As the cool air settles across the United States, a dark and sinister force has emerged in Orlando. Universal Orlando’s Halloween Horror Nights event continues to be the industry’s leader in chilling entertainment. With seemingly limitless intellectual properties, special effects, makeup, soundstages, and movie-making wizards at its disposal, Halloween Horror Nights is again scaring up fans of terror. But how did we arrive here?
First, the fine print: I am a chicken. I have never attended Halloween Horror Nights. I never will. I don’t like being scared. But this annual event has, historically, represented the best of what Universal’s creative minds are capable of. As a fan of theme parks and themed entertainment, the stories, characters, and settings created for Halloween Horror Nights are mind-boggling, and I’ve spent years happily collecting all the information I can on an event I’ll never attend. Be warned: Universal suggests its event for people 13 and up, and the material contained within is appropriately labeled as such even in writing. The fearless and the fearful, read on.
Early years
The world’s scariest theme park event began in 1991, named Fright Nights. Then just one meager haunted house (called “The Dungeon of Terror,” and constructed in the queue line for the Jaws boat ride) hosted on three nights, Fright Nights was a simple event that was focused heavily on entertainment. In 1992, the event was renamed “Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights,” adding a new maze (“The People Under the Stairs”) in one of Universal’s enormous backlot soundstages. As well, many of the park’s attractions were “haunted” by night, as E.T. Adventure became “Alien Forest” and Kongfrontation became “Tramway of Doom,” featuring appearances by the nefarious Darkman.
The event continued each year, adding more and more nights with more and more haunted houses, typically based on Universal’s horror classics like Psycho and The Mummy, with original house concepts emerging, including the popularly recurring “inmates on the loose,” “psych ward escapees” and “evil carnivals” that would remain a staple of Horror Nights and other haunted events until today.
Icons Emerge
Beginning in 2000, Universal did something extraordinary. For its tenth year, Halloween Horror Nights X, they created a central iconic figure to own the park – an original character who would represent that year’s event. They constructed a gruesome and terrifying back-story to Jack, a sickening and vicious clown who, according to his disturbing legend, had murdered children in a wholly unsettling fashion. Each haunted house and scarezone (themed areas of the park where scareactors could freely roam amid immersive sets) was tied to Jack’s story, even if only that his twisted and perverse imagination had brought each to life.
After the wild success of Jack, plans for 2001 were ambitiously detailed. Jack’s brother, Eddie, would kill off his clown sibling and take over the event, wielding a chainsaw, a metal muzzle, and a milky green eye. However, the horrific terrorist attacks on the United States in September necessitated major changes. At once, any and all references to blood or the word “terror” were stripped from the event. Red light bulbs were changed to green. Eddie disappeared from marketing and his brother was re-hired with the slogan “Jack’s Back” for Halloween Horror Nights XI.
Islands of Fear
All of the park’s islands became twisted versions of their daytime selves. Image via HHNCrypt.com (Click for larger)
2002 would be the event’s most defining year yet. The second park at the resort – Universal’s Islands of Adventure – had opened in 1999, and the park was finally ready to host Horror Nights itself. What’s more, the Islands park is as detailed as any Disney park on Earth, with separately themed “lands” that are each detailed to from head to toe. “Scarezones” were dropped entirely and Halloween Horror Nights: Islands of Fear (2002) did something tremendously large-scale instead: each Island at the park became an evil, twisted version of its daytime self. It was obvious, but brilliant.
Port of Entry became the dark “Port of Evil.” As Horror Nights began, the park’s icon, the Pharos Lighthouse, would flicker out and fog would pour from its tower.
On Marvel Super Hero Island, bodies of famous heroes would litter the ground as the villains took control in Island Under Siege. The usually bright land of the Sunday funnies, Toon Lagoon was filled with shoulder-high foam as distorted and disfigured Treaks and Foons prowled the bubbles and the distorted “Scary Tales” house turned childhood dreams to nightmares. Of course, Jurassic Park became JP: Extinction, where the electric fences short circuited and dinosaurs roamed the paths (including a haunted house called “Evilution,” particularly disturbing in its actors dressed as experimental dinosaur-human fusions in tremendous pain).
The ancient, mythological-themed Lost Continent became the Island of Evil Souls, a terrifying netherworld of evil mythology, presided over by a ram-horned demon named Nightmare. There was one land, though, that posed a threat to the use of Islands of Adventure for Horror Nights.
