Universal Parks & Resorts introduced a brand new year-round leisure expertise in Las Vegas that can mainly be a everlasting Halloween Horror Nights. This publish shares particulars concerning the new HHN-like idea, plus our commentary about transferring from non permanent haunts throughout spook season to a everlasting attraction.
Obviously, the large factor right here is that Universal is the creator of Halloween Horror Nights, the world’s hottest world Halloween occasion that’s held in Florida, California, Japan, and Singapore. This authentic idea will draw from that, bringing to life Universal’s huge library of basic horror movies and immediately’s most terrifying tales.
The new idea marks the primary time Universal has created a everlasting horror expertise past its theme parks. Universal’s Las Vegas horror location will characteristic quite a lot of distinctive and immersive horror-centric experiences that encompass excessive power meals and beverage areas by day turned haunting bars and eateries by night time.
The Vegas venue will ship on the thrills and frights that Universal’s horror followers have come to anticipate, and excite anybody on the lookout for a brand new degree of experiential leisure. The area can even characteristic a repeatedly up to date expertise, should see seasonal occasions, and one-of-a-kind merchandise.
Universal has lengthy outlined the horror style with its basic movies that includes iconic characters comparable to Frankenstein, Dracula, The Mummy, and the Wolf Man. More just lately, the studio has redefined trendy horror and suspense tales by way of collaborations with high-profile filmmakers comparable to Jason Blum, James Wan, and Jordan Peele.
“Universal is known for our ability to deliver original, highly-themed and terrifying horror entertainment experiences for millions of fans every year,” mentioned Page Thompson, President, New Ventures, Universal Parks & Resorts. “We are excited to give our global fanbase yet another way to get scared and have fun with fear in the heart of Las Vegas, the perfect place for this type of unique concept.”
Universal’s new horror expertise would be the anchor tenant in a brand new 20-acre enlargement of Las Vegas’ immersive AREA15 leisure district that originally opened to the general public in September 2020 and has attracted greater than 4 million guests since that point. Occupying a 110,000 square-foot area, the brand new Universal expertise is an progressive, inventive complement to AREA15’s roots in experiential artwork and leisure.
Thanks to its sprawling measurement, Universal’s unnamed horror nights set up would be the anchor tenant in a 20-acre enlargement of AREA15. The location is close to the well-known Las Vegas Strip and off of the 15 freeway, and already consists of themed eating places and themed leisure points of interest, comparable to Meow Wolf’s Omega Mart–an extremely fashionable and celebrated experiential artwork and leisure providing.
“AREA15 curates a constellation of best-in-class experiences. Universal’s never-been-done-before concept will be a perfect fit because our guests know they can expect fresh, exciting entertainment at AREA15,” mentioned Winston Fisher, Chief Executive Officer, AREA15. “We are enormously gratified to have an extraordinary company like Universal as our partner as we embark on the next phase of growth for AREA15.”
“Las Vegas is an entertainment destination unlike any other – and we are thrilled to welcome Universal to our city,” mentioned City of Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman. “The Universal experience will bring exactly the kind of high-quality, exciting entertainment our city, our visitors and our residents want.”
“Las Vegas is a vibrant community and increasingly known internationally for the creative arts experiences that we offer,” mentioned City of Las Vegas Councilwoman Olivia Diaz. “Universal’s decision to anchor their next innovative creation in the city is exciting news for my residents and visitors alike. The job opportunities will be invaluable for our community, especially for those interested in the entertainment industry.”
As plans take form for this horror expertise in Las Vegas, Universal Parks & Resorts will share extra particulars concerning the idea, together with the opening date. Already identified for faster turnaround occasions than Disney, that is the kind of venture that could possibly be fast-tracked if all the obligatory groundwork has been laid. (Based on social media studies from members of Universal Creative, this horror attraction at AREA15 in Las Vegas has been in improvement for properly over a yr.)
Our Commentary
This follows immediately’s earlier information that Universal Announced a New Family Theme Park in Frisco, Texas. That might be the extra consequential story; there’s plenty of potential for regional parks geared toward households with young children, and that’s the principle demo for Disney.
However, this information is way extra fascinating to me, personally. I like Halloween Horror Nights, in addition to experiential artwork. I’m actually excited for the AREA15 improvement coming to Orlando (idea artwork above), and assume that’s an under-the-radar themed leisure business initiative that isn’t being talked about sufficient. Sure, it’s not as thrilling or mainstream as Epic Universe, however it’s a very huge deal that’s going to supply shock upside on the idea of low hype alone.
