15-17, 2025! We hope to see you there. Until our next rendezvous, may the secrets of the night intrigue you.

TLDR

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TLDR 〰️

Boo’s Review:
Overall Haunted Attraction Rating: 5
Atmosphere Rating: 5
Vegan Food Rating: 3
Costume & Makeup Rating: 4
Scare Actor/Cast Rating: 4
Set Design & Special Effects Rating: 4
Scare/Intensity Factor Rating: 3
Value for Money Rating: 5

Killer K8’s Review:
Overall Haunted Attraction Rating: 5
Atmosphere Rating: 4.5
Vegan Food Rating: 3
Costume & Makeup Rating: 4
Scare Actor/Cast Rating: 3
Set Design & Special Effects Rating: 3
Scare/Intensity Factor Rating: 3.5
Value for Money Rating: 5

*Scores are out of a possibly perfect 5

**Costuming/Scare Actors/Set Design/Intensity Factor are for the Hall of Shadows as a whole