Halloween Horror Nights Almost Made Me Wet My Pants
I had the privilege of attending the opening night preview of this year’s Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Orlando. This year is the 33rd in the event’s history, and over 48 select nights, attendees will have the chance to navigate through some of the scariest haunted houses Halloween Horror Nights has ever cobbled together. Having braved the entirety of what the 2024 slate has to offer, I can confidently say Horror Nights is the scariest it has been in years. Read below for my thoughts on the best houses, the atmospheric scare zones, and the cryptic lore of event mascots SINST3R and SURR3AL. I’m a pretty tough guy—a reasonably brave guy—and I jumped. A lot. This year’s Halloween Horror Nights got me good.
Triplets of Terror
Our first house of the evening was Triplets of Terror. The Barmy triplets murdered their entire family years before, and this year, guests are invited to another birthday celebration, one they hope can recreate the slaughter from decades ago. Triplets of Terror is slight, if scary, and just short enough to get you eager for some of the night’s more expansive, atmospheric houses. This year, event organizers noted a lack of slasher IPs, so Triplets of Terror was their swing at a slasher of their own. There’s a refreshing found-footage sensibility to it all, with quick-cut jumps and plenty of unnerving laughter just out of sight.
Insidious: The Further
Our second house, Insidious: The Further, is undoubtedly the star of the show. Guests enter through a giant red door (with a fantastic, destabilizing sense of scale) and endure famous vignettes from the entire series, including last year’s Insidious: The Red Door. It’s scary. Really scary. One of the event’s longest houses, Insidious: The Further, is packed to the brim with jumps. While there’s a chance it was a uniquely good run, organizers noted a new approach to scares in some of this year’s houses, with walls designed to give scare actors more opportunity for dynamic jumps, rather than static landing spaces. This was a difficult house to cover professionally, largely because I wanted to get out of there as soon as I could. If the Insidious franchise has even marginally scared you before, be ready.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, like the house we’ll talk about next, refreshingly focuses on atmospherics and scale over scares. I’m not a huge fan of the original series, though organizers promise heaps of easter eggs for guests to catch (not that I’d have been able to do that). It’s cute, fun, and considerably less frightening than the other houses, but the firehouse—one of the event’s tallest sets ever—is a marvel to behold, and ancient entity Garraka—the house’s chief villain—is pretty frightening.
A Quiet Place
In A Quiet Place, silence is survival. Poised to be one of the year’s most-anticipated houses, it pains me to say A Quiet Place is simply fine, akin to last year’s The Last of Us. The atmospherics are top-notch, and credit must be given to its cast, all of whom were trained in ASL to help guests navigate a world constrained by silence. The animatronic work is stellar, and in a sense, it’s worth going through for just that. Still, the pacing felt off, and given the price of admission and the challenge of seeing every house in a single visit, I’d say choose either Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire or A Quiet Place. Both properties are lovingly recreated, though the haunt experience for both prioritizes property fidelity over genuine scares.
Monstruos: The Monsters of Latin America
Conversely, Monstruos: The Monsters of Latin America is pretty danged scary. Latin American legends Tlahuelpuchi, La Lechuza, and El Silbón come to life with remarkable precision. A darker, moodier house, the desperate sensory-assault of its rooms is unnerving, and more than once, I was scared witless. I’m a sucker for lore, cryptids, and monsters, so Monstruos: The Monsters of Latin America hit my sweet spot. Alongside Insidious: The Further, it’s arguably my favorite house at this year’s Halloween Horror Nights. Keep an eye out for La Lechuza.
The Museum: Deadly Exhibits
The Museum: Deadly Exhibits had me excited for Halloween Horror Nights’ take on 1997’s The Relic. Well, it’s not quite that, though a roadside folklore museum has irresponsibly added The Rotting Stone to their exhibit (a name event organizers cheekily point out should have been a warning sign). It’s an ooey-gooey house, and the sets, rotted in place, overgrown with lush, monstrous vegetation, are stellar. Like some of the other more aspirational houses, the collective whole never quite gels, even if the experience is gorgeous throughout.
Slaughter Sinema 2
Slaughter Sinema 2 was a favorite among my group. The second such house in the event’s history (the last was in 2018), Slaughter Sinema 2 goes full B-movie, structuring its Carey Drive-in! scares with grindhouse offerings, creature features, and twisted slashers. Ostensibly, the gist is that event organizers and house storytellers get to soft-launch their concepts. They’re not quite ready to be full houses, but if fan reception is positive enough, the analog vignettes might one day get a house of their own. If they do, my vote’s on Mummy Strippers Unwrapped.
Universal Monsters: Eternal Bloodlines
I’m reticent to say anything more about this house because, despite it ranking among my most-anticipated, I had a pretty bad run. This year’s Universal Monsters beat introduces Saskia Van Helsing, daughter of Van Helsing, and her quest to take down an all-female group of classic movie monsters, including Dracula’s daughter. The narrative bent is beyond solid, though there were entire stretches of the house where I saw nothing, with scares and actors getting the group ahead or behind me. It’s not a slight on the house (it was, after all, opening night), though it’s one I look forward to doing again because I know there’s something great there.
Goblin’s Feast
Goblin’s Feast! Goblin’s Feast! Goblin’s Feast! This was good stuff. Goblins, orcs, hobgoblins, and witches are preparing you for their next meal, and you need to escape in time before you’re nothing but a goblin entrée. Scary, gorgeously designed—it’s the house that most screams Halloween this year—and paced to perfection, it’s one of the event’s best original houses in some time.
Major Sweets Candy Factory
We capped the night with Major Sweets Candy Factory, a prequel house to some previously-introduced scare zone characters. Guests chaperone a bunch of poor saps on a field trip, and upon eating the candy, they turn into Leigh Whannell Cooties monsters. It’s the grossest house (in a good way) with the set leaning into the gore of the field trip gone awry. Short, sweet, sure to rot your teeth. The guest-activated triggers might even leave you soaked with terror.
The Scare Zones
This year’s scare zones include the standard grab-bag of creepy swamps and renaissance fairs. The dovetailing SINST3R and SURR3AL paths lead to physical or psychological torture respectively, and they’re undoubtedly the strongest zones. The Blumhouse Zone, unfortunately, feels like a missed opportunity. M3GAN is there, with organizers making it very clear she’ll stay there (last year, apparently, she was all over the place), but the actors principally stay atop platforms adjacent to the walkway, almost like they’re relics in a museum. And, maybe this is just me, but I still don’t buy The Black Phone’s The Grabber as a horror icon. Not as a knock against the movie, but more a knock against the actual nature of his crime. That just… isn’t fun for me?
All in all, alongside the themed food, drink, and merchandise (we love themed merch), this year’s event was a blast. Halloween Horror Nights mileage will always vary, though with a re-emphasis on scares, I can confidently say it’s the scariest the event has been in quite some time. You can purchase your own tickets below, and be sure to let me know over on Twitter @Chadiscollins what you thought of this year’s event.
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