Halloween Horror Nights Orlando: Press Conference

0:08 From the Haunted Attraction Network. I'm Philip and this is our sixty one day Hauntathon. We're recounting down to Halloween by celebrating haunted houses daily via videos, podcasts, and in person experiences. Since this podcast is only part of the Hautathon, the best way to follow everything is by subscribing to our newsletter at the link in our show notes. And remember that the best way you can support us this Halloween season is by sharing our hautathon with someone you think will enjoy it. Halloween Horror Nights opened up Friday in Orlando and this is the longest run ever at forty eight nights. Members of the media were invited Friday night to a presentation about this year's event, and that's what I'm going to play for you today. You'll hear the backstory behind all of the event offerings, and there's an appearance by Michael Allo and Neil Druckman, the Naughty Dog co president that's accompany the created the Last of Us. So basically, think of this like an audio cliff notes. If you're going to the event but you haven't really dug much into what the houses are, what the themes are, or what's going on with the backstory of the Last of Us. The presentation was led by Laura Soul's show direction at Universal or Landoversort and here she is or Halloween Hornites thirty two. WHOA, I know, everyone's a bit soggy, but most of us know, right, it's not Halloween Horror Nights if it doesn't rain on no many weekends. But we're gonna get through it.

1:37 We're not gonna go anywhere. This year, We're set up for the most amazing Halloween Hornnites that we've had yet. We have ten incredible haunted houses, five amazing scare zones, live shows, and more. But this year we're setting a record for the most Halloween Horror nights ever forty eight nights of screens. Yeah yeah, And we have the biggest and I mean the biggest names in the horror genre. But here at University Orlando, we love the most is creating those terrifying original content stories. And let's start with the original content haunted houses. First. We have the Darkest Deal, Yes, please, the darkest deal is that age old story of wanting fame and selling your soul to the collector, and that house is doing just that. We see our musician Pine Straw Spruce. He's a bluesman in the Mississippi Delta. He wants that fame. And when we enter that house, he's selling his soul to the collector. And as we take his journey to his rise to fame, the collector is possessing everyone on his route. And when he gets to the big stage and he's having that moment of fame, he strums one chord

3:07 and our collector comes and takes his soul. Then you're thrust into a hellscape, a musician's hellscape, where you see all of those that the collector has taken before and our friend Pine Straw, and you're gonna meet the most demonic collector of all. Will you survive the darkest deal? Next, we have YETI Camp round Kill It yet This is our third installment of the Yeti. Some of you remember Slaughter Cinema where we had swamp Jettis, Yes, give it up for the Yetti. Then we had Yetti Terror on the Yukon. Now whoop. Now Yetti is at a nineteen fifties campground. This is our dark comedy house. We have a family of Yeti this year. Yeah, you're gonna see a baby Yetti. You're gonna see Mama Yetti, You're gonna see a little teenage Yetti and Daddy Yetty. Of course, they are going through this campground, tearing everyone from limb to limb. It's really great fun.

4:08 Yeah, yeah, and that's Yetti campground kills. Next, we have blood Moon Dark Offerings. Yes, in a similist form, this is a colonial era kill cult. Everyone is praising in this cult is praising the blood Moon, and anyone who does not follow their fellowship, they are murdering because they must make a totem to the blood Moon, and that totem exists of the body parts of those non followers. The blood Moon has risen and we must follow. Next, we have Dueling Dragons truth like Yet. Some of you may know this was an amazing attraction at Islands of Adventure when we first open, And what was even more amazing about this attraction was it's que line and the story that went with it. So for Halloween Horror Night's thirty two, we're telling a more horrific story. But you're gonna see that story of Merlin trapped in the enchanted oak. He's set a spell on his spell book so that these two competing warlocks, Pie Rock and blizz Rock. The Fire Warlock and the Ice Warlock wouldn't take over his realm. And we're following them trying to protect Merlin's book. But as pie Rock and blizz Rock both compete to get that book, Merlin has set a spell to turn them into these

