The Calendar has flipped over to September, and it is time for us to give you a glimpse of Halloween Horror Nights 32 (HHN 32) in Universal Studios Orlando. Having purchased the Ultimate Frequent Fear Pass, we have been to the opening weekend of this year’s event and will offer our initial thoughts and some tips for navigating the fog. Let’s dig in, lock your windows, bolt your door, and turn out the lights. This article is going to get you ready for the spooky season.
At this point in the season, we won’t go into the logistics of HHN. You can find that info in our preview article. This article will give you a rundown of our thoughts on the overall event and hopefully fun stories, so grab some popcorn.
As we navigate the fog in this article, we want to mention Dr. Oddfellow and his presence on HHN 32. Universal Studios Orlando (USO) leans into the lore of Halloween Horror Nights. Over in Hollywood, it feels like they are more into the production value of HHN, whereas here in Orlando, you get some deep cuts into the story of HHN. This leads us to Dr. Oddfellow.
Dr. Oddfellow has direct ties to USO’s very popular icon, Jack the Clown. Even the poster above advertises Jack Schmidt, the famous icon Jack the Clown. This year’s event is centered around Jack’s creator, Dr. Oddfellow, and USO has brought him to life for the first time.
It is worth mentioning that Dr. Oddfellow is present in all 5 of the scare zones for HHN 32, so when we say they went all in on him, they did it. The cohesion this added to Horror Nights was well done to set up the atmosphere for the event this year.
How does his maze stack up with this year’s lineup of mazes? We offer our thoughts on all of the mazes for this year so far. It is worth mentioning that by the end of the event, our feelings towards the mazes will change, and when we post the final review of this year, our rankings will be different.
The lineup of Intellectual Properties is quite strong this year. We already marked The Last of Us and Stranger Things at the top of our most anticipated mazes of the year. Did they live up to our hype, though? Did the Universal Monsters Maze Unmasked come out of the gate strong, or does it need time to age like the Universal Monsters Legends Collide maze did last year?
Halloween Horror Nights 32 Maze Rankings
This section will give you a rundown of how we ranked the mazes and some thoughts on our reasoning. We just started with the first maze at the front of the park for the first night we attended and worked our way around clockwise in this year’s map, Bloodmoon Dark Offerings. Later in this article, we will give you a good plan of attack to limit your walking.
Our list goes from favorite to least favorite, starting with the Last of Us. Having played the game multiple times probably helped with the hype train on this one, but boy, did they bring the game to life. This maze has a lot of easter eggs from the video game, and enough clickers and bloaters to make newcomers to the series feel their presence. Our favorite thing in the maze was the spores effect and the bloater! The creepy clicker sound is also in the maze and awesome!!!!
Second favorite maze for us is Stranger Things. I cannot express how much we love the show, and seeing some of the greatest moments from season four come to life is fantastic. Vecna is felt throughout this maze and sometimes can seem a bit mellow, but it is great to see. Overall, if you enjoyed season four, this maze will deliver; however, be prepared for a long wait as it consistently stays over 100 minutes all night. Also, can Eddie pick up his guitar in his room, please?
Third favorite maze for us is Dr. Oddfellow’s Twisted Origins. As mentioned above, this year’s event revolves around him, and his creepy freakshow clown-centric 1930s tent sets the tone for how he created Jack the Clown and gives substance to his own story. This maze has a dark undertone and plenty of clowns to all laugh with you as you traverse it.
Yeti Campground Kills was simply fun. The set designs are basic. I mean, it is a campground, but it feels like you are in the woods with them, and to that note, we counted twelve Yeti’s in the maze and even a lovable bear to hug. This maze is fun and in-your-face with Yetis, which equals a big win for us.
Fifth on our list is Dueling Dragons Choose Thy Fate. This is the part of the list where mazes will fight for spots. However, Dueling Dragons has a lot going for it. The set designs are impressive, huge, and full of fantasy. This maze is a nod to the old roller coaster Dragon Challenge at Islands of Adventure. As you wander through this heavily castle-themed maze, fire and ice is facing off around you. It is a great fantasy maze and comes with different endings!
This maze didn’t knock us off our feet, but, fear not, Universal Monsters last year did not either at first and aged very well as the season went on. The monsters this year blend together, and for us it was tough to keep up with which monster we were looking at outside of the Invisible Man. Here’s hoping the maze ages well this season.
This section will rip through the last four mazes to keep this article from rambling too much. Remember that placing in the bottom four of our list does not reflect the mazes, as there must be mazes at the bottom of a rankings list, so here goes. Number seven goes to The Darkest Deal. This maze tells a very complete story of a musician who signs away his soul to became a musician. The music and even the demon like creature are great in this one.
