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Universal Studios hosted its 32nd year of Halloween Horror Nights (HHN) and, to no surprise, it was a big hit. This year’s event was led by one character: Dr. Oddfellow. Highlights of this immortal sorcerer are featured throughout the park in different scare zones and haunted houses. This year’s set-up consists of six original houses and four intellectual property houses.
When entering the park you encounter the first original house, ‘Bloodmoon: Dark Offerings’. This house shows ritualistic ceremonies within an old village, allowing ‘scream squads’ to become part of their fall celebration. The next two houses you come across are ‘Yeti Campground Kills’ and ‘Dueling Dragons’. In ‘Yeti’, groups travel through a run-down campground with yetis lurking in the dark. Towards the back of the park there is ‘Oddfellow’s Twisted Origin’, which highlights the character by taking squads through a circus setting featuring clowns in each corner. Next is ‘The Darkest Deal’, which follows a blues musician who traded his soul for fame, descending into hell. Last is ‘Universal Monsters: Unmasked’, using some of the most infamous horror legends, including Jekyll and Hyde, the Phantom of the Opera, the Hunchback of Notre Dame and the Invisible Man. This house unleashes fury from each monster, allowing attendees to step into the terrifying backstory of each.
This year’s intellectual property houses were scattered throughout the park and included ‘The Exorcist: Believer’, ‘Stranger Things’, ‘Chucky: Ultimate Kill Count’ and ‘The Last of Us’. The ‘Exorcist’ house follows two girls that begin showing signs of demonic possession, reminiscent of the original movie. The ‘Stranger Things’ house focuses on season four of the series with various characters meeting devilish creatures from the Upside Down, like the Demogorgon and Vecna. ‘Chucky: Ultimate Kill Count’ compiled all of the possessed doll’s best kills from the SYFY series into one terrifying punch. The final house featured this year was ‘The Last of Us’, which was littered with clickers, humans that have been affected by the Cordyceps brain virus.
Between the haunted houses there are five scare zones that follow Dr. Oddfellow’s storyline. In the first scare zone, ‘Dr. Oddfellow’s Collection of Horror’, park-goers interact with Oddfellow amidst his collection of scary creatures and souvenirs from his past. Moving past the first scare zone, scream squads encounter ‘Dark Zodiac’. This scare zone focuses on Oddfellow’s evil zodiac signs made from dark magic. Further past this scare zone is ‘Jungle of Doom Expedition: Horror’, where Oddfellow traveled deep into the jungle, unleashing his power onto the animals and turning them into horrid creatures. Directly across from this scare zone is ‘Vamp ‘69’, based on the well-known Woodstock ‘69 music festival, but featuring a chilling twist: vampires terrorizing the festival attendees. Last but definitely not least is ‘Shipyard 32’, where a crate of Dr. Oddfellow’s ‘belongings’ wash up at a shipyard, breaking open and plaguing the shipyard with ruthless monsters preying on sailors.
To say Halloween Horror Nights was a success this year is an understatement. The park, littered with creatures from your worst nightmares, has made amazing improvements since the closure during COVID-19 outbreaks. We hope to see Oddfellow back in the park, continuing to wreak havoc in future years.
