Halloween Horror Nights
Encyclopedia
Halloween Horror Nights is an annual Halloween
Halloween
Hallowe'en , also known as Halloween or All Hallows' Eve, is a yearly holiday observed around the world on October 31, the night before All Saints' Day...

 event that occurs at Universal Orlando Resort
Universal Orlando Resort
Universal Orlando Resort is a theme park resort in Orlando, Florida. It is wholly owned by NBCUniversal and its affiliates. The resort consists of two theme parks , Universal CityWalk , and three Loews Hotels...

, Universal Studios Hollywood
Universal Studios Hollywood
Universal Studios Hollywood is a movie studio and theme park in the unincorporated Universal City community of Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is one of the oldest and most famous Hollywood movie studios still in use...

 and Universal Studios Singapore
Universal Studios Singapore
Universal Studios Singapore is a theme park located within Resorts World Sentosa on Sentosa Island, Singapore. It was a key component of Genting's bid for the right to build Singapore's second integrated resort. On 8 December 2006, the Singapore government announced that the consortium had won the...

. Universal Studios remains operational during the day and transitions to Halloween Horror Nights at night. The event features haunted houses, "scare zones" and live entertainment, many of which utilize Universal's characters and other licenses.

History

Halloween Horror Nights began at Universal Studios Florida
Universal Studios Florida
Universal Studios Florida is an American theme park located in Orlando, Florida. Opened on June 7, 1990, the park's theme is the entertainment industry, in particular movies and television. Universal Studios Florida inspires its guests to "ride the movies," and it features numerous attractions and...

 in 1991 under the title "Fright Nights" but was renamed "Halloween Horror Nights" in 1992, advertised as the "second annual". Halloween Horror Nights began as a three night event but has since been extended to include up to 24 nights.

The first year the admission price was just $19.00 and the "scarectors" (scare actors) had to provide not only their own costume, but make up as well.

From 1991–2001, the event was held at Universal Studios Florida
Universal Studios Florida
Universal Studios Florida is an American theme park located in Orlando, Florida. Opened on June 7, 1990, the park's theme is the entertainment industry, in particular movies and television. Universal Studios Florida inspires its guests to "ride the movies," and it features numerous attractions and...

. Halloween Horror Nights moved to Universal's Islands of Adventure
Islands of Adventure
Universal's Islands of Adventure is a theme park located in Orlando, Florida. It opened May 28, 1999 as part of an expansion that, along with CityWalk Entertainment District, the Portofino Bay Hotel, and Hard Rock hotel, converted Universal Studios Florida into the Universal Orlando Resort...

 in 2002. In 2004, the resort experimented with a dual-park format, which connected and utilized parts of both parks. In 2006, the event made a return to Universal Studios Florida
Universal Studios Florida
Universal Studios Florida is an American theme park located in Orlando, Florida. Opened on June 7, 1990, the park's theme is the entertainment industry, in particular movies and television. Universal Studios Florida inspires its guests to "ride the movies," and it features numerous attractions and...

.

Halloween Horror Nights officially launched at Universal Studios Hollywood
Universal Studios Hollywood
Universal Studios Hollywood is a movie studio and theme park in the unincorporated Universal City community of Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is one of the oldest and most famous Hollywood movie studios still in use...

 in 1997, although the park had featured Halloween attractions in 1986 and 1992. For 2001 to 2005, Halloween Horror Nights went on hiatus at Universal Studios Hollywood
Universal Studios Hollywood
Universal Studios Hollywood is a movie studio and theme park in the unincorporated Universal City community of Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is one of the oldest and most famous Hollywood movie studios still in use...

 and returned in 2006. While the Hollywood location shares similarities with the Orlando event, much of the two events is coordinated separately with their own design teams and attractions.

Halloween Horror Nights XI, coming so close after the events of September 11, 2001, caused Universal to make many changes to tone the event down. Any gore was scrapped from the event and blood was replaced with green "goop". The names of several houses, scare zones, and shows were changed. The original icon character "Eddie" was scrapped. Edgar Sawyer was conceived as a demented, chainsaw-wielding horror movie buff that had been disfigured by a fire. He was supposed to be a threat to previous icon Jack and the tagline "No more clowning around" was used and even seen on early advertisements and merchandise. Eddie was ultimately removed from the event before it began, although still appearing on that year's logo and merchandise with the official "I.C.U." tagline. As a hurried replacement, Jack would return along with a line of merchandise bearing the tagline "Jack's Back." Eddie's back-story was changed to his name being Eddie Schmidt and being Jack's younger brother. He later appeared with the other icons at Halloween Horror Nights XIV in Horror Nights Nightmares, and with his own house for Halloween Horror Nights XVI, Run: Hostile Territory.

The Caretaker was not the original icon for Halloween Horror Nights XII. Cindy, the daughter of mortuary owner Paul Bearer, was originally the icon of the event. In the event's premise, every land would be ruled over by her "playthings". Unfortunately, after several child abductions in the area, the Cindy concept was abandoned and her father Paul Bearer morphed into Dr. Albert Caine aka The Caretaker. Cindy would eventually appear in image in 2006's Scream House Resurrection, as a live character in 2009's Shadows of the Past, alongside her father, and finally featured in 2010 in her own house, "The Orfanage: Ashes to Ashes".

For 2007, Universal acquired the rights to use New Line Cinema
New Line Cinema
New Line Cinema, often simply referred to as New Line, is an American film studio. It was founded in 1967 by Robert Shaye and Michael Lynne as a film distributor, later becoming an independent film studio. It became a subsidiary of Time Warner in 1996 and was merged with larger sister studio Warner...

