By Charly SHELTON

It’s still hot outside and nobody is thinking of long black coats, baked apples and pumpkins yet. Except for those who think about such things year round. Yes, I’m talking about the ones who make our nightmares come true around Halloween with haunted walkthroughs, possessed attractions and all-around spook-fests. Those haunts are a lot of work to put on and from the massive Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights to the smaller private home haunts, it’s time now to get to work putting the first bodies in the ground to prepare for October. What better way to kick off the season than by coming together with horror fans from around the country for a haunt convention? This past weekend saw just that at the Los Angeles Convention Center with ScareLA.

From make up effects to decorations to new technologies for scaring the bejeezus out of guests, ScareLA has everything haunt related. There were machines eschewing smoke-filled bubbles throughout the hall, undead performers walking around to scare attendees and live make up demonstrations as a model becomes a monster. Upcoming horror films like “It” and “Annabelle Creation” hosted specialty VR experiences for attendees and, as one guest said while exiting the “It” experience, “it was the coolest thing ever.”

The merchandise catered to those who wanted to up their horror game both in the haunt world and in daily life, with corsets, steampunk glasses and purses made to look like skulls, jack-o-lanterns and more. And whether you’re looking for the fictional horrors of Freddy Krueger, Pennywise and Jason Voorhees, or the real horrors of Ted Bundy, Richard Ramirez and The Zodiac Killer, there are booths with merch, decorations and books ad infinitum. Even John Kassir, the Crypt Keeper from “Tales from the Crypt,” got in on the fun as the official host of the con.

Next to the convention floor, the second hall held mini-haunts to give an idea of what’s to come this season from certain designers. Some were better than others, some worked and some didn’t. But one haunt, Rizo Scare House, stood out from the rest. All it had was black plastic visqueen walls and strobes angled in different ways, but it worked so well. The scaractors were well hidden in the folds of the black plastic and hit you at just the right time. The silhouettes they cast as guests approached into the light were ominous and set the scene well. For what it was, it was a well done haunt.

As great as the convention floor and haunts were, the programs and panels offered in the hall were a real draw. The subjects included makeup tutorials with icons of the industry from competition shows Face Off and Skin Wars, airbrushing effects, prosthetics, using interactive technology in your haunt, sliders (the scaractors with sparking shoes and knee pads who slide on the ground), screenings of horror short films and even presentations on the mythology of horror stories from the internet to the Middle Ages so guests can create really inventive villains for their haunts.

The show was impressive and, with their first year in the new location after moving from the Pasadena Convention Center to LACC, the show went off without a hitch. For more information on this year’s and next year’s con, visit ScareLA.com.

  Charly Shelton