Dr. Seuss’ widow, Mrs. Geisel, had meticulously overseen the creation of Islands of Adventure’s sixth land, Seuss Landing, in 1999. She was protective of her late husband’s work, and approved such application of his name very sparingly. Seuss Landing was in all ways marvelous, but it was built with a very particular caveat: nothing scary would ever be associated with her husband’s work. So Seuss Landing was called Boo-Ville and presented with the notion that “The Whos” of Seuss’ work had been frightened by the dark, and locked themselves away in their homes. So Boo-Ville was deserted, devoid of characters or scares.
Auxillary pathways very clearly marked as separate from Seuss Landing lead to haunted houses in soundstages, including one themed to the year’s icon – The Caretaker. This tall, grim, pallid man (above) was represented in his own haunted house, Scream House, which told the tale of his odd eccentric behavior with the bodies he was charged with burying in the old graveyard…
In its first decade, Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights had become the standard for amusement parks. In 2002 in particular, it had proved itself with an infallible event icon, a smart and ambitious storyline, and more haunted houses than ever. What would the next decade hold?
The Director
A new icon was introduced for Halloween Horror Nights 13 – the sinister Director, a young and ambitious indie filmmaker whose bloodstained camera signaled his penchant for snuff films and violence. His plan? Commandeer Islands of Adventure’s themed lands as sets for his newest horror franchises. The skyscrapers of Super Hero Island became Toxic City, filled with glowing ooze and mutated, melting monsters. Toon Lagoon again twisted its cartoon character, but this time into Hide and Shriek, with the land entirely covered in black-and-white patches that just so happened to match the black-and-white bodysuits of scareactors who could hide in plain sight amid strobe flashes.
The Director cast the jungles of Jurassic Park as the backdrop for Night Prey, a horror movie where odd, beastly creatures and tribal cannibals stalk us –the movie stars. The ancient Lost Continent became Immortal Island, home to the terrifying Fire King and Ice Queen who controlled the north and south half of the island, respectively, and waged war with you in between. Seuss Landing returned as Boo-Ville, this time leading to The Director’s house – “All-Night DrIvE-In,” where you literally step behind the silver screen and into the Director’s favorite films; spoiler alert, no romantic comedies.
Halloween Horror Nights 14 took place in both parks – the northern half of Islands and the southern half of the Studios were connected by auxiliary pathways between show buildings; the event had no icon or overarching theme.
A brand new story begins
In 2005, Halloween Horror Nights: Tales of Terror re-introduced the grand concepts of 2002 and 2003 by returning to Islands of Adventure and featuring a new icon: The Storyteller. This kindly old woman with a few drops of blood on her glasses was actually not present inside the event. Rather, she told the tale of an ancient world called Terra Cruentius. Like a living “World of Warcraft,” Islands of Adventure was transformed into this distant mythological world with each land interconnected with the others, all overseen by the evil Terra Queen (explore 2005’s incredible interactive website of maps, clues, riddles, and original backstories for each new island by clicking here). Super Hero Island was now Blood Thunder Alley, the metropolis that the queen’s dark mechanical citizens called home (with the striking haunted house, ‘Demon Cantina,’ being their liquor-fueled headquarters).
Toon Lagoon and Seuss Landing were deemed The Hollows, two of realms where the twisted humans who live in this dark medieval world are kept (with haunted houses “Body Collectors” and “The Skool”). Jurassic Park became Gorewood Forest, the dark woods of the Queen’s realm where horrible, hideous underground creatures mine endlessly for the Gorewood Tree, whose metallic bark builds the Queen’s Terra Throne.
The Lost Continent was transformed into the Tangleroot Fire Pits, where the warriors of Blood Thunder Alley would take the mined metals of Gorewood Forest and form metallic weaponry for the Queen’s honor. For the first time, Universal’s incredible walk-through Poseidon’s Fury was re-purposed as a haunted house called “Terror Mines,” where horrifying, blind, winged creatures are awakened by the smelting above. Most interestingly, guests in this haunted house were given helmets with lights attached; the light would turn on and off throughout the experience at key moments. At the park’s entrance, Port of Entry became Terra Guard Run, where the Queen’s otherworldly Black Guard lined the streets leading up to the Terra Throne, where the Queen would hang one visitor nightly in a very clever special effects show.
