Halloween Horror Nights: Die hard fans explain what keeps them coming back for more

For hardcore horror enthusiasts Halloween is so much more than carving a pumpkin for the front porch and dressing up to trick-or-treat every Oct. 31. Halloween has become big business and the haunt industry is booming as most major theme parks across the country put on their own nightly scare-a-thons that last anywhere from four to seven weeks leading up to the spooky holiday.

There are hundreds of Halloween events happening all around Southern California this haunting season and plenty of die-hard horror fans are always ready for a good scare. Some have even created groups and social media accounts dedicated to this time of year and hundreds of online gorehounds devote their feeds to Universal Studios Hollywood’s Halloween Horror Nights, which kicked off on Sept. 14 and is running on select evenings through Saturday, Nov. 3.

Justyn Schwoegler, 16, of Long Beach first attended Halloween Horror Nights in 2015 and got his initial big scare in a maze based on the film “Insidious.” He was hooked and has attended the event ever year since, splurging and going multiple times with other HHN fanatics he met via Twitter, where he goes by @HHNManics.

Opening night, Schwoegler met up with Jose Calixo, 19, of Pacoima (@Mr_HHN), Scott York, 18, of Escondido (@SoCalExploring) and Mia Medina, 17, of Granada Hills (@MiaHHN13) to go through all of the mazes multiple times.  The quartet all agreed that hands down, their favorite attraction at HHN this year is the Universal Monsters featuring an original score by Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash.

“I thought that maze was absolutely breathtaking,” Schwoegler said. “I also loved ‘Poltergeist’ and ‘Trick ‘r Treat,’ but what’s so great about Universal Monsters is that even though they put a more modern take on these characters, it still feels like the old films and captures their charisma and charm. There were incredible effects and it had some of the best sets I’ve ever seen at the event. It’s just such a nostalgic treat for Horror Nights fans and that’s why I think everyone is really digging it.”

Calixo attends HHN the most out of the group. This is his 10th year and he plans to go about 15 times this season using his Frequent Fear Pass. He’s already been through each maze a handful of times and insists that he never gets bored and he’s not immune to a good scare.

“I don’t scare easily, but every once in a while they do get me,” he said with a laugh. “Universal Studios does the horror movie properties and they pretty much do it better than anyone else in Southern California when it comes to detail. They make it so you feel like you’re in the horror film, which makes it so special. My first year, I went through a ‘Halloween’ maze and it was like I was in the film with Michael Myers and I just wanted to keep coming back.”

York has been going to HHN for eight years and though he lives more than 100 miles away, he tries to go at least four times a year. Like Calixo, he also hits up the mazes multiple times. His favorite maze of all time is La Llorana, based on the popular Latin American urban legend, which debuted at the event in 2011 and returned in 2012. He loves opening night, but he likes to let the “scareactors” get into a groove and settle in for the scares a few weeks into the event.

“Opening night, scareactors are getting used to what they’re supposed to do and how they’re supposed to scare,” he said. “Most scareacters miss their cues on opening night, so they don’t match the the audio playing or when they hit their button for the strobe lights to come out, so you miss a lot of scare opportunities. But once the weeks go by and you go through again, all the scareactors are on point, they’re all making their cues and they’re giving you those good scares.”

In 2014, Medina’s mom told her she just wasn’t ready for HHN. Being stubborn and pretending to be brave, she said she hyped herself up and went in with the attitude like “Oh, I got this.” She wasn’t much of a horror fan before, but after leaving an evening of pop-out scares, she was addicted and thus began her love of everything horror-related. She too is a Frequent Fear Pass holder and will be getting her money’s worth this season. She said she enjoys the camaraderie of Horror Nights and meeting new, like-minded fans each year. She also likes playing the annual guessing game as to which horror properties HHN creative director John Murdy will include in the event.

“It’s really cool that we get to interact with each other and there’s a bunch of different Twitter accounts, but we can all talk about our love of horror and Horror Nights in general,” she said. “We do talk about what we think is coming and put together a little wish list and we try to guess the mazes based on the facades that they post online, but then we just get taken by surprise.”

Murdy and the rest of his Horror Nights crew are very active on social media and interact with the fanatics by posting little Easter egg images or by cluing the horror super sleuths on Twitter (@HorrorNights) with secret passwords they can give specific characters in the park on certain nights to get little prizes and film props as they wait in the maze queues.

“We’ve been doing that since it started in 2011 with the ‘Hostel’ maze,” Calixo said. “It’s usually like a business card or something, but this year it was pretty cool with ‘The First Purge’ because they gave us a little first aid kit.”

Collectively these hardcore fans said they’d like to see future attractions based on “Hellraiser,” “Killer Klowns from Outer Space,” “The Hills Have Eyes,” “Scream” and “The Thing.” They have all kinds of tips for first timers, including wearing comfortable shoes for all of the walking, getting there as early as possible and splurging for the early entry tickets if you can and always starting with the attractions on the back lot and working your way back to the front of the park.

They’re always on the look out for and share the Easter eggs in the mazes with nods to special moments within the films and television shows, but Schwoegler thinks he and others have noticed a pattern that gives hints to the following year’s attractions within the gauntlet sections of the mazes.

He found an “Evil Dead 2” poster in “The Purge” gauntlet in 2016, and the following year HHN featured the “Ash Vs. Evil Dead” attraction. Last year, inside The Horrors of Blumhouse maze, he noted a graffiti Frankenstein painted on a wall, and this year the iconic monster the star in the Universal Monsters maze. This year, he’s still looking for clues, but did see the words “Hate the living, love the dead” painted on a wall outside of the Universal Monsters maze which he thinks it may be a nod to the horror punk rock band the Misfits.

“That is a Misfits song and Murdy has said he’s wanted to do something with the Misfits for a really long time,” he noted. “They may say it’s all a coincidence, but it’s still pretty cool.”

Universal Studios Hollywood’s Halloween Horror Nights

When: 7 p.m. on select nights through Saturday, Nov. 3

Where: 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City

Tickets: General admission passes are $67-$97. The Universal Express tickets, which allows one-time express access to each maze, ride and show are $149-$229; The after 2 p.m. day/night ticket combo grants access to all daytime attractions plus Halloween Horror Nights for $99-$139 (and can be upgraded to a Universal Express ticket for $179-$269). Two-night Fear Passes are $109; The Frequent Fear Pass with up to 21 available visits is $169; The Ultimate Fear Pass, which includes up to 29 evenings of scares, is $350. The R.I.P. Tour exclusive behind-the-scenes experience for groups of up to 12 is $279-$399 per person. All passes are available at HalloweenHorrorNights.com.