Image Courtesy of Universal Studios Orlando
Universal Orlando’s Halloween Horror Nights is for the weirdos. I mean that in the most complimentary terms imaginable. Inoculated in the horror world, it’s perhaps a bit too easy to forget how the general public isn’t always the most, well… appreciative of the genre. Imagine telling your coworker about Terrifier 3’s opening scene, and you’ll get what I’m trying to say. So, as a bastion for the freaks and weirdos, the horror lover in us all, Halloween Horror Nights remains a premier destination to let your horror flag fly.
Dine on Some Puns at Mel’s Die-In
I was fortunate this year to once again be hosted by Universal Studios Orlando to preview this year’s event, the 34th in the park’s history. If you’ve been before, the event is largely much the same. Like our favorite horror franchises, Universal’s season of haunts iterates more than it reinvents. That’s a good thing, adhering to visitor expectations while pushing the boundaries just enough to keep the real thrill-seekers excited.
And this year, thrill-seekers will have an absolute field day. We’re living in existential times, and perhaps the haunt team knows that. Intentionally or not, this year’s theme—the root of horror—feels like it all goes back to the beginning. Those first scares, that first introduction to a world more horrifying than we’d been led to believe. Where did the horror start? Now that it’s been unleashed, is it ever poised to stop?
Terrifier Gets Nasty
Not so among the ten houses for this year’s event. The apex, of course, being the Terrifier house, a condensed reel of Damien Leone’s three (so far) films of the same name. Organizers report using more blood and bodies than ever before, and within the first few seconds, skepticism is met with optimism. Terrifier is nasty. Truly, utterly disgusting. It is undoubtedly this year’s strongest house, an unsettling, uncomfortable, and unequivocally immersive foray into the twisted world of Art the Clown. Who, for fans out there, might just be wandering the park beyond the house, waiting in the shadows for that perfect scare.
The remaining slate of IP houses isn’t bad by any stretch, though contextually, they’ve been given an impossible task next to Terrifier. Five Nights at Freddy’s boasts remarkable animatronic work from Jim Henson Creature Shop, though immersion feels more like artifice. It’s a novelty, though the scares are replaced by a production line of recognizable iconography.
Fallout Display in a Scare Zone
The same could be said for Fallout. While it’s sick as hell to see that IP adapted, the haunt works better in concept than execution. Again, solid visual cues and outstanding production design just barely obscure a house with few, if any, meaningful scares or thrills.
Jason is, well… Jason. There’s a lot of him, so franchise fans will have a field day. Several iconic masks and kills are carefully recreated, though as a whole package, it feels more like loosely-tethered B-roll than a cohesive, haunting whole. But, hey, The Horrors of The Wyatt Sicks might finally get me into professional wrestling. Did I understand anything? No, but the lore seemed sick, and I’m all for gnarly expanded universes.
Brief Preview of the Many Jason. Recognize Which Film He’s From?
As is often the case, the best is reserved for the original houses. Several this year boast expansions from years past. Lore dumps and easter eggs upgraded to the full haunt experience. Dolls: Let’s Play Dead, my favorite of the original offerings, plays with scale in exceptional ways, creating the illusion of being reduced to the size of a doll as you wander a labyrinth of twisted experiments and torture. In terms of pure visuals and monster design, Dolls: Let’s Play Dead is a knockout.
Gálkn: Monsters of the North and El Artista: A Spanish Haunting are simply gorgeous, ambient soundscapes with worthwhile scares to boot. If you’ve ever wanted to live in a haunt, the latter is certainly inviting.
Grave of Flesh and Hatchet and Chains: Demon Bounty Hunters are more conventional, opting for standard demon/zombie iconography Halloween Horror Nights has featured prominently plenty of times before. The locomotive action of Hatchet and Chains is a hoot, however, and Grave of Flesh augments familiarity with relentless scares.
This year’s scare zones feel more condensed than they have in the past, though as always, keen, meticulous staging renders it a frightening throughway to whatever haunt you hope to visit next. The Cat Lady of Crooked Lane is a particular highlight, gamely conceptualizing storybook aesthetics and tropes for a bewitching fable of trick-or-treaters turned feline.
The Crew
No differently than the past two years that I’ve previewed the event, this year’s Halloween Horror Nights comes with my unambiguous recommendation. Only, perhaps even more so than before. The horrors of our world are more tangible and threatening than ever, or at least they feel that way. Universal Orlando’s Halloween Horror Nights wants to scare you, though in the process, it might just save you, too. You and all the other costumed weirdos. Horror has always been about community, and there’s nary a better one than the Horror Nights crowd.
More coverage of this year’s Halloween Horror Nights can be found on my Twitter @Chadiscollins and on Dread Central’s official Instagram.
Categorized:Editorials News
