You’d think a previous traumatizing Halloween Horror Nights experience would’ve been enough to last me a lifetime. Well, like myself, you’d be wrong. As I’ve admitted before, I’m a bawk, bawk chicken butt when it comes to Halloween-style haunted houses.
Venturing to haunted places? No problem. Watching horror movies late at night? That’s part of my standard bedtime ritual.
But haunted houses of the Halloween variety with special effects, loud music, and masked people popping out at you? I’d be fine with just the first two, but the people part of Halloween haunted houses gets to me.
Yet, every Halloween, I’m intrigued by all the haunted attractions around the country. I’m finally past the point where I lie to myself that I can handle it. I know I can’t.
Still, I want to experience them and suffer massive FOMO every year, especially when it comes to Halloween Horror Nights. For 20 years, I’ve wanted to go back and try again. This year, I found a way to do it through one of their add-on experiences: the Behind the Screams lights on tour.
Was I able to handle it? And, if so, did it cure my FOMO?
How the Halloween Horror Nights Lights On Tour Works
The first thing I was curious about was how the lights on, a.k.a. Behind the Screams: Unmasking the Horror, tour worked. I found out when I bought tickets, which just required a visit to the official HHN Orlando site and picking a date. (Unless I’m missing something, Universal Studios Hollywood doesn’t offer the tour.)
The cool thing is you don’t need a separate park ticket. You can just buy the Behind the Screams tour ticket because you access the meet-up point from CityWalk. (We were celebrating my birthday and had park tickets.)
I bought our tickets two months in advance, in July, for a September 14 tour date. Soon after, I received a confirmation email with some general details about the tour, including how they’d send another email later about which houses we’d tour. But arrival and check-in info, how to make changes if necessary, tipping policies and procedures, what to wear, and other things to expect were also included in the initial email.
Only about two weeks later (far sooner than I expected) came the email I was most curious about—which houses we’d get to see. I was super curious if The Last of Us would be one of them. It was among the ones I most wanted to check out. Turned out it was! The other two were The Darkest Deal and Dr. Oddfellow’s Twisted Origins.
All we had to do next was head to the check-in spot on our tour date. The nice thing was that check-in was inside one of the soundstages on the property, which meant air conditioning. They had lots of tables set up, and a guide escorted you to the ones where your tour group was.
I wished I’d paid better attention to the check-in info, though. It said to arrive at least 15 minutes early, but you could check in whenever even earlier. My husband had a work call he had to take about an hour before our tour. He would’ve appreciated sitting in a nice, cool room rather than trying to find shade and a quiet spot in CityWalk.
At the table, each seat had three things waiting: earphones, a transceiver, and, to my surprise, a keepsake HHN lanyard, which I thought was pretty cool.
About 5-10 minutes before our tour started, our guide announced last call for bathroom breaks. Then we got underway.
The Tour
They offered two daytime tour options: 3-house or 6-house. I considered doing the 6-house, but it lasted up to five hours. As it was, the 3-house tour would be two and a half to three hours. Considering my non-Halloween, non-horror-loving husband graciously agreed to accompany me, the shortest option seemed prudent, so I opted for the 3-house tour. And I was really glad I did. Two hours was plenty.
Before we headed through the park to the first house, our guide shared some information with us. One of the most surprising was that Universal Studios was on the verge of bankruptcy in the ’30s.
But guess what not only saved them but ended up putting them on the map? Horror movies, like Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, and all the other classic monster movies from that era.
As our guide put it, horror pretty much saved the studio and continues to be a money-maker now. It’s part of the reason they go so big for Halloween Horror Nights. Not only is it a fantastic way to celebrate the spookiest season of the year, but it’s also a way for them to honor the genre that’s been so good to them.
Plus, it provides fantastic promo opportunities for their new movies. For example, one of the houses this year was The Exorcist: Believer to hype the recently released movie. In years past, they’ve had a Halloween house inspired by the movies.
Our tour started with the house I was most excited about, The Last of Us. But guess what? While I liked it, and was expecting others to also, it wasn’t the favorite house. Most of my fellow tour-goers, including my husband, voted Dr. Oddfellow’s Twisted Origins as their fave.
