For those adding an Orlando shore-side vacation pre or post cruise this month, you will definitely want to plan at day at Universal Studios. For the past 25 years Universal has been scaring up visitors in the off season with Halloween Horror Nights. A month long celebration of Halloween in general and the horror movies genre. The event spans the month of October, and will run through November 1. It includes live shows, scareas (areas where actors can scare visitors), and haunted houses. The last is the real draw and includes houses that draw upon films for their themes, as well as park originals.
The best word to describe the whole event is cinematic. Fittingly so, considering Halloween Horror Nights is held at Universal Studios. To mark the twenty-fifth year of the event Universal has turned things up a notch, and created amazing sets in some of the haunted houses. As well as crafted an extra live show that explains some of the backstory of park originals like Jack.
The Live Shows
Bill & Ted’s Excellent Halloween Adventure is a fixture of Halloween Horror Nights. Mystifyingly so to those who remember the original movie and those who have never heard of it alike. Best described as a musical comedy mashup that skewers the pop-culture of the preceding year, that uses the premise of two slacker teenagers from the early 90’s that have a time traveling phone booth as an excuse for song and dance routines with pyrotechnics and costume changes.
The quality varies from year to year and ranges from hilarious to “meh”. This year’s show is on the better side of okay, with our eponymous duo battling Kanye West. The absurdity of a long running show based off of a teenage fantasy movie that is nearing 25 is noted.
The other show this year features Halloween Horror Night’s first, and recurring, original icon Jack the serial killer clown. It offers up an impressive display of acrobatics, fire, and icons from Halloween Horror Nights past. It’s an impressive show, but unless you bother to find out the backstories behind the Halloween Horror Nights icons (read mascots) from years past it won’t mean much to you.
The point of both shows isn’t really the plot. Instead its more about the dance and acrobatics, and seeing a top notch stage production. Albeit one that makes very little sense..
The Haunted Houses of Halloween Horror Nights 25
The real draw, as mentioned earlier, is the haunted houses. Far from being the usual Halloween haunted house set up in a strip mall that you may immediately think of, these haunted houses are created by professional set designers, and worked by monsters in makeup done by professionals. It’s a chance to see what that guy you know that gets way to into to Halloween could do if only he had the budget.
This year there are a total of nine haunted houses. Five are tied into movie and TV franchises, and four are park originals. They’re listed along with a summary in order of personal preference from the least to the most recommended. The best are not necessarily what you paid admission to see, and if you decided to skip out on an express pass you may only get to see one or two.
The Walking Dead
This is the haunted house most people will have paid the price of admission to see. It is, unfortunately, underwhelming. Fans of the series may get more out of it, however. Standing inside of some of their favorite scenes from the series is sure to make a fan squeal in delight rather than fright, but to the rest of us all the zombies have blurred together, and the sets and scenery on this one seem rushed.
The Purge
The Purge house is entertaining rather than scary. The sets are well done, and the scare actors actually have to do some acting. This is the only house where you’ll actually hear them speak, albeit for a line or two while you shuffle past. Which can be a little repetitive. The house has a couple of good jump scares, and it is in this one where we first encountered some of the interactive bits like getting puffed with air when an actor fires a rifle, or misted with water when someone is stabbing. These small effects that include the audience will make you wipe your forehead and pat your shirt just to make sure, and they’re a nice touch. Although, they can get tiring when you’ve been through a couple houses, and have become tired of getting splashed. The atmosphere is more dystopian dread than Halloween creeps though, and oppressive regime might not be the horror you’re looking for this October.
Insidious
Insidious is a movie that is a lot more in touch with the horror genre’s supernatural roots, and the haunted house is a good one. This house was the first one to really creep us out, and you’ll be startled when the sunken-cheeked specter charges out of a closet. The set designers did great work, and as you walk from scene to scene out of the movie you do end up with that dreamlike feeling that you’re lost in a suburban home that is way bigger and more frightening than it should be. The make-up in this house do a great job of making you feel like you’re being chased through the house by the same hollow-cheeked ghost who keeps popping out of corners to grab at you. It is a lesson in how having a consistent villain can add to an interactive experience. Walking through a narrowing and foggy corridor at the end only to belatedly realize there are hands behind the walls will make you jump.
Run: Blood, Sweat, and Fears
This house is amazing without being remotely scary. Nominally, it is a Halloween Horror Nights original featuring park icon Eddie, but you’ll immediately think of the 80’s film The Running Man when you walk in, and before you’re done you’ll be thinking of many, many, other films from the past. Throughout you’ll be puzzled at how you got from the garish Technicolor set of a murderous game show to a gladiator pit. You’ll also be trying to figure out what Bane from the Nolan series of Batman films is doing here when Eddie leaps out at you. To be fair the icon predates the movies. If you’ve ever wasted a weekend sitting in front of the TV watching a block of movies from the 80’s and early 90’s you’ll see them referenced here, and you’ll love every minute of it.
