My Experience at Halloween Horror Nights
Growing up as a resident scaredy-cat of Orlando, Florida my youth consisted of horrific fears from even the concept of Universal Orlando’s Halloween Horror Nights (HHN). As a kid, I couldn’t understand the joy that comes from purposefully being scared. My fears continued throughout high school, and, as everyone grew older, I began to feel left out of what my friends described as an awesome time. My senior year I decided to finally take the chance and experience my first Halloween Horror Nights event.
That first event year took place in 2015, Halloween Horror Nights 25th anniversary. My hear pounded while walking up to the entrance of Universal Studios, and I second guessed myself about whether this was worth the fear I was about to endure. My friends and I finally made it past the turnstiles and were ready to take on the nightmares inside. We arrived about thirty minutes before HHN officially began so we were met by the opening ceremony that takes place before every event night. During of which, we joined an enormous crowd of equally fearful victims who showed terror and thrill across their faces as we all prepared for the frightful night. The host of the year’s event was none other than Jack the Clown who counted down to the night’s beginning keeping everyone in anticipation. Once our last thirty minutes of peace were up, Halloween Horror Nights began. Actors then rushed through the crowd wielding chainsaws and machetes while lunging and shouting in the faces of everyone in the crowd. I took off running with my friends to surpass those who fell behind and we headed to our first haunted house of the evening: Insidious.
We waited in a long queue to enter the Insidious house during of which we passed the time telling stories amongst our group of some of the scariest haunted houses they’ve experienced in the past. One of my friends told us a story in which an actor jumped at them so closely that they could feel their breath on them while they screamed in their face. I felt faint as my fear manifested as a huge knot in the my stomach exclaiming at me that this was a horrible idea. We persisted on through the queue and eventually made it all the way to the house’s entrance. The entrance façade was a white house with a dimly lit exterior. The only light coming from it were lights in each of the five windows, one of which periodically showed a haunting figure of the bride in black from the Insidious films. We then took our first steps inside the house and I tried my best to feel brave, but couldn’t help still feeling nervous.
Once we were inside, I became distracted by how intricate and detailed the house was designed. The set pieces and props used to tell the story of the house completely entranced me and I forgot that I was supposed to be scared. While we walked through the house, just as expected, actors jumped in our faces and screamed in our ears, but all I could do was laugh as I realized I was actually having a total blast. As actors jumped at me, I would flinch and exclaim loudly, but the adrenaline rush that washed over me actually made me more excited to keep going on. While my friends huddled together into a giant terrified mass, I trailed behind them and proclaimed what an amazing time I was having.
After we exited the house, we all collected ourselves and I told everyone how I actually thought that house was one of the most fun experiences of my entire high school career. It turned out that my friends who had been to HHN in the past were more scared of the house than I was! As we said goodbye to Insidious, we proceeded on through the night. I learned how much HHN had to offer with even more astounding houses and scare zones, unique food options like their infamous twisted taters, and awesome t-shirts and lanyards both of which I still collect from each HHN to this day. I was so surprised to have enjoyed Halloween Horror Nights as much as I did since I was so sure that my fears would get the best of my courage to try something new. However, the amount of work and dedication the team members at Universal put into organizing every event is what really makes me passionate to see what is in store at HHN each year. Now after going to HHN, I even enjoy horror movies and rollercoasters, both of which I had never been courageous enough to try either. I’m so glad that I took the leap of faith and gave Halloween Horror Nights a try since now I have been to every year of HHN since then.
Now that I am a Halloween Horror Nights regular, I tend to be overly obsessed with keeping track of HHN’s Twitter and Instagram accounts where they post throughout the year about which houses we can expect to see at that years event. Most house reveals are posted on Halloween Horror Night’s official Twitter account feed along with on their main Instagram account through Instagram stories.
Most house reveals are showcased through short trailers such as how they revealed The Haunting of Hill House which is a house at this year’s Halloween Horror Nights. The trailer for this house is only forty-seven seconds long and has a creepy narrator voice-over footage of the house from The Haunting of Hill House telling the viewer to “don’t go in there” and “be afraid of the dark”. He ends by saying “or you’ll never leave” then a ghostly figure of a woman from the show screams into the camera. While I have not seen The Haunting of Hill House myself, knowing HHN is planning to adapt such a popular franchise as a haunted house gets me so excited to check this house out. They create short trailers such as this one for almost every house available at each year’s event and all of them are extremely high quality despite being only about a minute long. One other thing that almost every trailer has in common is that each one ends with a POV video of an actual person going through a haunted house just to showcase the terror viewers may expect to experience when going through the house.
This year is Halloween Horror Nights 30th anniversary make up year since last years event was cancelled for COVID-19.This is also my 5th anniversary since my first fateful Horror Night. I am looking forward to all the terror and fear this years event has to offer since I know that they are planning to go all out for this momentous celebration.
References:
Image References:
https://attractionsmagazine.com/full-details-revealed-halloween-horror-nights-25-universal-orlando/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PponHzPh3uc
https://twitter.com/HorrorNightsORL
