Midsummer Scream 2025
Midsummer Scream returned with a vengeance August 15-17, 2025! This is my favorite weekend of each year, and the best convention I have ever attended and the LARGEST horror and Halloween con in the country. I have attended each year since 2019 and this year certainly did not disappoint. Below you will find our full write up, including our TOP FIVE moments from this past weekend. We had some questions, as we always do: Did the fact that it was so late in the season impact the haunt panels? What was new? How spooky was the Hall of Shadows in 2025? We’ll answer all of that and more below, however if you just want to know what we rated the event overall, as well as our favorite haunts in the Hall of Shadows you know what to do, hit that TLDR. And if you’re extra curious how this year stacked up against 2023 or 2024, hit those respective links. Thanks for reading!
Before we dive into each part of the convention, I wanted to highlight my TOP FIVE favorite moments from this year’s convention:
Meeting Hamikuma from Halloween Horror Nights Japan! He is an icon and a legend and I love him so much. It was revealed that there will be merch in both US parks for the first time ever. Overall the Universal booth was a standout for me this year.
All of the inventive cosplays! My favorite has to go to the Labubba (Labubu x Texas Chainsaw Massacre) but AAAAHH Real Monsters is pretty high up there too! There were SO many good ones this year and I find it so fun and inspiring.
The official kickoff to haunt season! Especially because Midsummer Scream was later in the year this year, it truly feels like we are running straight into haunt season and it is so exciting because of that! The energy definitely hit different.
Seeing John Carpenter! We love being in the same space as a true legend, and that one in particular was special for me.
Saying hi to so many spooky cuties. It was so great to run into old and new friends alike, folks I’ve only yapped with on the internet, or artists, creators, and vendors who I really admire.
Panels - For maybe the first year of MSS ever, I had a scheduling few conflicts! There were so many panel and experience opportunities that even with a 3 day pass, I couldn’t do everything. To me, that’s a great sign. We only sat in a few panels this year, but I found the HHN panel to be really entertaining (since they brought out DAMIAN LEONE) even though announcement season has passed. I am genuinely excited to see what they do both with the Terrifier house and with the puppets inside Freddy’s. I usually only go to HHN once a year; is this the year I’m forced to repeat just to soak it all in (LITERALLY with the Terrifier house, I fear). I really enjoyed the Dark Harbor panel and I’m stoked to check out their SIX mazes for 2025, and the announcement of their season pass!
Vendors - I felt it was quite noticeable that some HUGE brands showed up to Midsummer Scream this year. LA Haunted Hayride and the Queen Mary’s Dark Harbor were both in their usual spots at the front, but Paramount really brought the fun with their interactive photo op booth and I know everyone was STOKED in the photo sets for Halloween Horror Nights. In particular, I thought the Universal booth was gorgeous and packed with variety of guests all weekend long. There has been a real increase in spooky coffee and food vendors over the years, and this year definitely had the most variety in that regard! The live painting happening at Horror Vibes Coffee booth really stuck out to me, I think that’s so cool that they did that, and hope that piece is going to an amazing forever home after tear down. (Also hello let me put that on my wall). Another stand out booth for us was the Revenge Of brining an insane build as well as horror pinball machines (those things are NO joke to transport and set up) as well as being two-sided. A special shout out to our friends at Discount Cemetery for holding it down and live screen printing all weekend long, I know so many people were amazed and impressed to have that memory!
