South Florida’s premier haunted house event invites guests for a night of Halloween horror.

October 9th, 2021

Fright Nights spooked the South Florida Fairgrounds for the first time in a year as guests eagerly lined up to be the first to experience this year’s haunts: Fatal Fables, Red Room, and Siren’s Curse.

One might think the event was an ordinary fair — with staples such as deep fried oreos, twirling rides, and iced cold lemonade. However, as you stray deeper, burly men with clubs and clown makeup, as well as girls with shrill cackles and baseball bats start to surround you.

“I’m terrified. It’s new, so I’m looking forward to seeing new characters and new things, ”Fright Nights attendee Giana Martino said. “[I like] going with people that get really scared, so I don’t have to.”

As guests wait to get into the main attraction entrance, where the haunted houses are located, they are taunted and heckled (and sometimes even chased) by actors in costume.

“We’re gonna do our best to scare every single person in here,” creative director Craig McInnis said. “Our corny little saying is we care about the scare.”

The real scaring has yet to begin.

The attraction entrance, marked by the open jaw of a clown, leads the guests through a labyrinth of strobe lights and jump scares until they reach the lines for the haunts. The Agriplex of the fairgrounds is transformed into a makeshift concert setup, with a stage at the center and lines for the haunts twisting around it.

The haunts themselves — dimly lit mazes with actors lurking around every corner — had guests clinging to their friends and screaming in terror as they made their way through.

“[What makes them scary is] they have really good costumes and the props are good,” attendee Melissa Bolton said. “And how they’ll change the size of the room.”

One of the new haunted houses, Siren’s Curse, frightened visitors by taking them under the sea through the use of green LED lights, mimicking the feeling of walking through water. Guests passed over rocking bridges and a ship lined with cages, the bars rattling from the unamused hostages.

To entertain guests, dancers perform choreographed pieces in black jumpsuits and special effects makeup. Their performers bang on metal bars, run up to surprise guests, and shoot the crowds with water guns in their dances. The dancers perform three times a night every Saturday.

“It’s really difficult because we have a song in between, and we shoot everyone with water guns, but then they start laughing at us, so we really have to try to stay in character,” performer Sophia Chambers said. “It’s challenging, but it’s so worth it.”

What the guests don’t see however, is the preparation before the haunts open. Inside the Agriplex, before the lights go out, the warehouse is alive with the undead as actors dressed as zombies, ghouls, and corpses hurry to finish their makeup and get into positions.

In between the wooden barriers of the haunts, tables with hair spray, airbrushes, and fabric line the long corridors. Right before getting into places, the actors chanted in unison to get themselves hype for the night.

“I love everything horror,” haunt actor and makeup artist Victoria Availa said. “I love scary. I love that it’s grungy. I got tired of doing bridal makeup or prom makeup. This is something completely new. I love that it pushes me past my creativity.”

With the event being cancelled in 2020, actors and guests alike were eager to get back to the scares. The creative team was able to use much of the pre-planning done for last year for the haunts this year, which made the preparation go smoothly for the event.

“On a creative level, it’s such an adrenaline release and a stress reliever to be a scare actor,” McInnis said. “We were missing it so bad, we just kind of hit the ground running.”