As October continues to fly by, this humble explorer feels like there’s still a lot to catch up to. With so many spooky events and shows to take in around SoCal and so little time, I find myself gravitating back to old haunts even as I try to keep up with new ones, hoping to strike a balance each season. Because the ship’s horn has blared, a coastal fog has rolled in, and I find myself trudging back to Long Beach’s waterfront to see what’s taking place at Dark Harbor this year.
Don’t get the wrong idea, of course. This is something I do happily. But I should warn that this article might run a little shorter this year, as Summoned By The Seas is not much different than last year’s The Spirits Rise. Now in its second year since Thirteenth Floor pulled the original event from its watery grave, I’m not surprised that it feels like baby steps are still being taken as they figure out what works and what doesn’t, and I’ll do my best to remain fair.
So, what’s been summoned by the seas this year?
The Event
The tide has brought the expected macabre cacophony back to the historic RMS Queen Mary, and the ocean liner is as beautiful as ever even 90 years after her initial launch. Her background presence is a constant reminder what Dark Harbor owes her - a storied, timeless giant lending atmosphere and credence to what I might generously call a county fair. Those who have read my previous reports on Dark Harbor know that I’m not the biggest fan of this kind of vibe, especially with the continued prevalence of upcharge fare all around, but that’s just me. It doesn’t feel as spooky to run into a roaming monster when a DJ is blasting something in the background and crowds are lining up to buy deep-fried food or a beer from a popup venue, though I will commend the talent for having to navigate this difficult environment and still managing to scare people.
One fun aspect is the inclusion of certain theme nights, a factor of Dark Harbor I didn’t note last year. The night I went was the beginning of their Pride Nights, which to me is a friendly reminder that the real horror community is inclusive and proud of it. The celebration was accented by rainbow balloons and Pride flags popping up around the grounds and punctuated by a drag show on the Shipyard stage. I’ve previously been on a Dia de Los Muertos night at the end of the 2019 season, and I’m glad to know they’re bringing that kind of energy back, especially since the event bills itself as a Halloween festival. That adds an element of fun to the whole thing.
Unfortunately, this season marks the sad loss of the seaside port village, torn down earlier this year after having been long abandoned and condemned. The weathered buildings always served as a good backdrop for Dark Harbor and often played host to some of my favorite mazes in the past, namely Intrepid. Dark Harbor still manages to bring in the village graveyard as the winding path one takes to get from the entry gate to the Shipyard and is much-needed injection of haunting immersion before the party kicks off. There’s also the excellent Voodoo Bayou area, an eerie shantytown that is surprisingly quiet by comparison and a good place to chill with a drink (provided you can find an open table). Beyond these, though, most of Dark Harbor is there for the lively shindig and eschews a supernatural world for creative use of dozens of shipping containers - which, being so close the Port of Long Beach, they have in ready supply.
The secret speakeasies are thankfully still present and remain a fan-favorite aspect. While I only discovered two last year, there’s at least four this year, and perhaps more depending on the night or which mazes have them open. Finding them is not terribly difficult if you keep an eye out for Lady Mabel’s mythical signs, standing out as markers within the mazes. You’ll still need a token to get in, but this year I allowed myself to splurge a little and purchased a Foresight Four Pack, which nets you a fun little reading and hint from Lady Mabel herself and a set of four tokens. I won’t spoil the surprise, but the two speakeasies I managed to visit this year were worth it, including my return trip to the Fathom 6 Bar in the old boiler rooms of the Queen Mary; sadly the drinks offered there were not as good as last year’s, but that might depend on which bar you find.
The Mazes
A good sign that things are improving is that Summoned by The Seas adds an additional maze, bringing the total to a cool 6. The quality of all remains high, and my ranking always boils down to personal preference, but I feel like there’s something lacking with them this year compared to last overall, and so far none have hit the same way the mazes in 2019 did. Some strange choices this year leave me a little wanting, even with the mazes aboard the ship, which I’ll get into as we go.
6 - Feast: The Final Cut
Marked as the final year for this weird trilogy-that-doesn’t-feel-like-a-trilogy, this mid-quel(?) maze supposedly helps finish the story of the Butcher’s rise to Chef. In practice, it just feels like a rehash of last year’s maze with one or two new details that don’t really give this premise more meat, pun intended. The framing throws me off, and even if you don’t care about the oddity that is the story, I’m kind of done with cannibalism as a gimmick in most mazes - it’s tired and played out, and I’m ready for something else to take its place and use the footprint for a better concept.
