Another announcement for Halloween Horror Nights 2022! This time it’s an all-new house: Fiesta de Chupacabras Announced for Halloween Horror Nights 2022.
Here’s how Universal describes the house:
Visit a Latin American village where the legend of the creature Chupacabras is celebrated with a colorful fiesta. And the streets are lined with the crimson blood of tourists like you and your amigos.
HHN has a history of incorporating “Day of the Dead” – esque elements over the years, but nothing that has overtly referenced the holiday as this house does. HHN Hollywood has had several Latin American inspired houses, scare zones, and other elements at their event over the years, including the Dia de los Muertos bar attraction last season. The legend of La Llorona, a Mexican mother who drowns her children, and then herself, after witnessing her husband being unfaithful is a well-known piece of lore throughout Latin America, has also been integrated in several seasons of HHN. There are many iterations of the story, but the established storyline says that the cursed mother has immediate regret of killing her children and haunts earth and purgatory, unable to enter heaven. The legend inspired two houses at HHN Hollywood before making the jump to Universal Studios Florida in 2013. A 2010 scarezone called Esqueleto Muerte at Universal Studios featured neon-painted scareactors, colorful set designs, and lively props.
All of this leads up to today’s announcement. The Day of the Dead is a holiday steeped in tradition, primarily in Mexico but with traditions throughout Latin America. It’s patterned with motifs like skeletons and bright colors, juxtaposing the sadness and grief associated with death with the joy and beauty we find in life. In this way, the house announcement today makes sense in terms of matching the tone of Halloween Horror Nights — we’re scared but happy about it, and ultimately Halloween Horror Nights is a celebration of the darker, more mystical parts of life.
Now for the other part of the house — the monster at hand — the chupacabra. A cryptozoological legend that originated in Puerto Rico, the monster was created in the mid-70s and the lore only grew from there. From 1975 through the 1990s, a series of odd livestock deaths peppered Latin America. The animals would appear to have their blood drained from their bodies and left for dead. Before too long, the legend of the chupacabra developed and sightings began to be more prevalent.
Witnesses say the chupacabra is a small creature that usually hops around like a kangaroo. The animal usually has a mix of scales and fur, and sometimes even has spines down the back. Of course, the chupacabra has fangs that bite and claws that snatch, and has vampiric behaviors like draining the blood from the animals they hunt. The high concentration of these sightings in Latin America have turned the chupacabra into a sort of icon — a simultaneously unique, playful, and mythical representation of the land to which it is so closely related.
All of these elements combined make for a promising and interesting maze for Halloween Horror Nights, which runs on select nights from September 2 through October 31, 2022. Find everything you need to know about HHN tickets here.
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