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I almost didn't go. I'd been on the fence all week, scrolling past the event flyer on my phone for what must have been the hundredth time. "Monsters Mash 2024" — the name alone felt a little cheesy, honestly. But my friend had already bought tickets, and apparently "you absolutely cannot back out" was the going rate for friendship this time of year.
So I went. And honestly? Best decision I made all October.
The Venue Transformed
The Cascade Pioneer had seriously stepped up. I'd been to events there before — standard conference room, fluorescent lights, that vaguely institutional smell. But walking in? Total other world. Themed lighting everywhere, fake cobwebs in the corners, fog machines working overtime. Someone had clearly spent weeks setting this up, and you could tell. The moment my feet hit the dance floor, I knew this wasn't going to be just another school dance.
The Costume Showdown
Now, I've been to plenty of costume parties. You know what usually happens? Everyone defaults to the same five costumes — cat ears, a witch hat pulled straight from a Spirit Halloween bag, the classic "I put in zero effort" look. Not this crowd.
This was next level.
I saw a group of three dressed as the cast of a specific SCP Foundation entry — complete with matching yellow hazmat suits and those weird containment box things. No idea how they carried those around all night. There was a guy who'd turned himself into a working jukebox, complete with speakers playing elevator music. A little kid (probably eight?) was dressed as a extremely realistic kraken, and honestly, she was stealing the show.
My personal favorite was the couple who'd gone as the "before" and "after" versions of a stock photo — one in business casual, one in full gym bro mode. They did a whole routine.
The Music Hit Different
The DJ absolutely understood the assignment. Opening set was the Monster Mash (the original Bobby "Boris" Pickett version, obviously) mixed into some current hip-hop. Then they pivoted — thriller verse into Doja Cat, Ghostbusters into some DnB track I didn't recognize but couldn't stop moving to.
Around 10PM, they played that one song — you know the one, the "demons" song — and the entire room lost its collective mind. I've never seen so many people screaming lyrics at each other, absolutely no irony, pure chaos. Perfect.
Somewhere Between Songs
Here's the thing nobody talks about at these events: it's not actually about the dancing. It's not even about the costumes, really.
It's the 15 minutes you'd spend waiting for your turn at the photo booth, talking to a stranger who's equally confused about how to work the props. It's the moment a song you hate comes on and you lock eyes with someone across the room who's visibly suffering too, and you both just start laughing. It's the random group of people who decided to start a conga line at 11PM for absolutely no reason, and somehow it kept growing.
I watched two people who'd clearly never met before spend five full minutes teaching each other completely different dance moves, neither one willing to back down. Neither of them were good. It was incredible.
At one point, someone knocked over a drink, and instead of the usual chaos, like five people just immediately grabbed napkins and helped clean it up before the person even realized what happened. Small thing, but weirdly stuck with me.
The Come Down
By midnight, the energy had shifted. People were tired, the dance floor was thinning out, the DJ had gone into softer territory. Still throwing down, but more of a "we're having fun but we're running on fumes" vibe.
Walking out, I realized two things: I hadn't checked my phone in over four hours, and my feet were genuinely numb. Both good signs.
My friend asked on the way home if I'd do it again next year. I said probably. Then I said actually. Then I said we should start thinking about costume ideas now so we have time to actually commit.
She laughed and said that was the spirit.
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Some holidays feel forced. Like we're all just going through the motions, checking boxes, waiting for it to be over. But every once in a while, something works — the right crowd, the right music, the right amount of fog machines — and you actually remember why humans used to gather in dark rooms and move together and make noise at each other.
Monsters Mash delivered. See you next year.
