Long Beach is once again the summer hotspot for fans of all things spooky as the Midsummer Scream Halloween and Horror Convention took over the Convention Center on Friday, July 28 and continues through Sunday, July 30.
“I pretty much live for this every summer. If you love anything scary, you’re here this weekend,” said Reseda resident Omar Cruz, who said he’s come to every Midsummer Scream event since it began in 2016.
Dressed up as a frightening and bloody clown, he was one of thousands of people who attended the first day of the annual scare-a-thon, which is expected to attract about 40,000 people to the area.
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The weekend includes as horror movie festival, walk-thru mazes, a horror-themed marketplace with more than 300 vendors, live music, cabaret performances, panel discussions, celebrity guests, activations that showcase video and board games and more.
With doors open from 6-10 p.m. on Friday, the first day is the shortest of all three convention days. Yet this year, the Convention Center seemed to fill up as soon as doors opened and it was largely in part because for the first time ever the widely popular Hall of Shadows, a darkened zone that houses walk-through mazes designed by amateur and professional haunt creators, was open for the duration of the event instead of just Saturday and Sunday.
And people lined up to get their scare on right away at mazes like Rancho Cucamonga-based Straite to Hale Productions’ Unhinged Housewarming, a classic haunted attraction inspired by the Winchester Mystery House.
Using tactics like air guns, slow-moving ghosts, a creature that jumps off the wall and a swamp created by green laser lights and fog, it was one of the scariest of the handful of walk-through haunts within the zone.
“This house is filled with ghosts who have the desire to acquire more souls into the house to join them,”…
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