Universal Orlando Halloween Horror Nights 22

^If it is anything like Dead Exposure from HHN 18, this maze has the potential to scare me more than the others. The designers of Orlando's mazes tend to have fun when they put strobes in a room, and I know I've walked into several walls in the past as a result of this.

Yeah, Dead Exposure us still one of my favorite mazes in the last five years. I will be looking forward to this one as well.

This was posted on the official Facebook page about 30 minutes ago. I don't know how to embed a video. Sorry!

 

 

What the hell? Why are the zombies in a full on sprint? They're called "Walkers" on the show. The show is called The Walking Dead for goodness sake. When did they decide to go with Dawn of the Dead remake zombies?

^Quit imposing role models on zombies! They are a diverse population.

The monsters in the commercial aren't all zombies either. It is obvious that they have been on a training program in the offseason.

They run in the show. Walking dead meaning they're dead, and they walk, run, sprint, drool, whatever.

I hope you were serious and not making a joke or else I'm gonna feel like a fool.

This year will be my first time going. I've been to Howl-O-Scream in the past. Already got my tickets and express pass. What should I expect from HHN compared to HOS?

HHN is all about amazing sets, theatrics and atmosphere. The scares are mainly set-up scene scares which means you will likely have to go through each house more than once to catch everything.

To sum it up, in my experience at both HHN and HOS, HOS was better for scares, but HHN had the detail and amazing set design.

To sum it up, in my experience at both HHN and HOS, HOS was better for scares, but HHN had the detail and amazing set design.

This basically sums up my opinion of the two events as well however in recent years it seems like the overall at quality at HOS is really starting to catch up. Also night rides on Kumba and Montu are a huge check in the win column for HOS for me.

^But you have to deal with people from Tampa when you go to HOS which is a huge negative...

It really is all preference - HOS seems to rely more on "BOO" startle scares and HHN is more story-line driven type scares that you may or may not see in one pass through. I personally prefer the immersive story at HHN more. Oh, and the fact they have all new mazes every year!

I gotta say, reading everyone's comments about how much they loved Dead Exposure is making me SMILE ear to ear. As a zombie and dead charlie in that house, we LOVED when we could just talk each and everyone of you without you having a clue till that flash went off!

This year is gonna be bad ass and I hope to see you all there out on the streets as myself, my warrior crew and the other Dark Legions stalk, prey and feast on all of you!

^But you have to deal with people from Tampa when you go to HOS which is a huge negative...

Valid point, although I've been around some crowds at HHN that were pretty awful.

It really is all preference - HOS seems to rely more on "BOO" startle scares and HHN is more story-line driven type scares that you may or may not see in one pass through. I personally prefer the immersive story at HHN more. Oh, and the fact they have all new mazes every year!

I do appreciate how HHN makes an effort to provide you with some backstory on the houses while in line through the interactive text games, it does help set the tone for each individual house. The biggest negative for me about HOS is the recycled houses each year, they do make a nice effort to slightly re-theme each house but it doesn't make a huge difference. I can understand reusing 1 house a year for budget reasons but lately it seems like every new house sticks around for 2-3 years. Again for night rides on Kumba I can overlook the Toy Factory house for the third year in a row .

The recycled houses are pretty standard for all park haunts except for HHN. With Busch Gardens Tampa it's not as big of a deal since they get a fair amount of visitors that don't go to the event every year (i.e. Orlando tourists)

^^ The UK parks hardly ever change their houses, they're catching on to the trends but they're still well behind the US parks. Don't be so quick to condemn

Oh trust me, I know it is unique and I appreciate it. It just makes me not want to visit HoS any more frequently than once every 3-4 years.

Costumes anyone?

So far my favorite has to be the Warrior, that or the Traditionals. I can see Universal doing the two set cast with them, all nice and pretty at first but then transformed at night. Really excited for this year!

Awesome costumes! So far my experience has been amazing, I can't wait for next week!

^Where are you cast at if you are allowed to say?

That show girl outfit is HOT!

