Walking up to eerie gates with haunted tunes following your every step is just the beginning of Universal’s Halloween Horrors nights scare fest that is celebrating its 24th year. Once through the gates, I was greeted by the scare zone Masquerade unstitched, bringing to life a horrifying story where the actors are decked out in beautiful costumes that hide the horror behind the beauty.
This years haunted houses featured “Halloween”,” The Walking Dead: End of the line”, “Alien vs. Predator”, “From Dusk till Dawn”, “Dracula untold- Reign of blood”, “Dollhouse of the damned” , “Giggles and Gore Inc.” , and “Roanoke- Cannibal Colony.”
The ridiculously long lines to enter these fighting houses took away the experience and left me feeling antsy and slightly frustrated, but “Face off-in the flesh”, “Bayou of the Blood,” and “The Purge Anarchy” scare zones kept the chills on the back of my neck.
From chain saws, masked faces, and a bus spurting out fire, The Purge Anarchy scare zone was a personal favorite, and one of the most photographed attractions on social media. The actors showed no remorse, chasing anymore who displayed a hint of fear.
The “Halloween” house re-created John Carpenters famous film with the house designed just like the one in the movie, sending me home to sleep with the lights on.
“The Walking Dead: End of the line”, being the largest haunted house to date, is not only popular on screen, but also off. With gruesome zombies at every turn , this scare fest was by far my favorite and left me wanting to prepare for a zombie apocalypse.
“Alien vs. Predator” had an interesting twist; People have to crawl out to escape. The house was designed to appear as if you are on the ship and preparing to go fight the alien, but in reality I was running (and crawling) to the exit.
Based off the hit TV series, “Dusk Till Dawn” led me through a Mayan themed temple with bloodsucking vampires jumping out at every corner, and as I neared the end I stepped into the infamous biker bar were all the chaos reigns on the big screen.
Continuing the trend of Vampires is “Dracula Untold: Reign of Blood.” Based off the one time hero who turned into an iconic figure in horror, this house left me sprinting to the exit, wishing I brought garlic. Designed like a haunted castle this scare fest had bloodthirsty vampires and Turks at every turn.
“Giggles and Gore Inc.” is not as nice as it sounds. With the bloody, terrifying clowns this haunted house made me jump out of skin, but it didn’t end there. Just when I thought it was all over a clown was patiently waiting with his chainsaw, and ran after me until I was out of the designated zone.
“Dolls of the Damned” and “Roanoke: Cannibal Colony” were two of my least favorites houses. The lines were on average 15 minutes, for a reason. I was highly disappointed in the lack of effort put into making these houses terrifying.
From the Gruesome Zombies, bloodsucking vampires, haunted dolls, and terrifying clowns, to the streets filled with frightening faces, this scare fest is sure to leave you checking every corner and sleeping with the lights on for many nights.
I give Halloween Horror Nights 24, 3 out of 5 stars.
While there were many skin crawling moments, such as the “Giggle and Gore Inc.”. And “The Walking Dead: End of the line” houses, where I was screaming and crying all at once, the long lines ruined the experience for me. “The Waling Dead: End of the Line” was my favorite house but the 2 hour wait was something that almost prevented me from going. I also think the rest of the scare zones could be more terrifying to keep the fear alive.