In just it's 3rd year, Midsummer Scream has taken it's place as one of the most organized, fun, stress free and amazing conventions of the year. Last weekend we were on-hand all weekend to check out all of the amazing panels, the Hall of Shadows and just a fun time with all our haunted friends. 

Let's head into the fog ... 

Welcome to Midsummer Scream 2018!!! 

First up was the Knott's Scary Farm panel where they talked a lot about their process and announced an all new scare zone Forsaken Lake

The Hall of Shadows was bigger and better than ever

We can't wait to check out these full events in October!! 

No Midsummer Scream would be complete without a visit to the Black Cat Lounge 

Six Flags Panel where the monsters came out to play

Girls, Girls, Girls!!! 

Caption Contest!!! 

Queen Mary Dark Harbor Panel is always one of the highlights of the weekend 

Nice photo-bomb Big Mike!! 

An all new panel this year from Warner Brothers and their Horror Made Here event 

The excitement for this event is palpable, the room was very full for a first year panel 

We also had a chance to talk with Jon Braver from Delusion 

The last panel of Midsummer Scream was a unification of Halloween Horror Nights on both coasts. No big announcements, but the 90 minute chat was amazing!! 

Had a great time talking with John, Chris and Michael where we talked about non-IP mazes, non-existent fights and kick ass shoes. 

A behind the scenes look at how the magic happens. 

Thanks Midsummer Scream for another amazing year, already counting down the days until next year. 

Related Videos: ​

Best Theme Park Haunt - Knott's Scary Farm
With the addition of new mazes and the freshening up of some previous years mazes it was another banner year for the amazing Knott's Scary Farm. 

Best Independent Haunt - Motel 6 Feet Under
This was a tough category as there were 3 amazing Independent Haunts that could have claimed this spot (we'll touch on those below). But this event works in every way, not because it's extreme, not because it's gory, but because it's just a FUN Haunted House. 

Best Home Haunt - Backwoods 
So let's say you go to some imaginary "Haunt Graveyard" and get animatronics and sets that basically tells the history of Southern California Scary Events and put them all in your house. And then it all works in an amazing way. That's what Backwoods is and it's amazing. 

​Best Maze - The Exorcist (Halloween Horror Nights Hollywood AND Orlando) 
Yep, this maze was our favorite at two separate events 2500 miles apart. And for VERY different reasons. The Hollywood Maze edges out the Orlando maze EVER so slightly but this maze had the perfect blend of storytelling and amazing effects. 

​Best Scare Zones - Fright Fest - Six Flags Magic Mountain
This is now the third year SFMM has taken this award from us and for good reason. SFMM is HUGE but they manage to pull off filling almost every inch of their park with monsters and the best make-up team in the business. 

We will say that there were a few dead spots this year (namely on the back side of the park). We are pretty sure this was because the area around Riddlers was supposed to close prior to Fright Fest and then they decided to keep it open. The Suicide Squad scare zone was great and we hope we'll see the expansion of the DC Universe Scare Zone into Metropolis for next years event. We'd also like to see the expansion of The Ruins near Apocalypse. ​

​Best Talent - Queen Mary's Dark Harbor
This category wasn't even close. The talent at Dark Harbor has so much freedom it's really hard for the other events to compare. 

Not tied to any corporate structure they are free to interact with the guests as they see fit, free to do things that other parks would freak out about while still maintaining safety for themselves and guests. ​

​Best New Maze - (tie) Shadowlands - Knott's Scary Farm and Aftermath 2 - Fright Fest
We typically exclude Halloween Horror Nights from this category as they don't tend to repeat mazes, but that's not to take away anything from these two amazing mazes. One (Shadowlands) a completely original idea that we've never seen before and the other (Aftermath 2) a resurrection of a previous maze but on steroids. 

​Best Returning Maze - Reign of Terror
If you've never done Reign of Terror in Thousand Oaks you are really missing out. This event is on par and in some ways exceeds even the biggest and baddest theme park haunt maze. The talent here is amazing and the size of the haunt is staggering. It takes a good 20-25 minutes to get through the entire event. And something we've never seen before, in-maze line control that totally works. 

