Midsummer Scream will host its first full-scale haunted attraction from a major film studio partner. Lionsgate has teamed up with leading haunted attraction designer Jon Cooke (Plague Productions) to create “Gears of Fear: Explore the Legacy of Lionsgate® Horror.” Jon has been the lead designer for Knott’s Scary Farm, LA Haunted Hayride, and Queen Mary’s Dark Harbor, this July, Midsummer attendees can experience Cooke’s Lionsgate creation in the Hall of Shadows.
For the uninitiated, Midsummer Scream is a Halloween and horror convention celebrating all things creepy. The Hall of Shadows is one of the con’s most unique aspects, a dark zone featuring a horrifying array of haunted attractions.
Gears of Fear: Explore the Legacy of Lionsgate® Horror will mark the convention’s first walk-through experience ever created for the Hall of Shadows by a major motion-picture studio. “In partnership with Jon Cooke and his team at Plague Productions, Lionsgate invites fans to come face-to-face with some of the most formidable characters in cinematic history, as the studio’s greatest madmen and monsters stalk and slash at every turn.”
“We are excited to celebrate the realm of ‘Spirits & Legends’ this year in the Hall of Shadows,” says Rick West, Co-Founder and Creative Director of Midsummer Scream. “Lionsgate and the amazing team at Plague Productions, along with some of the most talented haunters in the world, have been brought together, creating what will be the most thrilling spectacle we have ever presented to guests at Midsummer Scream. Each year, we wonder how these attractions can become bigger and better — and each year, these incredible artists rise to the occasion. We can’t wait to unveil everything in Long Beach!”
In addition to Gears of Fear, this year’s Hall of Shadows will also feature creations from Thirteenth Floor Entertainment Group’s Magic of the Jack O’ Lanterns Los Angeles , Fear Farm, The Dreich Society, and more. Read on for more details of what awaits you in the foggy, haunted halls of the Long Beach convention center this summer.
Guest will enter the Hall of Shadows through a dilapidated ghost town, created by the unstoppable team at Fear Farm. In this boomtown-gone-bust, spirits and legends of the Old West abound, setting the stage perfectly for what lies ahead, beyond its borders …
Within the foggy expanse of the Hall of Shadows, guests can explore and engage with over a dozen spooky attractions, elaborate displays, and frightening photo ops that also include: A good, old-fashioned romp through a haunted carnival to help members of Mystery, Inc. search for their missing pal, Scooby-Doo, courtesy of The Dreich Society; a Celtic graveyard filled with incredible detail and ghostly activity known as The Haunt With No Name … Yet; a pizza delivery gone very wrong in the halls of a monster-filled photo op experience from the Pizza Planet Truck and Art’s Sideshow.
Complimentary photo shoot by professional photographer Rawl of the Dead in a creepy environment where only the departed reside; an exclusive club, as well as an interactive bar (for guests 21 and older), hidden within a dank warehouse, where members carry out their darkest violent fantasies, thanks to Santa Ana Haunt.
A heart-pounding trip through the Lord of Shadow’s Puzzle Box, created by Realm of Shadow; 360 degrees of terror in a photo op filled with scare actors from everyone’s favorite SoCal horror-themed Haunted Car Wash; a Western train station in shambles, where a ghostly locomotive has crashed through its walls in celebration of CalHauntS 20th anniversary; a visit to a once-lively mining town, where restless ghosts of the past linger in the shadows of Hellizondo Haunt; and a glowing pumpkin patch and spooky haunted house façade from Thirteenth Floor Entertainment Group’s Magic of the Jack O’ Lanterns Los Angeles that the whole family will enjoy.
The incomparable Decayed Brigade will present three shows daily both Saturday and Sunday, and a unique Friday night “interactive exhibition” on their Hall of Shadows runway, delighting hundreds of onlookers with high-energy sliding maneuvers and unreal stunts that defy gravity.
All passes for Midsummer Scream include admission to every attraction in the Hall of Shadows. Midsummer Scream returns July 26 to July 28 at the Long Beach Convention Center. Passes are available now at www.MidsummerScream.com.
