WEB EXCLUSIVE

With the annual Halloween Horror Nights (HHN) making its first reappearance since September of 2019, anticipation was growing at an extremely exponential rate once the opening date was released to the media.

The event is marking its 30th year of fear in 2021 after its cancellation in 2020 due to the rise of the Covid-19 virus in March earlier that year. 

The horror nights for their 30th anniversary includes a series of ten horror-filled houses, six of which are original twisted ideas from the Universal Studios creative team and five new scare zones. 

Of the non-original HHN houses, the creative directors have truly brought the horror by featuring a few heavy-hitting IP’s like the Haunting of Hill House (Netflix original), Beetlejuice, and Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

These houses are based off of the original movies and shows throwing us back in time, fitting for an anniversary year. The BeetleJuice house almost perfectly and extremely accurately takes you through the horrific-underworld that our man in the spotlight, BeetleJuice, drags you down to. To-a-T this house captures the best parts of an iconic and classic movie that millions know and love from the 1980’s. While some claimed that this house was rated fairly low on the  horror scale, the house was definitely a 10/10 when speaking on creativity. 

The Haunting of Hill House is horror-filled and guaranteed to be nightmare-fuel. The maze is heavily armed with terrifying twists and turns making you sweat and scream for about five minutes straight.  The house is based off of the Netflix original series about a family who moves into a haunted manor and battles not only daunting demons but also fights personal psychosis when the sun sets. 

Based off of the original 1974 movie, this house takes you through a home in a small town of Texas where sadistic, chainsaw wielding murderers chase you around and your one goal is to escape unscathed. Around every corner there are sounds of saws and screams that will daunt in your nightmares for many sleeps after. This house is a fan favorite and definitely in the top two scariest houses of the season. 

This year’s event was heavily influenced by retro horror from America’s cinematic history, and the blast from the past secured Universal an immense amount of business from original HHN fans and new ones as well.