Welcome to part 1 of my review of the Behind The Screams: Unmasking the Horror Tour! First thing is first. I need to give a major shout-out to my friends Lucas and Alison for making this tour possible for us. It was an incredible experience and both Michele and I are super grateful! Also, this is going to be a lengthy blog, but I had so much fun on this tour that I feel the need to rave about it as much as possible! Before getting into more Halloween Horror Nights fun I have to acknowledge the meeting location for the tour.
I'm a guy that grew up in the 90's. I still can vividly remember watching various shows on Nickelodeon that were recorded in front of a live studio audience at Universal Studios Orlando Florida. Well the studios may have closed years ago and while I never got to go to Universal Studios when Nickelodeon Studios was open, I finally made it. While the building may now be a just a plain blue I could picture it in it's former glory that I was only able to see every night on TV. One piece of the former Nickelodeon Studios remains to remind us of the studio's former glory. Head into the bathrooms on the outside of the building and you will find green tile representing slime on the largely white tiled floor. It may have taken many more years than I had hoped to make it to Nickelodeon Studios, but I finally (not really) made it. Onto the tour.
The Behind the Screams: Unmasking the Horror tour comes in a couple different versions. Both versions bring guests into some of the houses with their lights on and many secrets revealed. This year's three hour experience brings guests into The Last of Us, The Darkest Deal, and Dr. Oddfellow's Twisted Origins. The six hour experience brings guests into Stranger Things 4, Universal Monsters Unmasked, Bloodmoon: Dark Offerings, Yeti: Campground Kills, Chucky: Ultimate Kill Count, and Dueling Dragons: Choose Thy Fate. If you couldn't guess from my previous blog, we went on the six hour tour as Universal Monsters Unmasked was the only house from that tour that we did not go into the night before when the event was running. Dr. Oddfellow's Twisted Origins was the only house from the three hour tour that we went through. Interestingly enough The Exorcist: Believer was the only house not a part of either daytime tour.
Our tour guide (Katie) met us in the former Nickelodeon Studios and went over all of the rules for the tour which largely comprised of what you would expect from a behind the scenes tour. I went in totally blind so I was pretty excited when we were informed that there would be a lot of areas where we would be able to take pictures. I'll break the tour down into each house in a similar fashion as I did in my previous blog. Some of this information will be a repeat with some more in depth story elements and some more fun secrets blended in.
Bloodmoon: Dark Offerings
Today Bloodmoon: Dark Offerings is my favorite house of the year. The house was incredibly well done during Halloween Horror Nights itself so I was obviously excited that the tour was starting here. With the lights on we were able to not only see how the house operated, but also see just how gore filled the house is. That's one thing about Halloween Horror Nights compared to other Halloween events at smaller theme parks. Horror Nights is so busy that people are continuously filed through the houses versus being sent in small groups. This makes it very easy to miss so many details and effects as you essentially keep moving the entire time. Well now that we had the time to look around it was easy to spot the sheer amount of blood used in this house.
As I touched on last time, Bloodmoon: Dark Offerings sees guests trying to avoid becoming a sacrifice to to the cult of moon-worshipers. Throughout the house the cultists attempt to attack guests and ravage the town, declaring them the false hearted (non-believers). This house ends up going full circle. Guests start out in a sawmill containing both real and mannequin cultists. During the event, the cultist leader is situated on a platform leading chants as the cultists prepare to ravage the town. Upon examining the strange looking wooden frame we can see that there is already and arm and a leg attached to it signaling just how much work went into making the structure. It was in this early section of the house that Katie showed us a pedal that the scare actors will press to trigger the respective sound/lighting effect that accompanies their scare. More on that later.
As we progressed through the house we saw how the cultists became more and more creative with their kills. At first the kills came by more conventional means such as with a sickle and a machete. As the house went on it was explained to us that as the Blood Moon continued to rise that the cultists became more and more creative and vicious. Evidence of that existed in the form of pitchforks, cultist children wrapping intestines around a flagpole, a blacksmith being burned alive (we were informed that the effect here is referred to as a Wendy Special making it appear that the body is actually smoldering), a woman tied up and covered in burning candles, and a man who was killed on a bar by having deer antlers driven through him. Each kill would be worth it for the cultists as they continued to harvest body parts from each victim.
