This past weekend David Harley, Horror Guy Keenan and Tex had the chance to attend the opening night festivities for Universal Horror Nights at Universal Studios in Florida where they had the chance to check out all of the new events that will be running through November 1st (ticket info). You can read all about it thanks to David by reading beyond the break. If you had the chance to attend in Florida, feel free to chime in the comments below.

Halloween Horror Nights
Universal Studios, Florida

After visiting last year’s Halloween Horror Nights in Orlando, Universal had completely renewed my faith in their event. Doing more than making up for their previous year, which was a very sub-par best-of effort that felt more rushed and unimaginative than anything, it managed to offer up plenty of scares and a trio of the most famous horror icons to hit the silver screen. This year, HHN turns 18. He can buy cigarettes, join the army and buy porn. He’s a big boy now and to celebrate, the creative team has conjured up a new icon (or one at least new to the event): Bloody Mary. Changing up the mythology of the character a little bit, from being a car crash victim to a demented psychiatrist who thrived off the pleasure of watching her patients die, the entire park reflects the ever-present effects of urban legends on society and, more importantly, our fears.

Creatures!: Based on the atomic-age comics of yesterday, this house showcases a “tongue-in-cheek” version of what happens when a spaceship crash-lands into a backwoods town populated by rednecks. Unfortunately for the design team, they managed to make it neither funny or frightening. The first half of the house, a saloon, reminded me of SLITHER (or NIGHT OF THE CREEPS), having dead space slugs lying around everywhere. The second half, a hotel, reminded me of THE THING, simply because it looked like they used some left-over puppets from last year’s Assimilation house. If there was more emphasis on the alien entity rather than infected people hopping out of every nook and cranny or maybe the human character’s lending a helping hand rather than scaring, it would be worth waiting in line for. One of the two weak houses this year but if you do decide to brave it, make sure to keep a look-out for a Billy Bass on the wall, which actually works if you activate it.

Interstellar Terror: The superior outer space experience at this year’s event, Interstellar Terror pits you against an alien artifact aboard a space craft that’s just returned to our solar system. Sound familiar? That’s because its very reminiscent of the only tolerable Paul W.S. Anderson film to date, EVENT HORIZON. There’s even a section of the ship where there is a video loop of a space cadet mutilating himself. It’s unoriginal premise, however, doesn’t stop the set design from being anything but impressive. There are gorgeous sections throughout, including a bridge that appears to be suspended above a giant reactor that reminded me of the scene in RETURN OF THE JEDI where the Emperor is thrown over the railing, and a particularly disorienting one with a vortex tunnel illusion.

Body Collectors: Collections of the Past: Taking place in Victorian-era Whitechapel, The Collectors were hired to clear the streets of the dead bodies from the plague. Unfortunately, they didn’t want to leave and continued to collect bodies and ultimately became the basis for the Jack The Ripper persona. When I was informed that the house would simulate walking the streets of the city, I was a bit skeptical. So far, every house had featured narrow walkways and no big open spaces, both of which would hardly suffice for creating the effect of being in a city. However, Body Collectors was created in a large sound stage and Whitechapel felt completely realized. The Collector design mirrored that of The Gentlemen from the BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER episode, Hush. Since they are quite creepy and well-dressed, they fit right in and added a considerable amount of ambiance to Whitechapel. Easily the most immersive house this year.

Doomsday: After every house, our tour guide asked our group what we thought. So far, I had kept my mouth shut but for Doomsday, I felt compelled to comment. “I really hated the movie and but I would rather watch it again than walk through that house one more time.” Upon entering the house, several cannibals jumped out at me who appeared to be wearing band shirts. Now, maybe its me but I’m pretty sure they didn’t do that in the film. They substituted goths for cannibals for the most part and had a section of the house feature the worst scene from the movie: Sol’s introduction. They could’ve introduced him with some form of bad-ass stage antics but opted to instead do a can-can number. On top of that, the house had no scares whatsoever and appeared to be the one with the least amount of thought put into it. If you had to skip one house this year, I’d recommend Doomsday.

Reflections of Fear: The “icon” house this year, featuring Dr. Mary Agana (fun fact: agana means blood in the Chamorro language) and her psychiatric clinic. Concocting a new take on Bloody Mary, the queen of urban legends returns to torture a new group of patients as she tries to escape from the mirror that binds her to another plane of existence. There were a lot of great practical effects used in the house, especially the body riddled with needles, but less scares than I had hoped. The high point of the house had to be the several rooms filled with inflating vinyl balloons that completely trapped you in hallways and blocked your line of sight, giving the scare-actors a good opportunity to terrify unsuspecting patrons.

Dead Exposure: I have a confession to make: in terms of scares, Dead Exposure did not live up to my scare expectations. I had heard from more than a few people that attended employee night that this was the house that could terrify anyone. OK, so maybe my expectations were ridiculously high in the startle department but aside for that, it ended up being my second favorite house. Why? The premise. No other house could touch the amount of creative ingenuity put into Dead Exposure or Scary Tales. After a zombie outbreak, an intrepid photographer decided to stay behind and chronicle the madness that unfolded. Shrouding the entire house in darkness and using light-sensitive paint, a camera-flash effect was used every few seconds, illuminating the room, paint and zombies for a few seconds before returning to its previous pitch-black state. This is the kind of house you come to HHN for.

The Hallow: Samhain, the Celtic god of death, has brought together every elements you’d associate with Halloween, along with the souls of the damned, to bring you The Hallow. Everything from monstrous cats to The Headless Horseman is featured in the house, which manages to exude an American Gothic atmosphere quite nicely. Kudos to the creative team for using dirt in the house, giving off an earthy smell that added a lot to the overall immersion into folklore.

Scary Tales: Once Upon a Nightmare: Hands down, the best house this year. “Wow” is the only word I can use to describe the character designs in this house. Imagine the same sort of dark fairy tales presented in THE BROTHERS GRIMM (but not being disappointed afterwards!) and you’ve got a solid idea of what Scary Tales is all about. The Three Little Pigs, Little Red Riding Hood and Little Miss Muffet (I never realized how many “little” this and “little” that there were in fairy tales) are all hear in their most carnivorous and macabre forms.

Now, for the big question: How does this year compare to last? At first, I felt compelled to tell everyone that it wasn’t as good. I just didn’t leave the last house feeling as satisfied in my quest for a terror-fying experience as I had in 2007. As I was walking out of the park, I decided to wander through the two scare zones I hadn’t had a chance to see yet: American Gothic, which had a similar feel to The Hallow, and The Path Of The Wicked, which was a horror-based take on THE WIZARD OF OZ. Neither were very scary but the fact that I could take the time and walk through them at my leisure, without having a giant line of attendees behind me, gave me a chance to really marvel at all the little details and in turn, made me realize why I felt let down.

The houses were just too damn dark. I realize a haunted house should be dark but there was so much time and effort put into all these houses and almost every creation was beautiful in its own way. It all seems to be done in vain if you can’t see any of it, doesn’t it? There were countless instances where someone would mention something really cool in a house and I had been completely oblivious to it because a) we were walking through too fast (can’t hold up the line!) or b) we walked through that section at a time when it wasn’t lit (most houses featured cycling strobe effects).

Despite that, Halloween Horror Nights is still worth the effort this year. There are more effective scare zones than ever before, inventive character designs that deserve their own films, great FX work and ingenious set designs that will leave you in awe.