Hall of Shadows - The Hall of Shadows is the back portion of the Long Beach Convention Center that they turn the lights off and invite haunted houses and mazes from SoCal to set up a taste of their upcoming attraction. I have a LITTLE BIT of criticism for this year’s Hall, but please don’t mistake that for lack of appreciation to what everyone puts into the event, or that I didn’t enjoy it overall. I want to always be honest with my reviews and I was slightly disappointed in this year’s Hall ONLY compared to past Midsummer Scream Hall of Shadows and the caliber they brought. For me, I just really missed an epic themed entry into the Hall. That is really what draws me back there each day of the con, in hopes I soak up every detail of the entryway, the theme, the various actors greeting you. That to me was really lacking this year, and because of that, I just didn’t spend as much time back there. And obviously the themed bar last year was a really interactive and epic one and most things in comparison would have felt slightly lackluster. I understand it is SO much work to do to do these builds, haul them over, run them for just ONE weekend, and I understand completely if no one wanted to or was able to do that this year. I just didn’t find the carnival theme to come across super strongly and overall thought the lack of detail was just a little sad. That being said, I did really enjoy how many folks had a presence in the Hall, albeit a lot of them were not haunt walk throughs but just a themed booth or photo-op. Maybe because of that lines consistently hit capacity in the Hall this year, which I’m not sure I have seen in year’s past (although that could just be because of timing) and that includes Gold Bat lines hitting capacity. We were still able to do everything, and could have done them multiple times, so not a real detriment, but I thought it was worth mentioning! NOW ONTO THE GOOD HAUNT STUFF…
We thought it would be fun to choose our favorites in the Hall for Best Overall, Scariest, and haunt we are most likely to attend based on their MSS preview. We found the Straight to Hale Horrorama to be Best Overall! The attention to detail, the length of the maze, the amount of scares within…checks all the boxes. As for Scariest, well, that has to go to Lionsgate again this year, but not by much…any time you put the freaks from The Strangers in a dimly lit room with me, it’s going to be The Scariest. And come on? Crawling through a car to escape? Horrifying, in the best way. As for which haunt we are most likely to attend based on their MSS preview? Fear Farm! Having a working windmill INSIDE the Convention Center is NUTS, and honestly this was Dreadful Danny’s vote for Best Overall but I’m doing the writing so… Fear Farm, we hope we get to visit you this haunt season!
Food/Drinks - Honestly not much at the Convention Center this year that was labeled vegan (bummer) but we did really enjoy that they moved the food trucks from the front to the back, accessible through the Hall of Shadows. We had an acai bowl for lunch one day which was perfect for a full con day, and another day we walked over to Waba Grill who has multiple plant based options. Between the show hours and the after party, we popped into Kalaveras for some guacamole, chips, and vegan tacos which is located directly across from the Convention Center.
It seemed that all the bar carts around the event this year had the 3 themed drinks available. We tried one and it was fine! We aren’t sweet drink people so I’m sure they were delicious for folks that enjoy those. A favorite for us is when the Hall of Shadows has a themed bar, and this year Fear Farm created the bar space called the SMASHED PUMPKIN. This year it was a jack-o-lantern and pumpkin adorned outdoor shed that you could take photos in front of or just pass through to enter the lounge space. While we did miss the interactivity and funness of last year’s themed bar, I still appreciate the ambiance and a place to sit and sip nonetheless!
Next year Midsummer Scream will be back in Long Beach again, as they are returning August 7-9, 2025! We hope to see you there. Until our next rendezvous, may the secrets of the night intrigue you.
TLDR
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TLDR 〰️
Boo’s Review:
Overall Haunted Attraction Rating: 5
Atmosphere Rating: 4
Vegan Food Rating: 2
Costume & Makeup Rating: 4
Scare Actor/Cast Rating: 5
Set Design & Special Effects Rating: 4
Scare/Intensity Factor Rating: 3
Value for Money Rating: 5
Killer K8’s Review:
Overall Haunted Attraction Rating: 5
Atmosphere Rating: 4
Vegan Food Rating: 1
Costume & Makeup Rating: 4
Scare Actor/Cast Rating: 5
Set Design & Special Effects Rating: 4
Scare/Intensity Factor Rating: 3
Value for Money Rating: 5
*Scores are out of a possibly perfect 5
**Costuming/Scare Actors/Set Design/Intensity Factor are for the Hall of Shadows as a whole
