SATURDAY SIX Gets Scared at Universal’s 2024 HALLOWEEN HORROR NIGHTS (Nocturnal Circus, the Food, the Houses and MORE!)

This week’s SATURDAY SIX heads over to Universal Studios Florida for some frights at Halloween Horror Nights 33!

First, some backstory: while I’ve been going to the Universal parks since they first opened, I avoided HHN like the plague. I’m not really a fan of horror films, so I always assumed I wouldn’t be a fan of a horror seasonal event. When Universal got The Walking Dead for HHN 22, I decided it was time to finally go to the event because I was such a big fan of TWD comic book and TV show. I discovered quickly that HHN was much more than I ever gave it credit for, and instantly became one of my favorite things at any theme park. I’ve been going every year since, and HHN has gotten bigger and better along the way. Today we’re going to look at our favorite parts of HHN 33, starting with…

# 6 – HHN Tribute Store

Years from now we will look back at the seasonal Tribute Stores at Universal Studios Florida and think we were having a fever dream. In an era where it seems many companies are competing to see who can put in the absolute least amount of effort to get the most amount of money, Universal has been doing insanely great Tribute Stores multiple times per year. These are merchandise locations that are pure fan service to the nth degree, and we’ve seen Tribute Store themes that include the making of Jurassic Park, a haunted comic book store, and even classic films such as Jaws, E.T., and Back to the Future.

The story of this year’s HHN Tribute Store has guests stepping into a dystopian city where an ancient evil is wreaking havoc. Like all Tribute Stores, the layout has guests walking through multiple rooms with different set pieces but with the overarching story running throughout.

For me, it’s the little details that make these Tribute Stores so amazing. For example, before the Tribute Store actually opened, there was a brief period of time when scaffolding was put up around it and then shortly taken down. At the time, no one knew exactly why.

The scaffolding was for a photo used in a newspaper reference inside the store. This is an amazing level of detail for such a small amount of people who will even take the time to notice. For me though, THAT type of detail work is what separates Universal and Disney from their competitors.

A main running theme throughout all the rooms is the city being terrorized by a bat creature, so you will see interesting nods to that story.

Eventually, you will be able to come face to face with the creature itself.

My favorite part of any Tribute Store is the easter eggs that are put in for the super fans, including an appearance by Mr. Tape from this past summer’s Tribute Store.

Fan favorite Earl the Squirrel can be seen on an advertisement.

Like the Mr. Tape reference above, many of my personal favorite call backs are when the Tribute Stores reference former versions of the store, such as the ad below featuring the comic book from HHN 32 (one of my all time favorite pieces of theme park merchandise.)

In recent years, the Tribute Stores have allowed guests to be featured in the actual store. For the HHN 33 Tribute Store, guests could have their picture placed on various faux products inside the store, including cans of Gerg’s Llama Beans.

It’s always fun to see when guests have their pets featured in the Tribute Store, and there was a ready made item for them with “Eddie’s Crate of Flavour.” Eddie is a reference to the HHN character Eddie Schmidt, brother to the icon of all HHN icons, Jack the Clown.

Had to laugh seeing this ad for the Amulet of Fear interactive lanyard. For those who don’t know, this was an actual product that made its debut back in 2018 for HHN 28.

Think of the Amulet of Fear like Disney’s Glow with the Show line of merchandise. Something guests could wear that would “interact” with elements around the park. For the Amulet of Fear, this meant the skull would change colors or vibrate.

The Amulet of Fear was not a success, and they eventually made their way to the Universal Garage Sale, which is the closest thing that Universal has to the Disney Outlet Stores. Here’s what the Amulet of Fear rang up as at the Garage Sale…

A staple of every Tribute Store is the snack case, which is loaded with themed treats.

