Halloween Horror Nights has begun at Universal Studios Hollywood! And as usual, the hype surrounding this years HHN is off the charts. After attending this years event, we can easily see why. With 8 haunted houses, the Terror Tram, 3 scare zones, and 2 shows (that’s not mentioning the pop up characters around the park), this years event is bursting at the seams and is just so much damn fun. What follows is going to be our thoughts regarding our experiences at this years event, but if reading isn’t your thing, we have a full 2+ hour podcast discussing everything about this years event!
HHN HOLLYWOOD REVIEW EPISODE
SCAREZONES
This year, we have 4 different scare zones which are: Ghostz, Toyz, Death Eaters and El Terror De Las Mommias.
In past years, the scare zones of HHN have typically been the weak links of the event. While we are still loving our experiences in each zone, we still feel like this is still the case. This isn’t because of the scare actors (who are incredible at what they do) but rather the lack of scare zones. Once you make it past New York Street on the Upper Lot…there’s nothing. You can freely explore the rest of Halloween Horror Nights without the fear of being scared, which should never be the case. Now this year, there is a good amount of construction happening on the Upper Lot, so we can excuse not having anything outside of The Wizarding World. But Springfield and the Lower Lot are prime locations for fantastic scare zones and they have been in the past. Not sure why this isn’t the case anymore.
We feel like the lack of expansive scare zones throughout the park make the event feel significantly less cohesive than it has been in the past. The scare zones are the connective tissue between houses that keep guests entertained, and unfortunately it’s just not present at this years event.
Let’s not lament over what we don’t have any longer and talk about what we do have. Let’s start with Ghostz…
“As soon as you enter the event, a horde of blood-soaked, chainsaw-wielding ghostz will descend upon you and your scream squad with twisted smiles. These spectral horrors will haunt you.“
It wouldn’t be HHN without chainsaws! The overwhelming smell of chainsaw fumes is the scent that we’ve come to associate with the event. Nothing is more unnerving than a monstrous creature coming towards your legs with a loud chainsaw in hand. This is how you’re welcomed into the event, this alongside some killer tunes encapsulates exactly what HHN Hollywood is all about! But the theme this year was lost on us completely. While we knew what the name and theme was, if we hadn’t been told…we would be so confused.
The amazing images above of Ghostz were captured by Albert Lam of Haunt Photoblography! Everyone should check out his amazing work!
These monsters don’t look like ghosts and rather just look like white monsters covered in blood. If scare zones can’t be thematically identified easily, then we typically think the theme doesn’t work. We would have much prefered seeing the return of the scary sheet ghosts because that’s a better visual representation of ghosts than what was presented this year. With that being said, do we think the entry scare zone needs to be anything visually stunning? No, because most people are closing their eyes in fear when approached with a revving chainsaw. But for those who do keep their eyes open, we’d love to see more.
Next up, we have Toyz…
“A maniacal toymaker is using dark magic to bring evil toys to life, including a porcelain doll, teddy bear, nutcracker and ballerina. Now these devilish dollz are after you and your friends!“
This was by far our favorite scare zone of the event. Each scare actor really elevated their characters by taking personality traits from their costume and really built it into their movements and sounds. We also love the idea of taking something wholesome and sweet, then completely bastardizing it as well. It makes for a very haunting experience and we think Toyz hit the nail on the head with their execution. Additionally, the zone was highly populated so it really didn’t feel like you could walk 5 feet without running into one of the monsters. Also, we would love to see this scare zone get the house treatment next year!
Then we have El Terror De Las Mommias…
“Villagers unearthed an ancient army of mummies. Now you and your squad are the targets of their cursed wrath. And if you manage to escape, you wont get away from Muerte and the Goddess of Death.“
This scare zone was located at the exit of the Monstruos: The Monsters of Latin America house heading down French Street. While this zone has some incredibly talented scare actors that brought the “HHN level” of aggression with their scares, it felt all too similar and one note. You could potentially interchange any of the masks the scare actors were wearing and feel no difference. Unlike Toyz, the characters didn’t influence the way the monsters scared guests walking through the zone. While this might be the case, we do love the music that was brought back and we love the theme of the zone as well. Especially how it’s loosely tide to the maze.
