Universal Destinations and Experiences has always been a strong contender in the theme park space. However, the company is in a major push to grow its share, with everything from the new Epic Universe park in Orlando to Universal Horror Unleashed in Las Vegas and even a new UK Universal park on the horizon.
A much smaller, but no less important, new addition to the Universal list of offerings started this past weekend with Fan Fest Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood. In many ways, it’s designed as a non-scary alternative to Halloween Horror Nights, Universal’s marquee event of the year. However, after having visited Fan Fest Nights, I can’t imagine how Halloween Horror Nights could possibly be as good
I’ve Never Been To Halloween Horror Nights, And Now I’m Afraid I’ll Be Disappointed
As a serious theme park fan, but not a serious horror fan, I’ve never been quite sure what to do about Halloween Horror Nights. As somebody who is very susceptible to jump scares, to the point that I’ve ended up with more than one drink all over me while watching a scary movie, I’ve never been too excited about going.
But I have seen HHN. I’ve seen the videos on social media and YouTube, I’ve viewed entire walkthroughs of many of the HHN houses over the years, so I know what happens there and what it looks like. It has plenty of the jump scares I dread, but the houses also contain incredible design elements that I’ve always wanted to view up close.
I’d always planned to go to HHN eventually. It was on the list. But now, I’m honestly far less interested in checking it out. I’ve been to Fan Fest Nights, and it was such a great experience. I’m not sure HHN will ever hold up.
Fan Fest Nights Improves On The HHN Formula In A Major Way
Two of the attractions at Fan Fest Nights are, at least in structure, similar to an HHN house: Star Trek: Red Alert and Dungeons & Dragons: Secrets of Waterdeep. These are completely built-out locations that guests walk through. However, Fan Fest Nights does something very different with these because it tells an actual story.
To be sure, HHN houses have stories, but to a large extent, the details of them are found outside the house itself. The house is just a liniear path of setpieces, props, and scareactors who jump out at you and say boo.
Red Alert and Secrets of Waterdeep are built much more like modern attractions. Each has a pre-show room where a story is set up, giving the guests the details of what’s supposed to happen. However, instead of moving from this to a ride vehicle, we simply move to the next room where actors are on hand to actually speak with us and react to what’s happening around them as the story unfolds.
It’s not unlike the John Wick Experience in Las Vegas that I also recently tried out. Using real actors who don’t just move around but play a role in the story adds an energy to the whole experience that just wouldn’t be there otherwise.
Star Trek And Dungeons And Dragons Ended With Incredible Set Pieces
The stories of each of these attractions were much more engrossing because of the way they’re presented, but each also ends with a finale that’s so incredible, it blows you away.
In the case of Star Trek: Red Alert, the story ends on the bridge of the Enterprise-D. This isn’t simply a recreation. The bridge set that was used in the finale season of Picard was brought over and rebuilt on site. There’s no Star Trek fan worth their salt who would not love to be able to simply stand on the bridge of the Enterprise.
For Dungeons & Dragons: Secrets of Waterdeep, the high point is the reveal of Xanathar the Beholder. Universal had previously revealed images of this creation of the Henson Creature Shop, but no picture does justice to seeing Xanthar move, speak, and blast away at us with his various eye stalks. The fact that either of these is only a temporary element is both mind-blowing and disappointing.
Destination Hill Valley Let Me Go Back To The Future And Visit A Piece Of Movie History
Universal Studios Hollywood, while being the first Universal park, is often the most overlooked. It’s the smallest park, crowbarred into a corner of the Universal Pictures lot. However, because of that, it also has one attraction that allows it to shine above any other theme park in the world, the iconic Universal Studios Backlot Tour.
I’ve jumped on board the tram for the Studio Tour more times than I can count. My favorite part, without question, is always when the tour goes by the Hill Valley Clock Tower, as seen in Back to the Future, one of my all-time favorite films.
So it made perfect sense that part of Fan Fest Nights dedicated to Back to the Future would take place right there. Guests board the same tram, but then exit outside of Lyon Estates, and walk right into the Clock Tower square.
The Terror Tram is one element at Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood that Orlando cannot recreate, and as such, it's always worth checking out. But it's given guests this sort of moment.
Getting off the Studio Tour tram to actually walk around the backlot is something usually reserved for the VIP Tour, which costs significantly more than a ticket to Fan Fest Nights. Not only did I feel like I was inside Back to the Future with Doc, Marty, Biff, and more walking around and interacting with guests, but I got to stand in front of the “real” Clock Tower, truly a special moment for this fan.
HHN Is Going To Need To Up It’s Game
Maybe we’ll see more from Halloween Horror Nights going forward. It’s possible that Fan Fest Nights is something of a test or a tease for the future of Universal Studios’ bigger and badder event.
If nothing else, the way that Star Trek and D&D work appears to be the way that Universal Horror Unleashed in Las Vegas will work when it opens in August. Those houses will, according to the designers, have more story elements built into the experience and will be presented to small groups of people.
I still want to go to HHN. It’s an unchecked item on my theme park to-do list, and that bugs me. Having said that, I'm really hoping Fan Fest Nights comes back next year as an even bigger event. That's something I really won't want to miss.
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