# 5 – Minion Monster and Lil’ Boo Popcorn Buckets

Regular readers of this fine blog series know how much I love theme park merchandise. I love the good stuff, I love the bad stuff, and what I possibly love most of all is the ugly stuff. One of my favorite styles of merchandise is mash ups. Over at Disney I loved the line of toys with mashed up Star Wars and classic Disney characters like Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. Universal has an amazing line of mashups featuring Hello Kitty with an assortment of movies including Jaws, Jurassic Park, and even Alfred Hitchock’s Psycho. For HHN season, we are slowly incorporating mashups of the Minions and Universal Classic Monsters. I think if the line is expanded, this can become a huge money maker in terms of merchandise.

This year we got several items featuring Bob the Minion as Frankensteins’ Monster. As a bonus, even Bob’s teddy Bear Tim got the Frankenstein treatment.

But what is REALLY COOL is that this Minion mashup also got its own popcorn bucket!

As with almost all the coolest popcorn buckets from Disney and Universal, they are actually pretty impractical vessels for popcorn and are more pieces of art. The popcorn is served separately in its own box.

As a bonus, not only does this popcorn bucket look incredible, it has an interactive element. When you push down on Tim the teddy bear, the popcorn bucket glows and features several different sound effects.

For those SAT 6 readers of a certain age, they will remember the character Urkel from the TV show Family Matters. Like “The Fonz” for a generation before him on Happy Days, Urkel went from a side character on a show to the main star within a year. HHN had their breakout character a couple years ago with Lil’ Boo, a small and adorable pumpkin (created by artist Emory Alvarado) who stole everyone’s heart outside the Wicked Growth house. Today, Lil’ Boo even has its own line of merchandise at HHN, including magnets, a Lil’ Boo sipper, and even a shoulder Lil’ Boo you can walk around the park with.

One thing Lil’ Boo hasn’t had is a popcorn bucket. However, back in 2022 this fine blog series had an Artist Spotlight feature on Ava Buric. In that article, Ava talked about being inspired by the Figment popcorn bucket phenomenon to create a line of buckets for Universal, and drew popcorn buckets featuring Jaws, the character Magdoll from E.T. Adventure, and Lil’ Boo…

As the prophecy foretold, Universal itself put out a Lil’ Boo popcorn bucket for HHN 33.

Like the great Lotus Flower popcorn bucket from Disney’s Rivers of Light, Lil’ Boo not only looks fantastic, but is also a great way to actually store popcorn.

The next part is truly next level, because not only does Lil’ Boo have a lighting feature which makes the bucket really pop at night…

… but also a mini projector which projects an image of Lil’ Boo and “HHN 2024.” Now THAT is straight up E-Ticket!

# 4 – THE FOOD

One of the biggest changes at HHN since I began going is the glow up when it comes to food featured at the event. Gone are the days of un-themed tents selling reheated slices of pizza, and instead we have a series of fully themed outdoor kitchens offering a wide variety of food options, many of which are NEXT LEVEL BONKERS.

The hit snack of HHN 33 – and the reason we finally created the HHN Food Hall of Fame – was the Mini Stay Puft S’more. This is the perfect combination of a food tying into an IP that looks fantastic and also tastes great.

Then you’ll have stuff like this Frozen Death Chill, which ties into the Ghostbusters Frozen Empire theme and is – get this – mint cheesecake that is dipped in corndog batter and covered with Bugles.

WHAT?!

The Walking Taco made its HHN debut last year using Fritos, and this year Doritos were added to the mix.

The Walking Tacos are so good they need to be offered at the parks all year long. Just like there is no reason that delicious beignets should only be offered during Mardi Gras season, The Walking Taco needs to exist beyond HHN.

There’s even a vegan friendly Walking Taco!

The Summer Camp Dog featured a deep fried hot dog (????) and topped with Tostitos nacho cheese, baked beans, pepper relish, and Doritos crumble. Believe it or not, all of these ingredients actually work well together.

In the Fog Fish ‘n Chips (crispy beer battered cod nuggets, malt vinegar aioli and pub fries) just might be the best all around item at HHN 33. That said, I’m biased because when I go to EPCOT, I love stopping by the UK and grabbing fish’n chips there too.

