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Trivia / Halloween Horror Nights

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The following is a list of film, television, literary, and video game properties that have been adapted over the years into haunted houses, scarezones, or shows; whether the property was one owned by Universal Studios, licensed from another company, or in the public domain. Some of these may not seem like traditional properties, but they can be quite effective....

    Official HHN Properties 

Below is a list of properties that were "unofficially" at the event, meaning that they were sneaked in by the event's creative team by using the Captain Ersatz method on casting sheets or building permits.

    Captain Ersatz Properties 

  • Based on a Dream: The "Ring Around the Rosies" scene in 2019's Graveyard Games was based off of a nightmare that the event's former creative director, Mike Aiello, had once.
  • Creative Differences:
    • What caused the event's long-time Creative Director, J. Michael Roddy, to part after 2009.
    • The reason behind the planned Scream (1996) house being scrapped at the last minute in 2015. Long short story: the Weinsteins, who owned Scream at the time, wanted the house to be based on the then-incumbent Scream: The TV Series, and Universal refused to budge.
  • Dawson Casting: For obvious reasons, all of the child-aged characters in the event (such as Cindy) are portrayed by shorter adults. Usually the child characters are depicted as wearing masks in order to hide this.
  • Development Hell: Many of the event's houses go through this, as a house usually has to be proposed multiple times to get approved; something that can take several years. Another reason for this is that if it's a non-Universal IP house, then the creative team will need to get the blessings of the IP's copyright holder — something that can also take a while. For example, an American Horror Story house has been proposed ever since the show first started airing, but Universal wasn't able to convince FX to let them have the license until 2016.
  • Disabled Character, Disabled Actor: The event has featured several wheelchair-bound characters that are portrayed by scareactors that cannot walk and/or have no legs. There have also been a few cases of actors with deformities being hired to play up their unusual appearance.
  • Distanced from Current Events:
    • The reason why both Eddie and Cindy never came to be as icons. Universal was afraid Eddie would be considered too violent in light of the 9/11 attacks, so he was cut and Jack, a more fantasy-kind of villain, was brought back instead. With Cindy, she was cut due to child murders that had been happening around the area at the time.
    • In the aftermath of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Universal postponed the release of any new announcements concerning 2016's event until July. There were also plans to have a scarezone for The Purge: Election Year at the Orlando event that year, but it was scrapped following the shooting.
    • In 2017, the announcement of a house based on The Shining was pushed back a few weeks following an Amber Alert of missing twin girls going around.
    • During 2017's event, Bill & Ted's Excellent Halloween Adventure was originally themed around a pop-culture festival, and the plot of the show involved Bill and Ted having to prove to Death that there's something redeeming about pop culture, or else he'll drag all of humanity to hell. After the Las Vegas shooting, the show was given some major revisions, with the setting being changed from a festival to a concert, and Death looking to kill only Bill and Ted, not the entire world.
  • Dueling Works: In 2011, both Halloween Horror Nights and Howl-O-Scream had a haunted house based around Edgar Allan Poe, and both houses were even titled Nevermore.
  • Dyeing for Your Art: Many scareactors and show actors have had to undergo physical changes for their characters, but the most extreme example may be for Orlando in 2010's Havoc: Dogs of War and its 2013 sequel Havoc: Derailed, where every actor (male and female) shaved their head bald to play psycho super soldiers.
  • Executive Meddling: The event has experienced in some form since the beginning; and in particular, it's the reason why there has been an increase in IP houses over the past couple of years.
  • Executive Veto:
    • During the event's earlier years, there were once plans to have scare actors inside the queue line for E.T. Adventure. When Steven Spielberg found out about this, he immediately said no.
    • When the 2002 event, Islands of Fear, was held in the Islands of Adventure part of Universal Orlando, Dr. Seuss' widow Audrey Geisel vetoed attempts to host a scarezone in the Seuss Landing area of the park, feeling that it would be a disgrace to Seuss' family-friendly work and threatening to end the Seuss estate's partnership with Universal if it did so. They ultimately settled on Boo-Ville, a (somewhat) Lighter and Softer Halloween area that did not have any scareactors, but still maintained the same kind of creepy music and unsettling atmosphere that the rest of the event has. The 2005 event didn't use Boo-Ville, but the North Hollow area they put there was still a safe zone without any scareactors, only dim lights and fog.
