Close Menu
Inside Universal
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram YouTube Threads
    Tuesday, June 24
    Trending
    • El Artista: A Spanish Haunting announced for Halloween Horror Nights 34 during Spooky Empire
    • What’s Happening at the Universal Parks – Week of June 23, 2025
    • Hatchet and Chains: Demon Bounty Hunters haunted house announced for Halloween Horror Nights 34
    • Knott’s Berry Farm kicks of a summer of fun with Ghost Town Alive
    Inside Universal
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram YouTube LinkedIn Threads
    • Home
    • News
      • Hollywood
        • Photo Updates
        • CityWalk Hollywood
        • Halloween Horror Nights – Hollywood
        • Events
      • Orlando
        • Photo Updates
        • Universal Studios Florida
        • Islands of Adventure
        • Epic Universe
        • Universal’s Volcano Bay
        • CityWalk Orlando
        • Universal Resorts
        • Halloween Horror Nights – Orlando
        • Events
      • Japan
        • Photo Updates
        • Events
      • Singapore
      • Beijing
      • Other Universal Destinations
      • Outside Universal
        • Walt Disney World
        • SeaWorld Orlando
        • Around Orlando
        • Disneyland Resort
        • Knott’s Berry Farm
        • Around California
    • Forums
    • Inside Universal Podcast
    • Features
    • Merchandise
    Inside Universal
    Home»Universal Orlando»Halloween Horror Nights - Orlando»Unmasking Halloween Horror Nights

    Unmasking Halloween Horror Nights

    October 6, 2015 Halloween Horror Nights - Orlando By Brian Glenn
    Share
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Email Reddit Copy Link

    The haunt season brings with it one of the best tours available at any theme park: the Behind-the-Screams: Unmasking the Horror Tour. This separately ticketed experience allows guests to explore some of Halloween Horror Nights’ haunted houses in a lights-on setting with expert VIP guides. Each tour looks at 3 different houses, or 6 when doing a combination of both tours that day. Guests get to see up-close every gory detail that Universal Orlando’s Art & Design Team put together, all while learning back stories about each house and the event overall. One of the greatest features of this tour, though, is being able to take as many pictures as you’d like inside the houses. Each tour takes up to 15 guests for a length of 2 to 2½ hours. The morning tours begin at 10:30am, while the afternoon tours start at 2pm.

    Check-in takes place half an hour before each tour at the Universal Studios Florida VIP Check In Lobby, which is right next to the Guest Services windows. Once checked in, guests wait in the Halloween themed lobby before being split up into their groups. Each guest also receives a commemorative Halloween Horror Nights lanyard, which is the same one sold throughout the park during this year’s event.

    2015 is not just Halloween Horror Nights’ 25th anniversary. The tour guides were excited to announce that the Unmasking the Horror Tour is also celebrating its own milestone, being 10 years in existence! After the announcement and a brief reminder about procedures—no video recording during the tours, and no pictures of any backstage areas between houses—we were on our way, led by our amazing guide, David.

    WARNING: There will be pictures of blood, guts and gore below… Enjoy!

    The first house on our tour was RUN: Blood, Sweat, and Fears. This house is located in the backstage and extended queue areas for the former Disaster! attraction, which is becoming Fast and Furious by 2017. As David explained, the house puts us inside a TV game show where contestants get killed by reapers. The setting is Hellgate Prison, which is well-known to Horror Nights fans. For this year’s twist, Hellgate has been outfitted with cameras and scrolling marquees that report the current kills. Also different rooms in the prison have been themed to various countries, to add to the contestants’ disorientation. Throughout the house, David demonstrated how the scares worked, and the different tricks and techniques used, such as strategically placed mirrors. An Easter egg is found in the Canada room, right before you exit into the hallway. If you see a chainsaw on a rack to your left, push the small red button on it! Also featured in this house is “Sparky” the electrocuted man, which is one of the most recognized props, seen in several houses across the event’s history.

    Next up was Body Collectors – Recollections, located in Soundstage 24. In this edition of the Body Collectors franchise, we visit Shadybrook Asylum—another iconic setting in Horror Nights lore. The façade is absolutely stunning, covered in snow, and putting us right in the Great Blizzard of 1888. David knew not just the back story for the house, but also quite a bit of interesting history about the Great Blizzard, which halted railroads in 1888 and led to the creation of subways a few years later. Walking through the house, David discussed how we hear Percy Faith’s theme from A Summer Place, which is a recurring auditory cue in Shadybrook Asylum houses. Other Easter eggs include the Indiana Jones idol on a table in the first room, and also a nod to Jack the Clown and his brother Eddie, seen as babies in cribs. They are easy to miss, but your best bet is to try to spot the orange curls to your right on the corridor with the wrought iron doors. Throughout the house we saw how different kills are performed, including the iconic spine rip. Then as we came to one of the final rooms, a workshop, we found out why the Body Collectors seek body parts… and it is to make new Body Collectors out of them!