Lastly, we have the Death Eaters in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter…
“In The Wizarding World of Harry Potter™, Death Eaters™, a group of Voldemort’s most devoted followers, roam Hogsmeade™ Village, looking to find others willing to show loyalty to the Dark Lord’s cause.“
To be fairly honest, we aren’t sure if the Death Eaters are officially a scare zone because on the website, they aren’t listed as such. Either way, it’s a scare zone to us! We have absolutely nothing bad to say about the Death Eaters! They are a wonderful and welcomed addition to HHN and are distinctly different than their Dark Arts appearances. They are much more menacing and that, coupled with the wonderful music and lighting, really create a tone that we’d linger in all night! The only thing I think we would change is to add a couple stages in the main thoroughfare of Hogsmeade so you aren’t forced down the side walkway to see them in some dedicated spots.
While not a scare zone, the large stalk around murder of crows needs to be talked about. This was something John Murdy talked about briefly at Midsummer Scream and we didn’t realize we needed so badly. These birds were hands down our favorite thing at HHN this whole year.
They brought a much needed punch of levity in between all the scares! We both had fantastic interactions with them and would love to see these type of interactions expand for HHN.
HAUNTED HOUSES & SHOWS
Probably one of the biggest surprises of the event for us was Blumhouse: Behind the Screams. In fact, it was such a surprise hit for us, that in planning for the night, this was the one thing we agreed we could miss. We are so glad we didn’t because it ended up being one of the highlights of the night. Of course there weren’t any big scares, but it leaned into what Universal Studios does and that’s giving guests a small peak behind the curtain at how movies are made. They do this by packing the Dreamworks Theater waiting room with costumes and props from popular Blumhouse properties…INCLUDING FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY’S which fans in attendance were going bonkers over.
They did have The Grabber from Black Phone wandering around the entrance and queue of the attraction which leant to some rather funny scare actor interactions.
But the show itself seems rather simple with it being a sizzle reel of Blumhouse properties…until the end. When our host is unceremoniously murdered by M3GAN! Then we are treated to a small dance show by M3GAN herself in the theater. It’s fun, it’s silly, and we loved every second of it.
After many years of Jabbawockeez, we were happy to see HHN move away from the dance crew and towards something that better fit the event with The Purge: Dangerous Waters. Back in the day, HHN use to have something called Slaughterworld during HHN; we assumed that Dangerous Waters would take some cues from that show and boy were we right! This show was bloody, violent, and such a great use of the Waterworld arena.
Once thing that became apparent very quickly was how Dangerous Waters was utilizing many of Waterworlds special effects (which makes sense) but also took them in different directions and even expanded upon some so it didn’t feel like a Waterworld knockoff.
We highly suggest carving out some time for this show because it’s a fantastic addition to HHN and we are excited to see it return next year.
The first house we’ll talk about is Monstruos: The Monsters of Latin America which is found in the Parisian Courtyard. This might sound like hyperbole, but this house will go down as one of our favorite houses in HHN history. Again, when it comes to the houses that take cues from Latin American folklore, HHN is at it’s best. There is such a clear track record with Latin American inspired houses at the event.
From the absolutely stunning facade, to its intricate sets within, incredibly graphic scenes, and phenomenal attention to detail; this house is the reason why we come back to HHN year after year. They even masterfully balanced 3 entirely different monsters within a single house, which typically wouldn’t do well.
We’ve seen HHN attempt to create houses around multiple characters (this year having two houses and in our opinion only 1 of them was successful) and be unsuccessful in balancing them. But this house seemed to flow well from scene to scene and monster to monster. And of course we loved the more etherial ending, walking directly into El Sibon’s bag!
