Scorn here with the annual update and happenings from Universal Studio’s Premier event Halloween Horror Nights. That is right Scurryface fans, we pull back the curtain just a bit to give you a taste of what you can expect at their 33rd season. This season while at Woods we take a trip to Florida to see our good friend TJ Mannarino The VP of Entertainment of Art and Design. As I have said before this is the event for the haunt industry that has a massive following with tons of content creators giving you almost day by day happenings at the event. With specialized merch, food and drinks there is not one stone unturned that is not themed some way to HHN. During speculation season we got a full week of announcements that happened at 10:33am each day during memorial day week. All of those announcements were to the Original content houses HHN created for this event. Later on the speculation season we got the rest of the Intellectual property houses announced. This year at HHN you have 6 OC houses; Goblins Feast, Major Sweets Candy Factory, Monstruos: The Monsters of Latin America, Slaughter Sinema 2, The Museum: Deadly Exhibits, and Triplets of Terror, and 4 IP houses; A Quiet Place, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, Insidious: The Further, and Universal Monsters: Eternal Bloodlines, as well as 5 Scare Zones; Enter the Blumhouse, Duality of Fear, Demon Queens, Swamp of the Undead, and Torture Faire, and 1 show called Nightmare Fuel Nocturnal Circus. Here is where we begin our journey with TJ and the tour.

We started off the night with our tour of Monstruos before the cast members were in the house. This gave us a chance to just see the set design, lighting, and were able to ask questions on how the house is laid out the way it is for the actors. Last year HHN Hollywood Monstruos won house of the year. Orlando has already had success with La Llorona, and Yes later on in our journey we did get to see this house come to life with the cast. When seeing the characters of La Lechuza, El Silbon and Tlahuelpuchi, you are transported to this little Mexican town where you get to meet this Spanish folklore. Even though we had seen the house without the cast, these monsters kept our group on our toes.

After Monstruos we made our way to one of the Backstage areas where we witnessed the make up team creating the monsters, and was shown the cast area where costumes and check in’s is located. We were able to have an understanding of the process of the 1200+ cast members go through their night of haunting. One of the Cast members demonstrated how their costume works, and what they do in their space, and how their scare works.

As we headed to our first official house; Ghostbusters: the Frozen Empire. This attraction is based on the movie that came out this year. From the bookstore to the sewers of NY the sets alone of reliving the movie was really well put together. This is where Universal’s team just puts on the best scenic designs in the industry. The special effects from the little state puff marshmallow men actually moving around, to seeing the Ecto1 in the house it was nostalgia at its best. Overall this house holds to the movie and still gives you that fun 80’s vibe with the Ecto1.

As we made our way to the other side of Universal, we did make some pit stops along the way. We started off at the gory Torture Faire Scarezone. This is one of the Icon’s for this years HHN. Her name is Sinist3r and her zone is a Renaissance Fair. The 2 torture devices I liked the most was the Iron median and the Blood Eagle; they are top notch. Last year in our mad dash to see all the haunts and the show we missed the Death Eaters by a few seconds.. This year we got to spend some time in Diagon Alley to see the Death Eaters. These characters being a part of HHN is a great thing especially for us “Slytherins”.

Once we walked the new line area for the first newly built sprung tent we headed towards Goblins feast. A house that has been suggested by one of the staff members for years. The detail of the front façade alone is pretty awesome to see; with the fog coming out of the smoke stacks, and the sound track playing forewarning you of what is to come. If you don't pay attention you will miss a big clue right behind the goblin feast banner. Having seen all the different types of Goblins was a lot of fun. You felt like you were in this goblin village back in medieval times.

We circled back to the entrance were we entered Universal Monsters: Eternal Bloodlines. A huge shout out to one of our Scurryface members, Tristian, who had a part in some of the construction in this house. The story of this house is Van Helsing’s daughter is going after the daughter of Dracula. This is an all female house with the Bride of Frankenstein helping out Van Helsing, where as Dracula had a mummy and wolf creature to help her. Side note from TJ they had a Female composer write and produce the music for this haunt. From the set pieces to the special fx (snow), this haunt is a wild adventure as you see Van Helsing and the Bride of Frankenstein fight off team Dracula. One of the sequences you see is the mummy walk towards you with one special fx pedal she sets off. Then before she goes back to her spot she hits another pedal and has a burst of fog and more sounds happen. This cast really had their timing right with our group.

