Review: Universal Horror Unleashed Las Vegas

Universal Horror Unleashed is a permanent Halloween Horror Nights-style installation located in the AREA15 entertainment complex in Las Vegas, Nevada. Universal Horror Unleashed is open year round, and will usually operate 5 days a week. In this post we’ll go over the various haunted houses, dining, scare actors, and everything else it has to offer, as well as let you know if we think it’s worth the cost of admission.

Universal Horror Unleashed is part of AREA15’s Zone 2 expansion. You may have heard of AREA15, which is famous for Meow Wolf’s interactive art installation known as Omega Mart. The new Zone 2 area brings several new additions to the complex, including a escape room, a nightlife venue inside an actual Boeing 747, a flagship location of the Museum of Ice Cream, and other dining and retail spots. Universal Horror Unleashed is an interesting concept on paper: take the extremely popular Halloween Horror Nights events from Universal theme parks around the world and give them a permanent home in a city that sees over 40 million visitors a year. I assumed this meant each haunted house/maze would have a fairly noticeable jump in quality from the temporary iterations found in the theme parks each year. But do they actually look any different? More on that later.

What Universal Horror Unleashed has to offer:

Universal Horror Unleashed Haunted Houses:

• Universal Monsters
• Scarecrow: The Reaping
• The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
• Blumhouse’s The Exorcist: Believer

Universal Horror Unleashed Dining:

• Premiere House (bar and full service restaurant)
• Rough Cuts (quick service restaurant)
• The Boiler (bar)
• Jack’s Alley (bar)

Universal Horror Unleashed Entertainment:

• Stay or Slay stage show
• Various performers as spooky characters

Universal Horror Unleashed Tickets and Pricing:

Various ticket options are available for Universal Horror Unleashed. General admission tickets that offer one-time access to each house start at $69, while general admission tickets offering unlimited access to each house start at $99. When purchasing a ticket you’ll be prompted with selecting a entry time. The hours of Universal Horror Unleashed are 2:00 PM to 10:00 PM, and the latest entry time available when I purchased my tickets was 8:45 PM. It looks like Universal has changed the last available time for any given date to be 8:00 PM. Based on my personal observations and the experience of others I’ve seen online, you absolutely should not arrive at Universal Horror Unleashed this late in the day.

I’ll jump ahead to the most baffling operational decision we encountered during our visit to Universal Horror Unleashed. My girlfriend and I selected 7:00 PM as our entry time. We assumed with only four houses on the lineup that we would have plenty of time to see everything. And we definitely would have seen everything if Universal didn’t close one of the houses over an hour before the advertised closing time. I looked everywhere on the Universal Horror Unleashed website to see if there were individual house hours published, or information stating that houses would close well before the venue’s closing time. There is zero information regarding this, and no announcements were made inside. We had just finished dining around 8:45 PM with the intention of finishing the night with the only house we had not yet completed, only to find the Texas Chainsaw Massacre haunted house had already closed for the night. About 40 other customers were standing around the house’s entrance looking completely dumbfounded. I don’t think this would have stung as much if Universal had just been transparent with the individual haunted house hours. Simply putting up a sign at each house’s entrance with hours would go a long way towards fixing this.

By 9:30 PM, three of the four haunted houses were closed for the night. Theme parks will occasionally close ride queues early at the end of the night due to a large number of people waiting in line, but this didn’t appear to be the case. I didn’t see many people in line at all during that time of night. This caused a noticeable line of people waiting to complain.

Even if all four houses were operational until the end of the night, you should still not opt for the 8:00 PM time slot when purchasing a ticket. I doubt you’d be able to experience all four houses and watch the Stay or Slay stage show in only a couple of hours of time.

Entrance Experience:

The Universal Horror Unleashed website is very clear that tickets are non-refundable and non-exchangeable, and that visitors must arrive at their selected time slot. My girlfriend and I arrived about 30 minutes before our time slot because we were worried about a long line at security. There was not much of a line, and the security and ticket scanning process was quick and smooth. We were allowed in about 25 minutes before our 7:00 PM time slot.

Upon entering we encountered a few performers on the ground and in the air, and this where Universal Horror Unleashed shines. Several performers hang out in the common areas outside of the houses. Some of them have elaborate backstories and lore behind them, and are ready to explain it all to anyone who strikes up a conversation. There also are general scare actors that hide behind old barrels and other props to jump-scare unsuspecting visitors. All of the performers we encountered were excellent and really added to the experience.

