Bean Travels: Halloween Horror Nights 32

Bean Travels: Halloween Horror Nights 32

Greetings and Salutations! Today’s blog post is a review of Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Orlando! Be warned, there will be some spoilers, but i’ll try to avoid those as best as possible alongside my honest opinion. Without further ado, let’s jump into it!

What is Halloween Horror Nights?

So if you’ve ever done Fright Nights at Thorpe Park (not that I’ve done them), it’s very similar to that. If you haven’t, this is what I interpreted HHN as. HHN is an experience where horror comes to life. There are various “haunted houses” as Universal call them, that everyone can experience. This year there were ten in total. Not only that but there were also “scare zones” that you could wonder around and interact with the actors. 
How this review is going to work, we’re going to treat it as if we were walking through Horror Nights ourselves from the entrance, all the way around the park. I also got some opinions from my best mate, who came on the trip with me too. So let’s dive into it!

Scare Zone #1: Dr. Oddfellow’s Collection of Horrors

Dr Oddfellow’s Collection of Horrors was the first scare zone of the night that we came across. According to Universal, “Dr Oddfellow will lure you into Horror Nights with the promise of immortality. You will soon realise that you will not survive the night.” From what I gathered, this scare zone (and the entirety of HHN 32) is based around the fictional character, Dr Oddfellow. 
This scare zone had some incredible theming around it, with the looks of a circus coming into town, and trunks being scattered everywhere. Also if you were lucky you could run into the man himself! Unfortunately, I didn’t get any photos from this scare zone, as I was too immersed in the story and theming! 
As we venture through towards Minion’s VillainCon, the newest ride at Universal, we came to the first haunted house of the evening! (Also note that I had Stay and Scream tickets which I’ll go over at the end!)

Haunted House #1: Bloodmoon: Dark Offerings

Universal’s official tagline for this is “Colonial-era villagers begin to worship the moon, hunting down any non-followers. Try not to become part of their grisly offering.”

Authors note: We did most of the houses twice, so these are my experiences from both the times I experienced the house.

So we walk into this little parish town and walk around the town at the full bloodmoon. What could go wrong, right? Well that’s what I got from the plot/story. The house had amazing theming and that’s something that Universal manage to achieve with anything that they do, including rides and shops! There were also plenty of jump scares to keep us on our toes! 

However, I did feel that there weren’t enough jump scares. Part of me felt like we were wondering around while they were changing actors so we couldn’t experience the house to it’s fullest potential. Moreover, there were also parts of the house where the paths were getting clogged back easily which meant that you saw the same scares over and over again.

The Rankings:

Scenery: 7 out of 10 beans. It was amazing scenery, but there were times where there were just black paths and nothing decorating it.

Atmosphere: 9 out of 10 beans. The atmosphere was incredible! I did feel like I was in a colonial village, with the sights, sounds and even smells that they pumped out.

Scares: 8 out of 10 beans. Despite the fact that there were not as many jump scares as I had hoped, I still found myself absolutely terrified of the jump scares that did occur, which made me say fudge a lot!

Story: 5 out of 10 beans. I am not going to lie, both times I was walking through the house, I had no clue what the story was about. I caught on somehow, but not enough to appreciate it.

Final Ranking: 7 beans out of 10. Definitely a good house to have a look around, but only if the wait is under 30 minutes in my opinion.
Just past the first house, we reach our next destination, house number 2, based on a popular horror film franchise.

Haunted House #2: The Exorcist: Believer

Universal describes this house as “Two missing girls have been found with no memory of what happened. But wherever they went, the ultimate evil has returned with them”.

The plot of this house follows the brand new Exorcist film that is coming out at some point in October. I have never seen the Exorcist before, so I didn’t really know much about the films, apart from the iconic spinning head scene from the original film. The house had amazing special effects for the scenes! I don’t want to spoil/ruin anyone’s experience, but I will say I was very impressed by the effects. The acting in the house was also extremely well done, especially for the actors who were playing the girls!
I did feel that the house got very overwhelming in places with too much going on in one room, which made me struggle to experience the house fully. 

The Rankings:

Scenery: 9 out of 10 beans. The scenery and special effects were really what made the house for me, and what made it really enjoyable.

Atmosphere: 7.5 out of 10 beans. I felt extremely overwhelmed in places, which made the atmosphere harder for me to enjoy, which is why I gave it a slightly lower rating.

Scares: 8 out of 10 beans. The scares were insanely good again! I don’t want to spoil anything, but there were some parts where the actors and actresses got me really good and when I was least suspecting it.

