During the Midsummer Scream convention, we took in the Thirteenth Floor Entertainment Group’s panel. While a lot of companies and events had panels, taking in this panel was the equivalent of taking all of the other panels at once! Thirteenth Floor just has so many events, activations, immersive experiences, and plans for Halloween, not just in Los Angeles, but throughout the USA!
So what does the group have in store for 2025? So many, let’s break it down by event!
Winchester Mystery House
The big news at the panel first and foremost was the fact that the group had partnered this year to create a unique and amazing event at the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, California! The event, called Festival Fright Nights, will be arriving in the space in September, starting on the 26th. Walter Magnuson, the General Manager of the Winchester Mystery House, joined Thirteenth Floor on the stage to talk about the partnership.
When it comes to creating an immersive experience, it’s nice that the location already comes with such a vibrant history and story. The Winchester Mystery House has so much story that you almost don’t have to write anything, and the space doesn’t even have to be adjusted or changed to fit the type of venue that the experience is creating, since the space is literally twisted and confusing due to the manner of its construction.
They expect that fans of their haunts will immediately fall in love with this massive, confusing maze of rooms, stairs, and doors to nowhere within the Winchester Mystery House, if they haven’t already. So Thirteenth Floor is going to capitalize on the existing architecture and leave the audience guessing, did Thirteenth floor build that for the event, or was it always there like that?! With that in mind, the experience and story for the event will most definitely be drawn from the history of the mystery house itself.
It’s new, it’s far, but come on people, it’s only 5.5 hours away from Los Angeles!
Purchase your tickets, and find out more about the experience Here!
Magic of the Jack O’Lanterns
Leaving the city of Whitter, the experience is headed to a brand new and fancy upgrade as they are taking over the South Coast Botanical Gardens in Rancho Palos Verdes. Last year the space was about a half of a mile, this year the experience is double that, a whole mile of trail!
Back in the early 1900s, South Coast Botanic Gardens was actually a mine for diatomaceous earth, a white chalky soil substance that can be used for many industrial things. The mining left huge pits at the site when they closed in 1951. To fill the pits, the site then became a location for a sanitary landfill, having completed filling the pits, and creating new mounds by 1961. After the landfill closed, the people of the neighboring area wanted someone to make something of the place, so they reclaimed the land by planting a wide variety of flowers in the space, officially turning it into a Botanical Garden. Now the vast garden is home to over 200,000 plants.
What better a home for the Magic of the Jack O’Lanterns, as the space will fill up with tons of hand carved pumpkins. Each and every pumpkin either fitting its locations theme, and the themes of areas differing from vintage Halloween, all the way to the valley of the dinosaurs! As people explore all the different pumpkin carvings, and themed displays, between them there will now be lovely plants and gardens to meet the edges and trees that border the space.
Also, thanks to the lovely trees that cover the space, they are going to use some new lights and technology to really pull the space together and make it more immersive.
While Thirteenth Floor brings a lot of intense and scary experiences, it’s nice that the Magic of the Jack O’Lanterns brings a calm and family-friendly experience for all ages!
Purchase your tickets, and find out more about the experience Here!
Delusion: Harrowing of Hell
Jon Braver was in attendance to talk about their new experience, and their new location. While last year they were at the Stimson House, this year they are happy to announce they have secured an even more impressive experience, the Variety Arts Theater in Downtown Los Angeles.
The location is quite haunted and it serves the purpose of this year’s story quite well.
The new story this year is the Harrowing of Hell. The show will be dealing with a supernatural cult that take the metaphors of Dante’s Inferno too literally. You will be taken through the circles of hell, and travel between worlds.
Los Angeles Haunted Hayride
For it’s 17th year, that’s right it’s almost old enough to buy a pack of smokes, Los Angeles Haunted Hayride has some plans in mind for shaking up the experience, and delivering a wonderful and amazing haunted house gathering that it’s fans, and the City of Los Angeles deserve!
The town of Midnight Falls will once again begin to evolve, growing, changing and adjusting as it sets itself into a 1980s themed experience. To really capitalize on their experience, they first and foremost are going to focus on their hayride. They are going to bring back some of the most iconic and vintage parts of the hayride over its long and iconic past. Changing up the music, experience, and even stopping the truck on the trail, and turning the hay cart into its own character for the experience.
As for the town, the food and beverages trucks will dial down their appearances to look more like actual buildings and structures, increasing the homely feel of the town of Midnight Falls. There will be a brand new company in the town called the Midnight Falls Cider Company, becoming a brand new immersive experience, while also being a place where you can get apple cider, a cider donut, and walk through the mill.
As for the scare houses, Janelle Monae is coming back and with her bringing back the Monae Manor. The manor will be hosting a party for the residents of Midnight Falls. Also interacting with the world of Midnight Falls is the Hellbilly’s Jasper family, who finally bring their chainsaws out of the house at the end of the road, and take them all throughout the park, scaring fans throughout.
The Trick or Treat house maze is back with a twist, as Cassandra Peterson, better known as Elvira is coming to the park specifically with the purpose of turning the event into an event with her style, design, and flair. Additionally she will take over the purpose of the radio broadcasting throughout town!
What experience are you the most excited for from Thirteenth Floor?
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