Much like a theme park, visitors are free to roam around the common area and do things in any order they wish. Performers roamed around constantly while we were there, and the only scheduled event was the Stay or Slay stage show, but I didn’t see the performance times listed anywhere.

Each Haunted House has two queues. At the end of the first queue, a employee scans your admission ticket, which then grants you access to a queue specifically themed to each individual haunted house. The longest wait my girlfriend and I had for a house was when Scarecrow: The Reaping randomly closed for about 30 minutes while we were in line. We later found out the line had stopped moving because the actors inside the maze went on their breaks. Again, this is where posted house hours would have helped. If we would have known houses would close for 30+ minutes at a time, we would have done other things.

Haunted House Experiences:

Note: No photos or videos were allowed inside the four Haunted Houses during my visit.

Universal Monsters

The Universal Monsters house starts off in a crypt that features busts of all the famous Universal monsters, such as Frankenstein’s Monster, Wolf Man, Creature from the Black Lagoon, and more.

After entering the tomb at the end of the entrance queue, we found ourselves in the The Hunchback of Notre Dame’s bell tower. There’s a simple-yet-effective effect where the floor below the giant bells in the tower gives an illusion of depth. From there we encountered several scare actors hidden among vines and other vegetation before encountering the Creature from the Black Lagoon. Next up we entered Dracula’s area, which included several more vampire scare actors. The tour then brought us into The Mummy’s tomb, where mummies and skeletons jump out through tattered fabrics. The Phantom of the Opera section starts in a hallway where walls suddenly disappear to reveal some monster mannequins hidden behind them. Neat effect, but the monster mannequin looked a bit cheesy. An impressive set piece in this area was a giant crashed chandelier. I was hoping for more big impressive visuals like this, especially considering these are permanent renditions of these haunted houses, but unfortunately there are only a few of these big impressive set pieces.

The closing area of Universal Monsters was not only the most impressive part of of the house, but it showed the full potential of the entire Universal Horror Unleashed experience. Dr. Frankenstein gathered a few groups of people, flipped a switch, and activated his monster, who then sprung from his table before chasing everyone out of the room. This included some cool lighting, sound, and smoke effects. The house ends in a similar looking crypt where the stone busts from the beginning of the experience have now come to life to give visitors some jump scares.

Blumhouse’s The Exorcist: Believer

The Exorcist: Believer starts in a marketplace in Haiti. The queue weaves through various shopping stalls stocked with items. Security repeatedly tells visitors “DON’T TOUCH THE PROPS,” and that’s for a good reason. Most of the items are within arms reach and look pretty delicate. For example, some plain ol’ everyday food takeout containers where sitting on a counter. Hopefully visitors behave themselves and this queue doesn’t get thrashed.

The story of The Exorcist house is about two little girls who are missing and then turn out to be possessed. There’s a good transition between the shopping area in the queue, into a creepy shack lit with candles, and then into a wooded area where actors portraying parents and a police officer are looking for the missing children. From here we progressed through a house where encountered various horned demons and possessed little girls. There’s a nice moment where shadows are being projected at the top of a set of stairs. The shadows show one of the possessed girls contorting her body into unnatural ways. Lighting effects built into the floor created a cool effect in one of the final rooms.

From there we progressed through the rooms of the house for some more jump scares, and let me tell you, there are no shortage of scare actors in this one. Overall The Exorcist: Believer was a good haunted house, and in my opinion this felt like the most permanent of the three houses I saw.

Scarecrow: The Reaping

Unlike the other houses at Horror Unleashed, this one is based off of an original concept. The maze originally appeared at both Universal Studios Hollywood and Florida. The experience starts in front of an old creaky farmhouse, and once inside we encountered a few creatures that popped out of holes in the walls, and one who suddenly appeared from behind a painting that dropped out of the way. The inside of the barn was standard Halloween maze stuff, but the final room of Scarecrow: The Reaping was impressive. The house ends in a cornfield, where stalks of corn are suspended from the ceiling. The room is densely populated with these corn stalks, which required us to use our arms to push the stalks aside. The rim of the room is covered with mirrors to give the appearance of a endless cornfield. There’s also a impressive dust storm effect that happens occasionally.