's characters Freddy Krueger
Freddy Krueger
Frederick Charles "Freddy" Krueger is a fictional, horrifying character from the Nightmare on Elm Street series of horror films. He first appears in Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street as a disfigured dream stalker who uses a glove armed with razors to kill his victims in their dreams,...

, Jason Voorhees
Jason Voorhees
Jason Voorhees is a fictional character from the Friday the 13th series of slasher films. He first appeared in Friday the 13th , as the son of camp cook-turned-murderer, Mrs. Voorhees, in which he was portrayed by Ari Lehman. Created by Victor Miller, with contributions by Ron Kurz, Sean S...

 and Leatherface
Leatherface
Leatherface is the main antagonist in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre horror-film series and its spin-offs. He wears masks made of human skin and engages in murder and cannibalism alongside his inbred family. He is considered by many to be one of the first major slasher film villains alongside Michael...

 (and including their own Chucky
Chucky
Chucky or Chuckie may refer to:*Charles*Chuckie Akenz , Vietnamese-Canadian rapper*Chuckie Egg, a 1983 home computer video game**Chuckie Egg 2, its 1985 sequel*Chuckie , Surinamese-Dutch DJ...

) for Halloween Horror Nights, Universal Studios Hollywood
Universal Studios Hollywood
Universal Studios Hollywood is a movie studio and theme park in the unincorporated Universal City community of Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is one of the oldest and most famous Hollywood movie studios still in use...

 used the characters for a second year in 2008. In 2010, Hollywood again used the characters Freddy Krueger
Freddy Krueger
Frederick Charles "Freddy" Krueger is a fictional, horrifying character from the Nightmare on Elm Street series of horror films. He first appears in Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street as a disfigured dream stalker who uses a glove armed with razors to kill his victims in their dreams,...

 and Jason Voorhees
Jason Voorhees
Jason Voorhees is a fictional character from the Friday the 13th series of slasher films. He first appeared in Friday the 13th , as the son of camp cook-turned-murderer, Mrs. Voorhees, in which he was portrayed by Ari Lehman. Created by Victor Miller, with contributions by Ron Kurz, Sean S...

, in their newer incarnation following franchise reboots.

2010 marks the 20th installment of the event at the Orlando park, titled "Twenty Years of Fear", featuring the embodiment of Fear itself as the event's icon.

In 2011, Universal Studios Singapore began their Halloween Horror Nights events.

Universal Orlando Resort



Universal Studios Hollywood



Universal Studios Singapore


Event Icons

Halloween Horror Nights has amassed a number of characters, known as icons, some being original creations and some using licensed characters. These icons usually had elaborate back-stories that involved the event's theme, houses, or scare zones. Predominantly they have been used for promotional materials and merchandising. The first unofficial icon was Crypt Keeper, from the TV series Tales from the Crypt
Tales from the Crypt (TV series)
Tales from the Crypt, sometimes titled HBO's Tales from the Crypt, is an American horror anthology television series that ran from 1989 to 1996 on the premium cable channel HBO...

, a series popular at the time of his first event appearance (HHN V). The Crypt Keeper returned the next year for one of the houses, but was not featured in the advertising campaign. After the Crypt Keeper, the event continued for four years without an icon. Halloween Horror Nights has had an icon, and in some cases multiple icons, every year since, excluding Halloween Horror Nights XIV. These icon characters include Jack the Clown, the Caretaker, the Director, the Storyteller, Bloody Mary, the Usher, Fear and Lady Luck.

Houses

When the event first started as "Fright Nights", there was simply one haunted house, but as the event progressed the number has increased up to as many as eight different houses.

Scare Zones

Halloween Horror Nights IV was the first year to introduce a "scare zone", a name given to specific outdoor areas that feature theming and costumed characters with the intent of scaring people who walk through the areas. To get to certain areas of the park, it is necessary to travel through these scare zones.

Live Entertainment

Halloween Horror Nights has featured several live entertainment shows; Recurring shows have included "The Rocky Horror Picture Show
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
The Rocky Horror Picture Show is the 1975 film adaptation of the British rock musical stageplay, The Rocky Horror Show, written by Richard O'Brien. The film is a parody of B-movie, science fiction and horror films of the late 1940s through early 1970s. Director Jim Sharman collaborated on the...

: A Tribute", "Bill and Ted
Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure
Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure is a 1989 American science fiction–comedy buddy film and the first film in the Bill & Ted franchise in which two metalhead slackers travel through time to assemble a menagerie of historical figures for their high school history presentation.The film was written by...

's Excellent Halloween Adventure", and Robosaurus
Robosaurus
Robosaurus is a transforming dinosaur robot created by inventor Doug Malewicki in 1989 and is currently owned and operated by Monster Robots, Inc. Robosaurus is modeled after Transformers toys with the driver sitting in the head of the robot, and the ability to transform from a 48-foot semi trailer...

.

Rides

Several of the rides at Universal Studios remain operational during the event. In past event years, some rides were re-themed for the event. (i.e. Kongfrontation became Tramway of Doom during HHN 2)

Commercials & Media

Universal's Halloween Horror Nights is known for its creepy advertisements and morbidly grotesque commercials. In 2010, The directors of Daybreakers (Michael Spierig and Peter Spierig) directed the Halloween Horror Nights 2010 commercial. There haven't been any official movies based on Univeral's Halloween Horror Nights, despite Universal Studios being known principally as a movie making business. A horror short was released to Youtube that is based on one of the haunted houses from Halloween Horror Nights 2010 called "Horror Nights: The Hallow'd Past". Despite not being officially released by Universal, it is considered to be the closest equivalent to a Horror Nights movie currently available.
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