Every year, I look forward to ringing in the spooky season by visiting Universal Studios’ annual Halloween Horror Nights event. As a fan of horror movies, it’s always a blast to feel immersed into the genre as I go through house after house – most of which are often based on massive franchises. When I went through all the Halloween Horror Nights 2024 houses in Hollywood this year, I was excited for Ghostbusters to be part of it. I’ll be honest, though, I really didn’t expect going through the Frozen Empire house to be one of my favorite memories of the evening.
I Was Skeptical Of The The Frozen Empire Haunted House
Of course, I grew up loving the Ghostbusters movies. I think the franchise in general is such a fun time when it comes to bringing supernatural stories to pop culture in a more comedic and family-friendly way. When Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire hit theaters earlier this year, I didn’t go out of my way to go see it on the big screen, but had a rather fun time catching up with it with family over the summer.
I enjoyed it a lot more than Ghostbusters: Afterlife, between the characters going back to a New York setting and its villain. Now, I wasn’t as icy as the critics were about it, but instead in the neighborhood of our own Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire review. But I’ll be honest, when the franchise was announced as part of Horror Nights, I was feeling mid about it.
Now, I think every year that Horror Nights makes an effort to have one “funny” house to kind of break the tension of the other houses for those going through them all. It was clear to me pretty quickly that Frozen Empire must be that house this year, and I was excited to go to it, but I figured it would be a breeze (pun intended) to walk through. I’ll be honest – I also kind of didn’t see the value of the new movie in specifically being highlighted as the Ghostbusters house. I’m happy to say I was wrong!
The Ghostbusters Attraction Ended Up Being A Horror Nights Highlight
I’m happy to say I was wrong! Not only is the Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire house a blast, it was also one of my most highly ranked of the Halloween Horror Nights houses this year at Universal Studios Hollywood. Here’s what impressed me the most: it’s both fun and scary, which, in my opinion, are the best kinds of haunted houses at Universal.
Sure, Garraka was somewhat menacing in the movie, but the scare actors dressed as him really got me good multiple times while I walked through the house. The house itself did a great job of setting up the storyline of Frozen Empire, between starting with that table of frozen people and weaving in tons of scenes from the movie that actually had me looking back on it a lot more fondly than I expected.
It was one of those houses that had me gasping about how “cool” it was throughout as well. It had some great moments with the ghosts from the lab in Frozen Empire, and yes, there were great little Stay Puft Marshmallow man moments along with involving Slimer and all the key characters. By the time I exited the house, I felt both a little jumpy from the scares and like I had experienced something that had me geeking out at all its thoughtful love and care.
It even made me want to go back and watch the movie during Halloween season and appreciate it more for all its fun moments! You can see the Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire haunted house right now at Universal Studios Hollywood and Orlando now through November 3.
