Good evening, intrepid readers, and welcome to the land of perpetual fog that is Southern California in October. For those of you just stumbling in, I’m David, the erstwhile creator of Midnight Marinara and Undercooked Analysis. And before anyone asks me some meteorological questions, I should explain that these foggy conditions are artificial: multitudes of machines blowing odd-smelling, musty mists from the dark corners of numerous haunted attractions, which rise up like so many restless phantoms every Halloween season. If there’s one thing you can count on at a haunt, it’s this fog.
I admittedly haven’t been going to haunts as long as others - my icebreaker was being coaxed into Knott’s Scary Farm in 2013 and never looking back - but as someone who loves horror, themed entertainment and creative storytelling, I feel like I can offer my perspective on what I experience every season. SoCal has a pretty unique scene when it comes to these kind of events - mainly that there’s so many in such a close proximity! I actually talked about what I saw last year on an episode of The Witching Hour, and have been wanting to revisit some of the ideas I brought up in there with greater emphasis, To that end, The Fog Report will be a series of posts about my Halloween odyssey, breaking down what each event has to offer, what I like, what I don’t like, and how scares and themes are brought across.
This is just an introduction, of course, but you can expect several of these going forward this year, and more where that came from in the future (provided I survive ‘til the next season). I can tell you right now I’ve already paid a visit to Knott’s Scary Farm with every intention of going back for more, and will be dropping anchor at Queen Mary’s Dark Harbor in a matter of hours from this post going live. I’m already stoked that I can start getting my spooky immersive fixes in before October has even hit, and am happy to be your ghastly lighthouse keeper in this perpetually opaque haze; hopefully I can offer some insight and entertainment along the way.