Good houses at HHN don’t often reach the echelon in which La Llarona, El Cucuy, or even Bride of Frankenstein do; but Monstruos was able to do that for us. All aspects of this house work harmoniously together to create one terrifying experience that we loved.
Next up is Evil Dead Rise located across from Monstruos! This was a maze that everyone saw coming from a mile away, especially after having experienced Universal Horror Hotel. It’s predecessor felt SO CLOSE to the settings of Evil Dead Rise that many believed that it was suppose to be a house based on the film. Many of us didn’t know how right we were until we saw the announcement.
With that being said, we think Evil Dead Rise was a much improved experience over Universal Horror Hotel. It felt much more intense and even got our hearts beating quickly! We attribute a lot of that to the sound design and the repeating line of “dead by dawn…dead by dawn” which affected us a lot. So much to the point that I even asked myself at a point in the experience…”Am I scared right now?”
While all the sets, maze design, and scares were the same as it’s predecessor (with minor changes); we feel as though the IP really lent a helping handing in intensifying those scares. The Evil Dead franchise as a whole conjures up incredibly graphic imagery and this house met those expectations.
Next we have Chucky: Ultimate Kill Count located behind the Curious George parking structure. We don’t particularly find Child’s Play (the film Chucky is from), it’s sequels, or Chucky to be scary. We actually find it quiet comical rather than scary. But this house leans into that outrageousness and runs with it in the best of ways.
While we heard many people upset with this house, we are on the complete opposite side of the spectrum, but we can understand why. To many people, it just felt like a random assortment of kills with Chucky thrown into the mix. Without a clear understanding of the story, it can really hinder your experience and enjoyment of the house. Essentially, Chucky has hijacked his own haunted house and is out to kill everyone who enters it…aka the visitors to HHN. So more than any other house in HHN history, Chucky is breaking the “fourth wall” of HHN.
Does the house do a good job at setting this up for guests, not particularly. It relies on guests being able to hear and listen to the Chucky dolls on the facade of the house in order to convey the story. Let’s be honest, nobody is paying attention to it unfortunaley. Now is that HHN’s fault or the guests fault? We’ll let you be the judge. But maybe creating a house where your enjoyment of the story is completely reliant upon dialogue outside the house isn’t the best approach? Much like the Ghostz scare zone in the Upper Lot, if you cannot discern the story visually throughout the house, then maybe the concept doesn’t work.
For us personally, even with knowing the story, didn’t mind the idea of a “Kill Count” style house where it’s just gory scene after gory scene. In fact, the house really reflects the show and movies inventiveness in how it kills people, which we found extremely entertaining. Although we would be okay without Chucky spitting in our faces! We always have a place in our hearts for the irreverent and vulgar Chucky. He’s our best friend to the end!
Across from Chucky, you’ll find Universal Monsters: Unmasked! This classic Universal Monsters houses follows a long line of Monster houses that have varied in terms of their execution, but all enjoyable. While this house was enjoyable and had some beautiful scenes, it just didn’t live up to it’s predecessors. Unlike the previous houses, the music created by Slash for Unmasked felt more like a bed of music rather than an active participant in the story. Our best example of this is the music Slash created for Bride of Frankenstein. At times it was haunting, other times it was emotional and it brought many scenes to life. This time around, it took a back seat which in our opinions is a travesty to the music. Because while it may not have worked for this house, the fact still remains that it’s an incredible piece of music.
This house was also one of the few houses to have extensive black transitionary hallways, which stand out more this year because many houses (if not all of them) do not have any at all. Which, on the whole, is a fantastic accomplishment. But poor pacing, predictable scares, and the transition hallways took away from what was otherwise a stunning house. We love the character designs of all the monsters and also noticed a good amount of special effects used within this house that we really appreciated. Also, we want justice for The Invisible Man because he was the most under utilized monster in the entire house! We want a full house based on Jack Griffin (The Invisible Man) and his descent into madness.
