New details revealed on horror ‘mega-con’ coming to Las Vegas

Call it Sin City of the Dead.

Las Vegas’ biggest horror event yet comes to paint the town blood red next year when HallowScreamCon and HallowScreamFest debut from Oct. 1 to 4 in the first of five scheduled annual “mega-cons” spanning film, art, food, music, esports, immersive attractions and more, all across the valley.

Details for the massive, multi-pronged gathering of all-things-that-go-bump-in-the-night were revealed Tuesdsay at The Overlook at BLVD, where Jack the Clown from Universal Horror Unleashed gyrated with some zombie dancers, “Billy the Puppet” from “The Official Escape Room” pedaled around on a motorized tricycle and a spooked Chihuahua named Kowalski set the tone by getting a little freaked out by it all.

HallowScreamCon will take over the the Las Vegas Convention Center South Halls and the Hyper X Arena at the Luxor with over 20 themed zones including the dark carnival Scareground, the film- and TV-centered Final Cut, The Shriekeasy secret bar, The Odditorium bazaar of the bizarre, an Art & Animation Zone, the sports-centric End Zone, the Something Wicked after-hours playground for adults, a main stage with live music, stunt shows, comedy, illusions and celebrity panels and more.

“When I say ‘zones,’ I don’t just mean aisles of tables,” explained Kelly Warnell, HallowScreamCon’s creator, founder and “mischief maker.” “I mean curated, themed, immersive zones that will be more like a theme park show than they will be at a convention.”

HallowScreamFest, meanwhile, aims to deliver the chills citywide with live entertainment, performances and interactive events like a Zombie Run from BLVD to the “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign and activations at Area15, the downtown Arts District and elsewhere.

Warnell noted that the Las Vegas Monorail will be turned into a ghost train with curated entertainment and hinted that some long-dormant Strip attractions may get new life among all the undead at HallowScreamCon.

“You are going to see a lot of very iconic activities and activations that have been famous on the Las Vegas Strip that may have been idle for decades,” she said, before elaborating on the overarching theme of the event.

“This is for anyone that likes music, film, TV, games, dance, comedy, illusion, stunts, makeup, beauty, fitness, sport,” she said. “I mean, literally, this show is for everyone. It was designed that way so that everyone can come here and find their tribe and become part of the community we all need to be a part of.”

‘Bigger than jump scares’

Behind the scenes, numerous industry notables will help bring HallowScreamCon to life — or death, as the case may be — including Terry Notary, an actor, stunt coordinator and movement coach whose resume spans the “Avengers,” “The Hobbit” and “Planet of the Apes” trilogies and who will direct and cast various elements of the show and activations.

A former gymnast and performer in “Mystere,” Notary spoke about how his Cirque background will inform his work at HallowScream.

“It taught me how to create characters, how to build characters from the inside out and how to inspire artists to be operating in their optimal potential, so I want to bring that back to Vegas and to this show,” he said. “I’m very serious about what I do. I’m not into cheesy stuff.

“I think we’re going to bring something that people haven’t seen in Vegas, ever,” he continued, “and we’re going to bring it out to people so that they can experience something that is immersive and moving, that gets them to think about themselves and to reflect. It’s going to be bigger than jump scares, I can tell you that.”

For aspiring creatives, there will be Pitchcraft at Screamlabs, where Emmy-nominated producer Ken Levin (“The Boys,” “Preacher”) will lead a team of judges evaluating 60 entertainment pitches from selected creators over four days.

Levin, who appeared with his pup Kowalski, explained the Pitchcraft concept, as initially envisioned by Warnell.

“Its purpose is to give people an opportunity to do what, in their gut, they really want to do,” he said. “We would like anybody who has a screenplay, an idea, a graphic novel they’re working on — I don’t care what format it’s in — if that’s their dream, we’d like to hear from them.

“We’re going to give them the kind of support and attention that we would give if they were part of a master class we were giving,” he continued. “‘Here’s how you do a pitch.’ ‘Here’s what I love about it.’ ‘Have you thought about this?’”

He also noted that they were launching a Kickstarter campaign to help finance promising projects.

“We’re going to raise — I hope — a whole bunch of money, so that if somebody succeeds and is chosen out of the 60, we can help them set it up,” he explained, “so that they can see their dream actually happen and get their movie made or get their graphic novel published.”

A dream made of nightmares

For Warnell, the whole project has a very personal dimension — and has been nearly three decades in the making.

On Tuesday, she shared a memory of visiting Vegas for the first time as a little girl from her native England, staying at the Excalibur.

“I walked out, and a 70-foot dragon came out of the moat and was breathing fire and battling with a wizard,” she recalled “And I thought, that’s strange.”

She then remembered being awed by all the Vegas sights, the roller coaster atop New York-New York, the lions at the MGM Grand, the Bellagio fountains, the exploding volcano outside The Mirage and, finally, the pirate show at Treasure Island.

“At that point, I dropped to my knees and I said, ‘This is the craziest place in the entire world, and I love it.’ I fell in love with Las Vegas there and then,” she said. “And I made a promise, I said, ‘I’m going to bring a show here one day, and it’s going to be worthy of the soil of this town, and it’s going to become a part of everything that people love here.”

Four years ago, Warnell left her career as a successful entertainment strategist to pursue this dream — a dream made of nightmares: HallowScreamCon.

She then noted how she’s been living on the Strip recently, staying in dozens of hotels, quizzing visitors on the city.

“I’ve been speaking to everyone, going into every restaurant, every bar, asking people questions,” she shared, “finding out what they love about Las Vegas and what they don’t love, why they’re here and so on.”

Tonight would be her 30th hotel. She glanced over her shoulder to the castle behind her.

“My 30th will be back at the Excalibur,” she beamed. “Where it all started, 27 years ago.”

Contact Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0476. Follow @jasonbracelin76 on Instagram.