To the Studios once more
In the years following the Tales of Terror, Halloween Horror Nights moved back to Universal Studios Florida. The next year’s event, Halloween Horror Nights: Sweet 16, brought each of the event’s past icons (Jack, The Caretaker, the Director, The Storyteller, and even Eddie) back to the forefront, and each icon was given his or her own haunted house. Meanwhile, the move back to the Studios and away from Islands of Adventure’s themed lands necessitated the creation of original scarezones, now featuring zombies, witches, vampires, and other classic horror movie fare.
The following year, 2007’s Halloween Horror Nights: Carnival of Carnage was hosted by Jack (returning for his fourth year at the event). But he didn’t come alone. A deal with competing studios allowed Jack to bring three friends to the event: Freddy Krueger (A Nightmare on Elm Street), Jason Vorhees (Friday the 13th) and Leatherface (Texas Chainsaw Massacre). Movies had found their way back into Halloween Horror Nights in a big way. Each of the three characters received his own haunted house, and The Thing and Dead Silence (two successful horror movies of the year) were represented by mazes as well. Instead of scarezones, the entire park was one massive Midway of the Bizarre – clowns roamed free, scareactors drove around in bumper cars, and motorcycles were redecorated as angry carousel horses.
2008’s Halloween Horror Nights: Reflections of Fear was represented by Bloody Mary (though she wasn’t characterized as an icon on the same level and Jack and Company) and the year was marked by original houses featuring still more zombies, aliens, witches, and sequels to earlier years’ Scary Tales and Body Collectors.
Towards the future
Though Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights was still an industry leader, its middle years at Universal Studios Florida received lukewarm reviews. After the intensely detailed and story-driven events from the Caretaker, the Director, and the Storyteller, folks had gotten used to a certain level of immersion at the event, and the loosely tied together years back at the studios were just missing something. For 2009, something would have to change, and Universal had an idea.
Halloween Horror Nights had tested a little bit of everything during its first two decades. After years of being a collection of haunted houses typically based half on that year’s horror movies and half of Universal’s classics, it had found new traction early in the new millennium with original characters, icons, stories, and settings that were all united and tied together by immersive and creative themes.
When the event moved from Islands of Adventure back to Universal Studios Florida in 2006, it resumed business as it had at the park years earlier, with disconnected haunted houses and piecemeal scarezones based on witches, clowns, zombies, and other Halloween fodder that somehow lacked the impressive storytelling the event had seen at Islands of Adventure.
So 2009 proved to be a test year.
Universal again employed its army of classic horror films and the best of the best that had come out that year, creating Halloween Horror Nights XIX: Ripped from the Silver Screen. But how to connect all those separate stories in one universe the way that the event had done so successfully before? The answer was, simply enough, to bring back the idea of an event icon. Enter The Usher, a man of few words and many toothy grins.
Julian Browning, according to his back-story, was an usher at the Universal Palace Theatre in the 1920s, notoriously strict for demanding that patrons adhere to the theatre rules. In the 1940s, the Usher got into a scuffle with a patron who would not stop speaking. The patron flung the Usher’s flashlight at the screen, which it tore right though. Retrieving it from behind the ripped screen, Julian somehow became entangled in stage ropes and dislodged a sandbag, hanging him in a slow and agonizing death with his feet just inches above the ground. Now, he continues to monitor the showing at the old haunted theatre and invokes harsh revenge on those who interrupt his show…
The inclusion of an event icon put Horror Nights back on the map and re-energized both the public and (apparently) the designers, who seemed newly invigorated by the creative success they’d achieved. Even with movie-based mazes like “Chucky: Friends Till the End,” “Saw,” “The Wolfman,” and two mazes based on Universal’s classic horror movie monsters, Dracula and Frankenstein, the event’s 19th year felt original.
The culmination of two decades
Long before Universal’s 20th year of Horror Nights commenced, a viral marketing campaign began. Truly unsettling videos began leaking of a figure in the shadows whose deep, guttural voice (more like a collection of voices all speaking together) would utter mysterious nonsequitor thoughts: “It is the twentieth cycle.” “I wait no longer.” “I demand more.” “I am getting closer.” “Face me.”
An intricate puzzle on the event’s official website was unlocked one element at a time. Those who finished the puzzle’s most complex demands were rewarded with a video. “To you,” Jack smiled darkly, “I’m just a clown. But to him… I’m so much more.” Would Jack return as the event’s icon?
