Halloween Horror Nights is one of Universal’s most highly anticipated annual events. With impressive scare zones and immersive haunted houses at every turn, changing each year, guests in search of a good fright are in for the ride of their lives.
Universal is well-known for not pulling any punches when it comes to the scare factor during this yearly event. Blood, guts, and jump scares are featured at every turn and it is not typically recommended or marketed toward younger audiences. This year, Universal is celebrating its 31st Halloween Horror Nights, so to join in on the scares, it is time we talk about one of the most controversial entries in this event’s history at the resort.
In 2002, Universal was gearing up for its 12th annual Halloween Horror Nights event which was to be held for the first time at the newly opened Islands of Adventure theme park. The icon of the year was planned to be a little girl by the name of Cindy. Cindy Caine was the daughter of Dr. Albert Caine (better known as the Caretaker) and the original plot involved Cindy taking over the various islands and turning them into her playthings.
After a handful of child abductions in the area during the year, Cindy’s idea was scrapped and the icon of Islands of Fear became her father, the Caretaker. The former surgeon turned mad scientist seized control of the Islands with the help of his faithful servants of darkness and brought forward some of the most controversial haunted houses in Horror Nights history. With a total of five haunted houses, six scare zones, and four shows, Islands of Fear officially opened to the public on October 4, 2002.
Starting in the Jurassic Park section was a unique scare zone called JP Extinction. After an experiment gone wrong unleashed a swarm of human-dinosaur hybrids around the park, guests would have the option to enter the Project Evilution haunted house. While being chased by hungry Dino-Men and escaped carnivorous dinosaurs, guests would follow the former Triceratops Encounter trail through the woods.
Agitated triceratops animatronics bellowed behind the strobe lights, and toward the end of the trail, guests would bear witness to a gruesome sight–the head of a decapitated triceratops, suspended with wires and still dripping with blood.
That wasn’t all, there was still more gore to come…
Another themed house displayed in the park that year was Scary Tales II, hosted in Toon Lagoon. This house featured scare actors dressed as Treaks and Foons, servants of the Caretaker with wide, grinning faces.
They would act out spooky retellings of famous stories such as the three little pigs and the headless horseman, all while frightening guests of all ages.
In addition to these popular and well-received houses, one stood out for other reasons. Fear Factor, a haunted house set up within the Thunder Falls Terrace restaurant in the Jurassic Park area, received some of the most negative feedback of any Halloween Horror Nights house before or since. This house tried to play on peoples’ common fears–insects, spiders, worms, intestines, snakes, and rats all scurried about in the rooms and around guests.
Perhaps the most notorious scarezone made an appearance at Marvel Super Hero Island, where serial killer Cletus Kasady and the bloodthirsty symbiote Carnage had taken over. Imbued with the Caretaker’s power, Carnage and his band of villains overthrew the city and wiped out the superheroes, leaving the city a lawless and dangerous place. The haunted house at this location was Maximum Carnage, a name shared by the recently released comic book story.
Following a similar plot of the comics, this haunted house told the story of Carnage’s rise to power and the devastating loss of the heroes. Inside, guests would witness the gruesome remains of some of their favorite heroes. allegedly, this house contained a bloodied shield of Captain America and Wolverine impaled on a spike. There were even reports of a decapitated Spider-Man.
Supposedly, Marvel was not too thrilled about fan favorite characters meeting such grisly ends, and feared that if younger audiences were to see their favorite superheroes dead inside, they would stop buying their comics. This was 2002 after all, a full decade before the Avengers craze would take the world by storm. Unfortunately, because of this dispute, Marvel has yet to make another appearance in any future Horror Nights instalments.
The final haunted house to be used during this event was Screamhouse. This house held the role of the icon house and featured the Caretaker himself. The queue entrance was located inside Seuss Landing and the house itself utilized one of the behind-the-scenes soundstages. Throughout the house, guests would be chased and tormented by zombies and other servants of the Caretaker.
In addition to these various haunted houses, there were a handful of independent scarezones scattered around the park. These areas included Port of Evil, the Caretaker’s first scarezone that was set up around the entrance of Islands of Adventure, the Island of Evil souls which took over the Lost Continent area and featured an army of orcs and monsters, and Boo-Ville, a creepy overlay of the usually bright and bouncing Seuss Landing. Because Audrey Geisel, the widow of Dr. Seuss, prevented anything scary from bein placed in Seuss Landing, the scarezone was vacated of all scareactors, turning the area into a creepy ghost town.
Lastly, the event also included a handful of delightfully spooky shows including the Fountain of Evil, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Halloween Adventure, Studio 666, and the Town Square of Tortured Souls.
Despite the popularity of the annual Halloween Horror Nights event held at Universal, it has still suffered its fair share of controversy throughout the years. Because of the many changes the Halloween Horror Nights: Islands of Fear was forced to endure, it has held the reputation as one, if not the, most controversial in the event’s history. Since then, the event has not been hosted in Islands of Adventure. However, despite the changes and controversy, the event was still a great success and thrilled guests from everywhere with its ominous and immersive offerings.
