2020 was always meant to be something of an unusual year for Halloween Horror Nights, given that it marked the hallowed event’s 30th anniversary, but it was never supposed to be as strange as it turned out to be.
Thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, which disrupted the entire theme-park industry around the world for a full year (along with most other businesses, as well, of course), Universal Orlando Resort’s chief seasonal celebration was cut entirely and replaced by a smaller, daytime, more family-friendly event, replete with trick-or-treating and a scarecrow treasure trail. Additionally, by the time Halloween weekend came and went, three of the 10 proposed haunted houses for that year ended up being opened on at least a limited basis: Universal Monsters: The Bride of Frankenstein Lives, Revenge of the Tooth Fairy, and Beetlejuice.
Even though Horror Nights – with that grand 30th anniversary celebration – is back on for 2021, it, too, continues to find itself being impacted by the pandemic, starting with its so-called announcement season. While the traditional start month of March was still honored – that’s when we got the Beetlejuice 2021 announcement – what we’re seeing now is the advent of an all-hands-on-deck approach, revealing everything else in one fell swoop. (All of which isn’t to mention the little announcement that dropped last October, for Puppet Theatre: Captive Audience, making it the earliest ever.)
Yes, that’s right – nearly all of the Halloween Horror Nights 2021 houses have been unveiled in a veritable tsunami of information (and awesomeness). The various attached film and television franchises range from traditional horror to more general entertainment, providing a good variety and replicating the approach that Universal has fine-tuned over the past few HHN outings, when it introduced such properties as Stranger Things and Ghostbusters into the mix.
It’s too much to properly dissect in just this article, though, so we’ve decided to unpack them all in a whole series of posts (yes, even the already-revealed ones).
Halloween Horror Nights 2021 – the haunted houses
sCarey: Horror in the Heartland
The Wicked Growth: Realm of the Pumpkin
Puppet Theatre: Captive Audience
Universal Monsters: The Bride of Frankenstein Lives
Halloween Horror Nights 2020 – the scare zones
Halloween Horror Nights 2020 – the live entertainment
All of these experiences will arrive at Universal Orlando’s Halloween Horror Nights, which runs for a record-breaking 42 select nights, from Friday, September 3 to Sunday, October 31.
Find out everything you ever wanted to know about HHN – plus more! – in our insider’s guide. And then discuss it all with 130,000+ other Universal die-hard fans in our Orlando Informer Community on Facebook.
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