44. Universal's Halloween Horror Nights - More Magic!

[00:00:00] Coming up, we are talking about Halloween at Universal. It's Halloween Horror Nights and I've got to be honest, this event is scary. They talk about how fearful this could be and how you should avoid it if you get really scared or you have young kiddos, but learned a lot today from Katie who experienced it and maybe that's not the case.

[00:00:17] Hey everyone, welcome in to Moms Behind the Magic brought to you by the Moms Behind the Magic. I am your host, Allie. I'm here today one-on-one with Katie to talk about not only a very fun, exciting, and relevant topic to where we are right now, but something that Katie has just experienced. So I cannot wait to talk about her first-hand experience, some of her favorite things, unexpected things, and things that you don't even know you need to know about at Universal Studios Orlando.

[00:00:46] This is such a popular event, I cannot wait to hear about it. Katie, your first, like the first thing you want to say, your first reaction regarding this event. So I think that a lot of people think this event is going to be super, super scary, right? The promotional material that's out there looks terrifying and I mean the thing that Universal does best is horror, right?

[00:01:07] Like we have the whole Darkmoor land over in Epic Universe. Universal is so good with classic horror and so this is really the event that they shine. This is their biggest event of the entire year.

[00:01:20] I will say I was a little surprised going into it because as much as you know I love horror video games, I'm not like I don't watch any horror shows or horror movies or anything like that. I was a Goosebumps kid growing up, but that's about the extent of it. But I'm very, very into horror video games. So I went into the event loving horror in a very unique way, having never been to a haunted house. Have you ever been to a haunted house, Allie?

[00:01:47] Are you serious? I'm from Ohio. Of course I've been to a haunted house. I've been to a million haunted houses. I've been on haunted hikes. I've been on haunted bus rides. I've been on just, if you can haunt it, I've done it. Our local amusement park obviously does a Halloween version of the park. They've been doing that since I was a little girl, so this is not anything new to me. The park has haunted houses. The attractions become haunted houses.

[00:02:11] So I am very familiar with this type of event. I, unlike you, have no relationship to horror. I love Halloween, and then that's my extent. I really love Halloween, but I love costumes, and I love fall, and I love pumpkin. I don't love horror at all. No blood, no gore.

[00:02:25] Very, very minimal level that I can tolerate for being scared in general. And so I have always sort of had my guard up regarding Halloween Horror Nights. I know you have learned a little bit that you're going to share, and it honestly brings me a little curiosity beyond what I have kind of avoided.

[00:02:44] And just as a quick note, both Universal Hollywood and Universal Orlando have Halloween Horror Nights, and a ton of my dance students that live in LA, they go to Halloween Horror Nights every year. Huge there. They love it. But we are focusing on Orlando for this episode.

[00:03:00] I did talk a little bit before I went to the event with someone who's very aware of the event, and his advice to me was, you know, our production compared to what's happening out in Hollywood is more... What's the word I'm looking at? They have higher production value, I guess, out in Hollywood. So he said it's a little scarier out in Hollywood compared to Orlando, is what he told me.

[00:03:23] But he said because people tend to compare this event to another theme park in Orlando that's right down the road, that leans more into, like, the cute side of Halloween. The not-the not-so-scary side? That one, yeah. Because they get compared so often to that event, people think that this event isn't for them because it's completely terrifying.

[00:03:49] And he said it's honestly an unfair comparison because it's just sort of apples and oranges. And I will say, I didn't think the event was terrifying. I have been more scared watching video games in my house. Yeah. Well, to be fair, like, Universal actually has a warning on the website that says, event may be too intense for young children and is not recommended for children under the age of 13. No costumes or costume masks are allowed.

[00:04:20] So right there, my guard is way up. I don't have a child that's 13 yet. All of my kids are younger than that. So right there with that warning label, I'm already sort of on guard even more. And then I'm even thinking, okay, I have some kids that are more easily scared than others. And so now I need to be even more cautious when considering if I'm going to go to this event.

[00:04:46] So while I understand it's not apples to apples and you're saying maybe it's unfair, the warning label is actually telling me not to consider this for my family right now. Sure. So here's what I would say. I did see a handful of people at the event that brought their little ones in strollers, right? And I was like, oh, I probably wouldn't have done that. I did see a fair number of families that brought their young teenagers. And I would say for the majority of the event, this is great for young teenagers.

