Universal Orlando’sHalloween Horror Nights2024is in full scare mode through November 3, with 10 all-new haunted houses, both inspired by well-known horror properties and created from original stories, and five scare zones. Between the demons fromInsidious: The Further, the massive creatures ofA Quiet Place, a frost threatening to freeze everyone to death inGhostbusters: Frozen Empire, and a group of female Universal Monsters getting their time to shine withEternal Bloodlines, there will be plenty of screams to go around. And when you add six original twisted tales about goblins, killers jacked-up on candy, a folklore museum, monsters of Latin America, terrible triplets, and a B-movie horror marathon to the mix, no one will leave unscathed.
Before the 33rd annual HHN kicked into gear, Collider got the opportunity to chat with Lora Sauls, Director of Creative Development and Show Direction atUniversal Orlando, about what it takes to pull off the hugely popular event. During the interview, she also discussed pushing creative boundaries, how things have grown over the years, the differences between the event in Orlando and the event in Hollywood, the fun in bringing creatures to life, taking the Orlando weather into account, that guests should be prepared for how terrifying theInsidious: The Furtherhouse is, the key to a successful HHN, and how far along they are with planning and development for the 2025 event.
Collider: Please give my regards to whoever is responsible for the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man S’mores because that person is absolutely a brilliant genius.
LORA SAULS: Yeah, when we saw it, we just loved it. Our food and beverage team knocked it out of the park with some of their awesome specialty items this year.
On top of that, you have Pumpkin Guts, which is actually butternut squash and zucchini noodles. When did you realize that you could really push creative boundaries with what you offer for HHN?
SAULS: It was just a few years back that the entertainment creative teams were working directly with our food teams. They are such amazing creatives, in and of themselves, and they come up with all these amazing specialty products for Halloween every year. There were the Cordyceps noodles (forThe Last of Us) last year.
Horror Nights Has Greatly Evolved in the 33 Years the Annual Event Has Taken Place
As one of the people behind putting this event together, when did you start working specifically on Halloween Horror Nights and what was the event at that time? How much has it grown since you started working on it?
SAULS: I started my long career with Halloween Horror Nights in 1998. I think we were still in single digits. It’s crazy that we’re 33 years young. We only had a few haunted houses. It was definitely less than 10. We had a few shows, and scare zones were a part of it. It really has evolved. I choreographed my first show in 1998. And then, in 2000, I got the awesome opportunity to choreographJacked Up, which was a show for an icon that we had created for that year, Jack the Clown. I never knew what I was a part of when I was able to choreograph that show. Still, 33 years later, Jack is such a huge part of the Halloween Horror Nights lore.
When did you start working on this year specifically and what was the first thing that you started working on?
SAULS:For this year, we started working on the event in August of last year.We typically start working on the event with our original content haunted houses because we get to curate original horror stories that we get to highlight at the Orlando event. And then, from there, we fold in our intellectual property haunted houses, and then scare zones and shows. We actually started 2025 development in April. Now, we’re about an 18-month creation cycle, which really allows us to spend time and hone in on all those original content stories for not only haunted houses, but also scares zones.
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One of the things I love most about this event is that there’s so much work put into all the details of each house.
SAULS: One amazing thing we have here at Universal Orlando is our “Unmasking the Horror” lights on daytime tour, where you get a behind-the-scenes look at the amazing movie-quality sets that our scenic team builds and the decor that our decor team puts all their love behind. It’s a lights on tour, so you get to see all those incredible details.
Was that something that came about because you guys wanted to do it, or was it something that came about because of fan demand?
SAULS: It’s a little bit of both.We truly listen to our fans and hear what they want out of the event, as far as content and what they want to see. So, we were able to listen to both our fans and ourselves and said, “We really should do this.”
At Universal Orlando’s Horror Nights, the Original Content Houses Play an Important Role
Even for the properties that are on both coasts, the houses are typically different experiences. Does that come out of there just being two different creative teams and you guys wanting to do your own take on stuff? Are you also keeping in mind the fact that there’s an ever-growing group of fans that attend on both coasts?
SAULS: Here in Orlando we have the great pleasure of typically doing a 5/5 split of original content and intellectual properties. But this year, we are doing a 6/4 split, with six original concepts and four intellectual properties for our haunted houses. We know our fans in Orlando absolutely love the original content stories that we get to tell and we wanna tell more of that. We are listening to our fan base, at all times. But honestly, we really attempt to create an overall story with our event in Orlando and really try to develop iconic characters. It is two creative teams, but we work very closely on the intellectual properties for both coasts.
