IF YOU GO
Daily park-to-park admission for Universal Studios Florida and Universal Islands of Adventure ranges from $142-$147 per person for one day to $204.99-$214.99 for four days. Single-park admission ranges from $97-$102 for one day to $159.99 to $169.99 for four days.
Halloween Horror Nights: Starting at $101.99 for general admission ticket; starting at $49.99 to add on to an existing admission. For dates, go to universalorlando.com.
Getting there
Driving from Atlanta to Orlando, Fla., takes approximately seven to eight hours. Airlines including Delta offer flights regularly from Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta. Budget airlines, such as Frontier and Spirit, offer discount fares.
TOP 3 HALLOWEEN HORROR NIGHTS MAZES
After exploring most of the haunted houses at Universal Orlando’s Halloween Horror Nights, this unholy trinity rises to the top.
“An American Werewolf in London”
Based on John Landis’ game-changing 1981 horror-comedy, this maze deftly drops guests into the film, from the Slaughtered Lamb pub to Piccadilly Circus. Although Landis said he enjoyed the original maze in 2013, he told Universal creatives to “step up with the wolves.” And they did, he said, by referencing the original wolf molds.
“Asylum in Wonderland 3-D”
Using black light and fluorescent paint, and having visitors wear special glasses, this twisted take on “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” offers a sickly psychedelic 3-D sensation. Dodo birds bounce on trampolines, the Mad Hatter dances on a table in front of a disemboweled white rabbit and Alice herself threatens to break out of her straitjacket.
“Jack Presents: 25 Years of Monsters and Mayhem”
Mike Aiello, Universal Orlando Resort’s director of creative development for its entertainment art and design team, says if there’s a maze newbies should line up for first, this is it. “It’s a great table of contents of a lot of the environments and characters our great team has created over the past 25 years,” he said. This includes this year’s host, Jack the clown, as well as Dracula and the rest of the classic Universal monsters.
HALLOWEEN ALL YEAR LONG
Other attractions available at the two Universal theme parks in Orlando have that Halloween flavor year-round.
The Wizarding World of Harry Potter
A land based on the ever-popular book and film series, spread out across both Universal Studios Florida and Universal Islands of Adventure parks, arguably sets the theme park bar. Spring for the two-park pass so you can hop aboard the Hogwarts Express train, an attraction in itself, and visit Hogsmeade at Islands of Adventure and Diagon Alley at Universal Studios. The latter, the latest addition, breaks new ground in immersion. From a full-size, fire-breathing dragon to wand-waving interaction to the remarkable Harry Potter and the Escape From Gringotts ride, the Wizarding World continues to cast a spell like no other.
Universal Monster Cafe
Walking the parks can stir up a beastly appetite. This quick-service theme restaurant nestled in the Universal Studios park honors Universal’s old school creature features. Nosh on pizza, burgers or ribs in dining rooms decked out like monstrous movie sets, including Dracula’s castle and the Creature from the Black Lagoon’s swamp.
Revenge of the Mummy
Located in the Universal Studios park, this indoor roller coaster hurls guests past mummified animatronics and special effects at speeds as fast as 45 mph. Watch out for scarabs.
Monstrous eyes upon me, I can almost feel the fixed gazes of Frankenstein’s monster, the Wolf Man and possessed plaything Chucky staring right through me.
They serve as the appropriate audience as Michael Burnett, makeup designer with Universal Orlando Resort’s entertainment art and design team, transforms me into a creature of the night for Halloween Horror Nights, the destination’s annual creeptastic celebration.
As I’m perched in a director’s chair inside a theater that houses Universal Studios Florida’s Horror Make-up Show attraction, those menacing movie props surrounding me, I sit patiently while Burnett works his magic. In a matter of a few minutes, Burnett morphs this journalist into an escaped lunatic.
“Make sure and take advantage of the bald head,” I tell him.