Story: 6 out of 10 beans. I, like bloodmoon, ended up improvising what half the story meant. I just did not understand it. Maybe because I haven’t seen the film yet, so maybe that’ll be on my watchlist when I get home from my trip!

Final Ranking: 7.5 beans out of 10. Again this house was impressive, and I enjoyed it a lot, but there were definitely areas where they could improve in.

As we exited the Exorcist house, we made our next point of contact for a house we were extremely excited for. 

Haunted House #3: Stranger Things 4

“Band together with your squad to resist Vecna’s gruesome curse as you take on the scariest season of Stranger Things yet.”

Oh how I had hopes for this house. I am not going to gloss over these reviews or rose-tint them just because I like something. The house was based around Stranger Things season 4 and it really did the immersiveness well. That was it. I felt like this house was more of a glorified immersive walkthrough than a scare maze/haunted house. I did the Stranger Things experience back in London last year, and I felt like this was similar to that, but on a bigger scale. 

The Rankings:

Scenery: 10 out of 10 beans. I cannot fault the scenery and creativeness behind the house. It was amazing and like the creative team were massive fans of the show.

Atmosphere: 8 out of 10 beans. The atmosphere was surprisingly well thought out! The iconic theme song from the show was heard, alongside the other special effects and sound effects throughout the house.

Scares: 3 out of 10 beans. I’m sorry but this house failed to make me jump. There was at least one person, but that was it. The acting was superb but I felt that it belonged to an immersive experience rather than a haunted house.

Story: 8 out of 10 beans. The story gets higher marks than the other houses, but maybe that’s because I’ve seen the show and knew the story behind it, which made it easier for me to follow.

Final Ranking: 4.5 out of 10 beans. I’m sorry, this house just did not cut it for me and didn’t make me feel like I was at a Horror Nights. I had hoped for a better score, but alas it was not meant to be.

As we head towards the top left hand side of the park, we still haven’t reached our next scare zone! But not to worry because there are two houses that are right next to each other that we can cover!

Haunted House #4: Duelling Dragons: Choose Thy Fate

“Two powerful warlocks invade Merlin’s castle and are turned into dragons of fire and ice. Now you must choose a path and victor.”

This house was amazing! I thoroughly enjoyed it, although since reading the official tagline, the warlocks thing makes more sense than me saying two opposing bad guys! This house is loosely based off of the old Dueling Dragons ride that once resided in Islands of Adventure (then replaced by Dragon Challenge, which got replaced by Hagrid’s Magical Motorbike Adventure). The thing that stood out for me for this house was the ending. That you could choose your date! Which I found to be extremely cool. However, I did feel that the house was lacking in jump scares and scare actors being around.

The Rankings:

Scenery: 8 out of 10 beans. The scenery was impressive in my opinion, and I think (but don’t quote me) that they utilised some of the old ride props that were once inside the ride.

Atmosphere: 7 out of 10 beans. Mysterious and magical are how I’m choosing to describe this house. I did feel like I was plunged right in between a battle of warlocks.

Scares: 8 out of 10 beans. Okay the scares were lacking in places, but this house did scare me silly with how the actors were placed, and how they used tricks to achieve the scares!

Story: 8 out of 10 beans. The story was easy to follow, and even was explained as soon as you walk into the house, which made it easier for me to understand. 

Final Ranking: 8 out of 10 beans. I really did enjoy this house and the story that went along with it. We did the house twice so we could experience everything fully, and did not regret it!

Haunted House #5: Yeti: Campground Kills

“In a 1960s campground, a group of towering, terrifying yetis are running rampant, ripping apart anyone who gets in their way.” 

This house was fun. It felt like an 80s slasher movie to me, which is the era I initially thought it was set in, but I was wrong! Just like the Exorcist, this house has the most immersive scenes and SFX that I couldn’t believe I was in. But the main downfall for me was that the house got very clogged up very easily. Which meant that you would often be seeing the same scares over and over again.

The Rankings:

Scenery: 9 out of 10 beans. The scenery was well thought out, and it felt like the creative team wanted to make every slasher film ever made come to life in a maze, and they did just that.

Atmosphere: 8 out of 10 beans. The atmosphere did make me feel like I was wondering around a campsite, not belonging there which helped push the scare rating up for me too.

Scares: 8 out of 10 beans. The scares were well thought out and well placed throughout the house. Even walking through the areas where there were no scares made the hairs stick up in the back of my neck.