[00:05:16] But one of the things that surprised me was there is a show and like sort of an area of the event that is more spicy. And I probably wouldn't take my 13 or 14 year old to that. But the scare houses, I actually think, are great for kids that are in that teenage range. And I actually thought this would be such a fun date night. Like I would love to go back with Matt just to do Halloween Horror Nights, the two of us.

[00:05:46] Like it would be so much fun. It runs from August 28th, end of August through November 1st. Scary season starts early. There are 48 nights that you can get to this event. So it's pretty accessible. If this is a priority for you, it's pretty accessible. And I think one of the things, because I spoke to you pretty shortly after you went, I think one of the things I want our M&Ms to know and understand is that this event really may be for you, even if you don't feel like it is. That was kind of your biggest takeaway. It really is.

[00:06:14] Go ahead and talk about the precautionary thing that you did. Sure. That I think is very cool. But then also what ended up happening. Right. Yes. So I think that Halloween Horror Nights is honestly perfect for someone who just loves Halloween. Like, Allie, I think you would have a great time there. I probably would. I think most people would have a great night. Really. You can buy, they debuted it, I believe, last year. And it was available again for purchase this year. They have what's called the Deathly Afraid Necklace, which is a light up necklace.

[00:06:44] And if you wear it while you're walking around the park through the casual scare zones, it means that the actors will avoid interacting with you. I bought one and didn't end up using it at all. I actually was surprised. If you're walking through the casual scare zones, there are opportunities that you may get, like, jumped. You may be standing there having a conversation with somebody and an actor may come right up behind you.

[00:07:11] Or there's a whole section where they just have, like, chainsaw actors over in that, like, Simpsons area of the park. And they are intentionally looking to try to spook you, right? I mean, that's their job. But what I found, the advice that I was given was if you walk on the sidewalks, like, on the periphery, instead of going straight down the middle, they're probably not going to interact with you.

[00:07:36] I was wearing all black and walking straight down the middle, and still people were not interacting with me. Another piece of advice I got was make direct eye contact. So, I mean, we went back and forth down the chainsaw one in particular often. And their whole thing is they kind of want to, like, cut between you and your buddy and, like, laugh and hit the chainsaw or whatever, right? There were multiple times that we walked through that section and we were pretty much ignored,

[00:08:05] even walking straight down the middle. So, what's cool about this event is the energy of it and the hype of it. But my question for anyone who's like, oh my gosh, this is too scary, is how often can you be jump scared with the same style of scare, right? If you're the kind of person that, like, if you go to a haunted house, how are they going to scare you? You're going to, like, walk through a door and they're going to, like, jump out from around a corner, right? Bang, bang, bang. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:08:35] How often is that scary before you're just like, okay? I don't know. I'm kind of a scaredy cat, so, like, maybe often for me. But I do enjoy, I mean, we go to haunted houses here. My son, who is young, his friends want to plan a haunted house night out this fall. And I'm maybe more nervous than they are. Oh, cool. It's such a common, normal thing here. So it's not that I don't do these things. It's just that I am a little apprehensive, which is, I think, a good perspective to bring

[00:09:03] to this more magic because that's kind of, I think, where a lot of our M&Ms sit. And now with your experience, it's, you know, maybe not necessary. Where, tell our M&Ms, where is this? And then I want to talk about something really unique and I want to know what you thought about it. But it's not all three parks at Universal that's hosting this event. You know, where does it occur? How does it look? Things like that. Yeah. So this is happening specifically at Universal Studios Park. It's not happening in Islands of Adventure or Epic. This is only at Universal Studios.

[00:09:33] And as someone who has never been to the event before, never even been to a haunted house before, I was expecting to kind of see like the things that we do see now in Epic Universe, like the Dracula and the Frankenstein kind of like classic horror tropes, at least present somewhere. And you're not really seeing that at all. They do have some haunted houses that are connected to an IP, like Stranger Things, Sinners, Hellraiser, right?