Freddy Vs. Jason
If you’ve ever gone to any haunted house before you probably saw both of the title characters there. The hockey masked killer, and the sabre-gloved burn victim have escaped the confines of the horror genre and have become a part of global culture. However, you’ve never seen them in a haunted house quite like this.
The whole house is a love letter to the films that defined being a teenager with a libido as a capital offense punishable by slice happy, immortal, murder monster. Indeed, if you look up from the bodies littering the landscape at one point in this haunted house you’ll find a pink brassiere hanging from the rafters. You’ll recognize those bodies, and you’ll remember how they died in the films, even if you can’t remember their names. It turns the whole experience into a nostalgic one that’ll remind you of high school. Possibly, a horror show for some.
An American Werewolf in London
The 1981 film has stood the test of time, and it represents a peak of practical effects in horror films. Similarly the haunted house is an amazing piece of set design with an animatronic werewolf that comes lunging out at you, or you just interrupt mid-meal. The house starts in an English pub, goes through the London Underground, and finishes with a rampage on the streets of London. Notably in parts of this house you can’t look up to remind yourself that you’re really inside of a warehouse. Overall, it does make you feel like you’ve wandered into the movie.
Body Collectors—Recollections
Body collectors is a Horror Nights original. In this house unconstrained by the needs to keep inside the bounds of a franchise the set designers went big. For all that though it’s not the most original of scares. The setting is an asylum in a blizzard. The monsters are better dressed versions of the crypt keeper. For all that the setting and the villains are clichés then they are well done clichés. The haunted house is huge, and the décor is early twentieth century with some top notch effects. Seeing a ghost light up behind the wall paper is a startling moment and trying to figure out which well-dressed desiccated corpse is going to stand up will distract you from the one standing behind you appraising you.
Asylum in Wonderland 3D
For original twists this one is our favorite. You’ll be handed a pair of 3D glasses before you enter the house and it makes all the difference. The experience is bright, colorful, and in shades of neon. It’s a nice reminder that horror doesn’t always wear black, sometimes it wears Day-Glo colors circa 1991. The 3D is an integral part of the experience and without the glasses you’ll miss out on some neat effects like the bridge you’re crossing flipping upside down.
Be warned though. This house is very much a love it, or hate it. The double vision of 3D can make some nauseous. Others might not care for the neon colors. If you’re on the fence though this house is definitely worth passing through to see how you like it.
Jack Presents: 25 Years of Monsters and Mayhem
What Halloween is complete without a monster mash?
It’s pretty easy to forget that the classic horror movies that defined Halloween were Universal productions. Dracula, Frankenstein, and the wolf man were all Universal pictures, and so were flicks where Dracula meets the others. This house brings out those classic monsters to meet the Halloween Horror Nights icons with some you probably don’t remember like Quasimodo from the Hunchback of Notre Dame and combines them into one haunted house that sees you wandering from a pirate ship, to a castle, to a frightful carnival. The set designs are top notch with you trying to keep your balance in the sloped hold of a pirate ship, and looking down into a courtyard far below. Also, a cut above standard are the costumes. A gargoyle will take a swipe at you as you try to figure out whether you’re looking down at a real drop or an effect.
It can be very scary. The cramped set design makes for a lot of places for characters to jump out at you. The wandering can be very disorienting as you go from dark castle to the bright colors of a carnival tent. It’s the combination that makes this our favorite Halloween Horror Nights house this year.
All the Rest
Halloween Horror Nights itself is crowded. This makes it worth the extra money for an express pass. Even with the express pass the lines for the haunted houses are still incredibly long. If you’re depending on a general admission ticket then you’re probably going to miss some houses. Universal Studios is first and foremost a theme park, and Halloween Horror Nights is a great chance to check out some of the rides without having to wait in line. While the crowds are distracted with monsters you can take the opportunity to slide into one of the rides.
The crowds can spoil some of the effects too. There were plenty of times where the scares were spoiled by the need to shuffle along with the crowds. We observed a couple of occasions in each house where a sound effect was the set up for the scare, and the person far ahead of us got to be the one the character jumped at. The fact that around every corner a bored universal employee was monitoring the line spoiled some of the fear factor. Nor are Halloween Horror Nights cheap. Its starts at $49.99 for general admission, but adding an express pass costs an additional $85. Once you’re there every trip to the concession stand is going to cost around $10. A commemorative glass offers free refills, but you can’t bring them on the rides. Meaning that you’ll find yourself buying commemorative glasses twice, or shelling out for a storage locker.
It is an event well worth participating in despite the expense. Halloween only comes once a year, and planning a big event is something people are bothering to do less every year. Halloween Horror Nights may cost a bundle, but as the year comes to an end it is a good way to treat yourself to a good time. If you’re taking a cruise out of Port Canaveral this October, you may want to fly in a day early just for this. You can book your hotel stay and transportation from the airport to hotel, hotel to port and port to airport with GoPort.
Recommend 
