AggroCast — Universal Halloween Horror Nights 2024 [Episode Twelve]

The AggroCast crew takes the voyage out to check out Universal Halloween Horror Night in Hollywood, CA. Join them as they are joined by Ike again as they dive into the experiences leading up to the night. Experiences that explore various places around town, a chocolate factory restaurant, Super Nintendo World, and then the various haunts and scare zones within the park for 2024. Fun and frights we had, along with some interesting takes on various other aspects of it all.
TRANSCRIPTION

Raymond Bruels: Welcome to the Agrocast. This is a special edition. This is the Horror Nights 2024 as they’re already giggling. I don’t know why. But we’re getting ourselves put together Friday the 13th September 2024 to go to Halloween Horror Nights. We’ve watched some content, at least I have. David’s caught some. We’ve got Ike with us. What do you guys look forward to seeing?
David Hades Becker: Primarily, I know I’m here for like A Quiet Place. I really want to see the Purge Waterworld show. And the one that blew my mind years ago was the Bride of Frankenstein one where the storyline was amazing, but they didn’t offer anything to take home from it outside of the memories.
RB: That Bride of Frankenstein one, I remember seeing some content afterwards online about how that was supposed to be like an official sequel to the Bride of Frankenstein movie. So that would be awesome if they ever did anything with it. But yeah, I totally agree. And it’s supposedly being done in like Studio 12. So you can actually go into what has been used for movies. How about you, Ike?
Ike: I hadn’t thought about it, but I was wondering if they did the Quiet Place thing, if they’re going to be a thematic based scare where you have to go on the set and it’s dead quiet and anyone that dares makes a sound is the person that gets attacked or the person that gets accosted.
DHB: See, that would be amazing.
I: The other thing that I’m hoping for is last time we were here, the Jaws set thing was under repair and maintenance. So if that’s back up.
DHB: I think it’s still under repair, unfortunately.
RB: Yeah, as Ike says this, he’s wearing a Jaws t-shirt. But Ike is our magnet for anything water based. I’ve refused to tell him which haunts are actually going to squirt water just so he can be surprised.
I: Because you don’t want to go to the Waterworld show. Well, yeah. Oh, there’s that one guy.
DHB: We’re gonna throw him into the lake thing. But it’s the purge show instead of the Waterworld show, so it’s a little bit different.
RB: I want to see what they do with the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, because that’s always a favorite.
DHB: The Backlot tour, where it’s all Blumhouse stuff. I’m really interested to see all the different IPs they put into that, and which ones stand out and which ones don’t. If we can also get the same thing that happened with the Us and Noop thing that happened earlier.
I: We don’t have Zayden with us.
DHB: True.
RB: I do have to admit that I have been remiss in my watching a Blumhouse film. So I’m… I’m too shy from what they’re probably going to include. We were talking about it in the car on the way up. Freaky and happy…
DHB: Happy Death Day.
RB: Happy Death Day. Yeah. So I need to check those out when I get home.
DHB: But you got, M3gan, you got The Black Phone. I believe they’re doing something with Five Nights at Freddy’s as well.
RB: Yeah.
I: Five hours before you have to be there. We have time.
RB: Just watch him in the car.
DHB: Power watch.
RB: We have chosen specifically not to go to Trejo’s Tacos Only because a certain someone that’s back home just told us no well told me no specifically…
DHB: You were told no.
I: So, Ray has to stay here when we go for lunch.
RB: But you know what since this is gonna come out after I’ve gotten home. We went to Trejo’s Cantina last night, which is their sit-down place and it was pretty pretty good.
DHB: And technically different.
RB: And technically different. Wasn’t specifically Trejo’s Tacos. So…
I: Picture of the building. It doesn’t say Trejo’s Tacos.
RB: Yeah. So on a technicality, I should be safe. Yeah. I’m technically right. Other than that, we’re possibly going to run around and do some sightseeing before we hit Universal. We’re going to try to get into, no, we’ve got a reservation for…
DHB: Teservation for Toothsomes, which is the like the Willy Wonka steampunk chocolate factory thing. And we do have a reservation for the Toadstool Cafe.
RB: Yeah, because Ike hasn’t seen the Nintendo World, Mario Brothers land.
DHB: And it’s been over a year since we’ve gone.
RB: Yeah.
DHB: Really specifically to see everything. Last year, I think we did one little thing in there, but that was about it.
RB: Well, and we wanted to try the food place again to see if the quality of the food has changed since press day. So that’ll be really interesting.
DHB: And I can get the spicy meat ball.