[00:10:01] But then you also have, they've built their own IP just for the event. We're talking like Jack and Odd Fellow. Like, it's really neat. So all of the haunted houses are telling a story of sorts. Is that fair to say? Yes. Every haunted house is telling a story. So they're all different atmospherically. For example, so let me just list off what the haunted houses are this year. They're not the same every year. They tend to change year to year.

[00:10:26] But this year for 2026, we have Stranger Things 5, which is sort of the headliner. We have Sinners. We have Hellraiser. We have Ozzy Osbourne, Prince of Darkness. Evil Deadburn. Jack and Odd Fellow, Chaos and Control. HR Blood and Guts presents a Halloween Frightacular. Madlands, Caged Cannibals, and Invasion Alien Abduction.

[00:10:55] So there's a lot of different horror tropes that we're leaning into here. Wow. That's a lot. And that's 10 new ones this year, right? So not only are they ever changing, they're changing a lot. And there are a lot. And then I think Universal does such a great job with creativity. And what they have done with Harry Potter in their parks is so immersive and unbelievable. And so I like that they are taking this horror twist. They're using it to their benefit at this event.

[00:11:22] And I mean, Stranger Things is one of the most massive things ever of our time. And so then to have this haunted house, how well did they do it? Was it amazing? Is a Stranger Things fan going to just die going in there? Yes. So this year, there's a lot of Stranger Things tie-ins. They do have the haunted house, which is the headliner. You're going to walk through. Vecna's going to make appearances. He's going to pop out at you. You're going to see the Demogorgons with their...

[00:11:49] My kids think they're like big flower monsters because that's what their heads look like. My kids only know who they are from Netflix mini golf. They haven't watched the show. I was going to say, wow, I haven't even watched it. No, but you're going to see the Demogorgons and everything a lot. The production value, like how they executed it was so good. Like incredible. Very, very impressive. You're going to recognize characters from the show.

[00:12:16] You're going to recognize like phrases that they say in the show. It's a really, really cool, cool house. So definitely recommend Stranger Things. I would say most of the night, that particular haunted house had a wait that was like over an hour, right? I was about to say, what are we looking at for wait times at these things? And can you get express passes? Yeah. Yes. So can you hit all 10 haunted houses in a night? It's going to be stretching it, right?

[00:12:42] So most haunted houses are like early in the evening are going to have a wait time of over an hour. For example, we went to the Invasion Alien Abduction one. That was my first ever haunted house. And that one, even with not having like an IP or anything attached to it, was about an hour wait whenever we had gotten in line for it. So at some point in the night, pretty much every haunted house is going to have an hour wait.

[00:13:09] Whenever you stick around, we went on a Wednesday and around like midnight, 1230-ish, a lot of the haunted houses came down to like 30 or 40 minutes. Some of them got as low as 10 minutes. The Madlands Caged Cannibals one was like 10 minutes from like midnight on, okay? What time does the event end? 2 a.m. You're getting scared for a long time, yeah? So the event starts at 630.

[00:13:37] If you just buy a Halloween Horror Nights ticket, they're going to do like a pre-show ceremony kind of thing. And then it starts at 630. There's an opportunity to buy an add-on to your ticket called Early Screams, where you can get in as early as 2 p.m., 2 in the afternoon. And they usually have about three haunted houses that open that early for you to sort of knock them out before the party officially starts. Yeah, but do you want to go get scared at a haunted house at 2 in the afternoon? So this is what's interesting, right?

[00:14:05] Like some people want to go see the scary thing in daylight. They want to see what it is before they're actually getting scared at night. So what I love is Universal has done such a good job at making this event really accessible for people, depending on how much of a scaredy cat you are. Yeah. So lots of IP, lots of incredible haunted houses and scream zones you mentioned.

[00:14:31] There's not a Harry Potter haunted house, but I think anybody that talks about Universal wants to know, what Harry Potter am I getting? And I'm obsessed with, I obviously haven't done it, but I'm obsessed with the idea of what Universal does. So did you do it? And can you explain it to our M&Ms? Yes, yes. If you go into Diagon Alley during the event, they have the Death Eaters from Harry Potter running around the entire area. It is the coolest thing ever. It was so cool.

[00:15:00] So they do this sort of like opening show where there's about like eight to 10 of them and they sort of come out and they explain that they're looking for Potter and they're trying to find who's hiding him and stuff like that. And so they're all kind of in one area to begin and they do this sort of little skit and then the skit breaks up and they all go in different directions across the land to like interact with guests and to investigate, try to find Potter, right?

[00:15:29] In those in-between times is whenever they're like walking up to guests, right? But they're basically, they're doing a skit or some kind of like maybe two to three minute show probably about every 10 or 15 minutes all throughout the night in different portions of the land in Diagon Alley. So you can see it all throughout the night happening anywhere basically. Really cool.

[00:15:54] But I walked up to the candy shop and there was one like just standing there staring in the window. And I was like, oh, how about it? So fun. That is so fun. It was so good. Really neat. Yes. That's, I mean, that is not new. That's something that's been around for a really long time. It's so obvious. I would have loved to have been in the creative room when somebody was like, well, obviously the Death Eaters come out at this event. It's one of those things that's just so obvious and so cool and so glad. My hot take, and maybe it's not such a hot take.

[00:16:23] If you haven't been to the event, this is going to be a hot take. And if you have, this probably won't. I think that you could pay for a ticket to Halloween Horror Nights, walk around the scare zones, enjoy the food, check out the merchandise, just see the street skits and enjoy your entire night and never walk into a haunted house and still have a really great time. I've heard that from several people that have gone. Obviously, if you're going, you want to get your money's worth and you should go to the haunted houses.

[00:16:50] But I think that you could just as easily have a really fun time and just experience the energy of the event by just going into the scare zones. Yeah. They had a Fortnite scare zone this year. Oh. How impressive is it for Fortnite that they got a collaboration in Halloween Horror Nights with Universal and with that other park down the road this year? Like, they're both relevant in both parks this year. So hats off to Fortnite for doing that.

[00:17:15] The scare zones, they have like Carnival of Nightmares, Downtown Clam Town. That's probably the most impressive one. And then the Sideshow of Decay. I loved the scare zones. We walked through them multiple times, just kind of hanging out. And it was cool. It was honestly really cool. There are themed scare zones where you can just go be scared. And then there are haunted houses that you can wait in line for and go and experience and be scared.

[00:17:43] And then there are encounters in Diagon Alley where you can go and be scared. But you're saying not any of it is too scary. Maybe it's overly hyped for how scary it is. But then there's one more component we haven't talked about. And you actually talked quite a bit to me about already. And that is the show factor. Scare zones, haunted houses, Harry Potter effect, and then shows. Yeah, so Blood Noir, we were told that this is a show.

[00:18:13] They do it about like four times a night. And people will like get in line for the next show to make sure that they see it. It's really impressive. They do like aerials. They do fire dancing. There's like the performance is just a top level performance. And so it's really good every year. And this year, the Blood Noir theme is this sort of like vampires versus vampire hunters. I think like Twilight, but metal. Yeah.

[00:18:44] Are you, is the Blood Noir, do you know, because this was your first experience, the Blood Noir is the show every year, but then it's thematically different each showing for each season? So it's called Nightmare Fuel Blood Noir. So my understanding is every year it's Nightmare Fuel, but Blood Noir changes every year. So I believe this year's vampire theme is slightly different than what they've done in the past. Interesting. Yeah.

[00:19:09] I have a friend, Dancer, who works a lot in Orlando, and she was actually in the Fuel, whatever the main show is called. Yes. Okay. She was in that. So I know very little. I did not see her in it. Obviously, I haven't been to this event. But from what I saw, it looked really cool, but it didn't seem vampire-y. So that's why I was very curious and you got to see a vampire iteration. Would you say it has, like, is it similar to, like, a Cirque show with the Aerialist? How intense is it? What's good about it?

[00:19:39] What's entertaining? Is it scary? It's not scary at all. Okay. I was actually caught off guard because the order of the day for Blood Noir is spicy. Like, great for a date night. Maybe don't bring your 13-year-old kid. Okay. Interesting. Yeah? Yeah. But, like, the skill of their performers is really good, which is what makes the show stand apart, right? Like, the fire dancers, the people that are dancing on these sort of, like, chandelier-type objects.

