Another Halloween is upon us and with it brings another season of Universal Orlando’s Halloween Horror Nights, which takes place at Universal Studios Orlando August 30th – November 3rd.
Beginning in 1991, Universal Orlando’s Halloween Horror Nights has become the world’s premier Halloween event. This year’s event will include 10 terrifying haunted houses based on popular films like ‘A Quiet Place’, ‘Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire’, and ‘Insidious’. The event will also include houses based on original ideas like ‘Major Sweets Candy Factory’, ‘Triplets of Terror’ and ‘Goblin’s Feast’.
This year’s event will also introduce two new hosts of horror, Sinist3r and Surr3al, who are reigning the streets of Universal Studios Florida and unleashing horror within five scare zones including ‘Duality of Fear’, ‘Torture Faire’ and ‘Enter the Blumhouse’, which features characters from Blumhouse movies like ‘The Black Phone’ and ‘M3gan’. The massive event also includes new themed food and beverages and an energetic live show called ‘Nightmare Fuel: Nocturnal Circus’.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of traveling to Universal Studios Orlando to enjoy the opening night of Halloween Horror Nights 2024 firsthand and experience all the scares and spookiness they have prepared for visitors this year.
Related Article: Ernie Hudson Talks ‘Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire’ and the Franchise’s Legacy
Haunted Houses
‘A Quiet Place’
Be prepared to silence your screams in the new ‘A Quiet Place’ house, which is based on director John Krasinski’s ‘A Quiet Place’ and ‘A Quiet Place Part II’.
Here is the official synopsis:
Fans will relive the tension that will come to life in iconic scenes from the first two films, from traveling through the farmhouse that serves as the Abbott family’s shelter and stepping into the root cellar where Evelyn Abbott (Emily Blunt) escapes to give birth as one of the creatures closes in. Mirroring the silence in the films, the haunted house will embrace unique sound design, special effects and will incorporate the use of American Sign Language (ASL) for the first time ever at Halloween Horror Nights.
While the attraction does not incorporate elements of the recent box office hit ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’, it does follow the characters from the original film and includes lots of alien scares.
fc5nXexahuoi3aPWHZezt4‘Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire’
Based on the events of the most recent installment of the franchise, the ‘Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire’ house follows an ancient artifact that unleashes an evil force that threatens to destroy the world.
Here is the official synopsis:
‘Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire’ will transport fans of the film franchise to New York City where the Spengler family teams up with the original Ghostbusters who are now at the helm of a top-secret research lab for their ghost-busting enterprise. With the daunting discovery of an old relic that has set free the vengeful spirit of Garraka, who threatens to freeze everyone to death, Ghostbusters new and old must join forces to protect their city and save the world from a second Ice Age.
While the haunted house follows the story of ‘Frozen Empire’ very closely, it also includes Easter eggs from other ‘Ghostbuster’ movies including Slimer from the original and Vigo the Carpathian (Wilhelm von Homburg) from ‘Ghostbusters II’.
‘Insidious: The Further’
Produced by Blumhouse Productions in association with Sony Pictures, ‘Insidious’ tells the disturbing story of the Lamberts, a family haunted by evil supernatural forces after their son slips into an inexplicable comatose state after becoming possessed by a demonic entity.
In the all-new Halloween Horror Nights haunted house, guests will follow in the footsteps of the Lamberts, encountering familiar settings and scares as they are transported directly into “The Further” – the ethereal place where ghosts and demons lurk.
Here is the official synopsis:
Guests’ journey into ‘Insidious: The Further’ begins as they step through the iconic red door, where many of the tormented spirits and demons from the franchise await – determined to ensnare humans and steal their souls. Fans will come face-to-face with The Red-Faced Demon, who will attempt to lure them into his lair; the grim KeyFace, hoping to lock his victims in this dark dimension; the ghastly and dangerous Bride in Black; and the vengeful spirit of the Man Who Can’t Breathe. As guests make their way through the haunted house, they’ll go from red door to red door – traveling deeper into a dark and timeless astral world where they must evade this collection of sinister creatures at every spine-chilling turn, or their souls will be trapped here…forever.
‘Insidious: The Further’ is one of the scariest new houses at the attraction and incorporates elements from the entire franchise including the recent movie, ‘The Red Door’.
Universal Monsters: Eternal Bloodlines
Based on classic Universal Monsters like Dracula and Frankenstein, this new house is based on an original story including female Monster characters like Saskia Van Helsing, She-Wolf, the Bride of Frankenstein and Dracula’s Daughter.
