I'm A Halloween Horror Nights Pro Who Went To Universal Horror Unleashed For The First Time, And There’s A Big Reason Why The Las Vegas Attraction Is Scarier

I love watching all the best horror movies every time the Halloween season comes back around, of course, but I've also made a habit of making a night out of Universal's Horror Nights, specifically for the past four years. Not only is it a load of fun getting scared and feeling like a real final girl, but the theme parks always make me feel like I’m inside the worlds and IPs their haunted houses are based upon, thanks to the all-out way their sets and characters are crafted. This season, I just got the chance to visit the new Universal’s Horror Unleashed located in Las Vegas, and I can honestly say, it’s a more terror-ific version of the concept.

Last week, Universal sent us to their Blood Red Carpet Celebration of the attraction, just about a month after it officially opened its doors to the public. I, along with other members of the media, got to check out Horror Unleashed in all of its glory. Here’s my breakdown of how I’d compare it to the year-round version of Horror Nights.

Universal Horror Nights Is Scary, But Admittedly There’s Ways To Hide

So, I like getting scared at Horror Nights houses, but I’ll be honest, I’m not at the point where I’m impenetrable – which, I think is a good place to be with the experience. I’ve gone to probably somewhere between 40 to 50 haunted houses in my lifetime, and most of the time I’m just giggling and having a great time, but there’s been some points here and there where genuine fear slips through (for me or for friends I go with), and in those cases there are definitely ways to get around the scares.

I have my tips and tricks at Horror Nights to feed my scaredy cat side (or those who I take with who end up chickening out), which I’ve frequently implemented at Universal Studios. One is hiding behind other guests while in a house so you don’t get targeted for all the scares. Another is taking shortcuts to skip the scare zones when I’m needing a break from those jump scares. Lastly, if all fails, you can escape to the Wizarding World, Super Mario World or other open rides that are not horror-fied. But, at Horror Unleashed you can’t do any of those things.

Universal Horror Unleashed Has A Different Model For Letting In Guests To Its Haunted Houses

Here’s the thing, the moments when I or someone in my party actually have gotten scared end up being the most notable and storied moments I take away with me when I go home. The fun of Horror Night is you’re always going to make it out whether you’re afraid or not. It’s all theatrics anyways; no one’s going to get hurt, so might as well get what you paid for, right?

Enter Universal Horror Unleashed. It feels as though the creators of the attraction are well aware of the ways that people can take themselves one out of it, and have crafted this new year-round horror event to be more fully immersive. The big change I noticed right away is that there's no conga line of people you go with in the houses like you might deal with at Horror Nights. They actually space out how each party enters the house, which makes hiding behind another party less likely.

In all the houses I went into, with the exception of one, which seemed to just have a backed up line at the time, Me and the person I was going in with felt like we were completely experiencing it alone from the rest of the guests. That meant I felt most of the scares, and they were directed at one of us.

While I was afraid of this when I noticed it at first, I ended up really appreciating it, because it made me feel like I got to enjoy every house (which is made up Universal Monsters, Scarecrow: The Reaping, Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Exorcist: Believer, to its fullest. Because these houses were constructed to live at the attraction for longer than a month, located in Las Vegas’s Area 15, each house had a more palpable feel to them that seemed lived in and really made these longer experiences with them even more enveloping, and hence, more scary.

There's Also A Couple Of Houses That Actually Corner You In A Room For Part Of It

I want to put a SPOILER ALERT for this section if you want to go completely blind into Universal Horror Unleashed. Skip to the next section if so.

In addition to there being more scares per person at Horror Unleashed, the show directors decided to implement something they call “Memorable Moments”, where while you’re in one of the rooms in the house you actually get cornered by the actors and you feel helpless as part of the story.

This happens during the Exorcist: Believer house, at a moment where one of the scare actors gets possessed in front of you, and in the scariest house I experienced all night, Scarecrow: The Reaping, when you are caught into a dust bowl in front of a creepy scarecrow. I’ve never had this happen at a house at Horror Nights, and man, was it a clever way to up the scares.

Being Able To Actually Interact To The Characters Walking Around Adds To The Horrors, Too

This leads me to what happens outside the houses, which is particularly impressive. Horror Unleashed operates as this prop house where all these horror creatures and such come out and convene at night, and it’s gorgeously designed and very fun to hang out in. It’s different from the scare zones at Universal theme parks because instead of random creatures just coming out and scaring you, many of them you can actually strike up a conversation with to get to know more about their backstories and what brings them to this place.

For example, I went up to a guy in a ski mask with a knife in his hand, named Robert, while at the bar after seeing him walking around, and getting to know his story really allowed the unsettling nature of the attraction to sink in in a different way than just a bunch of jump scares all night. (But, don’t worry, there are plenty of those to be found outside the houses). It very much reminded me of Universal’s FanFest event from earlier this year, which had something similar going on for its Back To The Future section.

If you’re a big fan of Universal Horror Nights like I am, Horror Unleashed is simply a better version of it. One caveat could be if you go on a really busy day, but because it’s year-round, I imagine that it will, by nature, not be as packed as a typical night at Horror Nights. All that’s without talking about the fact that Horror Unleashed has a Las Vegas-style performance with dancers, and a sword swallower, and places for you to enjoy drinks and food while you’re there as well.

I’m very happy it exists, and can’t wait to hear more about the Chicago one on the way, too. Check out how you can buy tickets on the Universal Horror Unleashed website if my review has you hyped.