Scarecrow: The Reaping then suddenly ends in a un-themed concrete hallway. This house had its moments, but like the other mazes I did during my visit, it felt short in length, and there were spots that were a bit bland. I’ll save my final thoughts for the conclusion. For now, let’s talk about dining.

Stay or Slay Stage Show

A small stage located near the Premiere House restaurant features a “game show” called Stay or Slay. The show stars recurring Halloween Horror Night characters, Jack and Chance. The story of the show is that performers have been taken from the Las Vegas strip and are forced to perform for the crowd and Jack’s gang of freaks. Volunteers from the audience decide if each of the performers “stay” (live) or “slay” (die). The volunteers from the audience are tasked with deciding the fate of the performers, but both sides of their signs say “SLAY.” A performer is then executed via electricity. Stay or Slay is a fun little show that lasts about 15 minutes. The only odd part is that the first 5 minutes of the show happen inside Jack’s Alley, which is behind the stage. That means everyone waiting for the show at the stage misses the first part. I didn’t see showtimes posted anywhere so you’ll have to ask a Universal team member during your visit.

 

Universal Horror Unleashed Dining

Premiere House is a full service restaurant and lounge inside Universal Horror Unleashed. The restaurant is mostly unthemed, with the exception of a few photo ops, which made it the most underwhelming area inside the entire venue.

The bar inside Premiere House.

There are a few theater lobby-style backdrops for photo ops, including a giant Blumhouse logo.

Megan will appear periodically to do a dance and a brief photo op. My girlfriend and I were at Premiere House for over an hour, and Megan appeared one time. Check with Universal team members for during your visit for times.

The menu looks like it’s covered in dried blood. So that’s cool.

We tried a few items on the menu, including this Pizza Skull ($12) which is filled with pepperoni, mozzarella, and marinara sauce. I’m a sucker for gimmicky looking novelty food, and this is the exact kind of nonsense I want to eat in a place like Universal Horror Unleashed. 

Here’s a look at the inside. It’s a mini calzone, so it’s hard to mess that up.

The Texas Chainsaw flatbread ($13) is topped with sausage, pepperoni, mozzarella cheese, and spicy tomato sauce. This was a pretty standard pizza, and the gimmick here is that the edge looks like a chainsaw blade. Fun.

The Brisket Burger ($16) sliders are topped with candied bacon, swiss cheese, and crispy onions. As you can tell from the pictures, Premiere House specializes in typical bar food. Nothing is bad or great. Everything is good or decent.

Jack’s face stamped into one of the sliders. Perfect.

The Boiler Bread ($13) is highlighted on the menu as one of Premiere House’s signature items. The description says “Garlic-herb stuffed pumpernickel roll and fiery smoked paprika cheese sauce.” Focus on the word “fiery.” In media coverage leading up to the opening I saw pictures of the cheese on this appetizer lit on fire. We also saw this in person delivered to a group of people with media badges sitting at a table behind us. Our cheese was not lit on fire, none of the other normal visitors sitting around us had flaming cheese, either. This could be a fluke: you could visit next month and have your cheese lit on fire, but I thought it was worth mentioning so you can set your expectations. For some reason Halloween Horror Nights/Las Vegas super fans on Twitter were very upset at ME when I brought this up. (Since I also occasionally waste my time getting irrationally angry about very stupid things other people say on the Internet, I understand the passion that drives this.)

The appetizer itself is good. It’s a big gooey cheesy mess, so you can’t go wrong with that.

For dessert we got the Haybale ($12), which is a pecan kataifi roll, butter pecan ice cream, pecan crumble, and caramel sauce. It’s delicious, but the highlight here is that it’s served on a shovel. 10/10 presentation. No notes. I was completely delighted by this.

The Boiler is a bar that visitors encounter immediately upon entering Universal Horror Unleashed. Events like Halloween Horror Nights usually have fun themed drinks, so my girlfriend wanted to order something. I don’t drink alcohol, and there are no non-alcoholic drinks on the menu with fun names or themes (just standard Coca-Cola products, Liquid Death water, and Monster Energy), so I passed on getting anything.

