Halloween Horror Nights Review
Tuesday, October 19th, 2010 by sagesin13
“What Fear Fears Most,” is the slogan for this year’s Universal Halloween Horror Nights. This annual event has people flocking from all over the world to attend for a night or, if you’re lucky and live local, with a pass that guarantees multiple days of horror.
I get a pass every year for a few reasons: 1) The lines often take up so much time you can’t get to everything! 2) A pass makes it much easier to go with friends when you want. 3) It’s so much fun you’ll be dying for more!
This year, like most others, there are 5 haunted mazes including:
-Nightmare on Elm Street with new Freddy Krueger
-Friday the 13th with new Jason Voorhees
-Saw featuring horrific new traps
-House of 1000 Corpses in 3D Zombie vision
-Vampyre: Castle of the Undead
multiple scare zones featuring:
- La Llorona
-Nightmarez
-Klownz
-Lunaticz
-Freakz
-Pigz
The Terror Tram: Chucky’s Revenge
Bill & Ted’s Excellent Halloween Adventure
Most of the main rides are open, too.
You’ll be happy you got there on time when you’re waiting in line for both security and to get into the park. Finally, once through the turnstiles, you’re greeted by Freddy in the middle of the fountain and 2 smokin’ Freddy go-go girls. You know you’re inside, though, when you start hearing those chainsaws go off and the screams of scared tourists. All the rest of us can do is feel like we’re home and sit back to watch the show. Huge pyros go off above a clown ringleader and his army of evil chainsaw welding clowns. Of course, you can’t miss the giant jester towering over you.
Vampyre: Castle of the Undead is the first house you come across, being that it is inside Universal’s year-round House of Horrors. Not much is changed to the actual houses, just a bunch of vampyre girls and guys that actually make a nice addition. If you head toward the left of the park, you walk into “Lunaticz”, where the dangerous and demented asylum inmates have taken to the streets of London on a murderous rampage.
If you make it out of there, you come across your next task, making it through House of 1000 Corpses! Here you’re taken through Captain Spaulding’s and his Murder Ride, The Firefly house where you see Baby, Odius, and Tiny … all in Zombievision. The house is so realistic, you find yourself taking off your 3D glasses just to look at everything. Without even noticing, you exit into Paris where the “Freakz” have set up camp, anxious to get their hands on you food.
Next you come across Friday the 13th and the campgrounds of Camp Crystal Lake, where you see desperate campers in a bear trap and a sleeping bag. Various versions of Jason from the new movie come at you as you go through scenes such as the barn, The Vorhees house, Jason’s lair, the forest making you feel as if you were right there in it. As Jason chases you out, you come across the scarezone of La Llorona weeping for her children. They pushed this on the advertisements over the Vampyre House,why I will never know. It was a pretty big let down, with ghost children running around trying to scare you.
If the scarezone puts you to sleep, you’ll be right where He wants you in the next maze. The notorious Freddy Krueger is back in this new vision of Nightmare On Elmstreet where you see his world, the preschool, the highschool, Nancy’s room, and other familiar scenes from Springwood in the new movie. The sets are very well done, but I’m still a fan of the original Nightmare on Elmstreet editions.
The last main Horror Nights thing to do upstairs is, of course, the Terror Tram, where the legendary tram takes you and lets you out on the back lot. This has always been a thrill, featuring such big names as Jason, Leatherface, and Freddy. This year the theme was Chucky’s Revenge, with a huge hand from La Llorona. Besides the usual things they do to it each year to enhance the back lot (i.e. lots of dead bodies and Psycho with Normal Bates) the rest, sadly, was a disappointment and wasted a lot of space. La Llorona wasn’t scary and the Chucky guys were a little less than horrifying. Although the idea of Chucky being responsible for the fire there so long ago was really funny.
Downstairs more chainsaws, drawn by the ever-haunting Saw Pigs, come after you. The Saw maze awaits as you make your way through the fog. It’s became last on our to do list because of how similar it is to the previous year it was done and, of course, the horrible smells are sort of overwhelming. Although it’s cool to see a few updated traps and realistic set designs, I recommend it for first timers rather than frequent goers.
It is a fun night that keeps your heart pumping and you guessing what’s around every corner, nonetheless.
Remember, the crowds usually hit what they see first, then make their way to the bottom, so the lower lot is more packed later, leaving the front houses less full, with the exception of House of 1000 Corpses! Also, if you scare easily and show it well + happen to be female, they WILL chase you! Just a warning =]
Hope to see you guys there this weekend!
Horrific Dreams!
Rebecca a.k.a Sage Sin
modelmayhem.com/rebeccasage
halloweenhorrornights.com/hollywood/2010