I got a behind-the-scenes tour of the house forA Quiet Placeat Universal Studios Hollywood. How did you approach that house in Orlando?
SAULS:For all our intellectual properties, we work very closely with our West Coast creative partners on really aligning on the story beats.WithA Quiet Place, the creative teams from the West Coast and East Coast got together and really aligned on what we wanted those story beats to be, representing bothA Quiet Place 1and2, and how we wanted the creatures to be in each of the haunted houses. Now, on the West Coast and East Coast, the house layouts themselves vary, but that’s just because of the buildings we go in. Patrick Magee, who built all the creatures for Hollywood, also built all the creatures for the East Coast, so we were aligned on what those creatures look like and how they would move now. How we mechanically move them is uniquely different on each coast, but the fact that we were able to align so brilliantly on what they look like was incredible.
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Universal Studios Hollywood had the firstMonstruoshouse in 2023 and it was hugely popular. What made you want to do that in Orlando this year? What are you excited about, when it comes to bringing that particular house to your audiences this year?
SAULS: Several of us from the Orlando creative teams got to go out to the Hollywood event last year and all of us came back saying that was our favorite house. We immediately asked if we could bring it to the Orlando event because we thought it would just be perfect, and we’re so honored that our West Coast partners said yes and even shared some of their assets with us.
Which do you personally enjoy more, bringing creatures and monsters to life that previously only existed in a movie, or creating a creature or monster for an original house that didn’t exist prior to somebody imagining it?
SAULS: Oh, my gosh, it’s definitely both. We love taking our intellectual property stories and really diving in and seeing how we can make it into a haunted house. But also, we absolutely love creating original content characters, environments and stories that we can share with our guests, that are all new horror stories. I love both and our team absolutely loves doing both.
When Designing Horror Nights, Universal Orlando Must Keep the Tropical Weather in Mind
How challenging is it to build and run an event like this, knowing that some of it is outdoors and you’re likely going to have to deal with some severe weather at certain points? Is that something you’ve had to become more aware of during the planning stages?
SAULS: Of course. Our technical teams have all the skill and expertise to make sure thatwe have secured everything for the very severe weather we get here in Orlando, during this time of year. Because we wanna give this amazing content to our guests earlier than ever before, we know we’re gonna deal with those summer storms and with some possible tropical weather that comes our way, but the teams are well-prepared for that. We take into consideration everything when we’re building things that are outside and make sure they are engineered and properly held down, so that weather doesn’t impact them. We attempt to make every consideration when we are putting things out in the streets. We are very well aware of the weather that we have. There have been times in our history where we were squeegeeing out haunted houses and making sure that we weren’t underwater. We prepare every year because it will rain sometime during our opening time period.
How often do you find yourself standing around the exit of houses, so that you can hear what the immediate feedback is? What’s it like to be involved with something where you get that immediate feedback?
SAULS: It’s my favorite thing to do, and we find ourselves doing it a lot more than we probably realized because we love doing it so much. We were just reviewing the houses last week and we all said that we’ll stand outsideInsidious: The Furtherand watch people scream because those last scenes are just intense.
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This will be the sixth installment in the franchise.
Horror really has grown over the years, with such a variety of types of horror now. What most scares you? Is there a horror property or character that you find most terrifying?
SAULS: I will say going through theInsidious: The Furtherhouse is truly frightening. Those demons and creatures really do put me on edge. But for me, it’s just the love of everything. When our scareactors scare us, they get a bigger kick out of that. And it’s silly, but frogs scare me.
What is the key to a successful year of Horror Nights?
SAULS: Having a diverse slate of content and really having something for everyone. Not everyone loves a slasher, but there are some people that love slashers. We want to make sure we have something for everyone in the event that they can enjoy and find joy in.
What are you most proud of being able to pull off this year, that you maybe weren’t sure you’d actually be able to pull off?
SAULS: Our iconic characters for Orlando this year are SINIST3R and SURR3AL. Those characters have been in the brain of me and a couple of other people for the last decade, so we’re very excited that we were finally able to bring those characters to life and that they will reign over Halloween Horror Night 33 in Orlando.
How Far Are Universal Orlando’s Creative and Design Teams With Horror Nights 2025?
How far into HHN 2025 are you, at this point?
SAULS:We have developed six original content houses.Our design team is already into sketching those houses. Our creative team is already writing full treatments for those houses. We’ve already pitched those six creative ideas to our senior leadership here. So, we’re now in full development.
Halloween Horror Nights is being held on select nights at Universal Orlando Resort from August 30 through November 3.
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