    The third and final house for the morning tour was Freddy vs. Jason, also located in Soundstage 24. This house featured the unmistakable locations of Camp Crystal Lake and 1428 Elm Street, as well as the main characters themselves. This provided plenty of great photo ops. A unique aspect of this house is the use of pre-recorded fight sequences between Freddy and Jason. These are projected onto screens with huge projectors, and they are synchronized along with live actors around them. Some cool hidden nods were present in this house, too; big names in Halloween Horror Nights’ history can be found etched on gravestones right before you enter 1428 Elm Street.

    Once we finished all three houses from the morning tour, we broke for lunch. Generally it is an hour break, although for us it was about 40 minutes. Tours are structured to last a certain amount of time, but the lengths will vary with each group.

    To kick off the afternoon tour, we began with The Walking Dead: The Living and the Dead. This house is built inside the parade building, behind the Springfield and KidZone areas. The first room in the Walking Dead house features a scene where someone gets his throat sliced right in front of us, and David again demonstrated how this works. He also told us how throat slicing is an overarching theme in this year’s event. As we continued around the house, we came across various locations from Season 5 of the hit show. Included are Terminus, the flooded food pantry basement, the churchyard, and even the revolving glass door. Another of this year’s Easter eggs is found to the right of this revolving glass door: the bunny slippers seen on the young walker from Season 1.

    The second house in the afternoon tour was Asylum in Wonderland 3D. This is the first in the event’s history to occupy one of Shrek 4-D’s theaters (there are actually two theaters side by side). Just like The In-Between a few years ago, this 3D house pays homage to comic books. Its façade is the cover for another comic book by Ultra Violent Comics, and you will see that it is issue number 25—coinciding with this year’s event. This house contains the spinning vortex effect, and it is one of its strongest implementations. Because it includes writing instead of just images, our eyes try to follow the text and it is even more disorienting. There is writing on the walls throughout the house, too, relaying the thoughts of an insane Alice. You will also come across iconic characters from the classic fairy tale: the Cheshire Cat, the White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter, the Caterpillar, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, the Queen of Hearts and the White Queen, and the Playing Card knights. During the event, this house is very trippy with its black lit images seen through 3D glasses. During the tour, it is interesting to see the placement of the effects and also be able to read all of the passages on the walls.

     

    The best was saved for last, as we visited Jack Presents: 25 Years of Monsters and Mayhem in Soundstage 21. This is the biggest soundstage on property, and it hosts the house with the most scenes ever put together for Halloween Horror Nights. This is definitely one of the most photogenic and diverse houses, completely packed with content. From the façade featuring Jack and the Icons of Horror Nights’ past, to the different rooms celebrating the event’s history, there is so much to see! This house features fan-favorite original properties like Scary Tales, The Forsaken, the Caretaker’s ScreamHouse, Legendary Truth, Nightingales, Gothic, and more. The house also honors Universal’s Classic Monsters including Frankenstein and his wife, the Wolfman, Dracula’s brides, the Mummy, and the Phantom of the Opera. Each scene revives some of the most creative effects seen in the past, such as the tilted floor from The Forsaken, a see-through wall from Legendary Truth: Wyandot Estate, in addition to several mirror tricks and other ingenious scares. There are countless nods and Easter eggs, including a small and easy-to-miss wink at a Bloody Icon who is the topic of much debate. All around the house, Jack’s presence is clear. Most prominently in the final indoor scene, many Jack figures are showcased. They are the different iterations of his character from his various reigns at Halloween Horror Nights. This house was one of the highlights of the tour, and our amazing guide David again made it all the more memorable. He showered us with information about everything included in the house: from each property represented, to even operations tidbits, like how they accommodate people in wheelchairs through the side of The Forsaken’s tilted scene. All in all, the work put into the houses speaks for itself, but David really made this tour an unforgettable experience.

    Although the houses for The Purge, Insidious, and An American Werewolf in London are not part of the lights-on tours, we were still given the opportunity to take pictures with the façade for Insidious and also with one of the Werewolf puppets. Those were some really special bonuses. The tour was filled with treats like these, which make you feel like a VIP, and make it worth every penny.

    As the tour came to a close, David offered to answer any last minute questions before bidding us farewell. Our tour ran right up until park close time, so we all walked out of the park together. For morning-only tours, or if an afternoon tour ends before Universal Studios Florida closes, guides will escort any guests without admission out of the park. Those with park admission are able to get their tickets scanned and remain in the park until closing time.

