You can't spell "scare" without "care."
And the fiendish folks behind Universal Orlando's Halloween
Horror Nights clearly understand this. That's why they put a full year of
careful thought & planning into the 24th edition of this seasonal
scare-fest. Which officially opens to the public tonight at Universal Studios
Florida.
Copyright 2014 Universal Studios. All rights reserved
But given the sheer size & scale of this annual entertainment
experience (We're talking 8 haunted houses, 4 scare zones and 2 live shows. Not
to mention hundreds of performers in elaborate costumes & make-ups) …
Well, you can't just throw up open the doors and let all the people in.
Universal Orlando always wants to
make sure that every special effect & show element is working properly
before they then unveil this park-wide production.
Which is why — a day or so before each Halloween Horror
Night officially opens to the public — Universal Orlando holds an Advance
Screaming. In layman's terms, this is a tech rehearsal that only Team Members
who actually work at the Resort and their Guests can attend.
Mind you, I was lucky enough to score an invite to this past
Wednesday night's Advance Screening. Not only that, but my guide for Halloween
Horror Nights 24 was none other than Mike Aiello. Who's the director of
Entertainment – Creative Development for NBC / Universal theme parks.
Copyright 2014 Universal Studios. All right reserved
To be clear here, Halloween Horror Nights is not a one man
show. And as we trooped from house to house that night, Mike was quick to talk
up all of the other Universal Orlando Team Members that he works with to make
this annual nightmare a reality.
"We have a great team here at Universal Orlando.
Designers who work year 'round to create the very best haunted houses in the
business," Aiello enthused. "No detail is too small to overlook. No
prop or set piece is too large to build. We're willing to do whatever we have
to really immerse our Guests in the world of the story that we're trying to
tell in each of our haunted houses or scare zones."
And the folks behind Halloween Horror Nights 24, they want
to engage all of your senses as you make your way through these elaborately
theme environments. Which is why — as you creep past those over-sized cribs in
"Dollhouse of the Damned" — the air is suddenly filled with the scent of baby
powder. Or as you grope your way through Universal's nightmarish take on 16th century North
Carolina in "Roanoke
– Cannibal Colony," you smell pipe tobacco.
Copyright 2014 Universal Studios. All rights reserved
In some cases, Universal Orlando actually tries to set the
scene before you enter a particular haunted house. Take — for example —
"Halloween." As Guests wait outside in the queue, they're treated to this
elaborate light show which is projected onto the exterior of Michael Myers'
boyhood home that then provides the backstory of this maze.
We first see the silhouettes of Michael and his sister
Judith in each of their respective bedroom windows. Then this six year-old
maniac hacks that poor teenaged girl to death with a kitchen knife while he's
wearing a clown costume.
As time races forward, we now watch the Myers home rapidly
age. Mold starts to grow on the siding as the gutters begin to rust. Then
suddenly the bedroom windows explode outward. And we hear broken glass raining
down from above, a gaping hole appears in the house's second story. And who
should come looming up out of that dark hole but Michael Myers himself … Just before the official "Halloween"
film logo appears and this nine minute-long light show then cycles back to its
starting point.
Copyright 2014 Universal Studios. All rights reserved
"And it's not just the exterior of the 'Halloween'
haunted house where we've gone all out on. Wait 'til you see what we've done
with the interior," Aiello continued. "Our set decoration team really
went all out to replicate the look of the house that this classic John
Carpenter horror film is set in. We've got the right window curtains for that
period. The art & the pictures on the walls are from the 1970s. As are the
furnishings. Everything you see tells you that you're back in 1978. Which is
when the first 'Halloween' movie was originally released in theaters."
The Halloween Horror Nights team took a similarly thorough
approach to "AVP: Alien VS. Predator." As you make your way into this
haunted house (which is supposed to represent a remote research facility where
— surprise, surprise — something has just gone horribly wrong), be sure and
check out the vehicle that's parked right outside the entrance to this
facility. Does the logo on the passenger side door look familiar? It should to
all you "Alien" fans out there. It's the logo for Weyland-Yutani. AKA
that intergalactic mega-corporation from the "Alien" film series which
keeps thinking that it would be a really good idea to capture & then study these
vicious creatures who have acid for blood.
These are the sorts of blink-and-you'll-miss-them details
that Mike delighted in pointing out to me as we made our way through all eight
haunted houses on Wednesday night. In the end, it was hard not to be impressed
by how far Universal Orlando was willing to go for a scare (EX: Building a
full-sized swamp in the middle of their "The Walking Dead: End of the
Line" haunted house and then filling that space with performers who were
wearing elaborate Walker make-ups & costumes) or a laugh (EX: In
"Giggles and Gore, Inc." — the factory where evil clowns are made,
not born — there's one particularly grisly gag which starts off some poor
buffoon falling face-first into a giant meat grinder. All that's left of him at
this point is his big red shoes & clown pants. So how does the HHN 24 team
then pay off this gag? Directly across from this meat grinder is a sign that
reads: "It has been 0 days since there was an accident or injury at this
facility").
Copyright 2014 Universal Studios. All rights reserved
By the way, if you'd like to have a similar sort of
experience at Halloween Horror Nights 24, really get down into the minutia of
each maze … Well, Universal Orlando is actually offering two
behind-the-scenes tours at this year's event. The first is Unmasking the Horrors. This 2 – 2 1/2 hour-long
daytime experience is a guided, informational walking tour that provides an overview
of this year's event as well as a lights-on walk-through of three haunted
houses. Best of all, you'll able to take pictures inside of each of these mazes
of the hyper-detailed sets and props.
Or if you'd prefer a more intimate nighttime experience, you
should maybe consider signing up for the Arcane Insights Tour. That's the one
where an actual member of Universal Orlando's Art & Design Team leads your
group through the event. And not only will you then get to experience all of
Halloween Horror Nights 24's haunted houses, but you'll also get to visit one
of the house's makeup and/or wardrobe areas.
And if you do opt for the Arcane Insights Tour, when it's
finally time to take part in that seated
Q&A with the member of the Art & Design Team, don't waste your question
on asking what that stuff is that Universal dangles down in front of your face
in every maze. Because that's honestly what that stuff is called. SIF. Stuff in
face.
Copyright 2014 Universal Studios. All rights reserved
On the other hand, if you want to see a particular mean
in-joke, ask where in Halloween Horror Nights 24 (which runs select nights now
through November 1st) you can find Universal's corporate symbol, Woody
Woodpecker, being used to torture some poor soul.
This story originally appeared on the Huffington Post's Entertainment page on Friday, September 19, 2014