Halloween Horror Nights

Halloween Horror Nights is an annual Halloween event that occurs at Universal Orlando Resort, Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal Studios Singapore. Universal Studios remains operational during the day and transitions to Halloween Horror Nights at night. The event features haunted houses, "scare zones" and live entertainment, many of which utilize Universal's characters and other licenses.

History

Halloween Horror Nights began at Universal Studios Florida in 1991 under the title "Fright Nights" but was renamed "Halloween Horror Nights" in 1992, advertised as the "second annual". Halloween Horror Nights began as a three night event but has since been extended to include up to 24 nights.

The first year the admission price was just $19.00 and the "scarectors" (scare actors) had to provide not only their own costume, but make up as well. ^[1]

From 1991–2001, the event was held at Universal Studios Florida. Halloween Horror Nights moved to Universal's Islands of Adventure in 2002. In 2004, the resort experimented with a dual-park format, which connected and utilized parts of both parks. In 2006, the event made a return to Universal Studios Florida.

Halloween Horror Nights officially launched at Universal Studios Hollywood in 1997, although the park had featured Halloween attractions in 1986 and 1992. For 2001 to 2005, Halloween Horror Nights went on hiatus at Universal Studios Hollywood and returned in 2006. While the Hollywood location shares similarities with the Orlando event, much of the two events is coordinated separately with their own design teams and attractions.

Halloween Horror Nights XI, coming so close after the events of September 11, 2001, caused Universal to make many changes to tone the event down. Any gore was scrapped from the event and blood was replaced with green "goop". The names of several houses, scare zones, and shows were changed. The original icon character "Eddie" was scrapped. Edgar Sawyer was conceived as a demented, chainsaw-wielding horror movie buff that had been disfigured by a fire. He was supposed to be a threat to previous icon Jack and the tagline "No more clowning around" was used and even seen on early advertisements and merchandise. Eddie was ultimately removed from the event before it began, although still appearing on that year's logo and merchandise with the official "I.C.U." tagline. As a hurried replacement, Jack would return along with a line of merchandise bearing the tagline "Jack's Back." Eddie's back-story was changed to his name being Eddie Schmidt and being Jack's younger brother. He later appeared with the other icons at Halloween Horror Nights XIV in Horror Nights Nightmares, and with his own house for Halloween Horror Nights XVI, Run: Hostile Territory.^[2]

The Caretaker was not the original icon for Halloween Horror Nights XII. Cindy, the daughter of mortuary owner Paul Bearer, was originally the icon of the event. In the event's premise, every land would be ruled over by her "playthings". Unfortunately, after several child abductions in the area, the Cindy concept was abandoned and her father Paul Bearer morphed into Dr. Albert Caine aka The Caretaker.^[3] Cindy would eventually appear in image in 2006's Scream House Resurrection, as a live character in 2009's Shadows of the Past, alongside her father, and finally featured in 2010 in her own house, "The Orfanage: Ashes to Ashes".

For 2007, Universal acquired the rights to use New Line Cinema's characters Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees and Leatherface (and including their own Chucky) for Halloween Horror Nights, Universal Studios Hollywood used the characters for a second year in 2008. In 2010, Hollywood again used the characters Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees, in their newer incarnation following franchise reboots.

2010 marks the 20th installment of the event at the Orlando park, titled "Twenty Years of Fear", featuring the embodiment of Fear itself as the event's icon.^[4]

In 2011, Universal Studios Singapore began their Halloween Horror Nights events.^[5][6]

Universal Orlando Resort

^[14]

Universal Studios Hollywood

 icon : The Director

 icon : Jack

 icon : Freddy Krueger

icon: Jigsaw 

 icon:Freddy Krueger (2010) 

icon : Ghostface 

^[15][16]

Universal Studios Singapore

Universal Studios Japan

Event Icons

Halloween Horror Nights has amassed a number of characters, known as icons, some being original creations and some using licensed characters. These icons usually had elaborate back-stories that involved the event's theme, houses, or scare zones. Predominantly they have been used for promotional materials and merchandising. The first unofficial icon was Crypt Keeper, from the TV series Tales from the Crypt, a series popular at the time of his first event appearance (HHN V). The Crypt Keeper returned the next year for one of the houses, but was not featured in the advertising campaign. After the Crypt Keeper, the event continued for four years without an icon. Halloween Horror Nights has had an icon, and in some cases multiple icons, every year since, excluding Halloween Horror Nights XIV. These icon characters include Jack the Clown, the Caretaker, the Director, the Storyteller, Bloody Mary, the Usher, Fear and Lady Luck.

Houses

When the event first started as "Fright Nights",^[17] there was simply one haunted house, but as the event progressed the number has increased up to as many as eight different houses.

Scare Zones

Halloween Horror Nights IV was the first year to introduce a "scare zone", a name given to specific outdoor areas that feature theming and costumed characters with the intent of scaring people who walk through the areas. To get to certain areas of the park, it is necessary to travel through these scare zones.

Live Entertainment

Halloween Horror Nights has featured several live entertainment shows; Recurring shows have included "The Rocky Horror Picture Show: A Tribute",^[18] "Bill and Ted's Excellent Halloween Adventure",^[19] and Robosaurus.^[20]

Rides

Several of the rides at Universal Studios remain operational during the event.^[21] In past event years, some rides were re-themed for the event. (i.e. Kongfrontation became Tramway of Doom during HHN 2)

Commercials & Media

Universal's Halloween Horror Nights is known for its creepy advertisements and morbidly grotesque commercials. In 2010, The directors of Daybreakers (Michael Spierig and Peter Spierig) directed the Halloween Horror Nights 2010 commercial. There haven't been any official movies based on Univeral's Halloween Horror Nights, despite Universal Studios being known principally as a movie making business. A horror short was released to Youtube that is based on one of the haunted houses from Halloween Horror Nights 2010 called "Horror Nights: The Hallow'd Past". Despite not being officially released by Universal, it is considered to be the closest equivalent to a Horror Nights movie currently available.

References