5:40 wicked, fire breathing dragons. We meet the ice Warriors, the Fire Warriors, the Ice skeletons, the fire skeletons, and yes, you must choose fire or ice at the end. There are four different endings to this Haunted House. Yes, and to round out our original content houses, we have Doctor Oddfellows twists. We have brought andite hantic character back to Halloween Horrinites. And in this story, this whole year, you're gonna follow doctor Oddfellow's path to immortality. And in this original Haunted House, he's in the dustful era of United States in the nineteen thirties. He's set up this twisted, demented, dark circus, hiring all these murderous clowns and twisted acts of distortion just so that he can kill anyone that comes into his circus to gain the immortality he needs to rule this world. The reason this title has an plural on the end is because this is not only a part of doctor odd Fellow's origin story, but there's another person icon that we all love that is connected to doctor Oddfellow. We all know who he is. It is Jack the Clown.

7:13 Them also tells Jack the Clowns part of his origin story. You're gonna see Jack in this house a few times, but the biggest moment is you're gonna see when Oddfellow kills Jack the Clown and Jack is stuffed in the box. We all know what happens after that, right. So those are our original content haunted houses. But again, like I said, this year, we have the biggest and best intellectual properties in the horror genre and we're gonna start with Universal Monsters Unmasked. Yeah. Universal Pictures created the classic monster, and every year we get to create such cool original stories with these classic monsters, from the Friday Frankenstein Lives to the Mummy, Dracula and Wolfman fighting over one amulet. This year is no different. This year, in the One Night in Paris, this collection of maniacal monsters comes together to cause mayhem in the city of Paris. The Phantom of the opera is stealing your face to make a skin face for himself. The Hunchback is cursing and going after everyone in the corridors of London. In the alleyways of London, the hide character, this bigger than life monster is ripping everyone apart. And of course the Invisible Man makes an appearance as he strangles his way through the streets of Paris.

8:48 Next we have Chucky. Oh yeah, So in the side By series of Chucky, it lends a little meta a roach, right, He's very self aware of what he does and how he does it. So we hear at Universal want to just celebrate Chucky, celebrate all those amazing kills in his entire franchise and on the side By Network series. And so we purchased about two hundred and fifty Chucky dolls. We put him in our Haunted House. But we did one thing that maybe we shouldn't have done. We invited the real Chucky here to our haunted house. And he said, what the you're not really killing anybody. I'm gonna put horror back in horror Nights, and I'm gonna kill everybody possessing all your dolls, possessing your eight foot tall mask out of me and have everyone that comes through Halloween Horror Nights become one of my ultimate kill counts. I don't know if we make it out of that house, because I've met the real Chucky. I'm really happy. I'm alive.

9:58 Maybe it's my right here, I don't know. Next, we have The Exorcist Believer. Yes, this is one of the first times we're creating a living, breathing trailer for a film that comes out six weeks after we open. Right. The Exorcist Believer comes out on October sixth, and we open tonight this amazing living trailer. You're gonna follow Angela and Catherine's You're gonna follow their path of becoming these demonic little girls. We're gonna go into the demon world. You're gonna go into the exorcism and you yourself will will be possessed by the demon as you try to make your way out of this amazing trailer for The Exorcist Believer. Next, Stranger Things. We are so happy that Stranger Things is back at Universal Orlando's Halloween Horror Nights. This will be our third installment of Stranger Things. This is based on season four when we watched this season. We were like, oh, this is right for a haunted house. We're gonna follow Fetnah's curse. You're gonna see the very first person that he cursed, Chrissy, broken apart and stretched to the ceiling of Eddie's trailer. Then you're gonna follow Max's curse. You're gonna go into the mind of everyone Fetna's cursed, and you're gonna follow his curse to the end to see Eleven and FeTNA battle it out. Who wins. Well, we'll

11:31 have season five to really tell us. And then there's the US Creative Creative Development here at Universal Orlando. My dad, Hello there, running Happy Halloween everyone. That's the most dramatic entrance I've ever happened. Yester Young rehearsal.