RB: Yeah, he’s really interested about putting balls in his mouth. I’m not sure why…
DHB: Bowser’s balls Why wouldn’t you want to gargle Bowser’s balls?
RB: Hey, you know what that that’s all about you my buddy. Yeah, they’re currently bunk mates so that’s gonna be interesting especially depending upon how spicy it is. We might have to get some odorizer in here. But uh, alright, so that is part one of our adventure today stay tuned. All right, so we’re just now finishing lunch and Ike wants to express his displeasure.
I: In the same vein when I found out that Santa Claus wasn’t real and Easter Bunny was just a guy in a suit. My two friends who had hyped up this wonderful steampunk chocolate filled restaurant, we walk in and much to my dismay, lo and behold, no chocolate.
DHB: There was a chocolate pickle.
I: That was for friendship being on being back into the probationary period, no longer on tenure. Tenure evoked from friendship because there’s no chocolate fountain anymore. There’s not even the smell of chocolate. You know what the color is? The color is, the ground is a shit-stained brown, like a shit-stain on the underwear of our relationship because there’s no more chocolate in this place. You know what the best chocolate we had from was a frozen fucking pickle on top of their sandwiches. That’s the closest we got to this being a chocolate factory. I’m just disappointed.
RB: And that was Ike, everyone. To give you a recap, on the way from Vegas to Universal, we talked about Toothsome’s Chocolate Factory restaurant in the Universal CityWalk and how amazing it was and how it had a whole section that was filled with candy and chocolate. And sadly, when we showed up today… we noticed that the candy section was replaced with a bar.
I: You know how much of a lie it was? The person at the front couldn’t even remember there being a candy section here.
RB: David?
DHB: Well, I have some of the glassware and all that stuff and jars, so I can prove there was a candy section here at one point. And they still kind of have a remnants of it. They have a couple of things you can still buy, but.
RB: But we were told by our waitress, a lovely person came by to take our order. That they were losing money on it and people love alcohol. So they replaced the candy section with alcohol. And they have a small kiosk with a few chocolate offerings. But yes, Ike is correct. I ordered the fried chicken sandwich. David ordered the grilled chicken sandwich. And on top of it was a frozen pickle dipped in chocolate.
DHB: Yeah, it’s that hard chocolate that you do like the flash freeze on for like ice cream cones.
I: To quote GLaDOS, the chocolate is a lie.
RB: And as you can tell, Ike is really disappointed, and we’re not sure when this is gonna end. But he’s going to be mad for a while.
DHB: Maybe after we go to the Toadstool Cafe, it’ll fix a few things.
RB: It could be.
I: Yeah, we’re gonna get there and there’s not gonna even be a Toadstools, is there? There’s not even gonna be any fucking Mario shit. It’ll walk into goddamn fucking McDonald’s.
RB: Because of Toothsomes, now everything that we have told him is suspect. And we’re going to have to walk through this entire experience with him doubting everything we’re talking about.
DHB: At least that sets the…
I: I think there’s not even fucking horror… haunted houses, is there? It’s just, he’ll be like, oh, look, it’s microtransactions to get out of here.
DHB: Well, at least that sets the expectations low so like even the minor thing is going to blow his mind.
RB: Although… Microtransactions would definitely be a horrifying night.
DHB: Unfortunately, yeah, that would. But this has been our lunch recap.
RB: Stay tuned for when we actually enter the park. We’re in the Toadstool Cafe and we wanted to check the food out to see if it was the same quality as the Press Day and I went with the meatballs and spaghetti, the garlic knots and the princess cupcake. David finally got the Bowser’s Meatball Challenge and Ike went with the burger, the Mario Burger and the tiramisu. Overall, good quality.
I: Again, the bun was like gluten free or something. Like it’s way too light and airy so it’s like you’re not even biting into it type of thing. So it’s not really reason to have a bun.
RB: And it just kind of fell apart.
I: Yeah. It didn’t hold up to even the moisture like on the bottom, the tomato had like dissolved the bun down to the ground.
RB: So David, how was the Bowser’s challenge?
DHB: It was completely worth it. It was a spicy meatball. I will say that much. I mean, as a fire elemental, if not my level of spice, it needs to go up higher. But for something you would put on a consumer market, oh yeah, it’s gonna kick a couple people’s asses.
RB: So do you think that they really have maintained the quality of the food since press day?
DHB: From what I’ve seen and tasted, it feels like it and press day was a little over a year and a half ago So it feels like it wasn’t one of those we’re gonna cart it out for the first few months and let it go to trash like everything else.