I left you a PM. Also, I am more interested to see how all the construction works out through this event. I was in the park the other day just hanging out watching all the trucks driving through as they ushered guests out of the way. I'm not sure how well that is going to work with all the drunk guests. Also, the entrance to the park has been decked out and is looking pretty awesome.

Entrance arch anyone? I can't wait to see it at night with all the lighting on!

Did someone say Tri-Bosomed Show Girl?!

I'm all in for the Chick Prisoner Chainsaw Drill Team, Badass!

This just makes me want a Bioshock maze even more and more. GET ON IT UNIVERSAL!

A Bioshock maze would be terrific.

Jacqi and I attended the Universal Halloween Horror Nights Media Sneak Peek on Wednesday, Sept. 12. It was a quick look into the upcoming event showcasing some of the costumes and theming for each of the houses. We also got a chance to see make-up artists at work up close and then a walk through 2 of the houses.

The houses and their themes have all been revealed long ago, so I won't recap them here but Universal did throw out a few new bits of info.

Universal's House of Horrors will feature Universal's classic stable of horror characters "reimagined and reanimated". They promised a new "lightning flash" style of animation - but they weren't ready to go in to any further details.

Universal also revealed that the roaming characters would not be confined to "scare zones" this year and that no place is safe - restaurants, gift shops, attraction queues are all fair game. Someone brought up the restrooms and the response was "Wait and see..." Among the roaming characters will be a hoard of "Walkers" - zombies from AMC's The Walking Dead. Up to 75 of these zombies will primarily infect the San Francisco area. Approximately every 45 minutes, the zombies will gather in a massive hoard and stagger their way off set during cast change outs.

Also announced was a bonus for those following HHN on Facebook. Fans of the page can have a scary phone message sent to themselves (or someone who could use a good scare).

Then it was time to check out the houses. The first house was "Dead End" and it was in "show ready" form with all of the effects and actors in place. This was pretty good. As one of the few houses that didn't have a license attached to it, it felt like a regular haunted house - and that's a good thing. It was a haunted northern mansion with some great effects and scare sequences and a creepy evil spirit that paced the loft above you.

The other house we previewed was "Silent Hill" based on the video game series - this house was completely lit with work lights and had none of the actors. But even with all of the lights on, you could tell this was going to be very cool. I only know a little about the game series - only that its set in a small creepy town populated with stacked nurses that have butt-ugly faces. They said that the pyramid head character would be in the house and that it also pulls a lot creatively from the new movie that comes out in a few weeks.

Over all the sneak peek really has me looking forward to going to this year's event. Thanks to Universal for hosting us and here are the photos...

Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights Media Preview

We're in the right place.

They brought us to the Cafe La Bamba for our briefing. Along the side walls are the displays for each house.

The Walking Dead costumes. Universal worked closely with the AMC cosmetic and costume artists to recreate actual zombie characters from the show.

Welcome to Silent Hill.

Seriously, what's that on your face?

Jacqi was a little intimidated by the Showman from Alice Cooper's Welcome to my Nightmare.

Something is different about this showgirl from Penn & Teller Newkd Las Vegas...

Oh yeah, I needed three fingers to count her boobs.

This is one of the evil spirits that haunts "Dead End".

Hello Ring Mistress - from the 20 Penny Circus

One of the roaming "scareactors" - Bioshock, anyone?

One of the scareactors getting a nose job.

On our way to our first house, we passed this cool table of heads.

Welcome to Silent Hill - our second house of the day. All of the lights were on for our tour.

This guy has seen some better days.

Hello, Nurse. I guess I need to play the games and find out what's up with this chick.

Hey, it's a cute little Bloody-Bunny!

Pale little girl at the top of the steps = creepy.

OK - now that is scary.

And here's how we end this report. Go on, I dare you.

Awesome preview - thanks Jack!! I really know nothing about any of the licensed properties (outside of Penn & Teller) but the more I learn about the Silent Hill house, the more interesting it looks. Can't wait until next Friday!