REVIEW: MIDSUMMER SCREAM
August 10, 2026
REVIEW: MIDSUMMER SCREAM
It is that time of year once again where we have approached late summer in SoCal. As the heat hits its peak and kids start preparing for another school year, some of us begin dusting off our Halloween masks and costumes for the haunt and horror themed convention we all love: Midsummer Scream.
Located, for now, at the Long Beach Convention Center - Midsummer Scream has become the official soft opening for Halloween season. Literally every crevice of the convention center is packed with vendors, cosplayers, and celebrity signings. This year you could take photos with one of California's favorite spooky characters, Poe, while a few feet away you could have records signed by the legendary musician and director, John Carpenter. The curation of this convention literally covers everything related to SoCal Halloween, including haunt builders, mask artisans, props, FX makeup, VHS tapes, t-shirts and pretty much anything else that you can imagine.
While we rarely have time to attend panels, Midsummer Scream always curates very popular ones. A great example would be one of the most hyped events of the weekend - the cast of Scream celebrating the legacy of the film in person for fans of the franchise. We did attend one panel - the Dark Harbor & LVCRFT maze soundtrack discussion. They talked about the creative approach behind the sounds you hear in some of their most famous mazes, like “Lullaby” and “Breakout”. This event included appearances from Dark Harbor scare actors who roamed through the crowd during the panel discussion.
It is worth noting that Midsummer Scream is so expansive that you need more than one day to experience everything that it has to offer. We always prioritize the Hall of Shadows, the massive blacked out section of the convention center filled with haunted houses and displays. The massive entrance display this year was created by Anaheim's year round haunt Eulogy Collective. The interactive maze and display contained many of the themes that they offer throughout the year including a part of their awesome Christmas maze where misfit elves were offering guest a fun photo op. The Hall of Shadows is one of our favorite things to attend every year as local haunters like The Dreich Society, H&L's Realm of Horror, and Fear Farm create pop-up versions of what's to come for their upcoming Halloween mazes. We loved Fear Farm’s build of a dilapidated house, whose entrance consisted of a monstrous mouth with bloody, pointed teeth.
Our favorite maze of this year was by Rancho Cucamonga's Straite to Hale, who created a brand new experience for 2026. This haunt was Southern swamp themed and contained details on par with a Disney dark ride. Every sixty seconds the exterior would sink into the ground then re-set, shadows could be seen moving in the windows of the second story of the corrugated shack, and the porch swing moved silently - seemingly by ghosts who were seated and watching passers-by.
Within the maze were bridges, a swamp that surrounded a mechanically moving boat, animatronics, and of course - scare actors. One of our favorite areas was near the exit where we walked around a brick well that was surrounded by a swamp (created by the classic effect of green lasers illuminating thick, low fog). A shadowy aerialist slowly climbed up out of the well, which was surprising and a perfectly executed original concept.
While we could continue to go on about what else we loved, like Barry Under Your Bed and friends’ performance of the anti-gentrification musical Monsterville, or the Peaches Christ haunted drag show entitled "Return of the Living Drag", we will stop this review from getting too long. Midsummer Scream is simply one of the coolest and most fun events in SoCal, where everyone is welcomed with open arms and the stranger you are, the more joy you bring to those around you. It is a very special place where people who enjoy everything from haunted houses to classic horror films can come and have one of the best weekends of their lives.
VC
August 10, 2026
#midsummerscream #hauntsofla #halloween #hauntedhouse
