To commence the start of the spooky season, Montclair State students joined the Horror Club in celebrating their “Five Nights at Freddy’s IRL” (In Real Life) event.
On September 29th, the event, which was the first of its kind in the club’s history, kicked off in the Student Center Ballrooms A & B. Doors opened at 1:30 p.m., and students were invited in by club members who ran the event for a total of two hours.
For those Montclair State students who are fans of the Five Nights at Freddy’s franchise, this event offered them a unique interactive simulation.
The Horror Club hosted a large-scale special game that was designed specifically to immerse the participants in a real-life Five Nights at Freddy’s experience.
Jiselle Rousey, president of the Horror Club, helped organize the event.
“When I was in third grade, me and my friends would play our version of FNAF IRL,” Rousey said. “So, when me and my friends played it, one of us took turns being the ‘night guard’. We would look away, and every time we heard or sensed one of our friends getting closer, we would look back, and then they would go back to where they started.”
Key Horror Club board members are seen playing the duty of night guard on a table they designated as the "office".
Estefano Quispe | The Montclarion
Emulating the mechanics of the popular horror game, those who chose the “animatronic” role would begin on one end of the ballrooms. Once the “night guards” were in place at the front, the match would begin, and at least 1 guard had to survive by the time the clock ran out. The animatronics would win if they eliminated all 3 night guards before the timer ran out.
“Rooms” were made by surrounding tables meant to imitate a restaurant with hallways and dead ends to make it harder for the animatronic team to make it to the guards. A total of about 8 participants would play as the animatronics, who most of the time got caught by the guards before they got close to them and had to walk all the way back to their beginning positions.
Then there would be times when an animatronic would get lucky enough to jump scare a night guard who would subsequently be eliminated from the match.
Overall, participants described it as an unforgettable experience.
Jaxx Rosado, the event coordinator of the Horror Club, reportedly claims this has been one of their most attended events.
“Our success began on social media. I posted the poster last Thursday, and the next day we had 1000 views, and then I checked over the weekend, and we had over 5000 views.”
Instagram post on the Horror Club profile which was first posted on September 25th, 2026. The post garnered over 232 likes, the most in the account's history.
“This was kind of insane because we had never seen anything like this. I would say promoting it on our Instagram really helped in getting our story out there.”
Rosado says that while scanning people in, the turnout peaked at 70 people in Ballrooms A & B, which ended up being more than the club had initially expected.
“I feel like we all just grew up on it; FNAF was very big in our childhoods, which drove us to wanting to do an event around it, which led us to wanting to do it IRL.”
In the mix of all the students who came to the event, new friendships were made for many who are enthusiasts of the Five Nights at Freddy’s game.
In front of Jaxx Rosado is the table they tagged as the "office" which they wrote on a piece of paper on September 29th, 2026. Photo credit: Estefano Quispe
“Especially during the waiting time,” Rosado claims. “I saw a lot of people having conversations. I know some people have most likely made new friends in this event, which I am really happy about.”
Because of the huge accomplishment this event had for the Horror Club, the board members are excited to say that they will bring back this event next year.
As for now, the Horror Club has many surprises left in store as the Montclair community crouches closer to Halloween.
“We’re going to have a killer clown-themed escape room down in The Underground on the 13th. That’s going to be super fun.”
