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Halloween Horror Nights 2007
Prepare for Terror...
by Tricia Urlaub
I recently had the pleasure of attending Universal Studio's Halloween Horror Nights. Now in its 17th year, HHN has grown to be what most consider to be the best, most frightening Halloween attraction in North America.
This year's theme was Movie Monsters, with eight separate houses to run through (screaming), including houses designed for the movies: Dead Silence; A Nightmare on Elm Street; The Texas Chainsaw Massacre; Friday the 13th; and The Thing.
Each house was impeccably detailed with exquisitely precise scenes/atmospheres from the movie. During Dead Silence the chill in the air was more like a Polar wave of ice, and to offset the Friday the 13th house, the seemingly benign music of crickets and other summer bugs beckoned us into a cabin filled with bloody cots and thunderstorms beyond the yellowed windows. I wished I had more time to study the scenes, rather than to feel compelled to run screaming through them by chainsaw-wielding, knife hacking masked monsters hiding around every corner.
The only complaint I might share regarding the park is that perhaps it's notoriety and fame has stumped, ever so slightly, its ability to "scare" everyone, whereas unless you're among many strangers during a plane crash or an earthquake, so many people packed into one area are difficult to single out for individual, ambushed "scares."
In the past, Universal has separated the park into "scare zones." This year, there were none, leading all of us to believe that every area of the park was a scare zone. With imitation fog in place and lithe-eerily-masked actors lurking it would seem the ideal setting for witchery and mayhem. It might have been the sheer number of people at the park, but Universal fell somewhat short in this area as the only real scares that came were from running through the houses.
Jack, the Ringleader of the "Carnival of Carnage" is seen scampering around the park, as well as in one of the four shows to be witnessed between the 60-90 minute waits for the haunted houses.
All and all it is a good time for any Halloween Freak (which all of us in my group are, admittedly), but perhaps next year we will opt for the Express pass, allowing more time for thrills and chills, and a well-earned smug face when "skipping" in front of the those choosing not to pay the extra $60 a night for the benefit.
If you'd like more information on Universal Studio's Carnival of Carnage, click here.
© Urlaub, 2007