Story: 4 out of 10 beans. The only let-down for this house for me was the story, mainly because I did not have any idea what it was about, apart from the occasional dead body here and there.

Final Ranking: 7 out of 10 beans. It could have been an 8 if the story was slightly easier to follow through. But the house was definitely worth the time to go around it.

Finally, we hit our next scare zone, which I did actually manage to take some photos of, so I will put in the photo that sums up the scare zone well to me.

Scare Zone #2: Vamp ‘69: Summer of Blood

“At a music fest in a small New York town, you’ll jam with concert-goers until Dr. Oddfellow unleashes bloodthirsty vampires on the crowd.”

The scare zone was impressive. There were old school VW buses, VW beetles and even a Ford of some kind! (I forgot to look at the make when I saw it, but it was a 60s car). The scare actors were doing an impressive feat of interacting with the crowd, and they even had mini stalls set up like you’d find in a festival. I enjoyed this scare zone a lot, mainly for the cars though.

As we ventured out of Vamp ‘69, we reached our next haunted house pretty quickly.

Haunted House #6: Chucky: Ultimate Kill Count

“Chucky is back for a new gorefest! He’s hijacked his haunted house with lots of bloody hijinks. Try to survive his ultimate kill count.”

The house had an impressive story, even linking it back to Horror Nights and Universal Studios with the queue line having some clips of Chucky swearing about Universal not actually killing everyone. The queue line and parts of the house itself utilise the Fast & Furious Supercharged ride that is at the park (a debate in itself of how good a ride it actually is). The costumes were also incredible to witness too.

The house itself though was extremely overwhelming. I felt as if there was too much going on at once and too many noises being set off at once, which did not make the house an enjoyable experience for me.

The Rankings:

Scenery: 6 out of 10 beans. My mate wanted to give it higher, but I felt like there was not enough to justify it being higher and the scenery was being repeated a lot throughout the house.

Atmosphere: 5 out of 10 beans. The atmosphere was ruined for me by being too overwhelming. There was so much going on I couldn’t appreciate the smaller details or the music/special effects.

Scares: 5 out of 10 beans. Again, due to the amount of overwhelming things I found myself missing he scares a bit. Also, in some of the rooms I could see the Chucky doll that was going to jump out from the curtain as he wasn’t fully back into the curtain which did ruin it for me too.

Story: 6 out of 10 beans. I loved the integration between Chucky and Universal Studios, but that was the only bit of the story that really stood out for me and made it worthwhile.

Final Ranking: 5.5 out of 10 beans. This house again had so much potential, but the creative team I feel didn’t think the placement of the scares and the story through properly which resulted in it being a mess. If you’re a fan of Chucky, then by all means do this house, but if not, I’d recommend giving it a miss.

As we exited the Chucky house, we walked straight into our next scare zone.

Scare Zone #3: Shipyard 32: Horrors Unhinged

“Enter a 1940s San Francisco shipping yard full of mysterious crates and cages. Beware, Dr. Oddfellow’s nightmarish oddities lie within!”

The strewed crates and the massive guys on stilts made this scare zone a more enjoyable one to walkthrough. The best part was while you were wondering through, you couldn’t tell who was an actor and who wasn’t until it was too late!

From Shipyard 32 onwards there was a gap of scare zones and haunted houses. If you wanted to, you could duck into Diagon Alley and witness the Death Eaters roaming, but there was not much else going on. Maybe next year, Universal could fill in that gap with another house or scare zone?

It wasn’t until we hit the Men in Black ride that we got out next 3 haunted houses.

Haunted House #7: Dr. Oddfellow’s Twisted Origins

“You won’t be able to resist going inside this menacing menagerie of twisted oddities. The price: your soul to feed his immortal power.”

The house was set within a massive circus tent and had a lot of impressive theming, alongside the costumes and the makeup of the various scare actors/actresses that were inside. But I did feel like the house had scare actors all clumped together, which gave empty spaces for nothing.

The Rankings:

Scenery: 6 out of 10 beans. The props were awesome, but it felt like they could have had slightly more. Especially with one room just having wallpaper and nothing else.

Atmosphere: 8 out of 10 beans. The atmosphere did make me think I was at the circus and did also make me crave popcorn. Walking through each of the rooms and seeing the various acts made it more enjoyable to experience.

Scares: 7 out of 10 beans. The scares were there, but the actors sometimes just gave off creepy vibes instead of OMG that’s terrifying vibes.