Here is the official synopsis:
Fans will encounter Saskia Van Helsing, a new fearless huntress. She faces off with Dracula’s daughter, Countess Marya, who arose from the dead to seek revenge for her father and destroy the Van Helsing bloodline. With a mission to kill, Dracula’s daughter, from 1936’s ‘Dracula’s Daughter’, forms a deadly alliance with the She-Wolf, inspired by the 1946 film ‘She-Wolf of London’, and Anck- Su-Namun, from the 1932 film ‘The Mummy’ – only to be intercepted by Saskia and an unlikely ally, ‘The Bride of Frankenstein’. The terrifying adventure will take guests on a journey between the hunted and the hunters in a life and death battle with only one bloodline left to survive.
Emmy-nominated composer Sara Barone created an original score for this all-new haunted house, which also features a performer on a zipline.
1074110Other Haunted Houses
The event also includes several original haunted houses such as ‘Slaughter Sinema 2’, which takes place at a Drive-in, and ‘Goblin’s Feast’, which simulates a Goblin’s Thanksgiving dinner where the human visitors are the main course.
‘Major Sweets Candy Factory’ finds its candy transforming kids into candy-coated killers and is like a demonic version of ‘Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory’, while ‘The Museum: Deadly Exhibits’ features a rotten stone that possesses the museum and all the artifacts inside it.
Finally, ‘Monstrous: The Monsters of Latin America’ features creatures like Tlahuelpuchi, La Lechuza and El Silbón, while ‘Triplets of Terror’ tells an original story of the Barmy triplets, who murdered their parents on their birthday and kill a new family every year to celebrate.
Scare Zones
This year’s event will introduce two new hosts of horror, SINIST3R and SURR3AL, who are reigning the streets of Universal Studios Florida and unleashing all the horror that awaits within five scare zones, which are interactive areas within the park.
‘Enter the Blumhouse’
The only Scare Zone based off an IP, ‘Enter the Blumhouse’ includes characters from ‘The Purge’, ‘The Black Phone’, ‘Freaky’ and ‘M3gan’. The area also has a “dance party” vibe and was one of the most populated zones during our opening night visit.
Other Scare Zones
‘Duality of Fear’ allows visitors to choose a path to follow either Sinist3r or Surr3al, with the former taking you to Sinist3r’s ‘Torture Faire’ or the latter bringing you to Surr3al’s ‘Demon Queens’ zone, where four merciless queens rule the otherworldly hellscape. Finally, we have ‘Swamp of the Undead’, which allows guests to wander onto private property where they are surrounded by zombies born from the bodies of former trespassers.
Live Shows and Food
This year’s new live show, which runs nightly, is entitled ‘Nightmare Fuel: Nocturnal Circus’. The experience is set inside a dark circus and is full of pyrotechnics and aerialists flying to the beat of rock rhythms.
Finally, Universal Studios Orlando is offering several Halloween Horror Nights themed food and beverage’s including Pork Carniceria (‘Monstrous: The Monsters of Latin America’), Mini Stay-Puft S’mores (‘Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire’), Abbott’s Farm Corn Chowder (‘A Quiet Place’) and returning fan- favorites like Twisted Taters.
Movies that inspired 2024’s Universal Orlando’s Halloween Horror Nights:
- ‘The Mummy‘ (1932)
- ‘Bride of Frankenstein‘ (1935)
- ‘Dracula’s Daughter‘ (1936)
- ‘She-Wolf of London‘ (1946)
- ‘Ghostbusters‘ (1984)
- ‘Ghostbusters II‘ (1989)
- ‘Insidious‘ (2011)
- ‘Insidious: Chapter 2‘ (2013)
- ‘The Purge‘ (2013)
- ‘The Purge: Anarchy‘ (2014)
- ‘Insidious: Chapter 3‘ (2015)
- ‘The Purge: Election Year‘ (2016)
- ‘A Quiet Place‘ (2018)
- ‘Insidious: The Last Key‘ (2018)
- ‘The First Purge‘ (2018)
- ‘Freaky‘ (2020)
- ‘A Quiet Place Part II‘ (2021)
- ‘The Black Phone‘ (2022)
- ‘Insidious: The Red Door‘ (2023)
- ‘M3GAN‘ (2023)
- ‘Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire‘ (2024)
January is typically a dead zone at the box office, which is one reason no one expected much from “
Studios have known this for some time, getting horror fans to open their wallets in January for such films as “
That seems odd, given that it took just two weeks for “Last Jedi” to become the top-grossing movie of 2017 and three weeks to earn more than “
That would be “Last Key” and “Jumanji,” whose take this week is just $169,000 shy of its opening-weekend tally. Nothing else that has opened lately has captured that kind of fervor or enjoyed that kind of holding power.
Yeah, there’s “
LOS ANGELES, Jan 7 (Variety.com) – Sony’s “
Turn on all the lights and hang on to your blankie, because the new 
Home is where the ghosts are in the fourth chapter of the “Insidious” horror franchise.
Anger. Disgust. Fear. Maybe some Joy at the irony. The