Scare L.A. is turning into one of the biggest and best haunt conventions in the country, and by now, you’ve probably been inundated with e-mail blasts, social media updates, and ticket promo codes for the event. But if you haven’t attended Scare L.A. in either of the past 2 years, you might be wondering how to prioritize your time over the weekend. Never fear, Scare Zone is here with the list of our recommendations that our haunt stalkers should put at the top of their “to-do” lists.
1. Mini-Haunts
One of our favorite activities from last year was going through the mini-haunts that are scattered about the convention floor. They can be scary, fun, or both—and who doesn’t love a little taste of an actual haunt in August? If there’s no admission charge, be sure to leave a donation for each one you visit, because building a haunt (even a mini-one) is hard work, and we want to see these mini-haunts return each year.
2. Presentations
Plan out ahead of time which presentations you’d like to see, and be sure to line up EARLY for the most popular ones (but if you got the Fear Freak pass, you’ll get front-of-the-line access). The panels on Halloween Horror Nights and Knott’s Scary Farm will definitely have some of the longest lines. We suspect that the Hatbox Ghost and “Making Monsters” panels will also be extremely popular this year.
3. Classes
Scare L.A. features a great line-up of instructional classes, with some even resulting in a prop you can take home and use in your own Halloween display. We highly recommend one of the classes given by the SoCal Valley Haunters group (if you can’t decide, go with the Tombstone workshop).
4. Zombie Joe’s Urban Death
We’re big fans of Zombie Joe and his twisted Underground Theatre. Short performances excerpted from the excellent Urban Death are presented throughout the weekend at Scare L.A., and they are not to be missed. The performances are funny, disturbing, and even a bit scary at times. No other haunt convention has anything remotely like this.
5. The Show Floor
The bread and butter of any convention is in its vendors, so be sure to plan time to stroll up and down the show floor aisles. But most importantly, we urge all of our haunt stalkers to BUY SOMETHING! Vendors will return to a convention only if it’s worth their while, which means they gotta sell their stuff. Support your local haunt and horror creators by being a good American and opening your wallet, even if it’s for something small.
New for 2015
There are several new experiences coming to Scare L.A. this year that we can’t wait to check out. These are at the top of our list:
- Apocalypse: “the first ever real-time zombie infection game.” We’re curious to see how this plays out during the weekend, and whether the crowds we expect to show up for the convention get in the way of the gameplay.
- The Vault of Darkness: This sounds like 50% haunt/50% vendor display for low-light products. But 100% awesome!
- Serial Killer Speed Dating: Unfortunately, we at Scare Zone are not single; otherwise, we’d be totally trying this! It’s speed dating with what seems like a murder-mystery element. If any of our readers finds love at the convention, let us know!
Scare L.A. is shaping up to be the haunt convention to attend. The only thing missing? Haunt tours! Maybe in 2016…?
For all the official information about Scare L.A., visit their website. Scare Zone will be tweeting and Facebooking live from the convention all weekend. Be sure to follow us for updates and pictures of the event. And if you see us, stop and say hello. We won’t bite…much.
