We Attended Universal Horror Unleashed, and We’re Giving You a FULL LOOK at the Horrifying Experience

Eek! Halloween is getting even better because we can celebrate the holiday ALL YEAR LONG! Sure, Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Orlando is one of the scariest, most intense, and terrifying ways to celebrate Halloween, but this event doesn’t last forever.

What if we told you that you could experience those famous scares year-round? Universal Horror Unleashed is opening in Las Vegas, Nevada, and since it’s from Universal Studios, which does Halloween Horror Nights, we knew we were in for a scare. Come with us to explore it ourselves!

 

Over in Las Vegas, Nevada, a new year-round scare experience just opened in August, and it’s called Universal Horror Unleashed. We got invited to the Blood Red Carpet Celebration thanks to Universal, and got to check out all this frightening experience has to offer. We knew we had to explore alll the haunted houses and check out the food and drinks.

This experience is located inside AREA15, which is an entertainment complex in Las Vegas, and WOW does this set the scene incredibly well from the start. The huge statues, massive murals, and dramatic lighting effects turn the entry into something halfway between an art installation and a warning, and it really made us feel like we were on a different planet.

You don’t even have to wait to step into a house to experience the horror vibe of the whole area, because from the second we stepped inside, there were cloaked women flying overhead like airborne cult members, a masked man with a knife mingling with guests, and an axe-wielding psychopath openly stalking people while “victims” staggered and bled through the crowd.

The roaming characters had no problem tailing you until you cracked, so even the most experienced horror individuals may find themselves pretty unsettled here! But soon, it was time to step into our first house — Universal Monsters.

Haunted Houses

Universal Monsters

Here, you can “experience the terrifying worlds of Universal Monsters where you’ll follow in the footsteps of famed monster-hunter Van Helsing and enter the realm of the most iconic monsters in Universal’s storied movie history.” Ready? Let’s do this.

This house mixed beauty with fear, and for us, it was more emotional than terrifying. Oversized busts of the legendary monsters set the tone fantastically, and Van Helsing’s granddaughter prowled the queue and asked guests for the Wolfman’s head on a platter.

Wolfman himself was grotesque — way darker than his ride version at Epic Universe, and we felt the same about Quasimodo and the Phantom characters. The Brides of Dracula appeared in flashes, haunting and theatrical, and then the Bride of Frankenstein delivered the finale with a scare that was both cool and upsetting.

Overall, this house has a beautiful, careful design, and is a great house if you want tons of atmosphere and story, and don’t care as much about jump scares. Before we knew it, it was time for our second house — The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Universal teases a terrifying journey as you make your way “through a rotting farmhouse, its walls stained with terror and echoing with the screams of past victims. Hidden deep in the remote heart of Texas, something unspeakable awaits.” EEK!

You start in a ’70s diner, and the immersion is immediate — it feels like walking into a crime scene where you know you’re about to be the next victim. Then, the movie unfolds around you — Leatherface wasn’t just chasing us, he was everywhere, always one step ahead, around every corner!

The sets were hyper-realistic, perfectly retro, which totally made us feel we were in a decade we loved…except the cost of admission was being stalked by a terrifying man wearing a mask made of human flesh. The roar of the chainsaw, the claustrophobic hallways, and the relentless pace had us screaming so much that we were exhausted when we stepped out. If you want some time travel mixed with terror, this is the house for you!

The Exorcist Believer

Our third house was The Exorcist: Believer, which was just pure satanic horror (which is the way it’s supposed to be, so well done, designers!). Universal’s description reads, “Step inside Blumhouse’s The Exorcist: Believer, where terror takes hold and never lets go. Follow the living story of two girls overtaken by an ancient evil, their scream echoing through a maze of twisted torment.”

The queue started in another country, which we believe was supposed to be reminiscent of the Haitian prologue from the film. The storefront was filled with vintage sunglasses racks and CD displays that placed you in another time and place…and then possession rips it all apart.

