2008 Woodie Awards
Halloween Horror Nights XVI: How Sweet It Is!
Megan Borkes
Issue date: 10/9/06 Section: Arts & Entertainment
- Page 1 of 2 next >
Stepping through the world-renowned Universal Studios archway on a cool October evening, one may notice some changes that have appeared almost overnight. An abundance of orange and black, some cobwebs, a very long line for a metal detector…
This is obviously no ordinary walk through the park: This is Halloween Horror Nights, an event that Universal has been hosting for 16 years straight, and one of the most highly anticipated events of the season. On these special nights, guests are welcomed into the park (for an extra ticket price) to partake in a night of screaming until their voices are shot. With numerous "scare zones" inhabited by creepy, often gruesome "scareacters," as well as the ever-popular haunted houses (where guests can wait in line to have the snot scared out of them), it's quite an intense experience.
This year, to celebrate its sixteenth year of scares, Universal has come up with a "Sweet 16" theme, bringing back haunted houses from past years and revamping them. The "hosts," similarly, are all from the last four years of Horror Nights: Jack the Clown, The Caretaker, The Director, and The Storyteller - and they're all ready for some more carnage. Don't miss them when they're featured in the stage show "The Arrival," where each host-scareacter gets to display a unique (yet equally terrifying) "talent" for their audience.
The newest addition to Horror Nights this year is a brand new show called "Sweet 16: The Director's Cut:" a show displayed around Universal's lagoon on four different projection spheres (or "cinespheres"). This show is much like Universal's "Universal 360" show that was introduced a few months ago, in that it features a montage of movie clips and soundtrack, paired with a pyrotechnic display. For Horror Nights, however, the clips are themed around the most popular horror films ever produced, along with a chilling soundtrack that features the theme from "Halloween."
The houses are a main attraction at Horror Nights, and are, therefore, the attractions with the longest lines. Even at cast preview night, the lines were so long that guests could only visit a few houses in the time allotted to the preview. I, myself, only was able to visit two of the seven houses featured this year. "Psycho-Path: The Return of Norman Bates" (themed after Alfred Hitchcock's suspense thriller, Psycho), and "Run: Hostile Territory" (a merry romp through a torture chamber maze filled with chainsaw maniacs and body collectors).
This is obviously no ordinary walk through the park: This is Halloween Horror Nights, an event that Universal has been hosting for 16 years straight, and one of the most highly anticipated events of the season. On these special nights, guests are welcomed into the park (for an extra ticket price) to partake in a night of screaming until their voices are shot. With numerous "scare zones" inhabited by creepy, often gruesome "scareacters," as well as the ever-popular haunted houses (where guests can wait in line to have the snot scared out of them), it's quite an intense experience.
This year, to celebrate its sixteenth year of scares, Universal has come up with a "Sweet 16" theme, bringing back haunted houses from past years and revamping them. The "hosts," similarly, are all from the last four years of Horror Nights: Jack the Clown, The Caretaker, The Director, and The Storyteller - and they're all ready for some more carnage. Don't miss them when they're featured in the stage show "The Arrival," where each host-scareacter gets to display a unique (yet equally terrifying) "talent" for their audience.
The newest addition to Horror Nights this year is a brand new show called "Sweet 16: The Director's Cut:" a show displayed around Universal's lagoon on four different projection spheres (or "cinespheres"). This show is much like Universal's "Universal 360" show that was introduced a few months ago, in that it features a montage of movie clips and soundtrack, paired with a pyrotechnic display. For Horror Nights, however, the clips are themed around the most popular horror films ever produced, along with a chilling soundtrack that features the theme from "Halloween."
The houses are a main attraction at Horror Nights, and are, therefore, the attractions with the longest lines. Even at cast preview night, the lines were so long that guests could only visit a few houses in the time allotted to the preview. I, myself, only was able to visit two of the seven houses featured this year. "Psycho-Path: The Return of Norman Bates" (themed after Alfred Hitchcock's suspense thriller, Psycho), and "Run: Hostile Territory" (a merry romp through a torture chamber maze filled with chainsaw maniacs and body collectors).
Be the first to comment on this story