Best "First Year" Event - Gorlesque
With so many existing Haunts in Southern California you'd think there wasn't room for anything new. You'd be wrong. But you've gotta be different to make a splash, and Gorlesque found that happy place between interactive, scary, sexy and amazing. One of the most talked about events for 2016. We can't wait to see what they come up with for 2017. 

Best Haunted Ride: Crash Test Zombies - Busch Gardens Tampa Bay
How do you make awesome bumper cars even better? How about adding Zombies and naming it after an obscure Canadian band from the early 90's with a hit song that still doesn't make any sense (not sure if that last part is actually true ... well, MmmmMmmmMmmmMmmm still doesn't make any sense). 

Best Family Event: Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party
Haunted Events are getting better every year, but so are the family events. But there's something about this party at the Magic Kingdom that's just so special and fun each and every year. 

Best "New To Us" Haunt - Sinister Pointe: Fear The Mark
There are SO many events to cover that we only get to see so many each year, which is why we hadn't been to Sinister Pointe before. And now I'm sad because we had such a scary good time at this event and their 4 realms. To be fair, some of us on the staff had experienced Sinister Pointe before, but we'd never reviewed it as a website. 

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Today we've got a very special treat as Rose reviews what is essentially the hottest Halloween ticket in Southern California, Delusion. This has been consistently ranked as the best "haunt" in Southern California and this year it seems like it's the best year yet. 


Below is our review, does contain a spoiler or two if you haven't experienced this year. Normally we'd post a link for tickets, but this event sold out so quick not even all of us were able to get tickets. :( 

Once again the hottest ticket in town is for Delusion His Crimson Queen. I managed to obtain tickets during the limited pre-sale since I had signed up to be notified by email when they would go on sale. They nearly sold out before even going on sale to the general public. The initial run lasts until mid November but if they get an extension then the there is a great possibility that they will open up more dates and tickets. Delusion is unlike anything else. It is an interactive play of sorts where you play an important part of the story.

This year after having to take a year off revolves around the subject of vampires. I do not want to give away spoilers of any kind for those who have tickets or even those who don't in hopes they will extend the run. I give a round of applause to Jon Braver for this magnificent and compelling story. There are no I repeat no sparkly vampires. These vampires will burn in the sunlight. Also several characters names I really feel have come from other sources and are very familiar sounding yet bare no resemblance.

Our group was 10 and I felt was just right in size. Any bigger and I feel that we would not have had the experience we did. Plus it seemed that everyone for the most part including yours truly played their part. Sometimes you are brave enough to step up. Other times you will be picked. (At one point in the storyline no one wanted to do one thing so I stepped up and played my part taking one for our team.) I will be talking about it for a very long time to come.

I must say that you do need to lose yourself and your mindset and just have fun with it. There are stunts and effects that I had my mouth open wide at just staring at disbelief especially the ending. I do not want to give it away but this year there is an actual ending. The cast is beyond brilliant and the storyline easy to follow. I felt each character as they tried to come across to all of us.

The storyline is that we are adult children of Burke and Selene Sullivan. In fact our father Burke writes us a letter dated October 4, 1933. We are asked to come to this villa in search of answers regarding our mother Selene who supposedly perished in a tragic fire. We are half human half vampire children with supernatural powers.

I do not want to give away too much else. There are times where the entire group must work together (think escape room type scenario) but it is easy if there is cooperation. Also there is another point where I thought was so clever genius.

​I still wish I could capture what my eyes witnessed during the final scene. Way more than just a haunted house or even Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights. I personally can't stop raving since I am a huge vampire fan in particular to The Vampire Diaries and The Originals. This had some of that plus Vampire Academy, as well as Interview With The Vampire touches.

The mansion inside is huge so much so that at times I couldn't figure out if I was upstairs or down. There are multiple levels and this was the longest Delusion yet. I believe at or just around an hour. I think our group took a little over an hour because of certain things that needed to be solved or done in order to proceed. All in all nothing will compare to Delusion His Crimson Queen. I'm tempted if it gets extended to try to go again but we shall see.