While we continue to dodge cultists at night, during our tour we casually advanced through the town until we arrived at the blacksmith. Along with being informed about the Wendy Special, we were also informed that the blacksmith's anvil is a reused set piece from Halloween Horror Nights 30's Halloween Horror Nights Icons : Captured house. Prior to entering the tavern, we were treated to the designer Easter egg of the year. Every house would have a small plastic frog hidden in it. The frog in this house was located on a barrel just outside he tavern. This year the designers went one step forward as many of these frogs had hats that were in there with the house they were in. For example, this frog wore a bonnet.
As we entered into the church we again see both mannequin cultists and at night, real cultists that again utilize foot pedals to triggers various effects. An interesting note here that can be easily overlooked at night is the drawing on the blackboard behind the alter. Images of the blood moon can be seen in it's various phases, but so can something else. In my last blog I mentioned that Dr. Oddfellow's (Halloween Horror Nights 32's icon) presence could be felt throughout the event. That extends into Bloodmoon: Dark Offerings as a rough version of his symbol is also present on the board. Finally we make our way back into the sawmill to see the grand finale in daylight. The cultists have succeeded in their mission and have created a massive sacrificial alter to the blood moon. The individual body parts attached to the structure are those that we witnessed being harvested throughout the house. With that we left Sound Stage 23, but we would not be out of it for long.
Stranger Things 4
After a brief walk we re-entered Sound Stage 23. I'm not going to go into as much detail here as Stranger Things 4 generally follows the plot of the Netflix series. While I did go into a bit of detail in my previous blog I don't want to go into too much more detail about the scenes in the house, but I do want to point out some interesting things. The house really highlights certain moments from the show, but also works to put us into the mind of the characters. While Vecna is present and shows up in many places, the individual scenes actually highlight the various Stranger Things characters. For example, when we are in Eddie's trailer with Chrissy the focus is clearly on him as he is the only moving thing in the room. While it is super early on that we see him, it's here that we saw some more reused Halloween Horror Nights props. Last year there was a house called Bugs: Eaten Alive that contained thousands of plastic insects. We see a good number of those reappear here in Eddie's trailer as well as various other houses. Universal really did a great job at bringing the upsidedown to life. Going through it at night, it was difficult to appreciate all the small details with it as the house went on, but with the lights on it was really impressive to see. I mentioned an area that can be seen within the upsidedown where you look up and see the real world in the same spot. Well I completely missed that spot during the event, but on the tour I could really get a good appreciation for it. I also need to acknowledge the static Vecnas throughout the house. The costume for Vecna is really well done as is the static ones. Seeing them without the lighting though does bring into perspective just how much things like lighting can bring more life into an immobile object.
Take note that both Stranger Things 4 and Bloodmon: Dark Offerings took place in Sound Stage 23. If you can believe it, a heavy black curtain was the only thing separating these two houses. The houses are generally in a triangular shape which helps to allow multiple houses in one building. The Universal set designers need to take incredible care with both lighting and sound effects to ensure that guests in Stranger Things 4 are not hearing sounds or seeing lights from Bloodmoon: Dark Offerings and vice versa. This is something that Universal has down to a science as there was not a single time in either house during the nighttime event that I was hearing or seeing anything that didn't fit with the house I was in. I knew that Sound Stage 23 hosted multiple houses, but to see that a simple black curtain was the divider was a little bit surprising to say the least.