12:43 They're like, so we're gonna bring you on. It's gonna be this dramatic thing. And then then we're gonna stroke the hell out of the room and you're gonna appear. And here we are, and here's Neil Drugman. How about that. Uh so it's I guess it's no secret how all this collaboration began. Literally, something really great came from social media. Yeah, I was here with my family who's somewhere out there in this park about two years ago, just gushing over rides and tweeting about it, and someone replied to me. I was like, Oh, it wouldn't be cool if last this was part of Holloman hor Nights. And I was like, I wonder if I put a tweet out there or X whatever their cliver it is, now, if you'll reach someone and then they'll take it to their boss, and we'll take it to their boss and someone will start a conversation and maybe it all happen. I didn't believe that. Within twenty four hours, Mike DMed me and it was like, dude, this would be so cool. Let's do this thing. And I was like, can I drop I won't drop everything if yeah, let's do this. And we hit the ground running pretty fast again les less than two years ago we had that conversation and the house is open tonight. It is an unbelievable experience if you are a fan of this video game like we are. Again, this is celebrating its tenth anniversary as one of the greatest video games of all time, and I'm not afraid to say that because it is, and this experience is something that you're going to absolutely love. If you love this game, it is you are on this journey with Ellie and Joel, and you're with them every step of the way. Laura and the team have created an absolutely fantastic experience. The collaboration

14:18 with Neil and the Naughty Dog team has been one of the most greatest collaborations. We've ever had. The ability to talk freely with this group and ask for basically the world in assets and it's that collaboration has been such an honor and a pleasure. It's like, really, we just we spend some time outlining the sequence. We really wanted the guests to go on a journey, like Mike was saying, with Ellian Joel, going through Pittsburgh, crashing at the beginning, making your way through it, through the tour, its ending with the suburbs. I'm spoiling too much of it. No, No, you could say anything you want, Neil, but I again, on the half of anybody, everybody at Naughty Dog, this has been such an honor. It's been so cool. I got to see it yesterday. It's freaking awesome. If you're a fan of the game, you're going to be inside the game yeah, yeah, so we cannot wait for you to experience it.

15:07 Thank you all for being here and uh Laura, it is all yours once. Thank you both very much, very much, Neil Grating guy, all everybody say me thank you. Like they said, the Last of Us is incredible and our collaboration was amazing. You're gonna see hunters, runners, clickers, stalkers, bloaters say that five times best. It's pretty sweet. But we don't just have ten incredible haunted houses, right, There's so much more to Halloween Hornites. The show Nightmare Fuel Revenge Dream. Nightmare Fuel Revenge Dream is back for its third installment. It's a new Dreamer. It's hotter if you can believe it. It's sexier. I've seen it, if you can believe it. Yes, and there's it's bigger than ever before. There's more fuel, more fuel girls, more illusions, more dancing, more aerialis.

16:07 It's an incredible show and you can't miss it. Then we have five terrific scare zones and this year the scare Zones are tying that incredible story of doctor Oddfellow. You're gonna go on his journey of becoming immortal, because that's why He's brought you all here. That's why you're here, because you love fear. And his journey starts in the Jungle of Doom Expedition Horror. This isn't our central Park area of the park. This is where Oddfellow finds the glowing green skull that, as most of you know, becomes the top to the cane of souls. When this explorer Oddfellow found this skull, he knew it had powers. He could feel the power, he could feel himself changing.

17:03 But so in the jungle he harnessed those powers. He twisted jungle beings and tropical things together to create these horrific creatures. And these horrific creatures are just coming after everyone because the more souls he takes, the more immortality he feels. That's the Jungle of Doom. But once we pass the jungle, and that's in the nineteen twenties and the nineteen thirties, he went to the dustful era of the United States and collected all those demented clowns and twisted all those zodiac creatures. He had to have some place to put those things right, and that is Shipyard thirty two Horrors Unhinged. It's doctor Oddfellow's shipyard where he sent all of these monsters to be kept for when he needed to unleash them. And on this night, he's unleashing those beasts and no one will make it out of there alive. It is a blood bath. But for you super fans, there's some Easter eggs in this zone. Maybe Oddfellow has manipulated has been manipulating us, the creators of this event, the whole time.