RB: well, and you’re still you’re still having to make a reservation.
DHB: Yes, even though even though we’re doing the reservation still oddly the entire place is relatively empty.
RB: Yeah, it’s really interesting I don’t know how many slots they had her time.
DHB: Well, also is when I was talking to the guy before we came in. It was listed that you had a half hour window. So even if you were scheduled at 430, you could show up as late as five and still be seated and all that. So maybe it’s something, people just sparse it out that way. Because even when we came in, I want to say we had a slow rush of maybe 20 people that were here on the same time as our reservation. And then it just kind of died out afterwards.
RB: And this was Ike’s first time in Mario Land. What did you think overall?
I: It’s very kid oriented.
DHB: Well, and they had the gold boxes that you could beat on for coins and. And then you got to play some of the games and you went on the Bowser’s ride.
I: Yeah, it made me long for playing actual Mario Kart, but it doesn’t, it doesn’t provoke Mario Kart syndrome where you incapacitate your friends really badly so you can get advantage. It was odd being completely cooperative.
RB: Well, and what did you think about the AR experience?
DHB: The Bowser Jr. challenge.
I: I think it’s a good concept and it seemed like it was played down to appeal to as much of a wide audience as possible. But isn’t really a feature that you come to the park for. It’s just like, oh, here’s an extra little thing that’s like made mysterious to entice people to spend the $42 for the little band.
RB: So, but overall, generally a decent experience.
I: Yeah, but it’s one of those things of, now knowing what it is, I wouldn’t have purchased the wristband, which is what I’m glad I had tomorrow.
DHB: I would say it still holds up to what our original assessment on. It’s not something to come to Universal Studios for specifically, but it’s something to come out and just experience if you’re coming out to check everything else out at the park.
I: Yeah.
RB: Nice. Well, and we’re about to get ready for Halloween Horror Nights.
DHB: Horror Nights starts up soon and we’re going to hit the opening ceremonies, chainsaws everywhere. We did the tram rides. We got a sneak peek of a few of the other places. A few of the haunts will be going past.
I: I’m curious about where the crows thing is because they have the Murder of Crows merchandise thing and usually everything that’s on merchandise has some sort of connection to it.
RB: That’s it for this break. The next bit we’ll talk about some of the haunts that we saw and some of the horror areas.
DHB: Scare Zones!
RB: The scare zones. So thank you much and catch you soon. All right this is AggroGamer. We just finished going through the haunts at Universal Studios. We’re sitting down around the table to discuss what our likes and dislikes were. I’m going to start this off with David and Ike. David, what did you like most about it? What did you not like?
DHB: So I’ll have to say, I went in with a little lower hopes on A Quiet Place, but I wanna say the animatronics in that, like the way they had them design and propped up and that stuff like really use the darkness to their benefit. And then when they would pop out, like the way the lighting hit, even though it wasn’t scary, it was just really cool to see, like they were using the area to great effectiveness there. And then I’m a huge fan of all the Blumhouse movies, so doing the terror tram that went through pretty much all of the, it had Freaky, it had Happy Death Day, Black Phone, pretty much all of their movies in like one long haunt. It was a lot of fun. The Chucky Show was great, as was The Purge Show. Kind of wish there was more scare actors roaming around in scare zones. The Crow was one that was there, that was really cool. And then I don’t know if there was any other ones. There was one that was like a luchador setup, but it just kind of felt like it was there. And the other thing I hate, and I don’t know why they keep doing it, is putting the smells in. Walking into the Texas Chainsaw Massacre one, and there’s an area where it just smells like shit. I’m like, yep, you nailed that smell, but I don’t want to be stuck in here with a bunch of other sweaty humans that also smell the same.
I: That’s the colonge of Teen Spirit. That’s what you’re smelling. It smells like Teen Spirit in there. I know I liked, the unfortunate thing was, between the last time I, is this close enough? Um, between the last time we went in this time was that there was the addition of a third VIP line. There was an extra third of people that had to get in so they were power ushering people through instead of spacing people out. So there was no time for any actors to reset. There was no time for any jump trigger or animatronics to reset. So the majority of walking through it is you watch the thing pull out and then come back in. We even got the… like angry irate worker that was like, keep it moving, no pictures, go along. And it’s like, oh dear. And so I think that the effectiveness of all of the haunts was diminished severely because it was, a horror movie is dependent on timing and a haunted house is dependent on timing and there is none. They, there was like an artificial attempt to force it because a couple of the houses had like, you know, an S shaped curve area where they would have a bunch of drapery from the ceiling and no lights on. So you’d lose the people that you’re in front of, but you’re actually having like the force of gravity crush behind you, pushing you through. And you couldn’t stop to pay attention to the things that were cool.
