Warning: Some images and the enclosed video may frighten children…and some adults.
Universal Studios began Halloween Horror Nights in 1991 in Florida. From then, they expanded to 
California with it in 1997, Singapore in 2011 and Japan in 2012. The two older boys (Noah and Ethan) and I went to the 24th annual (2014) event in Florida.
The Universal Studios Theme Park is transformed at night from regular attractions to horror attractions. Some of the daytime attractions are shut down. The nighttime brings out ghosts and ghouls and other things that go bump or growl or scream in the night. It is divided into themed haunted houses and scare zones. Scare zones are specific outdoor areas with costumed characters that fit with a specific theme with the full intent to scare all those who walk by.
2014 Themed Haunted Houses
- AMC’s The Walking Dead
- Alien Versus Predator
- Dracula Untold
- From Dawn Till Dusk
- Halloween
- Dollhouse of the Damned
- Giggles and Gore Inc.
- Roanoke – Cannibal Colony
The lines for the haunted houses were quite long. We did not purchase the Express Passes. If you decide to visit without the Express Passes, pick your top two or three haunted houses and go to them in order of importance as that is all of the time you will have. The wait times were from an hour for From Dawn Till Dusk to two and a half hours for The Walking Dead.
Unfortunately, they do not allow flash photography in the haunted houses, so we do not have pix from inside. We do have a couple from outside. The only one worth posting is the one of The Halloween Haunted House. The others were inside big studio buildings. The Halloween one actually had a mock-up of the original house.
2014 Scare Zones
- Face Off
- The Purge: Anarchy
- MASKerade: Unstitched
- Bayou of Blood
The scare zones, on the other hand, had no wait. However, people really had a herd mentality. they all herded together in hopes that the ones in the middle would not be affected. I will give you one tip, if you run or scream, they WILL chase after you and torment you even more. I have a lot of pix because I smiled and took their pictures when they came up to me. Honestly, some of them walked quickly the other way because I was running after them trying to get their pictures.
In most of the scare zones you simply walked through and different characters would come out and around you. Some would walk up and just stand so when you turned around you scared yourself. Some would run up to you full speed and scare you. While others were completely still and reached for you unsuspectingly when you walked by.
Because these things are outside, I was able to capture quite a few images.
Bayou of Blood
Face Off
Bayou of Blood and Face Off had smoke as an effect. That made it spooky and hard to see the characters coming up on you. But, for pix, it was difficult. When you used a flash, it would reflect off of the smoke and cause the images to be unusable. However, without the flash, it is too dark.
MASKerade
The people from the MASKerade will not stand still. There are not many of them so it is hard to stand by one and get a pix. Some of them are actually sedentary figures. So you can stand by them, but they will not pose or move for you.
The Purge: Anarchy
The Purge: Anarchy had a lot of characters walking around. They will not pose with or for you. But they are walking up to so many people and getting in their face that you can get good pix of them. Just be aware, they will sneak up right behind you.
The Purge: Anarchy is the only one that really does a show. I did not capture it all, but here are a few minutes of video where they are auctioning off victims.
The Purge: Anarchy Scare Zone
Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios is a great Halloween haunted house and fright fest experience. If you enjoy celebrating Halloween, Samhain or just like scary stuff, this is definitely an event to go to.