At the top of The Boiler’s menu, highlighted in red, is Severed Pear ($19). Ingredients include Woodford Reserve Bourbon, St. George Spiced Pear Liqueur, Baking Spice, and Angostura Aromatic Bitters. This was $19 and served in a basic glass. They couldn’t throw a plastic severed finger or fake spider or little candy brain in there?

Other dining locations include Rough Cuts, where you can get ribs, sausage, pork shoulder and other barbequed goods, with prices around $15. There’s also Jack’s Alley for beer, wine, and cocktails.

Universal Horror Unleashed Merchandise

There’s not enough room in this post to go over every piece of merch, but a plethora of goods is available for purchase. Water bottles, hoodies, shirts, figures, mugs, and more are stocked in the gift shop.

Fun display with heads and brains in jars.
A fun Las Vegas themed souvenir is the Horror Unleashed poker chip pin.

Universal Horror Unleashed spirit jersey.

Each item includes a toe tag with the price on it. This is such a nice touch.

Final Thoughts on Universal Horror Unleashed

My main bit of criticism about Universal Horror Unleashed, besides the operational issues I mentioned previously, are that many parts of the houses still feel like temporary theme park attractions. There are some impressive moments, both in terms of set decoration and set pieces, but for the most part the houses feel like they could be taken down tomorrow. For the price of admission I was expecting something that felt a bit more permanent. Think about certain parts of a Disney or Universal theme park, such as the queue for Indiana Jones Adventure at Disneyland, or anything about Monsters Unchained: The Frankenstein Experiment at Epic Universe. There’s nothing in Universal Horror Unleashed with that level of quality, and I’m not even talking about the animatronics. There are sections in every haunted house where you can look up and see the exposed ceiling of the building Universal Horror Unleashed is located in. I know that’s nitpicky, but it’s noticeable. I don’t think it’s unrealistic to expect a year-round horror attraction built by Universal to be as high in quality as a typical theme park attraction. Especially one that charges anywhere from $69 to $99 for general admission and only has four experiences. There’s also the issue of haunted house length. Again, since this is a year-round venue I thought the houses would be longer than they were. We made sure to walk through each house slowly and still finished them in around 6 minutes each.

As for the Premiere House restaurant, it’s shocking how unremarkable the interior is. While my partner and I were dining we overheard some Universal employees that looked like management types. They were discussing how the Premiere House would be used for corporate parties and other private events. I assume Universal is counting on such buyouts to be a big part of the business plan for Universal Horror Unleashed.

It makes me curious, did Universal not have that much faith in their concept? Was the budget not high enough because they were worried about low attendance? There are flashes of brilliance, and the artists who put it all together did a fantastic job with the constraints they were given.

None of what I said, or what any of the other negative and positive reviews said, may matter in the end. The core demographic of Universal Horror Unleashed will be normal everyday people who are visiting Las Vegas, and it’ll be one of the 30 things on their itinerary to see while they’re in town. Hardcore Halloween Horror Nights fans will find a lot to be delighted by. The common area is filled with props and items from previous HHNs, and to my knowledge Universal Horror Unleashed is the only place where you can take a picture with Jack the Clown. But will they make the trek all the way out to Las Vegas, and will there be enough of that demographic to keep this thing going long-term?

One area where Universal Horror Unleashed shines is the cast and staff. There’s a ton of scare actors both in and out of the houses that all did a great job. Hopefully Universal treats them well and the venue can retain all the passionate performers who add a lot to the experience.

Is Universal Horror Unleashed Worth It?

It’s hard for me to recommend Universal Horror Unleashed in its current state. We paid $86 with a Nevada resident discount. That’s a big ask, especially when Universal Studios Hollywood is only an hour plane ride away. There you get the full Halloween Horror Nights experience plus the park’s usual lineup of rides for $77 to $107. I know people visiting Las Vegas aren’t going to make the trek to LA. But a fifth of people flying into Las Vegas do so from Los Angeles. It’s also up against stiff competition within the same entertainment complex. Admission to Meow Wolf’s Omega Mart is around $50 and is truly a unique experience. If there was anything in Universal Horror Unleashed that truly blew me away, then it would be a no-brainer. But for now I recommend waiting to see how this thing evolves over the next year or so.

Have you experienced Universal Horror Unleashed? Are you looking forward to seeing it? Let me know in the comments.