We all know the drill by now! As we get closer and closer to that coveted day at the end of August, Universal Orlando will be announcing more and more offerings that will be featured this yearat Halloween Horror Nights 34. We’ve already got eight of our house announcements, with Terrifier being the most recent IP announced to be featured at this year’s haunt. But even with the few remaining houses left to be revealed, there’s still plenty of other scary surprises for guests who have been keeping a keen eye on the meda at Universal Orlando Resort. Today markedthe first of a new kind of announcement for this year’s event – the first scarezone.
For the uninitiated, scarezones are a little different than haunted houses. Massive, sprawling sections of the park (often taking up entire themed sections, like the entirety of New York of Hollywood) with superb theming and roaming scare actors that waste no time in scaring the pants off of you well before you even make it to the houses.
Universal Orlando Resort’s scarezones are intense, fun, and thrilling attractions in their own right that offer unparalleled theming, atmosphere, and entertainment; some scare zones offer small stage or street shows, while others sometimes include massive props, like everyone’s favorite bus.
Scarezones are as much an integral part of Halloween Horror Nights as the houses themselves, which makes this week’s announcement on the first official scarezone an absolute treat; Universal Orlando Resort’s official HHN Social Media gave us the first glimpse at one of this year’s scarezones, along with a short description.
This scarezone, titled “The Origins of Horror” plays heavily into the previously announced theme of this year’s event, in which guests experience The Conservatory: “Enter a decaying conservatory of twisted vines where artists carve tributes to Halloween Horror Nights 34. You’ll encounter monstrous crows, gargoyles and more.”
This mysterious key art doubles down on the gothic nature of the Conservatory theming; while little it known about the props, scareactors, or shows that might be held within this scarezone, the key art itself and the overall theme of the conservatory recalls memories of a previous scarezone from Halloween Horror Nights 31 in 2022, in which guests wandered through a haunted graveyard in which the dead wandered the monuments.
With just under two months until the official start of this HHN season, fans are keeping an eye out for announcements, releases, and goodies that have been dropping since early June. Last week, multinight tickets went on sale, prompting hours-long queue lines for their digital ticketing site.
Check back soon, as Theme Park Shark will continue to report on all the details released on this year’s Halloween Horror Nights event, including food, merch, scarezones, and house rankings. In the meantime, check out our Accessibility Guide to Halloween Horror Nights, or check out Theme Park Shark on your favorite social media platform, like Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, and expect to see plenty of scares this season, as well as theme park news from Disney, Universal, and theme parks from all across the world!