5 - Breakout: Maximum Security
The absence of the port village really hit Breakout hard, as I remember enjoying last year’s double-feature with On the Run much more. Even so, the maze still gets its prison escape theme across as you follow in Samuel the Savage’s footsteps through the prison and its nearby environs, dodging security guards and hostile inmates alike. There’s a religious trauma sub-theme going on with scary nuns and other iconography once you reach what I think is a prison chapel, and after that the maze gets a little more abstract, probably illustrating Samuel’s torment by his demons. There’s also a good couple of sections in here that are genuinely disorienting, from a well-used laser swamp to a foggy shipping container corridor (remember: shipping containers are everywhere) with a perplexing strobe effect.
4 - Big Top Terror
Everything I said about this maze last year still holds true. It’s still a lot of fun, but the talent within is what really holds it up. These clowns don’t slouch when it comes to their gags, and help the overall experience feel wicked and whimsical, a nice Halloween pastiche.
3 - Infirmary
The second year of Dr. Masters’ and Graceful Gale’s medical malpractice makes a few changes, some good and some not-so-good in my eyes. This year implies that many of the elite first-class passengers were in on the experiments - or at least liked to watch Dr. Masters perform in an operating theater - and that Graceful Gale had more of a role than anticipated as she gleefully joined her surgeon paramour in dissecting and torturing their third-class victims. My main issue comes from the fact that the latter half of the maze, my favorite portion set during Gale’s Halloween party, is now the finale and the maze is significantly shorter, cutting things off just as it was getting good. I realize in hindsight this really helped elevate the maze beyond another rote medical horror, and to truncate the end of the experience makes it lose something special. It still holds up, I just find that the debut year was better overall.
2 - Voodoo: The Queen’s Curse
Dark Harbor’s newest maze puts the Voodoo Priestess back in the spotlight. Having arrived with an army of undead sailors, the Priestess seeks to take command of the Queen Mary and its supernatural power. Voodoo comes in strong for an off-ship maze, beginning among the potion shops of the Bayou area, delving into a foggy walkway through a dark swamp and its scattered huts, and wrapping up in the repurposed barn from On the Run utilized to a much better impact. With impressive use of lighting and fog, Voodoo feels so much bigger than its outdoor space would suggest, and has the perfect tone, atmosphere and pacing for its theme. It reminds me of a smaller version of Knott’s Scary Farm’s own Voodoo maze from years ago, and I mean that as a compliment. It’s a fantastic addition to the Dark Harbor maze lineup!
1 - Lullaby
The longest and most tense maze, Scary Mary’s haunt is still the best one on the ship. The slow and steady journey is punctuated this year by many more appearances of Mary in unexpected places, including some additional projection effects to make her presence is even more ghostly. Some may see it as sparse or empty, but at least when I went every scare felt earned after a buildup, and with the length of the meandering path through the vessel’s bleak corridors and over the “collapsing” bridge to the boiler room, you’re getting a lot of superb immersion into the unsettling environs of the actual Queen Mary, a huge plus in my book.
Final Thoughts
Last year I wrote about feeling optimistic for Dark Harbor’s future, and this year proved some of that to be true. Summoned By The Seas is only marginally different from The Spirits Rise, for better or for worse, which doesn’t give me as much to elaborate on in this report. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. But the addition of the amazingly-done Voodoo is a sign that things are slowly but surely becoming shipshape, and I hope Thirteenth Floor is able to keep charting a course that brings Dark Harbor more success. As always, my hat’s off to the people that design, build and occupy Dark Harbor for the season.
If you should decide to visit before the event wraps up, let me know what you thought of it and what you experienced! I’d be very curious to see how our experiences might differ. Just beware of the parking situation (it really hasn’t gotten much better) and go on a weeknight to avoid giving yourself a headache if you can; otherwise, Lady Mabel might see a lot of long lines in your future.
Thank you again for your time and attention, intrepid readers. I’ve got at least one more stop on my October tour, and I need to refill my lantern. Bon voyage, and I’ll see you in the fog.
Dark Harbor runs select nights through November 2nd. Tickets can be found here.