Halloween Horror Nights is back at Universal Studios this year from August 29th to November 2nd. This time around the theme is “The Origins of Horror” and is set in a “warped conservatory,” with a gothic vibe full of twisted vines, stained glass, and gargoyles. There are four official scare zones this year and ten houses in total, featuring various intellectual properties such as Five Nights at Freddy’s, Fallout, Friday the 13th, and Terrifier.
The scare zones this year were more tame, except for the unofficial killer clown zone in Simpsons Land. Throughout the entire area there are clowns with chainsaws hidden prepared to pop out and taunt you while walking through the land. This zone has been featured at Halloween Horror Nights during several different years, most recently back in 2018. As for the rest of the scare zones, they’re more special effects based and less scares based. This is especially apparent in the The Cat Lady of Crooked Lane scare zone near the back of the park. While the costumes aren’t the most terrifying thing in the world, the full body transformations into cats are truly a wonder to look at and the scenery really looks like a creepy street on halloween night. The new scare zone Demon Queens is primarily focused on creating a fun environment to move along traffic then creating scares. It has women in demon prosthetics dancing on podiums with a dj in the middle playing upbeat remixes of popular music.
The scares are rather heavy in the houses this year, specifically in the Jason Universe and “WWE Presents: The Horrors of The Wyatt Sicks” houses. Throughout the “Jason Universe” house, there are consistent scares where large scare actors jump out at you with various deadly weapons. The end of the house is particularly terrifying because it takes place in a long cramped hallway that’s completely covered in black curtain which allows multiple Jasons to hide and scare you over and over again for 5 minutes straight. In WWE, the main highlight for me was this small hallway covered in mirrors that has 2 extremely tall scare actors jump out from both sides and hover over you.
Additionally, the houses this year were incredibly immersive mainly due to the extended lengths and elaborate set designs. This is especially prevalent in the infamous Terrifier house. This house combines disgusting smells, visuals, and water splurts to drag you into the horrifying world of Art the clown. This house is insanely graphic, especially in the section that takes place in a public bathroom full of dead bodies and waste. On a lighter note, the Five Nights at Freddy’s house is just as effective at pulling you into the IPs world in a less gruesome way. As soon as you enter the house you’re greeted with a show put on by all of the animatronics and it really feels like you’ve entered a Chuck e Cheese style pizzeria. One impressive thing to note is how often the house uses animatronics for scares instead of opting for the easy option of humans. Although the house is based on the movie I think it also does an excellent job of paying tribute to the games in one section where you can see all of the security cameras just like the main game mechanic.
Lastly, the menus and food options this year were very strong. There were sixteen food stands based on different scare zones, houses and IPs all with excellent theming. The terrier booth and Five Nights at Freddy’s dining experience were the best immersion-wise because they played into restaurants that actually exist in their movies. My personal favorite foods of the night were the “death by cheese stick”, “Flamin’ Hot Birria Ramen”, and “Why Not Have Both Pizza & Pasta.” The cheese stick was basically a humongous very well done mozzarella stick with spicy marinara sauce that had an amazing cheese pull. The ramen was actually very well made and although the cheetos on top were kind of an odd choice the spicy birria was delicious and the noodles were really high quality. Last but not least, the Five Nights at Freddy’s spaghetti pizza completely blew my expectations out of the park. The meatballs were delicious and the pizza itself acted more like a yummy garlic bread covered in cheese.
I believe this year was a major success for Halloween Horror Nights. Not only were the scares strong, but the designs of the scare zones and houses were top tier. I think they executed the fan favorite IPs very well and did them justice.
