Halloween Horror Nights

Halloween Horror Nights (HHN) at Universal Studios parks is an exciting and anticipated event that changes every year. This year, I was able to go and see what it’s all about. Getting to see the scare actors in action and the haunted houses they had in store was an awesome experience and every one of them was a unique encounter. 

Five Nights at Freddy’s:

This house was a fun one, and it makes you feel like you’re actually in the movie! Seeing the animatronics in real life was a blast; they were all there, and there was even a hallway scene with Foxy. This one felt a little shorter than the others, but the ambiance was on point. Surprisingly, for a Five Nights at Freddy’s house, the jumpscares weren’t as frequent as some of the other houses, either. All in all, this house was a pleasure to go through and was not as overwhelming as the Terrifier house or The Horrors of the Wyatt Sicks house.

Scarecrow: Music by Slash:

Scarecrow is themed like an abandoned farm in which scarecrows are taking revenge on people who’ve destroyed the farmland. This one was a little more gory and had a lot of scarecrow-related jumpscares. The place smelled like an actual farm. and they nailed the ambiance here as well. The guy in the big scarecrow costume at the entrance was a nice addition, and watching him stalk people was hilarious.

Monstruos 3: The Ghosts of Latin America:

Monstruos 3 is set in Latin America and follows three ghost stories. The costumes for this house were intricate, the setting was great, and the props were impressive. The sight of a giant ghost lady breaking through the roof of a Spanish-style home and gobbling up someone is something to behold! The jumpscares of this house were great too, and the crypt that you enter through was a nice touch. There was a bit of gore in this house as well, so if you plan on going to HHN, you may want to keep that in mind.

The Horrors of The Wyatt Sicks:

I don’t know much about WWE, but I do know that this house had an interesting theme! The front and inside of the house looked like some kind of farmhouse or swamp house, and it works well. The jumpscares were fun, and the scenes were incredibly immersive. This house had some gore, but wasn’t as extreme as the others. There was a room that smelled like feces so you might want to keep that in mind when visiting.

Jason Universe:

The camp was a great house, and the scenes were awesome. This house puts you in the Jason universe, like the name says, at Camp Crystal Lake. This one had a lot of gore, but the scenes were really animated with Jason doing his thing to campers. There was even one scene where Jason stabbed through the roof of a car! The scare actors in this house were epic and added a lot more depth to the scenes.

Fallout:

If you like Fallout, this house will do you proud! It puts you right into Vault 33 and 32 from the show while it’s getting raided. Then you walk through the rest of the post-nuclear-fallout environments from the show up until the Super Duper Mart, then culminating with a poster of New Vegas and the shadow of a Deathclaw for a jumpscare. At one point, there’s even a scene with the bear and Maximus, like the show. This one does have gore and some ghouls, but it's an especially enjoyable house and even more so for a Fallout fan.

Terrifier:

This house was easily the most popular, with the longest wait and line. It's a longer walkthrough, but not boring. It felt like scratch-and-sniff horror, as most rooms smelled like something in them, like candy or popcorn. The only foul-smelling room was the bathroom, and it smelled like the room from The Horrors of the Wyatt Sicks. It’s themed like a carnival, and you go through it with Art the Clown doing gory things in almost every room. It’s played more for laughs than actual scares, which makes it more interesting. There was a heavily misty room, which would make you a little wet, but it was all entertaining and one of the best houses of the night.

Poltergeist:

The Poltergeist house returned from 2018’s Haunted House lineup. It seems pretty much the same and just changed locations. It’s based on the movie of the same name, and the environments are extremely surreal at times, like looping through the girl’s room twice and entering her closet to find a giant skull with a path that leads to some kind of meat maze with a clown. Entering through the facade that looked like the house was awesome and the final scare room with the coffins actually got me because I wasn't expecting it. This was definitely one of my favorite houses of the night.

Terror Tram: Enter the Blumhouse:

The terror tram is like a collection of smaller houses all fitting a theme. This year, the theme was Blumhouse films. It features Blumhouse movie villains such as M3GAN, The Grabber, The Babyface Killer, and the killers from The Purge. The tram takes you down to the lots, and then you have to walk through the path all the way back up to the tram station while going through the houses. While you’re doing that, the many scare actors are trying to mess with you. They have chainsaws and some other cool props to enhance the experience. M3GAN was supposed to be the mastermind of the whole thing in the setup video on the tram, and it was funny to see the M3GAN scare actor dancing as we arrived.

All in all, Halloween Horror Nights this year was a super enjoyable experience and I had a lot of fun, and my favorite houses were the Five Nights at Freddy's, Fallout, Terrifier, and Poltergeist ones. Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood ends on November 2, so I hope you might consider going!