During Midsummer Scream, if you head away from the main show floor and into the dark depths of the Long Beach Convention Center, you’ll eventually find yourself in the Hall of Shadows.
For horror fans, this is easily one of the best parts of the entire convention. The Hall of Shadows is packed with miniature haunted house experiences that give attendees a small preview of what some of Southern California’s haunts have planned for the Halloween season.
I love Halloween and haunt season for exactly this kind of thing, so naturally, the Hall of Shadows was one of the first places I headed during Midsummer Scream. With the limited amount of space each group has to work with, I thought everyone did a great job putting together something memorable.
That being said, two haunted houses stood above the rest for me. Both were good enough that I’m already planning on finding my way to their full productions this Halloween season.
Black Casket Productions
My favorite haunted house preview in the Hall of Shadows came from Black Casket Productions.
Their experience took us through a morgue filled with great effects, strong set design, and some incredibly entertaining scare actors. Almost immediately after entering, you’re welcomed into a lobby area with a perfectly placed shock scare that sets the tone for everything that follows.
Things only get better once you enter the morgue.
Image Credit: Black Casket Productions
One of my favorite scares from the entire weekend involved a man crying over a body before suddenly ripping its head off. With strobe lights flashing overhead, he threw the head directly toward me. Thanks to the prop being attached to a rebound rope, it looked like the head flew straight into my face before instantly snapping back into his hands.
It was such a simple but incredibly effective trick, and I couldn’t help but about that scare for the rest of the weekend.
One thing I can sometimes be wary of with smaller home haunts is when the actors have to do a lot of the heavy lifting to keep the experience moving. That wasn’t a problem here at all. Everyone inside Black Casket Productions' haunt was funny, witty, charismatic, and, most importantly, knew exactly how to turn that personality into a good scare.
I enjoyed every moment, right up until the woman at the end informed me that I was apparently five hours late for my shift before ushering me out through a coffin.
If you’re in Southern California this Halloween season, Black Casket Productions absolutely deserves some love. You can find their full haunt in Yucaipa, California, and after seeing what they managed to accomplish inside the Hall of Shadows, I’m excited to see what they can do with their full production.
Fear Farm
The second haunt that really stood out to me was Fear Farm.
Fear Farm is a small, family-owned annual home haunt in California’s High Desert, and this wasn’t actually my first experience with them. I had the pleasure of visiting a few years ago when they were located in Phelan, California, and I still remember how much fun I had.
Image Credit: Fear Farm
Their haunt was temporarily moved to Corona for a time, but Fear Farm has since returned to the High Desert, now operating out of Hesperia.
Their Midsummer Scream preview brought back the exact same energy I remembered from my original visit.
The actors are easily one of Fear Farm’s biggest strengths. They don’t just jump out and scream at you; they know how to have fun with guests, build tension, and set up clever scares. There’s a ton of personality packed into the experience, which is one of the reasons Fear Farm has stuck with me for so long.
Hesperia may be a bit of a drive for plenty of Southern California haunt fans, but based on my previous visit and what they showed off at Midsummer Scream, I think the quality is absolutely worth making the trip.
Considering I still bring up my visit from a few years ago whenever haunt season rolls around, I’m definitely overdue for another trip to Fear Farm.
Honorable Mention: Magic of the Jack O’Lanterns Bar
Image Credit: Midsummer Scream
While it wasn’t technically one of the haunted houses, I also have to give an honorable mention to the Magic of the Jack O’Lanterns pop-up bar.
Magic of the Jack O’Lanterns has become a bit of a Halloween tradition for my wife and me, so it was fun seeing them represented inside the Hall of Shadows.
Their pop-up bar was really cute and offered a nice little break between all of the screaming, monsters, and haunted houses surrounding it. It was also a great reminder that Halloween attractions don’t necessarily have to be terrifying to capture what makes the season so much fun.
Final Thoughts
The Hall of Shadows continues to be one of my favorite parts of Midsummer Scream because it gives smaller and independent haunts a chance to show people just how creative they can be.
When you consider the limited space these groups are given, it’s impressive how much atmosphere, storytelling, and genuine scares they’re able to squeeze into such short experiences.
For me, Black Casket Productions and Fear Farm were the two standouts this year. Black Casket Productions delivered my favorite individual scare of the entire weekend, while Fear Farm reminded me exactly why I enjoyed visiting their full haunt so much a few years ago.
More importantly, both previews accomplished exactly what something like the Hall of Shadows should do: they made me want to experience the full productions.
Halloween season can’t get here soon enough.
Prepping for next years Midsummer Scream already? Check out the announcement of their relocation and returning Convention here!