Now we are headed back to the Upper Lot to experience The Terror Tram with The Exterminatorz! This experience was on both of our “highly anticipated” lists for the Halloween season. This is because we love when HHN goes off the rails and goes full wacky. For us it becomes more than just the scares (and because we don’t get scared anymore) and we really appreciate experience as a whole. For us, it didn’t disappoint. The idea of basically taking the climax of Tough to be a Bug and turning it into a Terror Tram experience while simultaneously introducing once of the grossest looking characters in HHN history, Larry Larva, is genius.
While some of the Terror Tram experiences of the past felt stale, Exterminatorz felt fun, fresh and and absolutely ridiculous. Even the extra added level of social commentary built within the story elevated the experience for us.
From the human sized rats, the fly monsters wielding chainsaws, and Larry Larva himself; Terror Tram takes a detour from pure frights and incorporates much more needed humor into the mix.
Let’s also not forget the inclusion of the NOPE set with the tethered from Us, which is tacked onto the end of the Terror Tram experience. While this very much feels disjointed from the rest of the experience, we don’t hate it.
The choreographed attacks and motions of the tethered send a chill down our spine. It’s honestly the only time at HHN where I feel completely uncomfortable in the best of ways. And a big part of that comes down to all the incredible scare actors.
For many HHN fans, Stranger Things leave them conflicted. On one hand, the massively popular Netflix show fit’s perfectly within the confines of HHN. On the other hand, we’ve been burned by experiences that don’t live up to the hype. Thankfully this year does a fantastic job at transporting guests into the world of Vecna and the Upside Down.
I feel as though this iteration of Stranger Things is much more effective in its retelling of the story as well as being able to create a believable upside down environment. The usage of projected particles along the walls was incredibly effective and even distracted me enough to give me a SMALL scare by an actor portraying Steve carrying an axe.
This house also arguably had the most impressive sets at HHN this year! Thanks to its location being within a soundstage, these sets were able to go vertical and really create a sense of scale. The only bummer out of this experience, is not seeing the massively iconic scene where Eddie plays his guitar atop his motorhome.
Oh boy, were we split on our experiences within The Exorcist: Believer! On one hand, I had the worst run through of this house. I missed almost all the scares, it was conga lined throughout the whole house, and unfortunately that just left a sour taste in my mouth. But on the flip side, Nikki had one of the best experiences of her night in this house! And many friends of ours have put this at the top of their list for this years event. So Im happy to admit that my experience wasn’t the norm and I had a rare bad experience.
But from everyone else’s perspective, this was the scariest house at this years event. What I can say is that much like Evil Dead Rise, The Exorcist: Believer really relies upon it’s sound design to amp up the tension throughout the house.
Unfortunately, since the film has not been released yet, it more of a “trailer house” than a full fledge house retelling the story of the film. Which I think can lose people easily, but realistically all you need to hear is “EXORCIST” and people will conjure up their own images to fill in the blanks. Additionally, even though it was a “trailer house” there were some incredibly disturbing and cringe inducing (in the best of ways) scenes that even made us squirm.
Next, let’s talk about Holidayz in Hell! When the tent and base facade for this house was constructed (before. it was officially announced), many fans were quick to point out it’s similar design to Holidayz in Hell from the past. Little did they know how right they were! I think sometimes HHN fans have issues with returning houses since the rotation of houses at the event is much more vast than other SoCal halloween events. But seeing one of our favorite houses from the past return made us incredibly happy.
We are happy to say that not only does Holidayz in Hell return in great form, but it seems to be improved as well! There are some minor changes throughout the house that really create a much better experience for us. It almost felt more intense than its previous iteration at the event.
Of course the absurdity and comical nature of the house reigns supreme in our mind and we love when HHN doesn’t take itself too serious. And how could you in a house like this? There is a turkey monster for goodness sake, Christmas trees wrapped in intestines, and a boy who blew off all his limbs with fireworks. It’s a visual comical feast for the eyes and we love every second of it!