All the major houses have outdoor kitchens featuring items inspired by that universe. Insidious is exactly the type of horror movie that I have less than zero interest in seeing, but I can also understand why so many HHN fans would love it. This “Eggs in the Further” dish shows the wide variety of food available at the event, becoming very much like EPCOT’s Food & Wine Festival.

Don’t sleep on the Rocks From Hell…

…which taste much better than they look.

Even Minion Café got into the HHN action with a special item: Evil Minion Totchos.

How can you not love an item that is described as “Minion tots relaxing in their Pimento cheese sauce hot tub?” I mean that’s just incredible.

# 3 – Nightmare Fuel: Nocturnal Circus

While I’ll always have a place in my heart for Bill & Ted’s Excellent Halloween Adventure, I have to admit that Nightmare Fuel has been growing on me every year that they have performed at HHN. This year the nightmare returns to a circus stuck in a murderous loop where our hero attempts to save the love of his life from an illusion gone wrong. Returning are the fire dancers, provocative dancing, daring stunts, and illusions with an all-new opening and ending to the show. I already enjoyed the fantastic Nightmare Fuel crew, but I’m also a sucker for anything circus themed, so having these two things mashed up was just fantastic. I’ve finally gone from just missing Bill & Ted to looking forward to what Nightmare Fuel will come up with next.

# 2 – The Scarezones

The Scarezones located throughout HHN have become a bigger part of my personal experience. Previously, my personal HHN TouringPlan consisted of “gotta get to a house, then another house, then another house,” etc, but now I enjoy taking my time and just walking around. Taking it all in. People watching. During one of our Unmasking the Horror tours years ago, we walked backstage and saw the area where scareactors were getting ready. It was amazing just to see the process, along with how many moving parts there are to HHN. It made me truly appreciate the scareactors and the people behind the scenes who help them get ready every night.

The first scarezone of any HHN is when you first walk into the park, and that’s also where you’ll be introduced to the icon for the event. For HHN we have two icons: SINIST3R and SURR3AL.

These demons have taken residence at the front of the park in the Duality of Fear scarezone where guests can interact with the two manifestations along with a gaggle of chainsaw wielders.

Like many previous HHN Icons (including Jack the Clown, the Usher, and the Director), SINIST3R and SURR3AL have already inspired many artists.

You’ll see nods to SINIST3R and SURR3AL throughout the park.

Let’s check out the other scarezones, starting with Torture Faire. The yearly RenFaire interested in all sorts of torture devices like the iron maidens to murderous turkey legs (no we’re not making that up), with dozens of scare actors roaming the streets as victims or torturers.

Demon Queens in Hollywood, a scare zone dedicated to SURR3AL’s minions of horror.

Swamp of the Undead in Central Park which features zombies in a swamp. Simple concept, great execution.

Enter the Blumhouse is a cramped, small scarezone located in the San Francisco section of the park featuring characters from Blumhouse’s films like The Purge, M3GAN, and The Black Phone. Be careful of crowds after Nightmare Fuel and when M3GAN begins her dance.

Speaking of Blumhouse, one of the movies they have coming out next year is a reboot of the Wolfman. For HHN there was a backdrop for this movie set up for a photo-op. In early September, the Wolfman himself made an appearance and it didn’t go as well as Blumhouse probably wanted it to. The character only came out for one night, and this particular photo-op was changed to a more generic HHN themed one.

# 1 – The Houses

The signature part of any HHN are the haunted house experiences. Like I mentioned earlier, despite going to Universal since it opened in the 1990s I always avoided HHN because I wouldn’t consider myself a “horror fan.” But once I went I was hooked, and while I wasn’t a fan of some of the movies used for the haunted houses, I could appreciate the design of each house from an artistic standpoint. It was also just fun being “scared” by the scareactors inside, and even more fun watching other people get scared. Where I thought Universal really shined was in their original houses that weren’t tied to an IP, but even I had to admit it was an IP that got me personally into the door.