Getting haunts points of interest proper is difficult. I’m in no way an skilled on this entrance, as nearly the whole lot of my expertise is with HHN within the United States and Japan. What I’ll say is that it appears to me like Halloween Horror Nights has the robust job of placing a fragile stability; the gang feeds off of itself, in methods each good and really unhealthy. (I’m not going to elucidate this additional for worry of alienating the HHN followers, however the viewers it attracts is each superior and terrible.)
It’ll be fascinating to see how that interprets to a everlasting venue. A number of years again, Universal Studios Hollywood opened a walk-through attraction primarily based on the Walking Dead. Even as a fan of that present and HHN homes, that did nearly nothing for me. It fell flat, which seemingly had as a lot to do with its substance as its standalone nature. Obviously, this expertise will provide excess of that, so not precisely a great comparability–only a thought I had about how a lot getting the temper proper issues, as does the viewers power.
Then there’s experiential artwork and experiences. This is how you could possibly categorize Meow Wolf, together with a rising variety of related ideas. This appears to be a burgeoning space of the points of interest business, and a number of the envelope-pushing concepts listed below are actually spectacular. (They are additionally, arguably, the genesis of Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser.)
We simply did TeamLab Planets, which was a fully thoughts blowing expertise. (I can’t suggest it extremely sufficient.) It was inventive, immersive, dynamic, and expectations-defying. The form of factor Imagineers would seemingly create if not for the “guardrails” of Disney and a theme park geared toward a big cross-section of most of the people.
I point out this seemingly off-topic set up as a result of it’s precisely the form of factor I’d imagined Universal Creative doing (however with horror) if given the price range and time to create a everlasting model of HHN. This is sort of idea has an enormous quantity of untapped potential, and can solely proliferate within the years to return.
While I don’t anticipate Universal’s AREA15 haunts attraction to experiment and subvert expectations fairly a lot, it additionally doesn’t need to comply with the acquainted system of Halloween Horror Nights. Universal can attempt new issues and assume exterior the field–actually, as this can be constructed from scratch.
This can even seemingly profit from being in Las Vegas as a substitute of Orlando or Southern California. Locating it exterior the normal theme park complicated hubs–and in a spot identified for experimentation and pushing boundaries–most likely gives Universal larger latitude in doing one thing extra inventive, totally different, and fascinating.
Then once more, perhaps I’m simply mapping what I want to see on this, somewhat than what it’ll really be. Universal has a tried and true system with Halloween Horror Nights, and a strong steady of horror IP (each due to HHN and the studio). With all the huge bets that Comcast is already making, there’s a great probability they received’t need to do something dangerous right here. Although “hungrier” than Disney, it’s not like Universal is strictly a startup or something.
Ultimately, no matter what kind this year-round horror expertise takes in Las Vegas, it’s one more instance of Universal doing one thing new and impressive because it appears to develop its footprint within the points of interest business. While loads of ideas like this have failed over time, I extremely doubt this may be a part of them. Both the Universal and Halloween Horror Nights manufacturers are extremely highly effective, and the latter ought to journey properly exterior of Hollywood and Orlando.
My hope is that Universal swings for the fences with this and shakes up its HHN system. But actually, I’ll be fairly happy even with a extra everlasting and high-budget model of Halloween Horror Nights. Some of the latest homes which have clearly had “Netflix money” have been phenomenal from a themed design perspective, and I stay up for seeing what Universal Creative can do when given the sources. My solely request: Resident Evil. (That’s really not my solely request, but when I listing all of them, I’ll invariably get a bunch of feedback about Universal not proudly owning these IPs.)
If you’re getting ready for a Southern California trip, try our different planning posts, together with our exhaustive Guide to Universal Studios Hollywood. Need recommendation for LA? Read our Ultimate Los Angeles, California Planning Guide. Visiting different SoCal theme parks? Consult our comprehensive Disneyland Vacation Planning Guide and Knott’s Berry Farm Planning Guide.
YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you consider Universal’s plan to construct a everlasting horror attraction at AREA15 in Las Vegas? Think this can be successful–much like Halloween Horror Nights? Would you wish to see Universal Creative push the envelope with this, or keep on with the tried and true system of HHN, however with higher polish? Do you agree or disagree with our commentary? Will you be making an attempt to go to Universal Orlando or Hollywood anytime quickly? Any questions we may help you reply? Hearing your suggestions–even if you disagree with us–is each fascinating to us and useful to different readers, so please share your ideas under within the feedback!