Story: 7 out of 10 beans. The story was interesting, and throughout the house, Dr. Oddfellow would occasionally appear to update the story which was a nice little touch.

Final Ranking: 7 out of 10 beans. This house was enjoyable, and had a good story to it, especially as Dr. Oddfellow is appearing throughout this Horror Night, it helps us understand the stories of the scare zones too. But it did lack in some aspects, such as the scenery and scares.

Haunted House #8: The Darkest Deal

“Blues musician Pinestraw Spruce meets at a crossroads with a diabolical entity known as The Collector to make a deal: his soul for fame.”

This house was interesting to say the least. The outside of the house made it seem to have so much potential, and the music of the house was worthwhile, but that was it. It lacked the feeling of making it a proper haunted house, or rather a haunted house that made me want to do it again. 

The Rankings:

Scenery: 7 out of 10 beans. There was so much scenery throughout the house which made it impressive, from the entrance to the house itself all the way to the various rooms being themed as different places in town.

Atmosphere: 6 out of 10 beans. I loved the music that was around the house, and the fact that it was blues music made it fit even better than the scenery, but it was still lacking that wow factor for me.

Scares: 4 out of 10 beans. There were some scares, but that wasn’t through the scare actors. It was mainly through the SFX that were in the house, which I was let down by. I was hoping for more from the actors.

Story: 2 out of 10 beans. I’m sorry but this story was crap. I had no idea what it was about, and it didn’t grip me like the other houses. 

Final Ranking: 5 out of 10 beans. This house had so much potential to do better and reading Universal’s synopsis makes me want to enjoy it, but I couldn’t. I would recommend this house as a filler house in between other houses if there is not a long wait time.

Haunted House #9: The Last of Us

“You and your squad must stay silent if you want to survive Clickers and more as the gritty world of Naughty Dog’s video game comes to life.”

This house is based off the widely successful PlayStation game, and now TV show adaptation, The Last of Us. As a fan of both the game and show, I was really looking forward to the house. As we approached the entrance we were immediately greeted by the theme from the game which is somewhat relaxing to hear at a Horror Nights. 

The house itself was beautiful and a lovely tribute to the game, with us being able to see that the Creative Team that worked on the house are also passionate about the game. But I did feel like it was too beautiful for it’s own good, more on that in a bit.

The Rankings:

Scenery: 9 out of 10 beans. The scenery is an excellent tribute to the game, with so many small details that are also included in the game being replicated within the house.

Atmosphere: 8 out of 10 beans. The atmosphere was gorgeous. The music was playing constantly and as soon as you heard the sound of the Clickers, it would send a chill up your spine (or it did mine anyway!) 

Scares: 6 out of 10 beans. This is where the house is lacking for me. The only things that truly scared me are the Clickers, but they managed to do that in the games as well! However, as I did play the games and see the show beforehand, I knew what to expect with the scares, as it’s stuff that I had witnessed before.

Story: 7 out of 10 beans. The story is basically a repeat of the first game, but it does just abruptly stop at the end, without there being an “end” to the story when you finish the house. This I felt pulled the rating down, as I felt like the other houses had an “end” to them.

Final Ranking: 7 out of 10 beans. This house would’ve been my favourite, if there were more scares in it. I had to take off my rose-tinted glasses as otherwise, it’d be a very unfair review of the house. As I mentioned earlier, the house was too beautiful for its own good, which meant I did miss out on things like seeing the details of the various characters and scare actors. 

We then walked through Springfield towards our last house of the night, which is also my favourite.

Haunted House #10: Universal Monsters: Unmasked

“Descend into the Paris Catacombs and face a new horde of infamous Monsters: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the Phantom of the Opera and more.”

This house was amazing! I had never really watched the Universal Monsters films, unless you count the 1999 version of The Mummy starring Brendan Fraser. I did not really know what to expect with this house, apart from potentially seeing Frankenstein and Dracula, but I was blown away by it.

The only downside I found was that it was way too dark for me to see sometimes, so I found myself attempting to walk into walls instead of following the walkway!

The Rankings:

Scenery: 9 out of 10 beans. Every time you stepped into the next room, the scenery got better and better for me, eventually making me believe that I was actually on the set of a Universal Monster’s film.

Atmosphere: 9 out of 10 beans. The music was amazing, as were all the various SFX too. However, the one nag I will add was that it was far too dark in places, that I felt like could have potentially been a trip hazard.

