REVIEW: Creep LA: Awake

If you're looking for a haunt (or is it immersive theatre?) that really lives up to its name, Creep LA is your jam. Year after year, they're the classiest, weirdest, most intelligent game in town. If other haunts are "Top That" from Teen Witch (and don't get me wrong, I LOVE "Top That"), Creep LA  is that scene in 2015's The Witch where the bird is pecking that lady's tit while she laughs dementedly. Both are great in their own way, of course, but one makes you laugh with your friends while the other leaves you shuddering alone.

Are you ready to shudder? Alone?

REVIEW: WB's Horror Made Here - A Festival of Frights

When it comes to the LA haunt scene, we may not have much in the way of mazes set in actual abandoned or historical buildings, but we do have one asset that sets us apart from pretty much every other city in the world: Hollywood, baby! This is the epicenter of The Industry, and if you've seen it on screens big or small, there's a pretty good chance it was made on a lot in southern California. Small towns especially; from Haddonfield to Stars Hollow, your favorite quaint suburbs may look like middle America, but they're actually as West Coast as you can get. So it's actually kind of surprising that more movie studios haven't gotten in on the act for Halloween. In fact, for years Universal Studios' Halloween Horror Nights ran pretty much unchallenged as the Hollywood Home of Halloween Horror. But no more.

Universal, keep an eye on that crown of yours, because Warner Bros. is hot on your heels with Horror Made Here.

REVIEW: The Queen Mary's Dark Harbor 2018

Let's get this out of the way: I was totally taco-blocked at the Queen Mary last night.

OMG OMG OMG DARK HARBOR RULES THIS YEAR!

They bounced back so incredibly hard from last year's taco debacle that there was no free food whatsoever - not even the possibility of free tacos - and I didn't even care!

Seriously, though - it's the maritime-flavored, floating haunt from hell that we always knew it could be, but I don't think it ever quite achieved its full potential until now. But with haunt mastermind Jon Cooke - the man behind Knott's Scary Farm's Dark Ride, my Favorite Maze Ever - on board to revamp the mazes and rethink the layout, Dark Harbor is finally great. 

Trickin' & Treatin': Midsummer Scream 2018

Who could have guessed that Long Beach would end up as the Halloween capital of California?

If you were at Midsummer Scream this year - and I know you were, because EVERYONE ON EARTH WAS - you know this to be true. Just a few years out from its debut, Midsummer Scream has established itself as the premier Halloween convention in California, and a bona fide destination event for Halloweenies from all over the country, if not the globe.

A convention dedicated to the spookiest night of the year shouldn't feel quite so right plopped in the middle of such an oppressively hot summer weekend, like a pumpkin patch that's magically sprung up in the middle of a beach. But we've all learned to embrace Halloween in July. And I really do mean all of us.

Because Midsummer Scream was CROWDED. AS. FUCK.

It's always crowded, of course. But this year was different. The parking situation was apocalyptic. The convention floor was claustrophobic. They actually sold out on both Saturday and Sunday! I was positively awed by the turnout. Awed, and a little anxiety-stricken. Here's my biggest survival tip: You're going to have to make peace with your feelings about crowds before you head into Midsummer Scream.

Ultimate Fantasy: Magic, Murder & Performing Femininity in The Love Witch

I wrote about one of my favorite recent films, Anna Biller's The Love Witch (2016), over on Death & the Maiden. Please check it out by clicking on Samantha Robinson's bewitching visage in the above photo.