Then we’ve come to the last house of HHN 2023 and that is The Last of Us…see what I did there? Out of any of the IP at this years event, The Last of Us was far and above the most anticipated house that I think I’ve ever seen at HHN. The level of buzz surrounding it was astonishing. And even well into the event, this house has had to close it’s standby line because it’s reached capacity multiple times! So if you’re planning on going to HHN and REALLY want to do The Last of Us, make it a priority and do it first.
Much like The Exorcist: Believer, I had a bad run through of this house in terms of timing. Scares just happened in front or behind me, which was rather disappointing. And what few scares we did get, they just weren’t effective. We just happen to get a lot of scares where you could see the monsters/person out in the open rather than hiding behind a curtain or wall. But even without scares we think that The Last of Us is a perfect example of how to recreate a video game for a themed entertainment event, especially one one on the scale of HHN. The sets were absolutely stunning and while we never played the game, it gave us a great idea of what it was like.
Especially with the dialogue between Joel and Ellie being used as the connective tissue from scene to scene. This dialogue really made the experience feel much more cohesive as a story rather than just a mish mash of scenes/moments from the game. Because at the end of the day, while the game has some incredibly grotesque creatures and great scares, the story is about these two characters. So being able to push that through a live experience is a massive achievement.
FOOD & DRINK
For any haunted event, unique food and drink options are an essential piece of the puzzle that makes for a fun experience. Of course HHN has some fantastic options this year to fuel your fear while traversing through their haunted houses. Below are the venues where you can purchase unique items you to snack on while visiting HHN!
During our visit, we tried the Birria Tacos, Esquite, the Hellfire Club Pretzel with Cheese Dipping Sauce, and The Surfer Boy drink at the Stellar Bar! The Birria tacos were very tasty but came with the world’s smallest consume for dipping. While the tacos were good, the whole point of Birria is to dip in the consume and because it’s so small its nearly impossible. The Esquite was also very tasty, although the corn could have been cooked just a bit longer.
The area to get this food is in the Universal Plaza, directly in front of the Monstruos house. The entire area is themed to Dia De Los Muertos and has some absolutely stunning decorations. Beware, you aren’t safe here either…always look over your shoulder.
The bummer of the night was the Hellfire Club Pretzel which came with hot cheetos on top. Now, we need to prefece this with how much we love hot cheetos. It’s one of our favorite snacks, but there was far too much on top of the pretzel to eat it normally.
Aside from that, the pretzel itself was just too dry to enjoy. Thankfully we had the Surfer Boy to wash it all down and it was actually really deliscious! This specialty alcoholic beverage (from the Stellar Bar) was Tequila, Melon Liqueur, Kiwi Lemonade, Sprite, Topped with Cotton Candy and a Sugar Surfboard. This hit the spot, especially after facing the larges crowds of HHN. Keep in mind, the Stellar Bar has a seperate line for people who have Express or RIP for the night!
MERCHANDISE
This years merchandise for HHN is probably some of our favorite we’ve seen from the event. We love the different shirt designs and the overall look. This year also has some fantastic merchandise for the many different IPs you’ll find at HHN. Even Lil’ Boo makes an apperance in more ways than one…ON THE WEST COAST! Below are the different locations throughout the park and Citywalk where you can find HHN specific merchandise.
OVERALL
Halloween Horror Nights 2023 was single handedly one of the most fun years we’ve experienced in a while. Yes, previous years were phenomenal, but this year had some extra added Halloween magic on its side. While not every single experience was perfect, the overwhelming sense of joy permeated through it all. We think a big part of this is because there were many experiences we had that did much more than just scare us. Yes, while HHN is suppose to scare you and it does, because we don’t scare easily anymore the added levity to the experience really helps us enjoy the event as a whole. HHN is at it’s strongest when it doesn’t take itself seriously. Poking fun at the inherent absurdity of Halloween and our favorite movie properties in away only HHN can do. While we still think there is a level of cohesiveness that is missing from HHN, it doesn’t take away from our enjoyment. There is truly no other place like HHN where you can step foot into your favorite horror franchises and live to tell the tale…or will you?
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