Halloween Horror Nights 30
After taking 2020 off due to the pandemic, Universal Orlando brings back their legendary Halloween event for its thirtieth iteration. Jack the Clown is back to lead the celebration of years of incredible events, which also sees past locations, icons, and other classic parts of HHN lore brought back to show how Universal has gotten to this milestone year.
Houses
Beetlejuice- Man I was really looking forward to this one. Beetlejuice is one of those classic horror comedies that is as enjoyable today for me as it was when I was a child. This easily could’ve been an incredibly successful comedy house for the event. Instead, what we are given is the worst house of the event. The actual design of this house is incredible, as the colorful world of the movie is brought to life through various scenes. These include the afterlife waiting room, to a replica of the Dante’s Inferno Room, to my personal favorite, the attic of the Maitland’s house, complete with the miniature model of the town. The set design is there to make you feel as immersed as possible, however vinyl dividers used to separate guests and actors hurt the house and make it obvious where scares are coming from. While these are in every house, they stick out massively in Beetlejuice as the lighting of the house makes it even more obvious. To be fair, even if this approach wasn’t taken due to the ongoing pandemic, the scares would be obvious in this house. We have been going to HHN since 19, and I can honestly say this is the least scary house I’ve seen during that entire run. In many ways this feels like the Ghostbusters house from HHN 29, which suffered from the same problems as this one. This is one to do to see the sets, but don’t expect anything else from it.
4.5/10
The Haunting of Hill House- Credit to Universal for the façade of this house, as walking into the building and finding Hill House looming over you is an incredible sight that sets the tone immediately. As soon as you step into the house itself, the Red Room beckons you to come further in and sets off a procession of the various ghosts and characters seen in the show. While the sets are impressive and invoke memories of the show, it is a bit disappointing that scenes never take place outside the house, like the funeral home or Steven’s apartment which had an easy built-in scare available. This is still a good house, but it suffers from a lack of variety that possibly could be due to something like rights issues. Whatever the reason, it is the one blemish on a house that does a good job recreating its namesake, providing a collection of good scares by the ghosts that inhabit Hill House
8/10
Puppet Theatre: Captive Audience- Stepping into the ravaged remains of a theatre that has been derelict for a long time, you soon come face to face with the troupe that has been trapped inside and has gone completely insane. A genuinely scary house, this is Universal at their best. This house combines extravagant sets, the use of smells to further enhance immersion, and disturbing special effects to invoke a primal urge to get away from what is in front of you. From gore covered human marionettes to disfigured ballerinas, this house features a collection of deranged characters. It also uses great use of misdirection to create good scares. This is a chaotic house that uses the disarray to good effect and makes it an instant classic.
10/10
The Wicked Growth: Realm of the Pumpkin- Wow. All hail the Pumpkin Lord! This set design for this house is some of the best work Universal has ever done. From a wrecked farmhouse, over a covered bridge with a crumbling floor that has some of the most impressive special effects seen in a house, to a graveyard with jack-o-lanterns lighting the path, ending with a meeting with the Pumpkin Lord himself, this is just an incredible house to look at. This house also features the most aggressive actors of the event, leading to some good fright attempts with the amount of aggression and well-designed boo-holes allowing for tension and dread to be built, which is quite rare for a theme park-based haunt. This is easily house of the year, and one of my favorites that I’ve seen in my years of going to the event.
10/10
Welcome to Scarey: Horror in the Heartland- Okay, I’m quite biased when it comes to this house. I spent the entire time going though this house was a big grin on my face. Seeing so many memories of houses brought back in a greatest hits package was exactly what I wanted this house to be. A nostalgic trip through many of the great original houses that Universal has pulled off, especially from the last decade of events. Seeing locations like Meetz Meats return, along with classic characters like H.R Bloodenguts coming back make this the perfect house for those who have been around for a while. Even for those who don’t have much history with the event, the house provides enough scares and well-designed sets to make it enjoyable for newbies as well. For those who have been here a long time, this is the house for you.