RB: Well, especially when you had those ushers that kept forcibly moving people through.
I: Yeah, that was a thing too, that was different this time around because, okay, so it’s in comparison to what I went two or three years ago.
RB: Two years ago.
I: And they would have people that stood in front of the emergency exits and be like, no, this isn’t a place to go. Instead, now they had people with essentially aircraft lightsabers every 50 feet, ushering people further through and further through. And so it’s like… Okay, this is a shitty museum tour as opposed to a haunted house anymore. And it caused all of them to suffer terribly, especially Quiet Place one, because in Quiet Place, animatronics were awesome. They looked exactly like the monsters did, and if I was given the, you know, seven seconds needed for that thing to be able to reset and pop out, I would’ve actually been scared. Instead, it was just, that’s a cool looking animatronic. The other place that failed badly was the Frankenstein, Frankenstein’s wife.
RB: The bride of Frankenstein.
I: The bride of Frankenstein that had the story of being a Vampire Hunter or whatever. Hey, guess what? I couldn’t follow the story because I kept getting pushed ahead when I was trying to look at posters explaining the story. And they also turned up the volume on it. So I’m supposed to get some sort of details or sound effect from one room. That’s being drowned out by the sound from the other room that I just came from or the one that I’m going to.
RB: And there was some distortion with that added volume, yeah. Because it’s an amazing story if you have the chance to catch it all.
I: Yeah. And it was just like, you know, you and David took pictures afterwards and be like, oh, that would have been really cool to take the time to see what that is. Now that I have the time to look at this, pictures and whatnot. Oh, I appreciate, oh, there was an actual story that was going on in there. I thought it was just, you know, a death march that had to go, it would be done under two minutes because there had to be the crush.
RB: And I understand pushing a large number of people through haunts, especially given that I’ve worked in the haunted industry. But when you’ve got the conga lines, like you said, you miss out on so much of the opportunities and the designers put those scares in there for a reason and then you don’t get them.
I: And then I was like, we had, um, like happened to have some, like some person that worked there that was like super eager to point out, here’s all the cool work that’s gone in. It’s like, yeah, awesome. I want to be able to look at that when we’re going through. No, no. In the few instances where it’s like, Hey, yeah, there’s that thing I was talking about was like where, as it goes by. So while I can’t, unfortunately, I can’t comment on the quality of the scare or the experience because it was just like overshadowed by, we need to rush it through this.
RB: So were there any of the haunts that stood out for you though?
I: As far as like scaring or-
RB: Or just overall interest?
I: The overall interest was the Quiet Place one because they were designed that, because the horror of A Quiet Place is this, those things get really close to you and you have to do the whole like quiet, hence title or whatever. So I like the design choice that the animatronics would get really close to you, but it fell into the trap of when a horror movie or mystery movie is written in too well and it’s too interesting to be scary. And so you’re like, wow, that’s an awesome animatronic six inches away from my face. I’m more interested in how… I can’t see the mechanics behind the makeup and behind the paint job and stuff like that. Like this looks like the actual creature as opposed to a scare pop. And so I liked it for the wrong reasons.
RB: Were there any that were boring to you?
I: Yeah, the tram ride thing. It was the air quotes scare aspect of it was people were on risers behind fences and like yelling at you. And if I’m not, at some point it’s like, okay, this is tiresome, my feet hurt. And I’m looking at the ground and I don’t even notice that there’s people around me trying to scare me. And I was like, this is, and especially when, was it they made like the fake Hollywood sign that they put like zombies and stuff like on that. And part of the tour was "Photo Op Side Tour". And I’m like, really? We’re on a scare tour thing and you have a photo op tourist thing where people are actually lining up so they could take a picture of a set piece.
RB: You know what’s really interesting is, because I’ve gone three or four years now, I think the scariest and most interesting of the Terror Trams, they had one that was a clown and it was a unique story. It wasn’t affiliated with any particular movie franchise. And I enjoyed that one, I think the most, because it was like this killer clown, but it was a unique character. It wasn’t a character from a movie. And… I think I really liked it when it wasn’t just a walk through, like, here’s all of the Bloomhouse movies, but an actual cohesive kind of story experience. Because, you know, you can have haunt actors running around and trying to scare people, but…
DHB: There’s only so many chainsaws you can get thrown at your face and you’re like, okay, I’ve seen it tens of times.
