Halloween Horror Nights opens this Friday, August 30th, 2024 – kicking off the longest season to ever run at Universal Orlando Resort. And while the main attractions that Universal tends to advertise include the shows, scares, haunts, and houses that make up the event, one of the most anticipated aspects of Halloween Horror Nights is actually the gift shop.
Every year, Halloween Horror Nights receives its own Tribute Store. For those unfamiliar, the Tribute Store is a seasonal pop-up store that is themed to the event; this highly-themed retail space often tells a chilling story and brings guests face-to-face with some of the most terrifying creatures and characters featured that year at the event.
This year tells the story of a post-apocalyptic New York City, overrun by a bloodthirsty creature that was summoned by an ancient idol. The idol, originally intended to be part of a museum exhibit, has the power to corrupt the landscape and shape it to the whims of the creatures that stalks the city.
The interior of the Tribute Store reflects this story brilliantly. Universal Creative and the team that works on the tribute store has masterfully crafted a dystopian New York setting that tells an intricate and detailed story if you know where to look. Scattered around the tribute store are seven QR codes that lead to special pages on the official HHN Instagram.
Unfortunately, getting these QR codes to work requires an Instagram account – and even beyond that it’s a hit and miss. While some previewers were able to pull the diary pages up with ease, others received error messages. The reason behind this error is unclear.
With four rooms to explore, more merch than your wallets can handle, tons of hidden Easter eggs to find in addition to the diary entries, and plenty of opportunities to display photos from folks who bought the HHN Tribute Store photo package earlier this year, exploring this Tribute Store feels just like exploring the ruins of a post-apocalyptic New York.
Be careful, though! Something strange and terrible stalks the abandoned streets of this great city, and by the end of the Tribute Store experience, don’t be surprised if you come face to face with a creature that’s all too eager to kill.
Those with a keen eye will be able to spot out some familiar names – and even some more esoteric pieces of the stories that Halloween Horror Nights have told in the past!
Those who remember last year’s HHN Tribute Store may see the connection between last year’s featured room False Idols: Part I and the story being told this year, with the bat creature that has taken over New York being summoned from an idol that looks strangely similar to the one that Boris Shuster used to summon the Cthulhu-like creature at the end of False Idols: Part I (which now resides on the desk in his Delancey Street office!). And while this year’s Tribute store does not market itself as a direct sequel to that story, some interesting connections are made within the walls of this year’s store, if you know where to look!