Dueling Dragons: Choose Thy Fate
Sound Stage 24 was home to the next two houses. Again, the houses were divided simply by a curtain. The first of these two houses is tomorrow's favorite house of the year. Dueling Dragons: Choose Thy Fate. This house told such a fantastic fantasy story that it sits at the top (along with Bloodmoon: Dark Offerings) as my favorite. Unlike the other houses we had been in so far, Dueling Dragons offered a bit more of a dialed back experience in terms of gore, but still offered a ton of death, violence, and in this case, magic. The opening hallway features tapestries of what is to come, previewing the story of Merlin and the two warring warlocks Pyrrock and Blizzrock. As I mentioned in my last blog, this house is a huge love letter to the Dueling Dragons roller coaster that used to exist in Islands of Adventure. This is evidenced as soon as the house really starts as we pass through the enchanted oak that Merlin has been transformed into.
Years ago guests would be able to see the enchanted oak near the Dueling Dragons roller coaster, so I'm sure that was a huge nostalgia hit for those fans when they saw it. Merlin warns us of the impending attack by both Blizzrock and Pyrrock and it is up to us to save the kingdom. As we race the warlocks to Merlin's spell book we see the results of the fighting between Blizzrock and Pyrrock. Of course there are innocent villagers killed throughout with Universal using both fire and ice effects throughout. Many of these effects were done with lighting and foam, but even with the lights on it was quite convincing. Even more convincing was just how cold it was in Sound Stage 24. I get it's Florida, but it was straight up cold in there. Even our tour guide made mentions to Blizzrock winning the day since it was so cold in the building. Anyway...
I mentioned the little plastic frogs earlier. Well, Dueling Dragons: Choose Thy Fate has two of them! They can both be found in the woods near the castle. To honor the two warlocks one is red and one is blue. Both don little wizard hats which is both fantastic and hilarious. We continue on to the castle where we see a princess with long blonde hair hanging dead out a window.... I'm sure it's just a coincidence right? At last we reach the spell book, but Merlin had one last trick. The book has a spell on it that blasts both warlocks. Upon closer inspection of the book we see the Dr. Oddfellow has his hands in this house as well as his symbol appears in the book along with the words "choose thy fate". Speaking of books... There is also a curious looking book on the shelf that may or may not having anything to do with a trio of witches that came back to life three hundred years after being hanged... Again, I'm sure it's just a coincidence right?
With Merlin's spell cast we begin to see the transformation of the warlocks into dragons. At one point we see large red scales breaking through a wall and a continuation of both fire and ice effects with more villagers and knights becoming caught up in the dragons terror. We also stumble across a shield on the wall bearing the mark of Terra Cruentus from Halloween Horror Nights: Tales of Terror.
There is also a tapestry with a unicorn head on acknowledging the Flying Unicorn roller coaster that was replaced by Flight of the Hippogriff in Islands of Adventure. At last we enter into an open area with the full on dragon forms of Pyrrock and Blizzrock visible. Both of them will breathe fog at guests as they walk through. This room was really cool and offered a uniquely perfect photo opportunity. Passing through guests must choose thy fate. There is a fork in the road here and the path you take at a given time will lead to victory or defeat.
The Halloween Horror Nights scare actors swap out every so often and in this house, when that change happens, so does the endings. There are four endings to this house with two being active at a given time. Should you take the path of Blizzrock you will either see that Blizzrock has claimed Merlin's head along with the spell book meaning that the guests and Merlin have failed to protect the kingdom. Alternatively guests may see a joyful Merlin as the warlocks are defeated and the kingdom is saved! The same endings exist on the other side of the fork, but with Pyrrock being the victor or loser. The theme on both sides matches that of the respective dragon whose path the guests chose to walk down. Due to the shape of the house, Blizzrock's path is slightly longer than Pyrrock's. The two paths merge again as guests exit the house as just behind the curtain another house looms.
With that it was time for lunch. We revisited Minion's Café as it was quite tasty the night before and once again it did not disappoint. This time around I got the meatball mountain which was similar to a calzone. Really good stuff. Would absolutely get it again at a future visit.
We made our way back to the former Nickelodeon Studios and prepared to embark on the second leg of our tour. What houses awaited us after lunch will have to wait till next time as this blog has gone on long enough. Stay tuned for part 2 of my review of Behind the Screams: Unmasking the Horror Tour!
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