He follows suit using a cream-based theatrical makeup for color and a thickened corn syrup blood paste for cuts and scratches. A patchwork of bruises and dirt litters my face, a stream of blood trickles out of my left ear and a nasty gouge slices across my follicly challenged pate.
I’m just one of nearly 700 mask and makeup looks Burnett and his team create in a single night for Halloween Horror Nights. An exhaustive roster of actors — “scareactors” in Universal park speak — inhabit Universal Studios Florida, one of the resort’s two theme parks, for 30 select nights from late September through Nov. 1.
“The lifeblood of the event are the scareactors,” says Mike Aiello, Universal’s director of creative development for its entertainment art and design team.
And this night, I’m one of them.
Immersing myself in the middle of Halloween Horror Nights, I witness the park pulling out all of the sinister stops for the event’s 25th anniversary. From concept to completion, it takes more than a year to create, and Universal’s think tank has a lot to live up to.
Like a live embodiment of a cult horror film, Halloween Horror Nights has its own zombie horde of dedicated fans. Many return year after year, some donning their old Halloween Horror Nights T-shirts like badges of honor, to see how the park conjures up new scares.
The 2015 edition proves to be Universal’s largest yet. A total of nine haunted houses, five outdoor scare zones and a pair of stage shows creep into view as the sun goes down, bringing to life an event intent on tingling the spines of those 13 and older.
Among this year’s more popular houses is one based on AMC’s “The Walking Dead,” the hit Georgia-filmed zombie TV series. Before becoming slathered in monster makeup, I take a walk through the attraction with Greg Nicotero, the show’s special effects makeup wiz, executive producer and sometime director. Sixteen-year-old Woodstock native Chandler Riggs, who portrays Carl Grimes on the show, managed to catch a quick flight from Atlanta in between shoots, and joins us for the journey.
In the dark, it’s hard to tell if the zombie inhabitants rattle Nicotero and Riggs. But when stumbling out of the house, the smile across Nicotero’s face appears to be that of a satisfied customer.
“We’re in everybody’s living rooms, bedrooms and kitchens when they watch the show,” Nicotero says. “So people already feel a connection to the characters and the environment. Having them being able to walk through (the scenes) takes it to that extra level. To me, the most exciting thing about Halloween Horror Nights is you get to experience it live.”
Riggs echoes the eerie sentiment. It’s one thing to see zombies on set and bump into them at craft services. “The Walking Dead” house at Halloween Horror Nights is another.
“To live the scene, and get to come back and live it again is a pretty cool experience,” Riggs says. “It was great to see the walkers there scaring me.”
I step into my assigned scare zone and see throngs of others appreciating the thrill of the fright. The park’s faux New York streets have been overtaken by a group of criminally insane patients, which I’m a part of. After getting some scare tips from Billy Mick, an assistant show director with Universal Orlando’s entertainment art and design team, I’m ready for action.
Wielding a plastic hammer, I wave it in the air insanely, attempting to spook a group of guests. My maniac yelps, however, simply cause them to run away at a breakneck pace.
The irony of visitors rushing through a place they’ve paid to visit isn’t lost on me. Director John Landis, whose 1981 horror flick “An American Werewolf in London” becomes immortalized yet again as a Halloween Horror Nights haunted maze, says he feels the same.
“What makes me crazy is people wait for like two hours to get into the maze,” he says. “They walk in and after the first scare, they run. And I’m thinking, ‘Slow down!’”
The fiery explosion nearby ups the intensity of my scare zone, not to mention the amount of perspiration soaking into my patient scrubs. After hunting for the perfect victim, I spot a small group of young ladies, who have yet to see me.
Popping over her left shoulder, I shock a woman with my bloodcurdling shriek, shaking the hammer in her face. She leans back against the guard rail and screams continuously as I lay it on thick. It doesn’t take long to realize I’ve done my job.
“What I like most about Halloween Horror Nights is the fact that it’s live theater,” Landis explains. “And it’s not just ‘boo.’ They’re doing song and dance, creating ambience … and building sets. … It’s really something.”
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