Never Go Alone
October 31, 2022
The sound of a fearful yet excited heartbeat pounds from thousands of people waiting in line for a terrific experience. The dark and the fog take over. Monsters, creatures, and blinding lights everywhere. Halloween Horror Nights is getting everyone into the spooky spirit. With featured houses such as Halloween, Blum House, and The Weeknd: After Hours, Universal is still going strong with iconic and memorable haunted houses.
For this year’s Halloween Horror Nights, there were some throwbacks. Despite it being the second time Universal Studios includes Halloween, the detail and aesthetics of the haunted house were taken into great consideration. Walking into the dark narrow hall, Michael Myers, jumps out from all different directions. Flashing lights build suspense when going through what feels like the actual movie. As the iconic Halloween theme song plays, people are waiting to be scared at any second. In addition, Universal Studios showcased their Monster Legends in the haunted house Universal Monster Legends Collide. Between Dracula, werewolves, mummys, and Frankenstein, this house represents the icons coming together within Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights.
As far as the new and featured houses, Blum House and The Weeknd: After Hours, met many expectations of those attending Halloween Horror Nights. Junior, Miley Camilo, voices that one of her “favorite houses was definitely the Weeknd one. While waiting in line they played a couple of his songs and [she] loved it.” This house was based on the Weeknd’s eerie and spine-chilling music videos from his album After Hours. As the music plays throughout the haunted house, the screams of people interfere. Each section within the house represents a different music video and plays the song in the background. Along with this new addition to Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights, Blum House, a production company for horror movies, made an appearance. This haunted house included the movies Freaky and Black Phone, each having their own section within the house. Jumping out of dark corners, where people would least expect it, talented scare actors played the characters known from these Blum House movies.
Along with the houses mentioned, Halloween Horror Nights incorporated a total of 10 houses, five scare zones, five open rides, and two shows. Universal Studios brought so much to the table this year, especially with their 2022 merch featuring all the haunted houses and their characters. Sophomore Zahara Durand states that this year’s Halloween Horror Nights “executes the entire horror aspect of halloween which [she] love[s]. The scare zones around the park, the houses, the decoration, it’s all amazing overall and it’s different every year so, you’ll never know what to expect.”
All in all, Universal Studios’ annual Halloween Horror Nights took over the spooky season for its 31st time, leaving many in awe and looking forward to yet another year of fright.
