Halloween Horror Nights is usually seen as the best that Universal Orlando Resort has to offer. The parks differentiate themselves from the more family-oriented Disney by not being afraid to push the scary parts of the spooky season, creating a late-night event that isn’t for everybody, but is absolutely what a lot of people want. There’s no denying that nobody does it quite like Universal, but some of the resort’s hard work may actually go unnoticed by fans and something needs to be done to fix that.
There are two types of Halloween Horror Nights houses. There are those based on popular films that many of the guests have seen, and there are those that are original concepts created specifically for the event. In the first category this year, you have houses based on A Quiet Place and a new Ghostbusters house based on Frozen Empire. If you’ve seen those movies, then you know the story that’s being told.
In the second category, however, things are a little different. A house like Universal Monsters: Eternal Bloodlines uses classic characters guests will know, but it tells an entirely new story. Other houses, like Triplets of Terror, are wholly original concepts. These are frequently the best houses and some of them are the best Halloween Horror Nights houses in 2024. Universal Orlando made a point to spotlight the original houses over the IP-influenced one this year, showing a commitment to these original stories.
CinemaBlend’s own Tiffney Ma recently attended Halloween Horror Nights, and courtesy of Universal Orlando was able to experience the R.I.P Tour, where a tour guide led her around the park and introduced each house. For her, this created vital context that she didn’t think she would have understood ahead of time. She told me…
There were aspects of the house that I wouldn’t have caught if it wasn’t for the tour guide giving me the information prior to entering, which allowed me to see the nuances and all the extra details. All of the houses have really good storylines and it made my experience so much richer having that information.
Now this is certainly an argument in favor of the R.I.P Tour, as it doesn’t simply help you get through all 10 houses promptly (though it absolutely does that too) it gives you information that you might not be able to pick up simply by walking through the house. But it's not something that will be in every price range.
If you’re a local getting a Frequent Fear pass and going to Halloween Horror Nights often throughout the season, you will likely be able to pick up elements of the story for your multiple visits if you miss stuff the first time around.
But it’s unfortunate if parts of the story are ultimately being lost on many guests. It’s frustrating for them if there are things they don’t understand, but it’s also frustrating for the people who put all the work into Halloween Horror Nights if some of their work goes unnoticed.
Many of these original houses are sequels to each other or otherwise connected. There's a pretty deep lore surrounding many of the Halloween Horror Nights Icons. Regular guests know this, but learning it is the kind of stuff that can turn a new guest into a regular guest.
Time is of the essence in an HHN house, so some sort of info dump at the beginning likely isn’t the solution here. But there should be some way, maybe by providing more details about each house in the Universal Orlando app that can make the backstory or details available to guests who want them. You can gain a new appreciation for the house design, the makeup work and the scare actors because of some of these details. That’s something that should happen for everybody.