10/10
HHN Icons Captured- Take a journey into Fear’s lantern and meet all the characters that have ushered in the event over the last few decades. All the icons are here (including some references to Mary Agana which is nice to see) and they are all in their environment. This house does feel like a way to rehab the image of icons that have been disregarded a bit in the past. For example, Lady Luck is finally given a proper chance to shine after her disastrous scarezone from HHN 21 that was always my least favorite scarezone of the event, until this year that is. More on that later. The Storyteller also gains a demonic form that adds a lot of intrigue and potential scare factor that was just a boring mess before. This house is a bit pedestrian other than these new developments. All the other Icons are featured in scenes that are predictable and seem to be built on the concept of “Hey, you remember these guys, right? It is so cool to see them in one place, isn’t it?!” There are some decent scares and the set design is nice, especially the final throne room, but the transitions are not the strongest and it leads to a house that is still very good, but doesn’t quite reach the heights you would hope with its concept.
7.5/10
Revenge of the Tooth Fairy- The façade to this house is incredible. Designed to look like a pop-up book, the façade immediately sets the mood for the house. A fairy tale setting about the dangers of denying the Tooth Fairy what they want, and the consequences of such an action. This takes a turn towards a classic Grimm approach as the outcome of a child greedily wanting to keep his fallen-out teeth leads to a brutally graphic and gory house. This has the feel of an older HHN house where the scares come not from the villains attacking the guests, but instead of attacking their victims or the victims desperately trying to get help. This does help to differentiate this house from the others at the event, and adds some variety. The house is set in a large mansion that is being attacked by vengeful fairies and the design allows for nice cramped corridors and areas like lavish bedrooms that are drenched in gore. This is a great house and fits well into Universal’s history of designing entertaining houses with a fairy tale setting.
8.5/10
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre- At HHN 26 there was a house based around this property, namely a recreation of the original movie. This house is actually not a repeat of that, instead expanding what they previously did for the original movie as well as adding some touches from Chainsaw 2. Guests enter by weaving through the gas station from the original movie, and soon get chased by Leatherface and his chainsaw. This house does smoothly transitions from sets and scenes directly from the movies to original aspects like Chop Top’s bedroom in the Sawyer homestead. This makes for a house that feels familiar yet different at the same time, and really helps it to feel like a worthy addition to the lineup and not just a repeat of the 26 house. As for scares, they are good but harmed by just how bad the chainsaw noises sound over the sound systems throughout the house. Instead of being scary it just comes off as grating and can make scare attempts annoying. Despite this, it is still an enjoyable house.
7.5/10
Universal Monsters: The Bride of Frankenstein Lives- Picking up just after the end of The Bride of Frankenstein movie, this house follows the Bride as she tries to resurrect the Monster by using the blood of Dracula’s Wives. This campy throwback to the golden era of Universal makes for a highly entertaining house, especially for those who loves the Classic Monsters. The house design perfectly encapsulates the feeling of The Bride of Frankenstein, featuring classic science fiction props and set designs that makes the house feels like it is a seamless sequel to the film. The choice to include vampires is smart as it allows for more variety in the actors providing scares and allows for the story to be much more interesting, providing opportunities for scares to come from misdirection when guests are focused on the storyline. A fun house that manages to provide some good scares as well as an entertaining story.
8/10
Case Files Unearthed: Legendary Truth- Based around the works of private eye Boris and the Legendary Truth organization that has been a part of HHN lore for a while, this house weaves in and out of Boris’s cases. Having a pulp-noire feel, this is certainly the most unique look for a house in awhile at HHN. This campy house has a nice variety of locations featuring a random selection of monsters, ranging from creatures deep in the swamp, to possessed lounge singers in the Kitty Kat Club. This strikes a nice balance of throwing nods to hardcore fans while also adding new lore that makes for an interesting story to follow. One issue with this house is that at times it can be a bit too chaotic and makes it hard to hear what is going on with the stories and the central theme of totems that Boris was tracking, which can make the house feel confusing. However, the scares themselves and the various costumes for the actors are highly entertaining and create a unique house for the lineup that is more than worth the visit.
