For 25 years now, Universal Studios has held an event for Halloween every year. You may know this event as Halloween Horror Nights. You may have seen various videos of Ellen DeGeneres forcing people to go through the houses and mazes at Halloween Horror Nights in Hollywood. Or maybe you saw some of the amazing promotional stuff, like the intense commercial featuring Jack the Clown and Chance (more on them later), or the Facebook ads.

But however you’ve seen it, or even if you haven’t – Halloween Horror Nights is the biggest of it’s kind.

I went to my first Halloween Horror Night event last year and really enjoyed it. So, of course, knowing this was the big 25 years celebration, I knew I wanted to go see what they had to offer, even before many announcements were made beyond the initial announcement that they were bringing Jack back. But when they announced their first house, I was sold: Freddy vs Jason.

So, let’s break it down a bit with a brief overview. I’ll have a few more posts on the event.

Scare zones:

PSYCHOSCAREAPY – UNLEASHED

ICONS – HHN

SCARY TALES – SCREAMPUNK

EVIL’S ROOTS

ALL NITE DIE-IN – DOUBLE FEATURE

The Scare Zones were pretty awesome! Visually, the Evil’s Roots and Scary Tales – Screampunk were beautiful and dark. All Nite Die-In was just awesome in general. Psychoscareapy was pretty entertaining. And the grand centerpiece was definitely the section devoted to Icons of Halloween Horror Nights! It was pretty cool seeing the Director, the Usher, the Storyteller, etc in their own space.

Houses:

I’m only going to list the full set of houses in this post and do a separate post on the three houses I went behind the scenes in more in depth in another post (complete with loads of pictures!)

THE WALKING DEAD: THE LIVING AND THE DEAD

FREDDY VS. JASON

INSIDIOUS

THE PURGE

AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON

JACK PRESENTS: 25 YEARS OF MONSTERS AND MAYHEM

RUN: BLOOD, SWEAT, AND FEARS

ASYLUM IN WONDERLAND 3D

BODY COLLECTORS-RECOLLECTIONS

While the houses that were base off of specific movies and shows – Walking Dead, Freddy vs Jason, and American Werewolf in London- are awesome, I was really amused this year by the majority of the Universal houses. Jack Presents: 25 Years of Monsters and Mayhem was an obvious one full of nods back to some older houses and icons, but some of the others contained their own homage to days of Halloween Horror Nights past. Body Collectors taking place in Shadybrook. The Run: Blood, Sweat, and Fears house for Eddie Schmidt. Granted, the Usher’s torch does appear in the American Werewolf in London house. This was one of my favorite aspects this year: Paying tribute to the last 25 years of Horror Nights.

Shows:

BILL & TED’S EXCELLENT HALLOWEEN ADVENTURE

THE CARNAGE RETURNS

By far, my favorite was the Carnage Returns show – I LOVED seeing Jack in action. Like, THE Jack in action. But I’ll cover that in detail – also with pictures! – soon!

Universal Studios never fails to exceed my expectations, and I can’t wait for next year to see what they come up with. Halloween Horror Nights is probably my FAVORITE Halloween event, and a definite must for any horror fan.

~Angel