And other musings from this year’s Halloween Horror Nights
OK, we may not be first with the news in this instance, but we prefer to be right rather than quick (or some such nonsense). And, having recently completed our first trip to the epic production that is Universal Orlando’s Halloween Horror Nights, we can say with some certainty that this is another rich tableau of the grisly, gory and downright fun.
With 10 haunted houses, four scare zones, two major shows and a scare-actor cast of hundreds (or so it seems), this year’s event – on select nights through November 1 – is packed with the gruesome stuff of horror movies, including, in a unique presentation, Ozzy Osbourne: Prince of Darkness. Yes, dear old Ozzy, who sadly passed away last year, finally gets his own House and well-deserved tribute haunt, and it is very much one of this year’s highlights.
But then, there are a whole bunch of highlights to enjoy in HHN35, including this year’s Tribute Store and a stunning live-action show featuring Britain’s fire-juggling Fuel Girls in Nightmare Fuel: Blood Noir. Amazingly, they perform four times a night, and it is nothing short of breathtaking each time. Don’t sleep on the main show on the lagoon, either. A Rockin’ Stranger Things Rewind wraps up the hit TV series in suitably wild and eye-catching style, with a 12-minute performance that makes full use of the high-tech lighting, sound system and water features.
The usual crew of chainsaw-wielding maniacs are also in good form, as are the scare zone denizens, especially from the macabre Downtown Clown Town and the freak show style of Sideshow of Decay, with a wild array of mis-formed and mutilated miscreants, making for a suitably scary backdrop of horror hangouts.
Perhaps the most pleasant surprise, though, was before the evening’s event had even opened its ghastly gates. For the first time, we visited the evening CityWalk venue that undergoes a Halloween transformation from the Red Coconut Club to the aptly-named Dead Coconut Club, a live music bar-lounge that is open from 4pm each night and features some superb small-scale set-pieces that really add to the overall HHN style, as well as a live band who provide a rollicking soundtrack of well-known cover versions. This was a makeover Universal introduced in 2022 for HHN31 and it is now a key part of the Halloween scene and great fun while you wait for the main event to open.
The one thing we did find fault with, though, was the dining options for this year, which we thought were distinctly lackluster. There is certainly no shortage of places to get an alcoholic drink, but the food was a tad underwhelming, and the Minions Cafe remains a terrible idea in its use-the-App-or-go-hungry format. After trying numerous times to find the menu on Universal’s scattergun App website, we basically gave up and went for the sure thing of the Today Cafe, which continues to be some of the best VFM for food in the park, in our opinion.
But that one minor gripe aside, this was a thoroughly satisfying and entertaining evening out, and the live shows remain a real crown jewel in this gem of a presentation. And, for a true snapshot video of this year’s event, be sure to look up our new video of the Horrors in store:
