Jordan Peele-inspired haunt in Hollywood? Yup. How about Orlando? Nope.
Jordan Peele-inspired haunt in Hollywood? Yup. How about Orlando? Nope.
Characters from the horror director’s films to terrorize Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights
Universal has revealed the complete lineup for this year’s Halloween Horror Nights events at both its Hollywood and Orlando parks. The featured haunted houses will be presented concurrently in California and Florida. They will include The Weeknd: After Hours Nightmare, which will be inspired by the pop/hip-hop performer; Halloween, which will be based on the classic horror films; Universal Monsters: Legends Collide, which will be an ode to Universal’s vintage characters The Wolf Man, Dracula, and The Mummy; and The Horrors of Blumhouse, which will reinterpret two of the studio’s films, The Black Phone and Freaky, for an, um, freaky, in-person HHN experience.
One of the most anticipated presentations, however, will be exclusively offered at the Hollywood event. This year’s Terror Tram will include a Jordan Peele double feature of Us and his latest hit, Nope. A word of warning if you plan to go: Be on the lookout for scissor-wielding doppelgangers and weird, hungry aliens.
An honest-to-goodness movie studio, the Studio Tour at Universal’s Hollywood park is one of its highlights. (There is no tour in Orlando.) It takes guests past actual sets of films and TV shows in production as well as onto attractions, such as King Kong 360 3-D, that are embedded in the 60-minute tour. For HHN, the tour vehicles are repurposed as Terror Tram.
Unlike the daytime tour, guests disembark the trams and wander on foot through some of the sets and themed areas for HHN. As in past events, they will saunter pass the Psycho House made famous by Alfred Hitchcock and into the War of the Worlds set. Along the way, “scare-actors” will terrorize the intrepid visitors. For the finale, they will wind their way over to the park’s new Jupiter’s Claim set from Peele’s Nope. There, Universal is promising guests will witness a “choreographed massacre.” (Sounds lovely, right?) If that isn’t grisly enough, The Tethered, of Us fame, will also descend on the set.
With his eerie, yet thoughtful and provocative films, Peele has reenergized the horror genre. It’s great that Universal is able to partner with the director.
Rounding out the Hollywood version of HHN will be four additional haunted houses: Universal Horror Hotel, Scarecrow: The Reaping, La Llorona: The Weeping Woman; and one based on the wacky film, Killer Klowns from Outer Space. The event will also feature the show, Jabbawockeez, and three scare zones, including the carnival-gone-bad-themed Sideshow Slaughterhouse.
HHN at Universal Studios Florida, meanwhile, will offer six additional haunted houses, all based on original content. Hellblock Horror will subject visitors to monsters who have escaped their cells in a penitentiary. Undead fishermen will torment guests in a New England fishing village for Dead Man’s Pier: Winter’s Wake. Bugs: Eaten Alive will charm arachnophobics with its 1950s vibe. Flapper witches will take over a 1920s speakeasy for Spirits of the Coven. The creature Chupacabras will come alive in a Latin American mountain village for Fiesta de Chupacabras. And it wouldn’t be HHN without at least one ode to our inevitable, post-apocalyptic future. This year, that honor goes to Descendants of Destruction, where mutated humans hang on for dear life in subway tunnels.
There will also be five scare zones in Orlando, including Scarecrow: Cursed Soil. The show, Halloween Nightmare Fuel Wildfire, will return with the performance group, The Fuel Girls. And Ghoulish! A Halloween Tale will be this year’s HHN-themed nighttime spectacular, complete with digital projections of media on the show buildings lining the lagoon.
Will you be braving HHN in either Hollywood or Orlando? If so, to what are you most looking forward? What do you think about the addition of Jordan Peele’s brand of horror to the Terror Tram?
We did HHN Orlando last year and in 2019, so a trip is not in the cards for us this year. However, we will be doing Howl-o-Scream at Busch Gardens Williamsburg, my kids' first time to that park. HHN is always a blast though, and I always look forward to the original houses more than the IP-based. Universal really does a fantastic job with all of their houses, but the originals just have that extra spark of creativity that make them constantly surprising.
I'm a huge fan of Jordan Peele so more of him in anything is fine by me. I love that horror continues to get more diverse and inclusive both in front of and behind the cameras.
Looking forward to hearing comments and thoughts on the new houses from people attending HHN this year!