They were pretty strict about where you could and couldn’t take photos, but they did allow them at several spots in all three houses. Here are some of my faves.
The Last of Us
The Darkest Deal
Dr. Oddfellow’s Twisted Origins
Tour Revelations
We truly learned some “behind the screams” facts. Three of my faves involved corn, a dog portrait, and code names.
Cursed Corn Stalks?
In 2004, they had Halloween Horror Nights in both Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. Between the two parks, they had rows of corn. We’re talking a lot of money worth of real corn. Hurricane Charley decimated their crop.
They tried using corn again in 2017. Hurricane Irma hit, wiping that all out. Our guide explained they often incorporate corn stalks into their houses and scare zones. However, following the debacles with Charley and Irma, they now only use the faux variety.
Thunder
Like the corn stalks do now, many props get reused in the houses year after year. I don’t think we were allowed to take a photo of the portrait of Thunder the Dog in The Darkest Deal, but he pops up in houses year after year.
Code Names
When designing and constructing the houses, they use code names to ensure houses remain secret until their appropriate reveal time. For 2023, they used a lot of fruit for code names, including Apple, Pear, and Tomato.
Our guide told us what a few of this year’s code names, but, like his name, I don’t remember what they were now. I want to say The Last of Us was Apple, but who knows? I didn’t note it, so my brain didn’t retain it. But it was interesting to hear the lengths they go to to keep the house identities under wraps.
Worth it?
The tours are a bit of an investment in time —travel time and tour length— and money. Tickets weren’t cheap. I paid nearly $300 for ours. (Total for the two.) However, it was extremely well organized and interesting.
The only cons were I wish we could’ve chosen which houses to tour. Although, in retrospect, I probably wouldn’t have picked two I got to see, and I was happy to see them.
Another con was the strict photo protocol. However, they clearly explained there were contractual and copyright issues they had to abide by, as was the case in The Last of Us house. Another issue was they didn’t want to give away scares or scare-secrets. Made sense. And, really, they still accommodated several photo opp spots, so it was a minor con.
As for the pros, the tour group size was perfect. I was also impressed with the earphones and transceivers. Our guide didn’t need them in the houses, but it came in handy for the parts when we walked through the crowded park en route to the houses.
Another thing that surprised me was the people on our tour. Many had already attended Halloween Horror Nights (and at that point it had only been open for two weeks). Or they were going to, and/or they were season ticket holders. Many were also repeat Behind the Screams tour-takers, having done them in years past.
One lady explained she liked to see at least a few of the houses with the lights on to better appreciate details that were lost in the low lighting or darkness. Everyone agreed they liked the opportunity to snap some memento pics of the inside of the houses.
For me, it was totally worth it. I was the only one there because I was too scared to do the houses at night. However, I finally found a way to enjoy Halloween Horror Nights that I could handle. And it satisfied my FOMO. All I ever want to see is what the inside of the houses look like and how they’re designed and decorated.
That said, now that I have, I think I’m good. I think it’s out of my system, and my curiosity is sufficiently satiated. I think. Who knows what sort of houses the future may bring to tempt me, but for now I got what I needed.
For More Info
Visit https://www.universalorlando.com/hhn/en/us.
Check-In
Have you ever done a lights-on tour of a haunted house somewhere?
Courtney Mroch is a globe-trotting restless spirit who’s both possessed by wanderlust and the spirit of adventure, and obsessed with true crime, horror, the paranormal, and weird days. Perhaps it has something to do with her genes? She is related to occult royalty, after all. Marie Laveau, the famous Voodoo practitioner of New Orleans, is one of her ancestors. (Yes, really! As explained here.) That could also explain her infatuation with skeletons.
Speaking of mystical, to learn how Courtney channeled her battle with cancer to conjure up this site, check out HJ’s Origin Story.
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This sounds like an interesting tour. I’ve never been to a lights-on haunted house tour.
Neither have I!
It turned out better than I expected and revealed more info than I expected. Shoot. Forgot to talk about the different types of scares and the creators of them. That was another thing they brought up.