An Early All Hallows' Eve Extravaganza - Halloween Horror Nights 31

I'm celebrating Halloween a little earlier than usual this year, due to a few weeks of planned travel. Still, in true Shangrila Towers tradition, we're going to feature the best the spooky season has to offer. Today's post is about this year's iteration of Universal Studios Florida's annual "Halloween Horror Nights" event...

Much like Christmas, the commercial powers-that-be have pushed Halloween earlier and earlier. That's why it wasn't terribly surprising to see HHN starting on frickin' Labor Day weekend this year. Knowing that my buddies like to go on opening night, I grabbed a $130 "Rush of Fear" pass and joined them.  Here are my impressions of each of the houses, in no particular order:

The Weeknd: After Hours Nightmare - This was an unabashedly weird collaboration. While The Weeknd's music videos certainly have their fair share of surreal and disturbing images, you don't associate him with horror the same way you do with, say, Alice Cooper. That said, the house was creative, featuring twisted versions of cuts from the titular hit album (which you are almost guaranteed to hear in its entirety in the queue, thanks to the usually lengthy wait times).

Halloween - HHN has done a Halloween house before, of course, but going back to the well was mandatory due to the upcoming release of Halloween Ends (I half expect the park to hawk Peacock streaming memberships in the gift shop). This one follows the plot of the original movie beat for beat, and stays true to the silent nature of Michael Myers/The Shape. It's well-crafted, but there aren't too many surprises.

The Horrors of Blumhouse - This house combines scenes from two recent movies - Freaky and The Black Phone. It's a strange mix, since the former is a horror/comedy and the latter is more of a thriller/coming-of-age story than a horror flick. If you've seen the films, the scenes are fairly recognizable, but neither setting has the strong sense of place necessary for a great HHN house (compare this to The Shining, one of my all-time favorites).

Universal Monsters: Legends Collide - Despite the abject failure of the "Dark Universe," the Universal Classic Monsters are still some of the most iconic fiends in film history, so they always get a house at HHN. This year's installment is about a clash between Dracula, Wolfman, and the Mummy (who has home court advantage due to the house being set in an ancient Egyptian pyramid). It's not a bad idea, and it makes for a pretty enjoyable time.

Spirits of the Coven - A coven of witches beguiles and murders customers at a speakeasy in the Roaring Twenties. I recognized a bunch of props from past 1920s-era houses, and the theming wasn't the strongest, so this house was just okay.

Bugs: Eaten Alive - In the home of the future, pests are exterminated automatically by science - until something goes terribly wrong. For persons with a specific phobia, this will be the scariest house, as it features a metric truckload of fake plastic insects, but I thought they underused the '50s theme.

Fiesta de Chupacabras - I've noticed a concerted effort to include Day of the Dead theming at HHN in recent years, which makes a ton of sense. This is probably the best attempt to date, with bona fide animatronic chupacabras and lots of Spanish language menace ("Necessitamos tu sangre!").

Hellblock Horror - Easily the weakest house this year, with a muddled theme that my friends and I couldn't really understand. A bunch of monsters (or is it aliens?) attack a prison (or did they mutate from human prisoners?), and massacre the guards.

Dead Man’s Pier: Winter’s Wake - This was the best house - you traipse through a mostly-deserted New England fishing town haunted by ghostly sailors (not pirates). The house does a great job of making you feel like you are going indoors and outdoors, and it is one of the few HHN houses ever to evoke feelings of melancholy.

Descendants of Destruction - Set in the post-apocalypse, this house takes you from an abandoned subway down to the depths of the Earth, where mutants reign. It's pulled off all right, but is probably strongest in the opening scenes, with impressively realistic derelict subway cars setting the stage.

Super Secret Extra Bonus Tip: The "Golden Hour" - On off-peak nights, in the last hour or so of HHN (from 1 am to 2 am), you are sometimes able to walk through a house alone, without the usual conga line of people in front and behind you. The scareactors will all focus on you, allowing you to truly experience the house as it was conceived and designed.