Halloween Horror Nights 33 features ten haunted houses based on popular movies and original concepts from Universal. There are no bad houses this year – nine that are fantastic to really great, and one…well, shall we say, misguided one. The houses all seem to be received extremely well, and besides one notable exception, everyone’s favorite lists are vastly different. We’re going to to look at TouringPlans’ own Joseph Matt‘s take on the houses, because he is much more objective about horror related houses than me.

NOTE: Universal forbids filming or taking pictures inside any of their houses, with the exception of those taken during media events or their Unmasking the Horror tours (which I could not recommend highly enough.) The pictures you see in this section were taken during an Unmasking the Horror tour.

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire – a surprise hit this year with a house significantly better than the movie that inspired it. Guests will come face to face with fan favorites like Slimer and Vigo plus new monsters (⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️).

DEREK NOTE: One thing I love about the Unmasking the Horror tours is you get a look at so many details inside a house that most HHN guests will miss when going through the house at night. This is because: 1) you get to take your time as you go through each house but more importantly, 2) the lights are on, revealing many details that are much harder to see at night when you are walking through and being scared by various scareactors working the rooms.

Insidious: The Further – is a super headliner of this year’s Halloween Horror Nights and a house we consider not to be missed. This year’s house is not focused on one single movie or monster but instead a mash-up of all the terrors that await us in the further (⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 1/2 ).

Slaughter Sinema 2 – a celebration of horror B-movies and it returns this year with a whole new slate of cheesy movies to walk through. The fake movie aesthetic and Mystery Science Theater 3000 vibes are a winner in our book (⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️).

DEREK NOTE – The Discover Universal blog has a pro-tip that guests should try bringing a pair of 3-D glasses when going through Slaughter Sinema 2 for what they describe as “a cinematic surprise.”

Universal Monsters: Eternal Bloodlines – stars the daughter of Van Helsing as she slays monsters to save humanity. This house had a lot of scares including some special mummy scares like when a scare actor comes at you on a suspended harness. While not as strong as in prior years we enjoyed the sets and storyline (⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 1/2).

Goblin’s Feast – earned the nickname “Evil Shrek” from our party, Goblin’s is a fun Dungeons and Dragons-inspired house where those aligned on Chaotic Evil eat those pesky humans. This house is fun, scary, a little gory, and will put a smile on your face (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️).

DEREK NOTE: One memorable element in Goblin’s Feast is the hand of a giant. Universal fans have seen this hand before…

…when it was King Kong’s hand in the 2022 Summer Tribute Store.

Monstruous: The Monsters of Latin America – an import from Universal Studios Hollywood and focuses on the mythical demons found in Central and South America. The house is disturbing and gross, with baby snatching and lots of butchered animals, but if you can get past that you’ll find a beautifully designed house with an impressive mechanical figure in it (⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️).

Triplets of Terror – has the roughest story out of any of this year’s houses: we’re going back in time through a True Crime Podcast angle to witness the murders committed by this family. Once your expectations are calibrated you’ll find a terrifying house full of amazing details, like a Happy Birthday sign made with intestines (⭐️⭐️⭐️).

Major Sweets Candy Co. – harkens back to the old days of HHN where guests would walk through industrial settings designed to kill and maim – like Giggles & Gore from 2014. This house expands the backstory of Major Sweets from HHN 31 where we discover how the kids became obsessed murderers and the plot to destroy the city. This house has lots of gross-out moments, like puking and forced feeding, so those with a weak stomach should advert their eyes (⭐️⭐️⭐️).

The Museum: Deadly Exhibits – gets our “at least you tried” award for 2024 with a house with a fun concept but meh execution. While the Rotting Stone does bring terrifying things to life in the museum we think the whole concept of rot, along with some meta-commentary on museums, was missing (⭐️⭐️).

