Halloween Horror Nights Behind the Screams: Unmasking the Horror Tour Part 2 Review

    This is part two of my Halloween Horror Nights Behind the Screams: Unmasking the Horror Tour review. If you have not checked out part one of this blog, I suggest you check that out first. As was the case in the first part of this blog... This blog contains a lot of spoilers and facts for several of the houses at Halloween Horror Nights 32. If you do not wish to know anything behind the scenes related to this event I advise you do not continue reading this blog. If you do want to know more about the stories and hidden secrets of this event... Read on.

Yeti: Campground Kills

    After lunch we made our way back to soundstage 24. Safe to say that the air conditioning was not turned down at all so the building was still frigid. Thanks Blizzrock. Anyway. Yeti: Campground Kills is a sequel house to the Yeti: Terror of the Yukon house from Halloween Horror Nights 29. This time the family of Yetis make their way to the rocky mountains to cause some chaos. This house is considered to be a dark comedy house. None of the scares are overly scary, but the kills often offer something that most horror fans would probably chuckle at. For example, one of the scares is a snake lunging out of an outhouse toilet. The snake then shoots water at guests as they walk by. In another scene a camper named Billy stumbles upon a baby yeti, pokes some fun at it, and then is immediately dragged away be an adult yeti. In yet another we see a camper get dragged back into a tent while another is being mauled in a tent next door (a pull scare!) These were not active during the tour, but the dark comedy aspect is a major part of this house.

    There isn't a ton or lore here as the house is essentially a yeti rampage through a campground, but there are some hidden props and easter eggs throughout the house. Returning from last year's Halloween Horror Nights is a black phone that was featured in The Horrors of Blumhouse house during Halloween Horror Nights 32. The ranger station in the house is Ranger Station #32, a nod to the thirty second year of Halloween Horror Nights. We also found many field manuals that were either titled HHN32-EI or HHN32-YT. Put them together and you can unscramble HHN32YETI, an obvious nod to the house and event. This house is another house that features two frogs. In this case the frogs are on a date by a lake and one dons a coonskin cap! Of all the houses I felt that this house made the best use of sent. There are a lot of different scents that you will certainly smell. My favorite of these was a pine smell (makes sense) and there was also something that smelled terrible in the outhouse area. It was in this house that we learned just how important all of the senses are when the designers are creating the houses. 

    Another neat thing that we learned in this house is that it, if memory is serving me correctly, is the only house that features completely enclosed areas. What that meant for the designers is that they had to adjust the structure's fire suppression systems. We were not able to take photos in the area, but sprinkler systems in addition to Soundstage 24's own needed to be installed and it was really interesting to see how Universal seamlessly incorporated that into the house. Finally something that I really love about this house that can be very easily overlooked when the house is active is the calls to various other Cryptids. There are signs throughout the campground that feature Bigfoot, Nessie, and the Jackalope. Just another really cool touch to a house whose main monster is a cryptid itself. With this house in the books we finally got to warm up a bit as we moved on to the next house. 

    Before heading into the next house, there is something that I forgot to mention. Early on in the tour we learned that in order to keep the houses a secret on various construction papers Universal will give the house a codename. This year the names were all fruit. For example, Yeti: Campground Kills had the codename of Kiwi. The reason for this is that the fur on a kiwi resembles the hair of the yetis in the house. The next house was codenamed Orange due to Chucky's hair....

Chucky: Ultimate Kill Count

    I already explained the story and what not of this house in my main Halloween Horror Nights blog and nothing really changed or was expanded on in the tour. To summarize, Universal Studios is excited to have Chucky visiting so they built a house in his honor. Chucky however feels the house looks like crap and takes his anger out on the Universal team members by murdering them throughout the house. The kill scenes are from both the Child's Play movie franchise and the Chucky TV series. 

    Again, there is no real additional story that we learned when going through this house compared to the first time during the event itself. So with that said, some fun easter eggs and secrets can be found. One of these is a big red button on a wall. Now, it is a rule at Halloween Horror Nights to not touch anything. Not the scare actors, not the sets, and not the props. However, this button is actually designed to be pressed by guests as it will cause fog to come out of a fireplace ahead on the path. There is nothing indicating this, it's just a button that is too tempting to pass on. The frog in this house can be found in the forest and it dons a bit of orange hair. In the bathtub death scene, the TV will play a trailer for Universal Monsters: The Bride of Frankenstein Lives from Halloween Horror Nights 30. This is a nod to The Bride of Chucky when the Bride of Frankenstein movie is playing on the TV. We saw more of the pedal triggers for the scare actors and learned that the large costumed Chucky towards the start of the house was actually at one point removed, but then returned. The reason was apparently the awkward head of the costume, but we certainly saw him when we went through the house the night before.

