Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights 2016

With the start of the new Halloween season Universal Studios kicks it off first with Halloween Horror Nights. I am big in the haunted attraction industry with designing and building scenes to make sure guests are getting the best scares for the money. I have been to several of America’s best haunted attraction over the years. Places like Phobius Haunted House in St. Louis, Missouri, MadWorld in Piedmont, South Carolina, The Darkness HauntedHouse in St. Louis, Missouri, Netherworld Haunted House in Atlanta Georgia, and countless other haunted attractions throughout the East Coast. I look at HHN with a different set of eyes than some other may see it. I do not normally get scared, I am too busy looking at everything around the scares to notice when someone jumps out at me. All haunts are entertaining.  

I have been attending the opening weekend of HHN for a number of years to avoid the large crowds the closer we get to Halloween. This year was the first year of a three day opening weekend. This paid off well for those that chose to arrive on Sunday. The lines were extremely short and stayed short for most of the night. The longest wait was 45 minutes which is light in the HHN world.

This review is being done room by room and is in no order from best to worst. I am not judging the acting abilities due to being the first week and so that could get into the rhythm of the lines and people. My experiences through each house was not that got scared or startled but rather their timing and placement within the maze. All pictures where taken by me.

1.       American Horror Story

The house is set up in three sections for the series, Season 1 “Murder House”, Season 4 “Freak Show”, and Season 5 “Hotel”. We start off seeing events that led up to the ghosts being in the house. Each area of the house is designed and layout in such a way that you feel like you are there. Look at every turn to see something new including all the major characters. At the start of each Season you see the video on the wall welcoming you into the next session. The Freak Show stands out right at the start when you walk between two carney trailers. There are the iconic large painted banners giving you the feel. What is a major event is that you get to walk through Twisty’s bus. It is just Amazing. During the Hotel portion you will see several events that was in the show. Be careful for actors will step in front of you and you could run into them. One thing you may not notice is that if you look down to the floor, you will notice the design of the carpet. If you have not yet been through the house do so and look down.

2.      Tomb of the Ancients

This house is truly one of the best houses in years. The concept of finding a hidden tomb and walking through it is so cool. There are a lot of details in the house that you will want to see. There are a couple of Easter eggs in the house that I will share with you so you can keep an eye out for. First being shared is a tribute to a music legend that has recently passed away, it will appear on a wall just before you take a left turn in purple. The place is full of vines and other things that hang from the ceiling. Towards the middle you will notice there are thicker vines with large rings on the end. Pull those and see what happens. The ending to this room is one of the bests. The room is had a saying, ”44 and no more”, that is just enough clearance to get a wheelchair through and that’s it. There are plenty of scares involved. No pictures.

3.       The Exorcist

One of the best horror movie that ever came from a book. As you see on the movie poster of the Priest standing under the street lamp in Georgetown, you too will also walk under that light and through that gate to start your experience. As both the book and movie focuses on a young girl transformation from healthy to demonic. Designers had their hands building on a house that will scare you with using just one room. The first look of the demonic youth, will show you the detail they put into this room. Each of the rooms inside this house changes and you become part of the act. Your surroundings change as the demon takes over her. This room will get all of your senses going with sight, sounds, smells, and touch. It is a great room and I am sure it will only get better during the season. I look to see this room to return in the future sometime.

4.      Ghost Town: The Curse of Lightning Gulch

This house, I have noticed, is at the bottom of most people’s rating lists. It is one of US’s original houses with a ton of story lines and scares. At the start you walk into town seeing a couple of hanging corpses on the gallows. This room has it all. Death, lots of death lurking about the house. There is a bordello here and you could be caught in the middle of a gun fight so be careful. When you reach the large town area look around to see where the cannon balls fly, just hope it’s not into your head. This house has weather in it that will surprise you and is different than any other room. The story closes with a bang. You will enjoy it.

5.      Halloween: Hell Comes to Haddonfield

For me the story is stale, the first Halloween movie is a classic and all the others fall short and only make themselves worse by trying to find that chemistry. With that being said, this house picks up where the last house during the HHN 25 left off. You walk through the closet and you hear gun fire. Was it six shots or five. Not sure, count the bullet holes in Michael, if he stands there long enough for you to count. The house walks you through the scenes in the hospital. Everything looks great and Michael will pop out of nowhere swinging his knife. The highlight in the movie where the nurse removes her clothes to climb into the hot tub for most teenage boys, is included in this house. The ending effect to this house is a great burning effect with glowing embers and smoke.

6.      The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

This for more me is one of the best houses this year. This lines up with the movie quit well. The tour begins just like the five teens on that hot Texas day.  You become the number six person. There are a lot of action that you may miss because it more of a set of scenes rather than people jumping out at you. Be on the lookout for each person in the Sawyer family, they are all there. One of the first kills is in the hallway by the stairs for a lot of people, you will miss it. There is so much to see and experience in this room, you may want to see it several times. What makes this room so great also makes it a sad room for the actors. That reason is that the actors are performing a scene in the movie and it takes time to do so. You have people rushing to keep the line moving and get the feeling of being rushed out and missing out on something that may have taken an hour or so to see. Just take a slow stroll through until they force you out. It is great to see it. after you exit the house through the broken window like Sally, you may notice a station wagon that was used in a previous HHN. writing still on the window. Great touch.

7.      Krampus

This is a good story from Europe that had been turned into a movie. Although the house could have been better had the based the house on the Legend rather than the movie, it would have been much more terrifying. There are so many things to see in this house that it is crazy. Make sure you keep an eyes glued to the kitchen scene with several gingerbread men. There is a small army in there running a muck. The fun area is upstairs in the attack with lots of decorations to look through. See if you can spot the Mouse t-shirt hanging around. Towards the end when you get to the home of Krampus, start looking for the snow globes and see if you recognize some of the houses. It is very well designed layout.

8.       The Walking Dead

There are several people that have given up on wanting to see this house. It has been use over the past several years. The bad thing is about the current house is that it is all tightened up and in one house and not even a large house. All six seasons are in one house. I think it caused people to hate this house that was once used to bring in more people to HHN. It came in with a bang that this year it went out with a fart and I hate to say it. It is one of my favorites over the past years. It was too much with not enough room to tell the story. It looked like they had just thrown together a few things and image or two from each season without telling the story. I was not as good as I had hoped.

9.       Lunatics Playground 3D: You Won’t Stand a Chance

Here is the house that belongs to this year’s Iconic new host, Chance. I was wanting to see some of the same effects from last year’s Alice in Wonderland. I did not get what I wanted. There was so many ways they could have gone. I would have not made it a 3D show rather a kill fest like the stages in the front were. I hope this doesn’t turn US from using Chance again, she was a huge hit on her stage. If they need to make a 3D house again, they should bring back the clowns and make floating 3D effects. No pictures.

Overall the 2016 HHN was a blast, just make sure you go on the less busy nights. I enjoyed it all for reason other than being scared. I would enjoy working and being involved in the creating of each house and seeing it come to life. If anyone knows who I can contact, please let me know or get us in touch with each other, I would be so happy. There seems like there has to be a lesser room out of a group of 9 but I think it could have been closer running without being such a large gap. The design team had a lot to pull off in just a small amount of time. Just point me into the right direction.
If anyone knows how I can be added to the media list for next year, please let me know.