[00:20:09] It's a very, very impressive show and I think that you should go see it. Just be aware it's a spicy show. Gotcha. Like, the costumes are going to be a little scantily clad. I am, like, so curious now to see it because I doubt our versions of spicy are even the same just because of my history with performance and dance. So now I'm just so interested to see what your version of spicy is. It's definitely spicy. I promise you.

[00:20:39] I want to say I believe you, but I'm not sure I do. So now I need to hear you say that. I was sitting next to one of our friends and I was like, I don't know if this is kosher, but okay. Now I know I wouldn't agree with you. Okay. So, Universal, the thing they do better than maybe any, I mean, maybe not better than anyone, but Universal does themes and immersion and experience through themes and immersion so, so well.

[00:21:06] Horror is really where Universal shines, right? Like, we have the monster's world, the dark more in epic universe with, you know, the classic vampires and the Dracula and Frankenstein. We have all that going on over there. So I just feel like Halloween Horror Nights is their biggest event. 48 nights in just this small period of time leading up to Halloween. The production value is really good. High quality.

[00:21:32] I would say my favorite haunted house was probably Ozzy, the Ozzy Osbourne one. I think it had another layer of frightfulness to it because if you're going- With Ozzy Osbourne? Well, that too. If you're going into the Stranger Things house and you watch Stranger Things, you know what to expect, right? If you go into an Ozzy Osbourne house, I mean, I know Ozzy Osbourne's music, right? Was his music playing? Was it like Crazy Train and Bat? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:22:01] It really was, yeah. At one point you walk through and there's like a bat and the bat's like biting off the head of a human. Oh, yeah. There you go. It's like a light projection that's like up on the wall as you're walking through a hall. But they, you literally, they're playing his songs and it's changing the scene. So we walked into a new scene and it was the Crazy Train song. And you're literally, it's like you're walking down a train, right? So in the cars, like in the seats are like, you know, dead mannequins.

[00:22:31] And then there's people that are jumping out at you. Oh, cool. Yeah. I feel like I would love, I actually think I would love that. It was so cool. It really was. Okay. I actually, I'm into that. That sounds fun. That was exactly, I hit the nail on the head with Crazy Train Bath. Okay. I want you to talk a little bit about merch. So, um, the funny thing is we were in downtown Clam Town. We were watching the sideshow and then we saw these people getting in line for a building that was behind us. And I was like, oh, that must be another haunted house.

[00:23:00] Let's go get in line. And as it turns out, it was a line from a merchandise store. They have exclusive merchandise just for the event, for the IP that's associated with the houses. Just really cool stuff. Everything in the store was really cool. But they almost have it set up like a haunted house too. It's like a maze that you're walking through as you're looking at all the different IP of the merchandise, which was funny.

[00:23:22] The thing that most people are asking about is the Deathly Afraid necklace, which clues to the actors not to approach you or not to interact with you, right? I'll be honest. At an event that has thousands of people in it, I only saw like two or three people that were wearing the Deathly Afraid necklace the whole night. One was like a younger kid, probably like seven or eight years old. And one was an elderly woman. I bought mine and I never put it on.

[00:23:50] And I didn't feel like I was, you know, scared out of my wits or anything. And you can't pre-buy that, right? You buy that there. That's correct. You buy it at the event. They have tons of like kiosks set up everywhere as well as the regular merchandise shops and everything. So there's tons of opportunities for you to buy one. Interesting. Okay. I would recommend that if you're really scared. But also kind of test the waters. See how you're doing. Get there. Fire, decide.

[00:24:16] And then it's awesome that they have that option because if it is too intense or too scary, you can scale it back a little and still enjoy your night. So I really love that. Very, very smart. You know, my heart belongs to nighttime spectaculars. And they're doing something pretty cool at Halloween Horror Night. Not fireworks, but it falls in that category of spectacular. Yep. So there's, I would call it a water projection show. They do have some very occasional fireworks. I wouldn't call it a fireworks show. But it's called Return to Hawkins.

[00:24:46] So it's a Stranger Things themed nighttime spectacular. So they're going to have like the different colored, you know, water fountains popping up. They have like the big sprayers that they're projecting the show on. And it's a, it's a pretty cool thing as well. You know, Stranger Things whole vibe is this sort of like 80s retro horror. And so it's a really cool vibe even just for a nighttime show. Yeah. I think it's awesome that Universal has leaned into Stranger Things for this event. So many people are so obsessed with Stranger Things.