    Unmasking the Horror Tours bring a whole other dimension to Halloween Horror Nights. Filled with background and Easter-egg information, up-close looks, and photo opportunities, they should not be missed. It is priceless to check out these movie-quality sets and be able to appreciate all the details, which are barely glanced at during nighttime walk-throughs. The VIP tour guides also make the experience truly special. Our guide David was FANTASTIC, providing us with lots of information, allowing plenty of time for pictures, and keeping a fun atmosphere at all times. He was not only incredibly knowledgeable, but funny, energetic, and a total pleasure to be around. Anyone from casual fans to hardcore horror aficionados will find plenty to enjoy on the tours. They can even be a scareactor-free alternative for those too frightened to attend the nighttime event. Just keep in mind that the gore is on full display with the lights on.

    Tours run through November 1, 2015. Prices vary by date, and are $64.99 or $69.99 + tax for a single morning or afternoon tour, and $109.99 or $119.99 + tax for a combo of morning and afternoon tours in a single day. The haunted houses assigned to morning and afternoon tours may vary, so if you want to see six different houses—and save some money—make sure to book a combo tour.

    For additional information and to book your Unmasking the Horror tour, visit the Official Website or contact the VIP Experience Office at 407-363-8295 (Option 2) or via email at viptours@universalorlando.com. Advance reservations are required, and tours will sell out well before each date.

    Full list of tour dates:

    September 18, 19, 24, 25, 26, 27;

    October 1, 2, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 28, 29, 30, 31;

    November 1.

    Keep checking Orlando United for more on all the special experiences taking place around Central Florida’s theme parks. Join the conversation on our Forums, and make sure to follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. If you have any questions or comments, you may also reach me at Felipe@OrlandoUnited.com.

    Happy Halloween!!!

    25 Years of Monsters and Mayhem an american werewolf in london Asylum in Wonderland 3D behind the scenes Behind the Screams Body Collectors Freddy vs. Jason Halloween Horror Nights halloween horror nights 25 hhn 25 insidious Jack Presents jack the clown News run the purge the walking dead Universal Orlando Universal Studios Florida Unmasking the Horror VIP Tour
    Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email
    Previous ArticleHalloween: Michael Myers Comes Home – Halloween Horror Nights 2015 at Universal Studios Hollywood
    Next Article NBC Sports Grill & Brew Soft Opens Ahead of Oct 23 Grand Opening
    Brian Glenn
    • Facebook
    • X (Twitter)
    • Instagram

    Brian may be reached at brian.g@insideuniversal.net - Editor-in-Chief

    Related Posts

    Halloween Horror Nights - Orlando

    El Artista: A Spanish Haunting announced for Halloween Horror Nights 34 during Spooky Empire

    June 23, 2025
    Features

    What’s Happening at the Universal Parks – Week of June 23, 2025

    June 23, 2025
    Halloween Horror Nights - Orlando

    Hatchet and Chains: Demon Bounty Hunters haunted house announced for Halloween Horror Nights 34

    June 23, 2025
    LATEST POSTS

    El Artista: A Spanish Haunting announced for Halloween Horror Nights 34 during Spooky Empire

    June 23, 2025

    What’s Happening at the Universal Parks – Week of June 23, 2025

    June 23, 2025

    Hatchet and Chains: Demon Bounty Hunters haunted house announced for Halloween Horror Nights 34

    June 23, 2025

    Knott’s Berry Farm kicks of a summer of fun with Ghost Town Alive

    June 18, 2025

    Universal shares more details on the Universal Monsters coming to Universal Horror Unleashed in Las Vegas

    June 18, 2025
    About Inside Universal

    Inside Universal is a website dedicated to covering Universal Parks & Resorts, specifically Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal Orlando. Our team of editors is committed to providing fact-based, non-sensationalist content that educates and informs our readers while still focused on having fun.

    Inside Universal aims to maintain a rational perspective, allowing us to offer commentary, news, and analysis about Universal Parks. Our mission is to provide you, the reader, with accurate and in-depth reporting to the best of our ability. This is our goal - nothing more, nothing less.

    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram YouTube LinkedIn Threads
    JOIN THE DISCUSSION ON OUR FORUMS
    If you’re looking to have your Universal-related question answered, or if you’d simply like to chat about the park’s future developments, Inside Universal's forums is the Internet’s leading unofficial forum dedicated to Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal Orlando. MEI Travel
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram YouTube LinkedIn Threads
    • About Us
    • Masthead
    • Contact
    • Legal
    • Privacy Policy
    © 2025 All Rights Reserved - Inside Universal is not affiliated with Comcast, NBCUniversal, Universal Parks & Resorts, or Universal Destinations & Experiences. You may not copy, redistribute, publish, sell, or otherwise make the original contents of this website available to third parties unless you have received prior authorization from Inside Universal.

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.

    This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.Accept Read More
    Privacy & Cookies Policy

    Privacy Overview

    This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
    Necessary
    Always Enabled
    Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
    Non-necessary
    Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
    SAVE & ACCEPT