Number eight belongs to Chucky Ultimate Kill Count. Chucky, the sinister possessed doll, is back to bring his flare to HHN 32, and while this maze is fun, the story could be more straightforward.
Number nine belongs to Bloodmoon Dark Offerings. The set designs and overall tone of this maze are fantastic and help drive a narrative that you are involved with a cult. Spooky!
That brings us to the only maze that disappointed us: The Exorcist Believer. It could be that seeing the movie needs to be a requirement for enjoying this maze, but as a fan of the original Exorcist movie, and even the maze for that movie, this one missed a lot for us. The story and the scares made no sense to either of us.
Here is our recap of the rankings after the first weekend; stay tuned to see how this changes by the end of the event!
- The Last of Us
- Stranger Things
- Dr. Oddfellow’s Twisted Origin
- Yeti Campground Kills
- Dueling Dragons Choose Thy Fate
- Universal Monsters Unmasked
- The Darkest Deal
- Chucky Ultimate Kill Count
- Bloodmoon Dark Offerings
- The Exorcist Believer
Halloween Horror Nights 32 Food
Here, we will showcase some of the food we have tried at HHN 32. Starting off with the Stranger Things themed Surfer Boy Pizza. We opted for the controversial pineapple topped pizza, and it was a lot better than we expected. The amount of sweet and spice on this French bread style pizza hit us just right, and Argyle would be proud. Don’t deny until you try!
Next, we head over to the quarantined zone, which is themed after The Last of Us. The central part of this food is in a little alleyway in the New York area, and for fans of the game, there are a lot of easter eggs here. We ordered the Left-Behind Ravioli and the Salt Lake City Iced Coffee (alcoholic beverage). The ravioli are topped with tempura-style mushrooms (a clever nod to the game) and served in rations you can keep. They are good, and we felt it was worth the price as it is a filling dish. As expected, the iced coffee was tasty but overpriced for the portion.
We also wandered over to try the Peanut Blooder Burger. This was our favorite item we have tried to this point. This burger, of course, is themed after Stranger Things, and they captured the feel of the upside-down with the look. Shockingly, the taste of this burger is fantastic! In this bad boy is a smash burger with peanut sauce, raspberry jelly, cheddar cheese, shaved onions, jalapeno bacon, cherry peppers, and a vampire bun. We highly recommend you try this. Also, if you are into different-tasting sodas, you can find “What the Fanta” here, which is a different but good take on Fanta.
As we move through the season, we will try other foods and post them to this article or make a VLOG. Stay tuned to find out if we can try Dr. Oddfellow’s Carn-Evil Dog, which features bubblegum mustard and Kool-Aid pickles!
Final Thoughts on HHN 32 and a Maze Strategy
With so much to do at Halloween Horror Nights and massively long lines, it can be intimidating, to say the least, to get through it all. Here, we will lay out the best approach for the mazes, taking into account their locations and where the exit is to minimize your walking. Also, it will take you through the scare zones in the process.
Also, this path assumes you do not have to Stay-and-Scream or Express Pass. Stay-and-Scream allows you to enter Universal Studios and queue up for a maze before HHN opens, and Express Pass will enable you to skip the regular standby queue once per maze (Highly recommended). Both come at a price. Start with Bloodmoon, which is at the entrance to the park, and when you exit, you will be next to The Exorcist Believer, or Stranger Things. Please take note of the wait times and pick the shorter ones as they exit in the same spot. Also, in this corner, you can queue up for Yeti Campground Kills, and Dueling Dragons, which exit in the same place. Depending on the wait times, you will want to plan out this corner differently, but lump them together based on where they exit if you’re going to minimize your steps.
Head over to Chucky next, as this maze is in the Fast and Furious area. Upon exiting this, your next target is a bit of a journey via the scare zone in San Francisco, and also you can stop off in Diagon Alley to catch the Death Eaters that appear nightly until 11 p.m. After this, queue up for Dr. Oddfellow, which exits next to The Darkest Deal, which exits next to The Last of Us. This will leave you with Universal Monsters as your last maze of the night.
In closing, we had a blast at Halloween Horror Nights 32, and it is great to be back in the fog. A couple of housekeeping items here that we didn’t touch on. Nightly, there is a show named Nightmare Fuel Revenge Dream that we suggest you watch. On weekends, get there 15-30 minutes early to get a seat, and on weekdays you can show up 10 minutes before show time and still get a seat. Also, there is a wandering horde of M3GANs at HHN 32. We have run into them twice so far. Our strategy has been to spend 45 minutes traversing between Mels Die-in and the Chucky maze area. Look for the M3GANs walking into position.
What are your thoughts? Will we see you in the fog?