Halloween Horror Nights Orlando 

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. 

If you enjoyed this update please share with your friends and make sure you "like" us on Facebook and "follow" us on Twitter and Instagram. 

If you have any comments, please share them below. ​