    • Also during 2002's event, in a rather odd instance, one veto occurred after the event had already started. Supposedly, Universal did not give Marvel Comics the full details on what they were going to do with the event's "Island Under Siege" scare zone and Maximum Carnage house. When Marvel found out about the event's depiction of the heroes being brutally killed by the villains and their bodies strung up as trophies, they were less than amused. Even before Marvel got bought out by Disney, this incident ensured that Marvel's characters would never appear in the event again, killing any hope of there ever being a house or scarezone centered around Marvel Zombies.
    • Between the restrictions around using Seuss Landing and Marvel Super Hero Island, it's believed that this is why Universal moved the event back to the Studios park in 2006, as they had their hands tied with what they could put in two whole areas of Islands of Adventure.
    • When the event returned to the Studios park in 2006, the Jaws skippers created their own script for the ride that was more adult and profane, which they hoped that they would be able to use during the event. However for reasons unknown, the script ended up getting shot down by the higher-ups.
  • Hey, It's That Place!: One of the commercials for the event in 2002 was filmed inside "Sting Alley", the hidden New York alleyway at Universal Studios Florida.
  • Milestone Celebration: Special anniversary years were done for the "Sweet 16" (2006), 20th (2010), 25th (2015) and 30th (2021) events. The "Sweet 16" event had the gimmick that every house was a sequel or prequel to one from a past event, while the other milestone events all had an anniversary house and scarezone themed on the legacies of Horror Nights' Icons and original properties.
  • Missing Episode: In a sense. Up until around 2001/2002 or so, the event was not widely documented by people, and several websites that did are no longer existent. Because of this, very few photos and videos of the event in its earlier years can be found, meaning that the only way to really get an understanding of what those years were like would be to listen to the stories of those who actually went back then.
  • Production Nickname: Every year, all of the event's houses are given vague, riddle-like codenames by the creative staff.
  • Promoted Fanboy: Many of the A&D members at Universal Studios in Orlando and Hollywood that helm the events started out as mere Scareactors/huge horror fans.
  • Prop Recycling: Very common, to the point of fans trying to identify what other houses and scarezones the props have been used in. Being Universal, they also get to use some movie props (such as a piece from Van Helsing or a Triceratops head from The Lost World: Jurassic Park). Props from former attractions like Kongfrontation and Ghostbusters Spooktacular are even sometimes used.
  • Recycled Set: The event has done this from time to time, one notable example being that 2010's Havoc: Dogs of War re-used many of the sets from The Spawning house from the year before it.
  • Release Date Change:
    • The first night of Halloween Horror Nights 25 was originally planned to be on September 25th, and it was also going to last for 25 nights; but due to fan demand for more nights, this plan was scrapped and the event instead started earlier on September 18th, and ran for 30 nights.
    • Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, the 2020 event in Orlando and Hollywood was canceled out of safety concerns. What would have been the thirtieth year for the event was pushed to 2021.
  • Role Reprise: For one night only at the Hollywood event, Lupita Nyong'o played her character, Red, from Us in the house based on the respective film.
  • Screwed by the Lawyers:
    • After 2006, Bill & Ted's Excellent Halloween Adventure became much more limited in what it can do with its parodies than in the past. For a long time, the show had absolute freedom in what it would lampoon, as the general assumption is that it falls under the "Parody" clause of Fair Use. Things changed in 2006, when Disney seemed to disagree and threatened to sue Universal over how the show that year utilized Jack Sparrow and Elizabeth Swann. The controversy only worsened when on that same year DC Comics came down on Universal for its usage of Lex Luthor as the main villain of the show, and ultimately filed a cease-and-desist letter against them, which resulted in Lex Luthor being replaced by Dr. Evil on the final night of the show. After that, the show avoided putting certain copyrighted characters in the spotlight for too long, instead doing things like using a celebrity as the show's main villain rather than a movie villain. This also led to them completely banning videotaping and photography of the show, so as to prevent it from getting onto the internet and attracting unwanted attention. It is believed that the rising worries concerning the potential of legal backlash over the show's content was one of the many reasons why the show was brought to an end after 2017.
