by Dot Cannon

 

Summertime is here.  It’s going to be dark, creepy, spine-tingling and filled with sliding zombies.

 

At least, it will be if you’re in Pasadena, on August 6th and 7th, as ScareLA celebrates “Halloween in summer”!

ScareLA, Los Angeles’ first Halloween convention, is just about to host its fourth annual convention.  (Though that doesn’t seem possible–already?  They started in 2013.)    This year’s theme is “Season of the Witch”, promises to brew up some nightmarish fun at the Pasadena Convention Center.

This year, Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, will be the official “Halloween Host”, presiding over the ghoulish goings-on.

ScareLA premiered in Los Angeles in the summer of 2013, and just keeps getting better.  Though admittedly, you’re going to have to choose from a LOT of Halloween “treats”, sometimes happening at the same time.

 

Make-and-take workshops, exclusive panels and presentations, and, of course, creepy mazes will all be a ghostly “given”.

 

Likewise, the previews of new Halloween attractions, at Southern California’s most popular October “haunts”–such as Universal Studios “Halloween Horror Nights”.

Pictured above are Universal Studios Art Director Chris Williams (l) and Creative Director John Murdy (r), during During Day 1 of Scare LA 2015,.  They’d just announced the addition of a new maze, for Halloween season: “Halloween: Michael Myers Comes Home”.

Once again, they’ll have speed dating.  Mobile “escape rooms” will be waiting to test your skills–and your sanity.

But what else has us screaming with delight?  Some of the new program additions, in this fourth edition of ScareLA.

This year, attendees get to jump out of their seats at ScareLA’s Scare Screenings film program!  Scare LA’s “scream team” says in a news release that they received more than 2100 submissions, from 20 countries.

From these, they wound up selecting 75 films: features,  cult classics, new indies,  documentaries and shorts.  For the first time ever, the ScareLA will present an “Audience Award”, so get ready to shriek your approval!

 

Hair-raising selections will include Rodney Ascher’s “The Nightmare”.  This is a Sundance-selected film, named one of the “scariest documentaries ever”, on sleep paralysis.  (That scares us–how about you?)

You can also get goosebumps at “Tales of Halloween”, the Halloween film anthology.  Expect plenty of monsters, ghosts, ghouls and horrific good times, as eleven local directors envision what could happen in a quiet suburb on Halloween night.

In addition, you’ll get to see the first music video ever filmed at the Bates Motel, of Psycho fame!  (Titled “Creature of the Bates Motel,”  it stars Brian Evans and comedian Carrot Top, and is authorized by the Alfred Hitchcock estate.   We’d die if we missed this one!)

 

Oh, wait a minute–you have small goblins to bring, and you don’t want to scare them into nightmares?  They can chill at family-friendly films, including Halloween Tricks, Zomedy and a special animated block.  Here’s the link to the screening schedule, Goblin-rated and otherwise.

Another chillingly thrilling addition to the program?  Illusionist Todd Robbins has designed a brand-new one-hour show, especially for ScareLA!  Get ready to laugh, scream and question reality, as he holds you spellbound with “Dark Illusions and Even Darker Reality”.

And there’s going to be a premiere: ScareLA‘s first-ever original haunt!  Called “Blood Offering: Legend of the Iron Witch”, it’s four times the size of any haunt attraction they’ve featured so far.  Two legendary haunt designers teamed up with ScareLA to create this one.  You’ll be getting shivers courtesy of maze master Brooke Adair Walters, of Knott’s Scary Farm fame, and prop master Donald Julson , who created props for Steven Spielberg!

We’ve barely scratched the tombstone surface of all that’s going on at Scare LA in another eleven days.  One post certainly can’t do it justice.  But we will tell you–it’s scary creative, and will definitely have you under its spell.

 

Scare LA’s fourth annual summer Halloween convention runs Saturday and Sunday, August  6th and 7th, from 11 am to 7 pm at Pasadena Convention Center, 300 East Green Street at South Euclid Avenue.  Here’s the link for more information.