Evil Santa, Mardi Gras, and Mummies: This Halloween Horror Nights House Has it ALL!

Horror season is almost here.

©Universal Studios

Believe it or not, Halloween is almost here, which in turn means the most iconic of all theme park Halloween events – – Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights – – is ALMOST here. Recently, Universal released a sneak peek at one of the 2024 event’s most anticipated houses: Slaughter Sinema 2.

A sequel to the wildly popular 2018 Slaughter Sinema, the new house follows a similar format. Each room is themed to a different fictional B-Horror movie.

©Universal

In a recent sneak peek afforded to USA Today, Universal revealed the themes of the Sinema sequel. They include:

Mardi Gras Murders: Set in the midst of a Mardi Gras celebration – – complete with a parade happening just “out the window” – – this area is described by Universal’s Creative Development and Show Direction for Art and Design, Entertainment Lora Sauls as “We’re in New Orleans, and these jesters are murdering people. And these jesters are amazing because they have the jester mask, but when they take off their mask, their flesh is just shaped like a jester hat and mask. As we go through this scene, the jesters get more fleshy. They are really disgusting.”
Heavy Metal Hall: This metal-themed area is described by Sauls as revolving around a teenager who “played a record backward, and it opened this hell gate of Heavy Metal Hell rockers that are killing people with their chainsaw guitars.” Definitely gives us some Stranger Things/Eddie Munson vibes.
Killer Kringles: The next area of Slaughter Sinema 2 combines Halloween and Christmas… in an exceptionally gory way. The story revolves around Santa bringing all the children on his naughty list to the North Pole so Mrs. Cause can feed them to the elves.

Yeah.

Sauls described Santa’s sack-full-of-chldren to the outlet. “Our effects team has little actuators in that bag, and we hear kids in the bag. They’re in there going ‘Let me out! Let me out!’ and you see these bag-like arms are moving back and forth.”

Universal/USA Today

Night of the Undead Clowns: Sauls explained the origin of this part of the house thusly: “This was one, I remember in our brainstorm, we really loved the idea of zombie clowns. So, we’re like, put it in Slaughter Sinema. We’re going to test it out.” Presumably, if the story – – which revolves around the company Bzzzcon (which has appeared in other HHN houses over the years) dumping chemicals into a clown graveyard which brings said clowns back to zombified “life” – – proves popular, it could become its own house in future years.
Hatchet and Chains: Demon Bounty Hunters: This room revolves around two demon bounty hunters – – one of whom is a demon themself – – searching for targets in a saloon.
Blood and Chum: This section of the house is sure to make Jaws fans happy, as its story revolves around a summer camp where an “oversized shark has made its way to a lake” and is “eating every kid that jumps into the lake.
Mummy Strippers Unwrapped: This might be the wildest area in the history of Halloween Horror Nights. As Sauls explains, it revolves around club owners who “stole some merchandise from an Egyptian Museum. They stole one of the sarcophaguses and they put it in as their decor for their strip club. Well, the sarcophagus awoke and reanimated… Now anyone entering the strip club risks having their essence sucked out by the mummy strippers, who use it to transform into beautiful beings.”
Zyborgs: Finally, this area revolves around robotic cyborgs who want to take over human life… which frankly sounds downright rote compared to child-eating holiday elves, zombie clowns, and soul-sucking mummy strippers.

Universal/USA Today

With all of that packed into one house, it’s no surprise that Slaughter Sinema 2 is quite large, According to Sauls, “Most of our houses run between nine and 13 scenes, but as you can tell, they’re all very winding, and our designers do a great job of making everything feel very long.”

Universal Orlando

Halloween Horror Nights, including Slaughter Sinema 2, opens August 30th at the Universal Orlando Resort and September 5th at Universal Hollywood. Stay tuned to AllEars for further coverage of 2024’s Halloween Horror Nights.