Before we went to Nightmare Fuel for the 8pm showing, Slaughter Sinema 2 had our attention. If anyone saw the announcement for this house you would have thought Eddie, aka Bonedaddy, had a distant cousin stuck in the 90’s. One of the 10 movies that had a room had a bone daddy look alike. This is not just one house of a sequel, but other houses have been created off the B-movies that were created in the first Slaughter Sinema years ago. So with that being said, in time we will find out if the mummy strippers or the Killer Kringle's turn into houses or scare zones in the coming years. One of the great things about this house is they have movie posters set up in a movie theater hallway style telling you what the next scene will be. If you are in line long enough before entering the haunt you will see the movie trailers for each film and yes universal employees are the cast members in the trailers.

As the sun started to set, we were able to enjoy the one sit down show.... The show replaced Bill and Ted’s Halloween adventure a few years ago. I will say this I am a huge fan of the Bill and Ted era of HHN but, Nightmare Fuel is a great replacement. Last year we got the ending of the story from the past couple of years. This year is an all new storyline and yes it is like groundhog day. The effects, dancers, aerialist, fire dancers and illusionists put on an amazing show. This story takes you on a journey of one of the circus workers who falls in love with one of the circus acts and watches her die over and over again. This time he vows to stop her from her impending doom and save her... Well I am not going to give you the ending but I expect more from this storyline for the upcoming years.

After we sang the black parade at Nightmare Fuel at the top of our lungs, we joined TJ for a quick bite to eat at our annual sit down at Finnegan's. This is the time he asks us how we got into haunting and what we do at Woods. After this relaxing, we headed to the Blumhouse Scare zone. This Scare Zone had a bunch of the characters from the Blumhouse movies such as, The Black phone, Megan, and The Purge. They had small stages set up like the Blumhouse logo and they gave some of the characters used foot pedals for sound effects or dialogue.

Next Stop was to the Major Sweets Candy Factory. This is a prequal house to the Major sweets Scare Zone from a few years back. This time you are the chaperones of a local school field trip where the

kids turn sugar crazed killers when they eat the candy. There is a red button that guests can push to give them a chance to scare other guests going through the haunt. My best description of said button, its the big red easy button. Seeing this scare zone turn into a haunt was a lot of fun, the cast were on point with each scare as our group went through.

As we headed back to the New York area; this is in a different style haunt unlike anything they have done before; A Quiet Place. The cast use American Sign Language. There was another way they were going to create this haunt, however it didn't work out this time. With fans of this movie, and the fans of HHN, the guests got the assignment. Seeing the many scenes from the movie is a work of art and so are all of the animatronics in there. Could you go through without making a sound?

As we had adventure on we arrived at the next Original Concept house, Triplets of Terror. This is where you get to enjoy a very gory and discusting haunt. You follow the life of 3 siblings that on one of their birthdays they slaughtered their family. So Many years later you get to see them re-enact these murders in different towns across the states. Yes the actors get older per sections of scenes. This had a very Bray Wyatt feel with some of the characters as well as Devil’s rejects feel with the family dynamics.

Before we went to Insidious, we checked out the Tribute store for HHN. The Tribute stores throughout the year are filled with Easter eggs of either Universal, content creators, to even the next store and what the location will be. For us HHN fans the tribute store is a must to go to not only get merch, but some delicious themed treats.

As we were standing in line for Insidious (which had a long wait time for most of the night) TJ explained to us the method they used to create this haunt. As we got into the soundstage we walked through the red door and I am not talking a regular size red door. I am talking 20 foot large red door. With every twist and turn in this haunt you don't even realize you are being scared by the same actor more then once. There are so many boo spots its insane. There is a reason since they did the Employee and Premium Scream night that this house is on the top of soo many peoples list for being the most Scariest on property.

As we finish our night we walked through 3 other Scare Zones, Swamp Zombies, Demon Queens and Duality of Fear. Swamp Zombies gave you an inside feel of a zombie apocalypse in Florida. The lighting and use of mist in this section with the fog was amazing. I will say this not having the fireflies or the lit pumpkins in the trees gave you a feeling that it was not finished. Demon Queen’s Scare Zone is the location of the second Icon, Surr3al. With all the demons and cloaked beings, this zone was filled with some really cool portals and an awesome center stage for Surr3al to talk to the guest.

To finish up there are a few things I would like to mention. Sadly we didn't have time to get to the Museum: Deadly Exhibit due to timing: as we were already in Ghostbusters when Sinist3r and Surr3al had their opening Scaramonies you can find it on YouTube and is pretty cool. Universal is the one stop shop for not only amazing haunts but in story telling and fun merch each haunt season. This is the only haunt that has so much lure that is still weaving its vines through this event. I want to give a huge thank you to TJ for the hospitality that is very much appreciated and hope that they have a great season. To all of the departments that keep the event working keep up the amazing work, and know that what you do is very much appreciated by the fans of this event. Until next years HHN opening weekend Scorn is out.