    With the lights on we were really able to again see the amount of fun that the designers had with this house. There are so many clever little murderous things in here such as a nutcracker with a bunch of knives sticking out of it and a stuffed animal hanging from a wreath. It really is a great representation of the chaos and carnage that Chucky causes and I really liked that it was not a house solely based on either the movies or show. I think that really gives the house something for everyone to enjoy. Even if you've never seen the show or movies, just knowing that this crazed doll is going around murdering Universal team members is enough to keep people interested. 

    With the Florida sun beating down it was time to head to our final house and the only house we did not go through the night before. With that being said I am not going to be able to speak much on what happens during the event, but I will do my best to recall the story elements and specific goodies in the house.

Universal Monsters: Unmasked

    What can I say, I love classic monsters. I really wish I had the time to experience it live, but from videos, it does look like a really fun house at night. The story is that Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, along with The Invisible Man are on the run and flee to Paris where they, along with The Phantom of the Opera and The Hunchback of Notre Dame cause quite a stir. Upon entering the house, our tour guide directed our eyes to the floor. She had done this in a few other houses as well, but I want to bring attention to it here. There are many areas in the various houses that use some kind of water effect. Lets be honest, wet floors get slippery. That said, the flooring we were standing on was similar to grate matting that allows the water to just drip down without causing the floor to get slippery. It was used a couple times in this house including right at the start where it has started to rain.

    We are told that it is here in the entrance that news of murders have occurred in the Paris Opera House. As we go through the catacombs we would normally be attacked by the phantom and there would be a cool silhouette effect of Christine removing the phantoms mask and reeling back in horror. As guests continue on they come to a really cool mirror scare where the phantom bursts through the mirror at guests, but it's all a mirror trick, something well featured in both the novel and Broadway adaptations of the story. As we left the catacombs, passing box five which really really should have been left empty, The Invisible Man would attack (if he were there). The next room featured several mannequins of The Invisible Man. During the night these would move up and down and there would be two real scare actors also there to scare guests. Pretty good stuff there! 

    The following area features Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, but without the house actually running, there was not a ton to see here. As guests walk through the town there's a bar scene with a pretty gruesome kill by Mr. Hyde. Finally we reach the steps of Notre Dame where Quasimodo is in a state of unbridled rage. Esmerelda had just been killed so he lunges out from above at guests as they pass by. We learned that this is called a bungee scare. We were able to see, similar to what was in Bloodmoon: Dark Offerings (but I didn't mention it there to not spoil all the cool features) security measures for the scare actor playing Quasimodo. In addition to the bungee itself, at the top of the ladder there is a locking mechanism designed to keep any rogue guests from reaching the platform. Quasimodo would then chase guests to the final scene where The Phantom of the Opera, Mr. Hyde, and The Invisible Man all once again have their final say as guests exit the house. Really really cool stuff in here if you are a fan of classic monsters. 

    I want to call out the catacombs featuring The Phantom of the Opera. I felt they did a great job in this area. The rest of the house I'm sure looked great at night too, especially that invisible man scene, but the first part of this house as far as the set and props went really stood out for me. Of course, this house is not without it's easter eggs and secrets either! For example, the codename for this house was Blackberry. Another really neat easter egg is that at one point you can see the removed faces of the phantom's victims. One of has a mask on that looks quite similar to the mask the phantom wears in the Broadway production. The moon in the opening scene was featured in last year's Universal Monsters: Legends Collide house. Of course, there is a frog. This one at night is easy to miss as it is located at the end of the house where the final triple scare takes place.

    With that we reached the end of our tour. I will say that the tour was an absolutely incredible experience. I would one thousand percent go on one of these again. I think if I were to do it all over I would do the tour first and then go back at night knowing what I know and see everything happening live and look out for all the crazy things we learned about. If you are a fan of Halloween Horror Nights and want to know more on what goes into making these houses tick, do yourself a favor and go on one of these tours. You will not be disappointed! Thank you again to both Lucas and Alison for taking us with them on the tour! Halloween season is nearly over, but there is one thing left I want to talk about... 

Stay tuned as next time I'll be giving my thoughts on this year's Fright Fest at Six Flags Great Adventure. There wasn't too much different from previous years other than a couple cool new houses and I will surely touch on both Dead Man's Party and Unleashed, so no worries, it will not be another two part blog. As always, thank you all so much for reading and I look forward to sharing my thoughts on Fright Fest with you all!