After reviewing the IP houses in this year's Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Orlando, let's move on to the event's six original concept houses.
From top to bottom, I found Universal Orlando's original houses more fun than the IP ones. Perhaps walking with no expectations of an existing story or setting left me more open to what these houses had to offer. Or maybe the freedom to do whatever they wanted allowed Universal to go harder on these than they did with the houses where they had to serve an existing franchise.
I tried, but there's simply no way for a walk-through video to recreate the visceral experience of this house, which is based upon a 2022 scare zone. The smell of candy greets you as you enter this factory, where the floors shake and there's a big red button for you to push in one scene. The set-up is that you are a chaperone on a school field trip to taste test the candy at Major Sweets'. Unfortunately, the candy turns the kids into raging killers.
Based upon a house last year from Universal Studios Hollywood, Monstrous depicts three creatures from Latino folklore: the baby's-blood-sucking Tlahuelpuchi, the butcher El Silbón, and the owl-faced witch La Lechuza.
The house hits many of the same beats as last year's from California, including its ominous conclusion, but it is not a duplicate. This version of Monstrous offers some impressive scenic design and character work in bringing these myths to life.
The sequel to 2018's Slaughter Sinema, this house functions as a consolation prize for fun ideas that didn't make the cut to become full houses on their own. The conceit of a movie theater - in Universal Orlando's favorite Halloween Horror Nights setting of Carey, Ohio (the hometown of the event's creative director, by the way) - allows Universal to present a series of individual scenes themed to imaginary horror and grindhouse films.
The titles are often laugh-out-loud, as are some of the payoffs. I suspect that we might see a scene or two from this line-up expanded into full houses at future horror nights. C'mon, who doesn't want Mummy strippers?
Now we get to the original original houses this year, as the houses above all were based upon previous Halloween Horror Nights works. Here we have a museum exhibit devoted to the study of "The Rotting Stone," an artifact that seems to have been on the scene of as many disastrous moments in human history as the Minions.
It's a great concept for more than just a haunted house. There's clever stagecraft here, such as the possessed masks in one scene. This one sparked my imagination more than any other house this year, probably to its detriment, because I kept thinking of scenes I wanted to add. Not ending this one with an exit through a gift shop was just creative negligence.
Goblin's Feast is one of two houses built within Universal's new permanent tent structures on the north edge of its property, along with the Universal Monsters house. The new daytime parade at Universal Studios Florida meant that the park's parade warehouse is no longer available to Halloween Horror Nights, so Universal has created two spacious new facilities that will host houses for years to come.
Like with its neighbor, the look of Goblin's Feast impresses. There's plenty of space here for Universal to craft impressive scenery and Goblin's Feast delivers, especially with a towering statue. We are here for the titualar feast, expect we are the menu for the Goblins' meal. It's a neat concept, but a bit of a one-note experience. Still, it's a great note.
Wrapping this year's houses, we have Triplets of Terror. It's the Barmy triplets' birthday, which they celebrate every 10 years by recreating their massacre of their parents 40 years ago.
I love the framing device of a true crime podcast, though that's easy to miss if you do not listen carefully. ("Only Murders in the Family?") We are just voyeurs here, watching the gore for our entertainment. Perhaps it's best not to think to deeply about that and just... get into the party spirit, instead.
For reviews of this year's four IP houses, including Ghostbusters, Insidious, Universal Monsters, and A Quiet Place, please see Reviewing Halloween Horror Nights 33: IP houses.
Halloween Horror Nights continues on select evenings through November 3 at Universal Studios Florida. To book vacation packages to Universal Orlando Resort, including Halloween Horror Nights packages, please visit our partner's Universal Orlando vacation quote request page.
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Major Sweets candy factory has TWO red buttons to push! Have fun looking for the second !