by Dot Cannon
The first person in line had been waiting since 8 that morning.
At Day 1 of ScareLA, in its new Pasadena Convention Center location on Saturday, the crowds indicated just how much Southern California enjoys celebrating Halloween–in August.
By the time the doors opened, just after 11:00, the line snaked all the way back through the corridor–and doubled around.
More “scare students” and “fear freaks” were arriving–many of them dressed for the occasion.
And once the third edition of Southern California’s first Halloween convention had started, the truly scary part was wondering, “What am I going to have to miss?”
Entering the exhibit floor, one of the first things “scaries” saw was something new from makeup artist Larry Bones (designer of all kinds of scary and spectacular looks for Universal Studios’ Halloween Horror Nights).
Main Stage presentations started with a panel on the “Hatbox Ghost”, of Haunted Mansion fame.
Captured Aural Phantasy Theater wowed audiences (again this year!), with a presentation of “The Lost Haunted Mansion” (an audio play based on the first script planned for the Mansion, prior to the invention of the Doom Buggies. They also offered two short dramatizations of 1950s classic horror comics (complete with 3D glasses!).
Hands-on workshops were in full swing. 
Here, instructor Derek Young prepares to teach a tombstone-carving class. (He’ll be teaching them again on Sunday, for Day 2 of ScareLA.)
On the slider stage, Decayed Brigade gave a “spirited” performance of the Rocky Horror Show classic “Timewarp”…
…and their interpretation of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”, later in the afternoon.
The exhibit floor had all kinds of cool, scary and fun Halloween creations. Here, Regina and Terry West, of Halloween Forevermore, offer ghostly wax warmers–and Terry’s latest book!
Another favorite was BloodMoon Faire™–which is launching a Kickstarter campaign to bring a new Halloween festival to Los Angeles in 2016!
And we loved this tribute creation!
In addition to this “Vault of Darkness”…
…there were five mini-haunts. The line for this one was the longest when we were there.
However, the longest line of the day had to be this one!
This capacity crowd came to hear what Universal Studios had in mind for this year’s new maze for “Halloween Horror Nights”. They literally screamed with joy when Creative Director John Murdy (l) and Art Director Chris Williams (r) revealed that the new attraction will be “Halloween: Michael Myers Comes Home”.
John and Chris also shared some interesting facts on the original Halloween movie with their delighted audience. (Who knew the 1978 classic was independently produced on such a small budget that the producers couldn’t afford to make prints for the theatres? They started with two prints, John said, and gradually made more as ticket revenues came in.)
After their presentation, John and Chris (joined onstage by Scare LA co-founders Lora Ivanova and David Markland) stayed for a special event: an attempt at a Guiness World Record.
The goal: to open 1,000 bags of Halloween candy (provided by Sticky Candy, in Hollywood) at the same time!
The room counted down from ten, bags ripped open, and the scent of sugar filled the air.
“You’ve just made history,” Lora told the attendees.
Happy ScareLA 2015, to all the ghouls, goblins and monsters out there! We’re looking forward to Day 2.