As the Halloween season quickly approaches, fans of the tradition flock to places like Universal Studios and Knott’s Berry Farm for some much anticipated seasonal festivities. While events like Horror Nights and Scary Farm hold a special place in the hearts of Halloween fans everywhere, a new company has hit the scene and is making waves in the horror community around Los Angeles and Orange County.
A minigolf arcade and restaurant by day, and a UV soaked, 1920’s haunted watering hole by night. The Phantom Tavern: Haunted Speakeasy is a brand new immersive fright experience that is coming to Huntington Beach this October. Hosted by OC Fright Nights, this is one event fans of Halloween won’t want to miss out on.
Step into a world of historical horror; grounded in real Oil Boomtown-era Huntington Beach history and character driven lore. The slow paced event is specifically designed to immerse guests into the story and characters of the tavern, explaining how the bar was stuck in time through interactive experiences with scenes and actors. Playground Minigolf, a staple of downtown Huntington Beach, is host to the ghosts this Halloween season and has something to offer anyone that feels like getting in the spirit. The event is all ages from 11am to 8pm, turning 21+ after the sun sets. From 8pm to 1am, this nightlife event is an essential for any horror fan. The latest in OC Fright Night’s ongoing run of live outings, this marks the first professionally funded and assembled event the company has hosted since achieving LLC status.
The Phantom Tavern follows a haunted speakeasy from 1926 frozen in time on Halloween night. The event introduces original characters all with their unique personalities that interact with guests. As an attendee, one can choose to dive further into the mystery of the tavern and participate as much or as little as they feel comfortable with. The themed drinks and cocktails will activate triggers in the room once they are placed in front of the guest, prompting different scare scenes that reinforce the narrative themes of the event. “Seeing people that I didn’t know was the coolest feeling, their reactions to our story and characters was an incredible feeling,” said Nolan Zweig, one of three founders and the COO of the company. This distinction makes the event feel timeless and well worth a visit.
OC Fright Nights began in Costa Mesa (hence the name) as an independent project founded by Nolan Zweig, Cameron Romeis, and Srihas Payidiparty, three friends that met at UC Irvine and shared similar interests. “Any sort of immersive experience that puts you into a new world, that’s what I became obsessed with. That’s what I really wanted to do” said Zweig. As a longtime fan of theme parks, live attractions, and of course Halloween Horror Nights, the group felt inspired to create their own haunted attractions from scratch in an attempt to further their careers and garner that push into the industry they so desperately desired. “As I grew to like haunts, that’s where my love for horror began. In college we wanted to be able to do our own attractions and a haunted house was the first thing that came to mind. We can build these sets,” Zweig added.
Their first attraction was a DIY haunted house titled Scarecrow. Built from scratch in the backyard of their Costa Mesa home, the house featured props like corn stalks, burning fire logs made from foam and construction paper, and a whole 7-foot tall facade complete with a title and motion trigger lighting hardware. As word spread through the small neighborhood, their opening night yielded over 300 guests, a number the small crew could never have expected.
Taking to Instagram, the team went all in on promotion for their next event, Scarecrow II, because every great piece of horror deserves a sequel. This time around the budgets was higher, the deadlines were stricter, and the turnout devilishly greater. Influencers began racing from all areas of Southern California to cover the event and see it for themselves. However, this time the team had an even greater hook. “Something we try to emphasize is storytelling over the scare factor. As much as I love super scary events, for me it’s more important to immerse people into a new world and really make them a part of that storyline.”
The introduction of a strong narrative is what sets OC Fright Nights apart from so many other events. “This is not as scary as a typical haunted house, but the fear comes in other ways. It’s the story that’s around you, it’s how you’re interacting with these characters” said Zweig. The focus on narrative immersion and letting the scares stand on their own, separated just from shock value leaves the guest with a much stronger attachment to the event, and ultimately, gives them a much more memorable experience.
OC Fright Nights will continue hosting events, eventually breaking away from the sole horror theme and expanding their events into different seasons and further into the Los Angeles area.