[00:25:15] Like I said, it's one of the biggest things ever. And so hopefully if you didn't realize that this was happening at Universal and you're a fan of the show, you should go because they have brought it to life in a lot of really unique ways for this event. Absolutely. So some quick questions for you. Best thing you ate? Food and drink good there? Do they have themed stuff? How does it work? Different than the daily? They do. They have like a lot of different food and drink. They're, they're set up like kiosks or food trucks, like all throughout Universal Studios. You have tons of opportunities to eat.

[00:25:45] They have like, it's basically like chips and queso over by, it was a Hellraiser kiosk. But it's going to be like staple foods that you know, like pizza and things like that. But it's going to have a spin on it that is somehow related to an IP, right? Yeah. Probably not the highlight of the night because they want you just at these haunted houses because the wait times are so long, as you said. So it brings me to my next question. Express Pass is worth the money for Halloween Horror Night?

[00:26:12] So if you get the early screams and you're in at two o'clock, you can go to, they usually have three haunted houses that are open. They're like subject to change. And so if you do the early scream, you may not need Express Passes. But the reality is there are 10 haunted houses, Allie, right? The most I'm hearing of people getting into haunted houses is like six or seven without Express Passes. So if you're the kind of person that's like, well, I got to do them all. You should absolutely get the Express Passes.

[00:26:42] It's 100% going to be worth it for you. If you're willing to hang and get scared until 2am, you might be able to pull it off. Yeah, the strategy I think is if you're not staying until 2am, you've got to have Express Passes and early screams. If you are staying until 2am and you're willing to wait, you can probably pull it off. But you've got to temper the expectations. And would you go more than once in one year? Do you think it's a multi-attendance event? Yes, I actually would.

[00:27:07] Did you know they sell like season passes just to go to Halloween Horror Nights again and again? Did you know that? No, that's amazing. That's a thing. I'm not a person. I'm usually a one and done kind of person just because of financial restrictions, right? But as I mentioned, I went with one of our friends from the getaway club and I cannot wait to go back with my husband, Matthew. I was like, we have to do this. This is so fun. It would be such a perfect date night. So yes, I want to go back. Okay.

[00:27:37] What's one word that you would use to describe the night? I think I would just say like fun, like the energy was so thrilling. Yeah, not, I mean, scary enough, but not so scary that you can't enjoy yourself. So if the fun is prevalent. Yes. I mean, is scary the order of the day? Yeah, obviously for our evadems, the magic word is going to be scary. Sure. For this event. But you say fun. Okay. Can you rate it one to 10? 10 being the very best? Oh my gosh.

[00:28:07] Well, you know, I don't give anything a perfect 10. I don't give anything a 10, but it's pretty dang close to perfect. Like, I don't think that there's a whole lot they could do to improve the event. Like it was, it was so great. I'm going to give it a 9.5. That's incredible for you. I've got, I really want to get down there, especially because I mentioned I have theme park haunted house experience. I know what this is about, but I've just always been apprehensive, but you, you make me want to go. You want to give it a try.

[00:28:36] I love spooky season. Okay. Last question for you. I think I know the answer based on just you talking today, but what's the haunted house you're still thinking about a week later? Definitely Ozzy. I mean, Stranger Things was great too. Don't get me wrong. You should absolutely do the Stranger Things house, but the Ozzy Osbourne house was just another, another level of perfection. So. I wonder what Ozzy Osbourne fan works at Universal that was like, we're doing this guys. Yeah. All right. That is, that was fun. And I learned a lot.

[00:29:05] I, I hope that if you were like me and you were like apprehensive and a little scared that you're willing to give this event a try. Maybe if you have some daredevil kiddos, you take them. Maybe you go with some friends or your significant other, but Halloween Horror Nights is happening now. Universal Orlando and Hollywood. Everything we talked about today, of course, again was for Orlando. And we encourage you to go share your thoughts in our community. As always, mom's behind the magic on Facebook. And until next time, we're sending you fun, love and joy. And we'll see you real soon. Halloween Horror Nights at Disney's.

[00:29:35] I still wouldn't recommend bringing little kids.