This house leaned hard into psychological horror rather than just jump scares, which meant that the scenes are designed to crawl under your skin and never leave your mind. There are hospital corridors, family homes defaced with words written in bodily fluid, ritual sites, and more, all representing the slow collapse into chaos. The design was beautiful in places, with moments of light and artistry even as the air turned heavy and cruel, which was impressive to us.

Scarecrow: The Reaping

Our final house was Scarecrow – The Reaping, which had a beautiful design about it, making you really feel like you’re in the middle of a Dust Bowl with barren farmlands, a Depression-era “romance” made real right in front of your eyes.

Here, “This isn’t just a haunted house, it’s a cursed harvest. As you make your way through fog-choked cornfields, the air grows heavy and still. But you’re not alone. Twisted scarecrows lurk in the shadows, emerging from the mist-covered cornrows — silent, soulless, and always watching.” And then the scarecrows came, and all sense of peace was GONE (again, that’s totally the point, so well done!).

At literally every turn, another scarecrow was leaping at us, and we quickly realized that this was the scariest house of the night. The scarecrow budget must have be astronomical, because the place is FLOODED with them. In fact, this was the first house that had us breaking, needing a quick second to gather ourselves before making it through the rest of the house (shoutout to the one scarecrow who mercifully went still to show us the exit, but didn’t break character!).

We later chatted with some haunted house pros, and they told us what we had already been thinking —  this is one of the scariest houses they’ve ever seen. In fact, the intensity, setting, and scares are so intense that it’s LITERALLY not for the faint of heart.

Food & Drinks

You know we had to try some snacks while we were there! Just be careful not to lose your stomach when you enter the houses. We tried the Graverobber Cocktail, which is $19. This is made with Cuervo Tradicional Reposado Tequila, Chambord, guava, and lime, and is available at both Jack’s Alley Bar and The Boiler.

Merchandise

How about merchandise? Don’t worry, there’s plenty of it here, and we LOVED the shop it was in because it was beautifully designed and intentionally high-end. We were told by Universal’s global marketing team that they wanted to go in a different direction with merchandise for this experience as opposed to what you see at Halloween Horror Nights. This is meant to be a higher-end collection and more rooted in story than just the event itself.

The apparel was tagged with coroner-style body tags instead of regular price labels, which was awesome, and two of the standout items we saw were the Horror Unleashed Tumbler for $30…

…as well as the Texas Chainsaw Massacre Leather Jacket for $95.

This merchandise really felt intentional and well thought-out, like it’s items you’d really use or wear on a daily basis.

Tickets

Here’s a look at ticket prices:

• • $59 — general admission, one-time access to each house (only for Nevada residents)
  • $69 — general admission, one-time access for each house
  • $99 — general admission for unlimited access to each house as many times as you want

If you’re coming with a group, you can also book a VIP Experience Package for $2,950 with priority entry, unlimited haunted house access, VIP dining experience, and exclusive perks.

Now it’s important to know before you go that every 15 minutes, the houses shut down so the actors inside can have a break. No one in line is advanced during that time, so you’ll just be waiting an extra 15 minutes if you hit it wrong. Plan like you would for Halloween Horror Nights: prioritize the houses first, then circle back for bars and merch.

Our final thoughts here are that this is unlike anything else in Las Vegas, and putting this experience in the already-alien AREA15 makes it really feel like a whole other world. The houses each give you all something different, and compared with that and being stalked outside the houses too, it’s intense, intriguing, and we feel it’ll do really well as a year-round experience!

That was a wild ride! We can hardly pick a favorite house, but we had a blast exploring it all, and we’re so happy it’s here to stay all year long. No more waiting for Halloween Horror Nights each year! Make sure you keep following AllEars for more.

We Attended Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Orlando, and We’re Giving You a FULL LOOK

Would you try this super scary experience? Tell us in the comments!

Disclosure: We were invited by Universal to attend the Blood Red Carpet Celebration at Universal Horror Unleashed. This did not affect our reporting of the event — our opinions are our own.

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