With the whirlwind of information that fans were given over the last week – the first house of the season being announced on Friday – and then one house being announced every day via social media throughout the following week, we now know six of the ten houses that will be featured at this year’s Halloween Horror Nights event.
Late Friday morning, Universal released their final teaser in the deluge of information that they planned to unleash on the public, with the announcement of their sixth house and another Universal Original, Triplets of Terror.
The announcement of this killer birthday bash marks what seems to be the end – for now – of Universal’s onslaught, and potentially concludes the list of this year’s original houses. With only four houses left for the season, fans are surprised that there seems to have not been any IP-driven announcements yet so far.
While not unusual for Universal to have a healthy mix of IP-based houses and originals, it was clearly a deliberate choice for their PR and Social Media teams to make the announcements for a week straight to reveal the Universal Originals instead of touching on any of their potential IP houses.
With the most recent version of the speculation map, which debuted in late April after the announcement of the event, tickets, and dates, it was suggested that fans should expect a handful of IP houses, potentially including a Ghostbusters house, the return of the Blumhouse film studio’s long line of exceptional houses, and potentially a third, undetermined IP that many believed may be tied into 2018’s A Quiet Place. However, as last week’s run of announcements progressed, fans were surprised to see that none of the houses announced were property-based houses at all.
This leaves fans curious and with great anticipation about what the next string of Universal announcements may be regarding, considering the fact that we have yet to hear about the final four houses, any of the scare zones, and what this year’s show may entail, with many expecting a return of Nightmare Fuel in some wicked incarnation. Food, multi-night tickets, and this year’s icon – teased with the logo This is Where Horror Lives and seemingly featuring something wicked and disastrous living within the corridors underneath the Universal Studios park – it’s hardly a surprise that Universal has already suggested that the best is yet to come for this season’s announcements, posting on their social media that fans should ‘save room for dessert,’ after the main-course of last week’s house reveals.
One thing is absolutely certain: it’s already lining up to be an exceptionally terrifying year, and as Universal Orlando Resort continues to reveal information about houses, scare zones, food, icons, and tickets, Theme Park Shark will cover it all!
