To be perfectly honest, I’m not a big fan of Halloween. I don’t like being scared and I don’t see the point of adults trick or treating. However, I do see the joy in my son’s eyes when he gets a chance to do a little cosplay, and I’ve been known to do a little role playing myself from time to time. So one of these years, I’m sure I’ll work up the courage to attend what is, by all accounts, one of the best Halloween events around – Universal Orlando’s Halloween Horror Nights.
Beginning September 21, Universal Orlando’s Halloween Horror Nights returns for 25 nights of intense Halloween spookiness. This year, once guests step inside Halloween Horror Nights, they will not be able to escape the horror that awaits them, including terrifying haunted houses featuring some of the biggest names in pop culture – like AMC’s “The Walking Dead” and Silent Hill. And, with a completely reinvented street experience, scarecators will seek them out no matter where they turn.
This year, guests will fight for survival from the flesh-eating walkers of AMC’s “The Walking Dead;” run to avoid the demonic beings from the universe of popular video game and motion picture franchise Silent Hill; try to escape Penn & Teller’s nuclear ooze-covered Las Vegas wasteland; and come face-to-face with the twisted concepts pulled straight from legendary shock rocker Alice Cooper’s most popular songs.
Even more haunted house horror is in store, as well. What were once just ghastly rumors about an old, abandoned house have come to life as actual bone-chilling apparitions in Dead End; the still, stone protectors of an ancient European cathedral have awakened to fight intruders off at any cost in Gothic; and Universal’s legacy of horror continues as the classic monsters of fear appear in blinding black and white in House of Horrors.
And, a completely reinvented street experience will unleash scareactors in an all-new, terrifying way. Roaming legions of menacing beasts, vampires, prisoners, warriors and more will inhabit every corner of the park. They will find you and invade your personal space like never before. There will be no boundaries. The rules of the past will no longer apply.
For a detailed listing of each of the attractions featured at this year’s event, see below the jump:
HAUNTED HOUSES
AMC’s “The Walking Dead”
There is strength in numbers, and you must band together to make it through many of the iconic settings made famous by the critically-acclaimed AMC television series, “The Walking Dead.” As the city is crawling with hordes of walkers, the issue of your becoming one of them is not a question of if, but when.
Silent Hill
In the eerie and desolate town of Silent Hill, ash falls from the sky and the physical laws of nature no longer apply. If you dare to venture into this alternate dimension, there is only one law of nature with which you must concern yourself: survival.
Penn & Teller New(kd) Las Vegas
World-renowned magicians Penn & Teller have accidentally nuked Las Vegas, but don’t worry, it’s nothing a fresh coat of paint and a truckload of BS can’t fix. Come on down to New Vegas, where all that glitters isn’t gold, and in fact probably has fatal levels of radioactivity.
Alice Cooper – Welcome To My Nightmare
Journey into the legendary rocker Alice Cooper’s twisted mind and witness the natural melding of horror and Cooper’s four decades-long career. Here you will follow Steven, the iconic character from many of Cooper’s works, as you come face-to-face with a myriad of tormentors who threaten an already-decaying sense of sanity.
House of Horrors
This is no remake. No sequel. No re-imagining. These are Universal’s classic monsters of fear, who have terrified audiences from the Silver Screen. They have been waiting within silver celluloid to be resurrected. The flash of a lightning strike cuts the darkness that surrounds, and terror’s true faces take back what is theirs.
Dead End
If enough people believe in something, perception can become reality. In Carey, Ohio, the perception was that countless horrific acts had occurred in the old Hartford Mansion. The reality was that the curse which befell the house was far worse than any story ever told.
Gothic
The Catedral de Caementum Animus is, by day, undergoing a building-wide architectural refurbishment. By night, the many stone gargoyles that keep watchful eye over the sanctuary come to life with the mission of protecting this sacred place against intrusion.
NEW – REINVENTED STREET EXPERIENCE
Legions of Horror
With a ripping, clawing and tearing through the concrete beneath Universal Studios come ancient cemetery structures, spilling blood-raged, vampiric hordes that span the eras of time, barbaric warriors with a need to carve flesh from bone and an all-female, chainsaw-wielding prison gang. These and more nightmarish hellions inhabit every dark corner, foggy recess and shadowed path within the park. Unlike in years past, there are no boundaries. No safezones. No one escapes.
The force of horror starts with The Iniquitus. Rooted in evil, these are the patrons of death and are the ones who rose from the cemetery. The Iniquitus are those who summoned the Dark Legions to come and feast here.
The dark legions of horror that await are: Vampires – the blood-thirsty from all eras of time, Beasts – the legendary animal-like figures who prey on the unsuspecting, Warriors – a gang killed in a deadly war that has returned to seek revenge, Prisoners – these deceased chainsaw-wielding female inmates killed in a women’s prison fire are back… and angry, and Traditionals – the ghosts and goblins of Halloween past come together to feast.
LIVE SHOWS
Bill & Ted’s Excellent Halloween Adventure
Party on as those two most excellent dudes return to skewer the biggest names in entertainment and pop culture.
20 Penny Circus
The 20 Penny Circus brings its “Magic For People With Questionable Taste” to an unsuspecting Halloween Horror Nights audience.
Halloween Horror Nights runs September 21-22, September 27-30, October 4-7, 11-14, 17-21, 24-28 and 31. Tickets and vacation packages are on sale now and can be purchased at Halloweenhorrornights.com/orlando.