A Quiet Place – brings the two movies to HHN with a haunted house heavy on the scares and startles. We found ourselves slightly confused going through the house but the large puppets were very impressive. (⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 1/2).

Honorable Mention – Dead Coconut Club

The Red Coconut Club got its now annual re-theme into the Dead Coconut Club.

The Dead Coconut is split into two different themes. Downstairs has a vampire theme, while upstairs is themed to characters from the Blumhouse universe of films.

The live music at Dead Coconut is always great.

Double Secret Honorable Mention – HHN Around the Resort

For several years, only Cabana Bay Beach Resort had any fun Halloween stuff (including an appearance by Lil’ Boo.) Slowly, more resorts started to get involved, and for HHN 33 every single Univeral hotel has photo ops along with various food and drink offerings tying into HHN season.

Even several of the restaurants in CityWalk have some next level bananas spooky merchandise. Everywhere you go at the Universal Orlando Resort, it “feels” like HHN. To me that’s awesome.

Triple Threat Honorable Mention – Iconic Mel’s DIE-IN Gets Merchandise

One of the things every HHN fan looks forward to the most is the transformation of Mel’s DRIVE-IN to Mel’s DIE-IN. It’s a simple effect with the neon lighting, but its wonderful.

This year, Universal offered a line of Mel’s DIE-IN merchandise for Annual Passholders, including this E-Ticket shirt.

So there you have it: The SATURDAY SIX Looks at HHN 33! See you next weekend for the latest installment of the SATURDAY SIX, where we’ll look at something fun from the world of Disney and Universal. If you enjoyed yourself, be sure to check out the THEME PARK ENJOYMENT INDEX, giving a monthly recap of all the theme park news you need to know (and a lot more you don’t need to know, but we’re gonna tell you anyway). You can also follow Your Humble Author on Twitter (@derekburgan).

If you enjoyed this article, you will surely like the following: 

The SATURDAY SIX Celebrates Ten Years with TouringPlans

SATURDAY SIX Presents: The Disney Merchandise Hall of Shame

SATURDAY SIX Presents: The Disney Signage Hall of Shame

SATURDAY SIX Presents: The Disney Food Hall of Shame

SATURDAY SIX: Tribute to Josh easyWDW

SATURDAY SIX: Tribute to Ian Barritt

Special Thanks to The Elite Brandon Glover, Digital Maestro Scott Walker, the bio-est of all reconstructs @bioreconstruct, Captain Cruiseline Scott Sanders of the world famous Disney Cruise Line Blog, my personal protege Hunter “Elvey” Underwood, artist @SonderQuest, the mighty maven of merchandise Hedgehog’s Corner, the SAT SIX Fun Squad of Parkscope Joe and “the Dadalorian” Nick, hot shot Michael Carelli, charter member of the Universal Four @Nitro230, the permit princess Alicia Stella, master cartographer Tommy Hawkins, and Hermione Granger’s tutor Megan Stump for their invaluable assistance with this article. Absolutely no help was added by SeaWorld Influencer @SuperWeenieHtJr. The SAT SIX is inspired each week by goofballs Aengus Mackenzie and LitemAndHyde and you Potterheads will  enjoy Meg’s other blog work over at the Central Florida Slug Club.

BEFORE WE GO…

A couple years back we covered at Universal working involving the use of NFTs during HHN. Long story short, we weren’t fans ( you can read more of my thoughts in the 2022 Theme Park Turkey of the Year Awards.)

This year Universal had another technology “advancement” at HHN that also had me grinding my gears. The Fanta kiosks featured artwork done by AI instead of actual humans. Couple tell tale signs on this one below, including a straw that seems to just be appearing into the cup and a skull having an ear to hold up the sunglasses. Theme park history is filled with a humongous amount of uncredited art from actual humans. Artwork that has entertained and enlightened us on a truly emotional level. Both Universal and Disney are above having this AI nonsense anywhere near their parks.