As Alice Cooper unveils his new maze, "Welcome to My Nightmare " at this year's Universal Studio's Halloween Horror Nights Sept. 23 - Oct. 31, 2011, sci-fi and horror movie fans, producers and independent filmmakers all across California rise from their darkened studios and caves to participate in horror film festivals throughout the state. You are invited!

Universal Studios launched their themed scare attraction Halloween Horror Nights (halloweenhorrornights.com) with a horror film contest that invited the public to submit their best movie shorts. The event winners receive Eyegore Awards and celebrate the launch of the theme park's annual scare event which includes new characters and familiar favorites from a variety of horror movies, along with musical scoring from Alice Cooper's new album that goes on sale September 13. Similarly, Long Beach's Dark Harbor Oct. 7-31, 2011, at Queen Mary contains a storyboard with characters and plots as you explore a variety of haunts both on the real haunted ship and outdoors. These participatory events offer great sci-fi entertainment that goes hand-in-hand with horror film festivals occurring around the same time.

California hosts hundreds of film festivals throughout the year but there's really no bigger fan base than those who devour the horror/sci-fi film genre. September through November are popular months to roll out the blood-red carpet for film festivals honoring the latest and best in scare movies.

Hollywood and Los Angeles are the epi-center of the action, but there are festivals throughout California to celebrate the Halloween season's arrival. Here's a sampling of exciting horror film festivals coming to California, see the details!

• Big Bear Horro-Fi Film Festival Sept. 30 - Oct. 2, 2011 bigbearhorrorfilmfest.com
• Burbank Creation Entertainment's Weekend of Horrors Feb 18 -19, 2012 creationent.com
• Downey Late Night Horror Film Festival Sept. 28 - 30, 2011 latenighthorrorfilmfest.com
• Hollywood Horror, Sci-Fi & Fantasy Film Festival Oct. 23 -25, 2011 hollywoodawards.com
• Hollywood Shock Film Festival November 12 -13, 2011 shockfilmfest.com
• Hollywood Screamfest Horror Film Festival October 14 - 23, 2011 screamfestla.com
• Hollywood Shriekfest Sept 29-Oct 2, 2011 shriekfest.com
• Los Angeles Midnight Black International Festival of Darkness midnightblackinternational.com
• Los Angeles Bleedfest Film Festival September 25, 2011 bleedfest.com
• North Hollywood ZedFest Zombie Film Festival Nov. 7, 2011 zedfest.org
• Sacramento Horror Film Festival Oct. 20 - 23, 2011 sachorrorfilmfest.com