Every horror fan in Florida knows the terrifying joy of celebrating the holiday season at Universal Orlando’s Halloween Horror Nights. We wait for it all year ‘round, and start expecting teasers and tidbits during the lead-up to summer.
This year, all eyes have been on Universal’s new theme park Epic Universe, and not much has been said yet about Halloween Horror Nights. To be fair, we haven’t really complained, because there is a pretty strong emphasis on horror in Epic Universe. One section of the park has been christened Dark Universe, and its main cast of characters are well known classic horror figures (or offshoots of the same).
Dr. Victoria Frankenstein is an iconic figure, as are monsters such as The Wolfman, Count Dracula, Frankenstein’s monster, and so on. With all of the excitement about Epic Universe, many probably haven’t even given too much thought to Halloween Horror Nights.
Just for funsies, the HHN twitter/X account posted “first 4 houses dropped” on April 1, but the titles were clearly jokes: Check Engine: Dashboard Dangers, Sockocalypse: The Haunted Dryer, The Situationship and Mysteries of the Breakroom (“Welcome to the most uncomfortable breakroom you’ve ever entered”) were the announced houses.
But Universal dropped a brief teaser video today, and potential guests of the event are all abuzz talking about what it could all mean. In all honesty, there is not a lot of identifiable information included in the video, but let’s practice a little speculation. Here’s the teaser:
So…as you can see, it doesn’t give us much to go by, right? It’s basically just a static-y video, with (maybe) some whispers and heavy breathing? Some think this may be an indicator that a house might be related to Poltergeist, but that was done just a few years ago.
Though I doubt it has anything at all to do with 2022’s polarizing and very experimental analog horror movie Skinamarink, that’s what it made me think of. But the avant garde nature of that film doesn’t make it a good fit for a Halloween Horror Nights house, so I am 99.9% sure that it won’t happen. Then again, I am one of the weirdos who actually liked Skinamarink, so I wouldn’t mad about it if it did happen!
Universal Orlando’s Halloween Horror Nights will make its debut on August 29, and run through November 2, giving us three months to anticipate and plan ahead. Keep your eyes on 1428 Elm for more details as they emerge.