Scares: 10 out of 10 beans. Holy Moly the scares were amazing! I was constantly out of my wits in every room we went to, with all the various monsters adding into the scares.

Story: 8 out of 10 beans. I didn’t really understand the story to this one, but that was okay as I felt like the monsters appearing constantly was all the story I needed! Occasionally there was a bit of dialogue from one of the monsters, but that was it.

Final Ranking: 9.5 out of 10 beans. I felt like this was the strongest house of the year for Universal. And that they are marketing perfectly for a rumoured land that is coming to their newest Theme Park, Epic Universe. To make this house better though, the lighting could have been a bit brighter, just so I wasn’t walking into things.

That’s all the houses done! I was impressed with the selection and quality of some of the houses, but we still weren’t done. We still had two scare zones left on the way to the exit.

Scare Zone #4: Jungle of Doom: Expedition Horror

“In the 1920s, Dr. Oddfellow ventured into the jungle, performing horrific experiments on nature. Now his creations are coming after you.”

The theming of this scare zone is by far my favourite one. The whole jungle aspect and the scare actors on stilts made it even more entertaining. The one thing I wasn’t a fan of though was the smoke effects, sometimes they would pump out the stage smoke too thickly to the point where I struggled to breathe and couldn’t see a thing, so walked into a couple of people.

Scare Zone #5: Dark Zodiac

“Dr. Oddfellow has harnessed the power of the Zodiac to live forever, twisting the signs into malevolent beings who foretell your doom.”

This scare zone was interesting. There were actor’s wondering around with chainsaws and guys on stilts, but not much else in terms of theming or story, so you would struggle to tell what the story behind it was. To me this was a bit of a disappointment following the other scare zones.

Finally we have done our walkthrough of the park! But let’s jump into what stay and scream is, as well as whether express is worth the money for Horror Nights.

What’s Stay and Scream?

Stay and Scream is the additional extra that costs $40 to do and allows you access to Universal Studios between 3-5. The park then shuts and you’re ushered into an area for the first house that you want to visit. Bare in mind some of the stay and scream areas are in the blistering heat, so if you’re part of a group, have one person hold the line while the others take it in turns to cool off in the shade. 

We did Horror Nights twice, and both times had stay and scream. The first time, we stayed in Springfield and queued for The Last of Us house, which proved to be very popular and got a line extremely quickly. The second time, we stayed in Animal Actors and queued for Universal Monsters: Unmasked. I preferred the stay and scream the second time around, as the queue line was inside, so we didn’t have to worry about cooling off somewhere, whereas the Springfield stay and scream was right in the blistering sun.

If I have Horror Nights tickets and a normal park ticket, do I need a stay and scream ticket?

Providing the tickets are for the same day, no! The first time around we did stay and scream, we had normal park tickets too, so we could explore both parks and go on some rides. As soon as Stay and Scream started, as long as you were within the park, all you had to do was show off your Horror Nights ticket to the right person at the Stay and Scream area and you’re good to go!

Is Express worth it for Horror Nights?

In my opinion, yes. We brought the Ultimate express passes, which allowed us unlimited access to all the houses and rides that were open during Horror Nights, which meant that we could do most of the houses twice!

For express, you have three options: Normal, Ultimate and pass 11pm. The normal express pass can only be used once on all houses and rides. So if you wanted to do a house or ride again, you’d have to queue up with everyone else. The ultimate is the one we brought, which as we said above gives you unlimited access to all rides and houses. This is worth it if you’re like me and hate queuing up for things, and if you’re only doing Horror Nights for one night. The past 11pm express is the cheap express option that you can buy past 11pm, which gives you ride and house access. I’m not too sure on many other details I’m afraid though.

Wait, you can do rides?

Yes! Each year, Universal has select rides open for you to enjoy! This year those rides were: Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit, Transformers: The Ride-3D, Revenge of the Mummy, Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts, and Men In Black Alien Attack.

I’m going to be honest, the rides are only good if you did not buy express and need something to do to kill the time. My friend and I found that the time was running out quicker than we thought, so did not have time to do rides the second time round. We did on the first go, and ended up doing the Transformers ride.

So, that concludes my thoughts on Halloween Horror Nights 32. It was an amazing experience even though I’m not really one for horror, but I still thoroughly enjoyed it! Am I planning to go back next year? Yeah I am!

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed it. What are your thoughts on Horror Nights? Did you go and enjoy the houses? Are you thinking of going next year?

Anyways I hope to catch you all soon!

Sadie