18:22 Maybe he's kind of gotten into our minds and made us create these monsters that we've seen before, tooth fairies, chupicabras, demons. Maybe he's been apart and working us the whole time. And that is Shipyard thirty two Horrors Unhinged. Next, we have Vamp sixty nine Summer of Blood. Yes, we love our Vamp series, right. We started in nineteen fifty five where we dropped a horde of vampires on a homecoming parade. Then we went to nineteen eighty five where we've dropped that horde of vampire on a New Year's Eve celebration. Now doctor Oddfellow has befriended a horde of vampires in New York and he wants to drop that Horde of Vampires right in to a music festival in nineteen sixty nine. If you all saw those previous scare zones Vamp fifty five, Vamp eighty five, you knew it had sweet sweet BGM. Right we leaned into the era of the vamp story. Well, this year is no different. You're gonna hear the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, You're gonna hear all the songs you know that my grandparents loved. You're gonna hear all those songs with blood curdling screams over it. And another Easter egg for all of you super fans. Watch for the people in the zone. You may see doctor Oddfellow in each of these zones, as he can twist himself into any

19:55 being he wants to be. And the last part of doctor oddfellow journey to immortality was the Dark Zodiac, so an icon we all know and love. Thought he killed Doctor Oddfellow many many decades ago, but he didn't. Doctor Oddfellow, being immortal, went to the realm of the Zodiac. And when he was in the realm of the Zodiac, he found that if he twisted every single Zodiac creature, he could have every being in the world fall to him and make him the most immortal being in the universe. And so he did just that. Dark Zodiac, all of your zodiac signs are twisted into these diabolical creatures. You're gonna want to take a picture with your zodiac, I'm pretty sure. So we have all this amazing content, and it culminates in our doctor Oddfellow's collection of horrors. Doctor Oddfellow is going to welcome everyone to Halloween Horror Nights. Every single night. He's sending you on his journey of immortality. He wants you to follow his path. He's here, he's now, but ultimately he wants you to be a part of his collection.

21:27 Fee. I send it here in this room, so there's no hid I see you. Should he see it yet? Begging for more? And if it's more that you want, then surely there's something that I could do for you. Most people try to avoid the talk. I like to show them what's suicide you pract those who stood here before me, doctors, directness, even clown what. I don't want your work here? No, I want what you want. You desire fear cool, you want to feel its power.

22:22 You long more immortality high up all of that and more for grand price, of course, what does it take it to be amongst my collection of soul? Why your very soul? Indeed, I clad price to the cards. Mellow, don't you think out? There's a look into my past that will show you your future. Your destiny awaits and to now. As this horror night began, break the week, thank you wish I had the rest good. Today's episode was produced and edited by me Philip Hernandez, with post production by David Swope and original music composed by Chris Thomas. We're counting down

23:53 to Halloween with daily podcasts, videos, and events in our sixty one day haunt a Thon. Follow along at the link on our show notes. Our Hantathon is made possible through generous support from Gantum, Lighty and Controls. Gantum illuminates attractions worldwide with the world's smallest intelligent spotlights. See what you're missing with a free demo. Sign up at gantum dot com slash deemo. That's gantum dot com slash demo. Our Hauntathon team includes Darryl Punky, Emily Louise Rua, Megan Spells, Gavin Burns, and Omni Adventures and Our content partners for this year include Attractions Magazine, Creepy Kingdom, Freaks of Hhen, Hant Topic Radio, Kevin Heimbach News TV, omni Adventures, Scare Track, Sharp Productions, That Halloween Podcast, The Horror of Being, Emily, The Scare Factor, and This Weekend with Nick Paleokini. The best way you can support us this Halloween season is by sharing our Haunta Doon with someone you think will enjoy it, and to follow along to our hauntadon sign up for our weekly newsletter at Hantatraction Network dot com. We'll catch you back here tomorrow and every day until Halloween until next time. Please Gary. This is a Haunted Attraction Network produce