8/10
Scarezones
I’ll be honest, normally at this point I break down each of the scarezones of the event individually at this point, but the options from this year are not worth the effort. Lights, Camera, Hacktion: Eddie’s Revenge is the best of the bunch, providing a best of for scarezones of year’s past, such as Invasion and Vamp ’55, all overseen by the chainsaw wielding Eddie. Actors in this zone are fun and energetic, leading to interesting scares, while actors on stages offer photo-op chances, striking a perfect balance for the zone. 30 Years, 30 Fears on the other hand is all photo-op. While there are characters roaming the grounds, they very rarely seem to go for actual scares. To be fair, this zone is mostly a chance for people to get photos in at the front of the park before going to the rest of the park, so in that aspect the zone works just fine. I was massively anticipating Gorewood Forest, but unfortunately it ended up being mostly a dud. Other than it being cool to see a new iteration of the Terra Queen from HHN 15, the costume designs for the actors seem to stick out too much. It creates a situation where the actors try their best, but it is hard to scare when your costume makes you stick out from a distance. The gory sets are cool but without good scares this zone just falls flat. Crypt TV suffers from a similar issue. While it features cool set designs and interesting creature design, the scares are flat out non-existent. The chokepoint of the San Francisco area of the parks creates an area that is always overcrowded, and with the only actors I saw in this zone being on stages, an environment with zero scares. A real shame because the concept of Crypt TV as a scarezone feels like an easy win. Then there is Seek and Destroy. Earlier, I mentioned that my least favorite scarezone of all time was Your Luck Has Run Out from HHN 21. Well, Seek and Destroy changed that. First and foremost, why am I being attacked by a gang of Cobra Commanders? Secondly, why must you insult the great Saws and Steam by creating an eyerolling spiritual successor? Not a single aspect of this zone works. From the inane commentary from The Controller to scares consisting of apparently being threatened by a barcode scanner from your local Target this is just embarrassingly bad. This is honestly the biggest miss I’ve seen from Universal Creative for HHN in a long time. Thankfully Eddie’s Revenge is there, because without it, this would be the most unremarkable year for scarezones I can remember.
3/10
Shows
Marathon of Mayhem: Carnage Factory- Like the Marathon of Mayhem from HHN 29, this is the central lagoon show for the event. This year the focus is on the Icons as well as the various movies and properties used in the events. This show is not up to the level of the first Marathon, simply because the music available for use from the properties isn’t quite as legendary or catchy at the music available from 29. Also, the story of Jack’s fear factory kind of just falls flat. Still, this is a highly enjoyable show that is worth seeing, as the effects used are really cool to see.
8/10
We ended up not seeing Halloween Nightmare Fuel, so a proper review can’t be given, but from what I have heard from others, it is a must see and should be on your list if you go to the event.
Overall
Honestly, for HHN 30 I expected a little better. Not that this year is bad by any means, but it is certainly lacking from years past. The scarezones are the aspect that is lacking the most, because excluding Eddie’s Revenge, this is a bad collection of zones. Sure, the pandemic plays a large role in why things can feel different, but it doesn’t change the fact that it feels like little effort was put into making these zones actually be scary for a horror event. It is a shame because the houses themselves are mostly great with a few legitimately being some of the better houses in the time we’ve been going to the event. However, with the scarezones being in the shape they are, and with the one show we went to being a slight downgrade from the event before, it has to be said that this is the weakest year of Halloween Horror Nights in a few years, especially after 28 and 29 were so good. Still an amazing time with incredible houses, and hopefully throughout the rest of the season, the scarezones can be revamped into something on par with years past.
7.5/10
