A one-night-only secret speakeasy in LA… or is it?
I started seeing the Facebook posts a couple days before the event. Friends in the horror community were excited to attend this exclusive, super-secret, one-night-only horror speakeasy, somewhere in Glendale. My interest piqued, I checked out the website to see if I could find out any details. Unfortunately, there was not much to be found:
“Provide Your Email in Order to Receive SECRET ADDRESS”
As someone who attends a lot of “super-secret” events, this isn’t out of the ordinary. It seems more and more LA pop-up immersive experiences will wait until the day of the event to release location details. But this wasn’t being billed as an immersive event, nor was it from any of the usual event producers one might expect. According to the website, the culprits behind this mysterious event were Graham Skipper (Actor, Writer, Director) and Meyer 2 Meyer Entertainment (Justin & Melissa Meyer), a Los Angeles-based couple known for their work with Ten Thirty One Productions, including the Los Angeles Haunted Hayride and The Great Horror Campout.
Billed as a “Horror Speakeasy,” the website promised, “a haven for horror fans & filmmakers to get together, share some drinks, watch scary movies, listen to horror movie soundtracks, and immerse themselves in a world of terror to escape our monstrous world for one night.”
And, having attended this event, I can say it more than delivered.
Guests entered the event, located at Starmakers Costumes, by navigating through a haunted-house-style maze of costume racks, complete with scare actors jumping out at every turn. Once inside the event, there was a bevy of delights from which to choose. Guests could cozy up on giant, inflatable chairs and enjoy the West Coast premiere of Shudder’s The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs, while eating freshly made popcorn.
Outside was a full-fledged horror-themed bar complete with aerial bartenders, horror icon-inspired go-go dancers, roaming monsters, pinball, shuffleboard, a horror art show, and a taco stand.
And if that weren’t enough, the evening was being DJ’d by none other than MST3K actor Jonah Ray, providing a delightful mix of horror movie favorites.
It wasn’t just the spectacle of it all that had people giddy, however. It was the sense of community. I heard more than one attendee refer to it as “Horror Prom” and lament that they wished this was a regular spot.
Luckily, for fans of the ephemeral bar, not to mention those who missed out on the event entirely, Skipper and the Meyers have every intention of bringing it back on a more regular basis. In fact, they’ve just announced their next installment will be on June 1st, 2019!
Be sure to sign up for the mailing list at www.ratedrspeakeasy.com for updates.
And in the meanwhile, please enjoy this video from the first-ever edition of Rated R: A Horror Speakeasy:
Daily Dead's Official Podcast! Daily Dead's Official Podcast!