    • Disney's acquisition of 21st Century Fox in 2019 put the kibosh on any chance of American Horror Story and Alien vs. Predator returning to this event hosted by their theme park rival for that year and beyond.
  • Sequel Gap:
    • 2004's Hellgate Prison house, despite being a fan-favorite, would not get a sequel until 11 years later in 2015's RUN: Blood, Sweat, and Fears, which is set inside the prison.
    • Another house from 2004, Ghost Town, went without a sequel for 12 years until 2016 with Ghost Town - The Curse of Lightning Gulch.
    • The People Under the Stairs was one of the houses in 1992 and 1993, with it not being until 13 years later that it got a sequel in 2006 called The People Under The Stairs: Under Construction.
    • Dead Exposure, one of 2008's houses, didn't receive a follow-up house until its 10th anniversary in 2018.
    • Though they appeared more frequently at Hollywood's event, Freddy, Jason, and Leatherface went absent from Orlando's event after their appearance in 2007's "Carnival of Carnage" for several years. Freddy and Jason eventually returned in 2015 with the Freddy vs. Jason house, while Leatherface returned the following year in a house based on the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre film, rather than the 2003 remake.
    • Saw got houses at both Orlando and Hollywood in 2009. Hollywood got a sequel the next year, but then Saw disappeared from the event until 7 years later when Saw: The Games of Jigsaw was at both parks.
  • Series Hiatus: Universal Studios Hollywood's HHN has gone through this a total of three times. It first started in 1986, but after an incident that resulted in the death of a scareactor, it was canceled until 1992. After 1992, it again went dark until 1997 and continued to run for 1998, 1999, and 2000 before once more going on hiatus. In 2006, the event was at last revived and has been run every year since.
  • Sleeper Hit: When the Orlando event first began in 1991, management was not expecting it to be very successful and were unsure if they would be doing it again the next year. The event ended up being a huge success, with lines for that year's only house, Dungeon of Terror, reaching over three hours long. Its success would then of course go on to make Horror Nights a yearly occurrence.
  • Throw It In!: Jack and Chance were fully allowed to improvise heavily in 2015's The Carnage Returns show, resulting in numerous Shout Outs and other random fun moments.
  • Trolling Creator: John Murdy, a self-professed carny, does this during the leadup to Hollywood's events with various puzzles and hints to what the houses are based off of the code names. They are not easy to solve.
  • Viral Marketing: Several of the event's years utilize this in advertising.
  • What Could Have Been: See here.
  • Working Title:
    • As said earlier, much of the houses, scarezones, and shows for 2001's event were altered following the 9/11 attacks.
    • Many instances for 2002:
      • The theme itself was titled "Islands of Horror", before being changed to "Islands of Fear".
      • Screamhouse was House of Dead Maniacs
      • Project Evilution was Jurassic Park: Extinction
      • Scary Tales II was Scary Tales Volume: 2 - Malice in Terrorland
      • Island Under Siege was Marvel City Under Siege
      • Treaks and Foons was Twisted Toons
      • Island of Evil Souls was Island of Lost Souls
      • Boo-Ville was Grinch Night
    • 2007's Psychoscareapy: Home for the Holidays was Silent Night, Psychotic Night. Despite the change, the t-shirt showing all of the year's houses retained the original title.
    • 2017's The Horrors of Blumhouse was initially titled Blumhouse of Horrors.
  • You Look Familiar: It's very common to see recurring scare actors throughout the event's years playing a different role. Even within the same year one scare actor can play multiple roles.
    • Erin Nicole Cline, the main actress that portrays Chance, also played Princess Anna in 2014's Bill & Ted's Excellent Halloween Adventure show as well as the "Ring Mistress" in the 20 Penny Circus show from 2012. In the regular daytime park, she has also occasionally played Lucy Ricardo.
    • Likewise, James Keaton, the main actor that portrays Jack the Clown, has also played the title character from the park's former Beetlejuice's Graveyard Revue show and portrayed Eelmouth for 2005’s event. He also has had several roles in the Bill & Ted shows from over the years.
    • Bryce Ward, one of the most known people to play The Caretaker, has also been one of the hosts for Universal's Horror Make-Up Show and one of the people to play "Lonnie" in the former Disaster! attraction.

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