"It's the one night of the year I get to come out of my shell a little bit," said one person dressed as the devil.
Still, it is precisely that attitude that keeps people coming back to the annual Carnaval.
"The costumes are crazy and the people are crazy so we keep coming back," said a girl, who showed up as a vampire.
The most popular costume was Psy of "Gangnam Style" fame. Plenty of others were topical, including the gas price lady.
"This is the first thing I thought of when I thought of scary. Especially this year!" she said.
But, presidential politics was top of mind for many, and in ultra liberal West Hollywood, most mocked Mitt Romney. From his binder full of women comment to the decades old story that the Romneys took a road trip with the family dog strapped to the roof, the presidential hopeful wasn't absent from this year's festivities.
Most in the crowd of hundreds of thousands weren't trying to make a political statement, but a fashion statement. One man spent almost a month assembling an elaborate floral get-up.
No matter the costume, the outrageous and the extravagant were certainly celebrated during a night of Halloween fun.
