This year seems like a crossroads for Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights.
Universal’s after-hours Halloween event has opened for the season at Universal Studios Hollywood and across the country at Orlando’s Universal Studios Florida. I attended both events on their opening nights and can attest that they remain among the top Halloween events in America for horror fans.
Except, that Halloween Horror Nights is not just for horror fans anymore. Over the years, Universal has expanded the event’s focus from slasher icons such as Jason, Freddie and Leatherface to include franchises that might be described as “horror-adjacent.”
In recent years, that has meant haunted houses themed to Ghostbusters, pop star The Weeknd and video game-turned-TV series “The Last of Us.” This year, Universal further has broadened Halloween Horror Nights with haunted houses on both coasts themed to Fallout, Five Nights at Freddy’s and characters from pro wrestling’s WWE.
That has drawn an influx of fans who might not be ready for the chainsaw-wielding hordes of scare actors who greet visitors each night. Nor might they be ready for the gore and explicit violence in Universal’s haunted houses themed to more traditional horror franchises.
So is Halloween Horror Nights getting soft? Not at all, and that puts the event at a bit of a crossroads. This year, Universal also is bringing fans houses themed to Terrifier, a franchise that has won a new generation of fans to the slasher genre. Universal’s John Murdy called Terrifier’s Art the Clown “the new face of horror,” and based on the rapturous fan reaction to the character on both coasts this year, I would say Murdy, once again, is spot-on.
Terrifier, like the slasher movies before it, won fans by presenting an over-the-top adrenaline rush of imagery. For non-fans, it’s disturbing, even seemingly exploitative. But the ultra-low budgets of the Terrifier movies helped emphasize the fakeness of it all, and Universal has embraced that kitschy esthetic in its haunted houses. The result is an absurdity that can elicit instinctual laughter at the grossest imagery imaginable.
If that is what fans need to cope with all the garbage going on in the world around us, have at it. It’s no-harm, no-foul to me. Slasher films do not lead to real-life violence, just as first-person-shooter video games don’t.
And yet, one person’s emotional release can be another’s emotional trigger. As Universal broadens the focus of Halloween Horror Nights, that can create a thematic contrast within the event that can become too difficult for an increasing percentage of the audience to accept.
The horror fan community in Southern California includes some of the most kind and welcoming people I have encountered. Universal has created a home for them with Halloween Horror Nights. If Universal wants to make room for more fans in that home, that should not crowd out HHN’s original fans. Let the new Universal Fan Fest Nights event in the spring accommodate fans who do not want horror as part of their interactive experiences.
Horror is — and always should be — Halloween Horror Nights’ middle name.