No. One by one, the icons past reappeared to explain that all along, they’d stood for something greater. All along, even decades ago, the icons of the event had been part of a much larger puzzle. Jack embodies Chaos. The Caretaker is Death. The Director symbolizes Sacrifice. The Storyteller is truly Legend. And the Usher is living, breathing Vengeance. These five elements, they argue together, are fear; all horror stories are rooted in one of those five concepts.
And indeed, Halloween Horror Nights XX was represented by Fear himself, a towering winged creature with Roman numerals burned into his arms and a dark, twisted bramble growing across his body. The attentive will note that all five icons have the same thorny bramble growing across their faces, as well. With their work to pave the way done, the past icons can return under the rule of their true master, and indeed, Fear stood at the entrance of the event under a pair of massive steel X’s that formed the gates into his domain.
Critics lauded each and every maze and scarezone at the year’s event, each more detailed than the last. Fear’s voice (now recognizable as a combination of the previous five icons’) spoke often that “This is not about the past. This is about the future.”
That remained true with Halloween Horror Nights 21, overseen by the icon Lady Luck, who would transform from vixen to predator with the spin of a Las Vegas style roulette wheel to match the event’s Blackjack 21 theme. Interestingly, each house and scarezone shared one common theme. And no, it wasn’t luck. It was choice. Different paths and behaviors would determine your outcome in mazes with shifting walls and mis-directional signs. In some philosophical way, perhaps the event was asking if luck exists at all or if it’s choice that determines all outcomes?
The present
2012’s Halloween Horror Nights 22 dropped the icon once again in favor of mazes based on Silent Hill, Alice Cooper, Universal’s classic monsters, and AMC’s The Walking Dead. The park dropped scarezones as well, opting for what it called “Street Experiences,” where roving hordes of warriors, bikers, and vampires would roam the park so that no place was safe. The experience was coolly received and written off by many as a cop-out since these Street Experiences meant Universal didn’t have to invest in the detailed scarezones people had grown to expect. What’s more, the different warring hordes were prone to stopping for much too long or being hard to find.
2013’s Halloween Horror Nights 23 didn’t look too much different on the surface, which worried fans. It was another year of mostly movie-themed houses (The Cabin the Woods, Evil Dead, Resident Evil, and The Walking Dead, and An American Werewolf in London with a few original concept houses, as well), no event icon, and an unusual idea. The park would have scarezones, but none so distinctly defined; they’d all be themed to The Walking Dead, with different famous locations from that series represented (like a farm, a survivor’s camp, and downtown Atlanta).
But how would a whole park themed to the Walking Dead mix with houses based on other, very different horror franchises? It turns out, very well. The new scarezone concept was strong, detailed and well executed, and the houses were all even more meticulously detailed than they had been before. Somehow, despite sounding an awful lot like Halloween Horror Nights 22, 23 was a hit. You can read our own house-by-house review of Halloween Horror Nights 23.
For 2014, Universal has reversed its strategy somewhat. Halloween Horror Nights 24 is a bit of a departure from last year’s event, bringing back individual scare zones, and featuring more houses based on original properties. However, if you are into film and TV tie-ins, this year’s event features houses and scare-zones based on The Walking Dead,Halloween, The Purge, Alien vs. Predator, Face-Off (Syfy’s reality show) and Dracula Untold.
So far, early reviews have praised the return to separate scare zones, and stand out houses (so far) seem to be original houses Giggle and Gore as well as Roanoke: Cannibal Colony. On the tie –in side, popular consensus seems to be that the Alien vs. Predator and Walking Dead houses are among the best in the event’s history.
Conclusion
Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights is the most respected Halloween event in the world. It’s beloved by its fans with numerous websites dedicated to it, and visitors flock from around the world to visit the event (or at least find high definition, night-vision videos of its haunted houses on YouTube). The event remains strong precisely because it continues to grow and try new things, switching parks, icons, themes, and atmospheres each year instead of relying on the same thing over and over again. Without a doubt, Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights will remain an industry leader for as long as they continue to produce such a high quality event.
Two questions remain: which do you prefer, years where your favorite movies come to life, or years when Universal builds original mythologies through viral build-up? And the biggest question: what’s next? For their part, Universal’s team probably already has a pretty solid idea. We just won’t hear a peep for another year.