RB: Well, and we had, which one, where they wear the red jumpsuits and the scissors?
DHB: Oh, the US.
RB: Us. And it’s just like, Oh, okay. Cool. I guess it just, yeah.
I: That one worked the last time because there wasn’t a huge amount of people running through it. And so you couldn’t see the scare actor reset.
RB: Definitely more people this year, I think on the terror tram.
I: Yeah. I said it was, it was just a flood of people.
RB: Yeah.
I: And the other thing is like, I’m familiar with like two Blumhouse movies. So, it’s like, oh, there’s a person that’s getting cut up with a knife. I’m sorry. Why should I care? Is that, is this the scary part of the movie? Is that what’s going on? Is that why it’s here? And also they had like, they were like, oh, little vignettes, but the vignettes are 10 feet apart. So you’re like, you’re just inundated by too many things that might have been scary individually, but you’re just kind of watching like, you know, a best of real in life in real time.
RB: Yeah. So not really a scary experience. And I can’t even really say an interesting experience for me.
DHB: Well, that was more of a fan service thing. I’ve seen all of the films that were debuted there. And I agree with Ike. It was like, yeah, they had to reset. And it’s like everything was like 10 feet apart. But it was definitely like, oh, I remember that scene in the movie. Or I remember it was definitely fan service.
I: Yeah, that means it was meant for people to watch it. The thing that I missed was they didn’t have Death Eaters in Harry Potter world. When we went… the lights were turned off, there was smoke and green light everywhere and there were Death Eaters. Here it was, when we went this time, it was the same amount of light it was during the day and no Death Eaters and no fog.
RB: And what was interesting was while you guys went and did the Harry Potter ride, they projected the symbol on the castle, but that was it.
DHB: Yeah. But you know, like every year, so it’s not like something new or anything.
RB: And the Death Eaters, they were so cool the year that they had them out because it was very picturesque and they were well dressed and they had the masks and they were, yeah, it was it was very thematic for the the Harry Potter section of Universal. For me, I enjoyed even though we got rushed through it. I love the story behind The Bride of Frankenstein. I love the old Universal Monster Haunts whenever they do them. Like Texas Chainsaw Massacre was kind of okay. Ghostbusters, I liked the light show.
DHB: I was gonna mention that, yeah, there was a really cool light show.
RB: With the proton packs on the wall.
DHB: Yeah, that was cool, especially, it was just a retelling of the latest movie, The Frozen Empire. So it was cool to see that, but it was like, yeah, those lighting effects they did there, and they also had the hidden marshmallow men everywhere, which was fun to-
RB: Well, what was funny was our inside connection had pointed out that in that haunt, there’s the room from the movie where it had been frozen solid and it was the hottest room in the entire Haunt. Like we walked in that room and I’m like, they could have put an AC or something in here. It is so stifling hot.
I: They had an actor in that room that was in a three-piece suit that actually was like, oh, it’s so cold. And you could see like the beads of sweat on his head. I’m like, wow, that makeup is amazing.
RB: But yeah, so in terms of Haunts. Probably the Universal one and probably the Ghostbusters I enjoyed. The scare zones I wish they would have had some like undead luchadors in that section.
DHB: Yeah, that would have been really cool.
RB: Because they had the statues out. The Murder of Crows was kind of cool but the only other thing I wish we could have done the lines were just heinous. They had this this really fun cute marshmallow man S’mores thing from the Ghostbusters…
DHB: I wanted S’mores so bad…
I: That line was like 60 people deep by the time we got to it. And watching it was if we went and got waters and sat across from it and watched it not move for the entire time.
RB: It was sad, unfortunately, because they were so fun looking. Other than that, it was just a horror night’s experience. Not anything really stood out.
DHB: Well, I will say, it was one thing I just remembered that did stand out that it was for the universal, for the… Bride of Frankenstein because that one was actually done in one of the sound stages.
RB: Yep.
DHB: It was it’s the one where they filmed Batman the 92 version or something…
RB: With the Penguin
DHB: Yeah, yeah And and there was something else they filmed in there and it was like that was kind of cool to be in that area, Because it felt like we were definitely going backstage again and…
RB: And Universal if you’re listening, which I don’t expect it, but if you’re listening, please please put together the story of the bride in a book form. The art you have to tell the story looks super cool.
DHB: It’s amazing.
RB: Was it two years ago? They did the first part of it where she comes back and she’s a vampire hunter. It would be awesome to have that. There was literally next to no merch for her. And this year they only had a couple of things, but it’s still-
DHB: They had a shirt and a hat.
RB: Yeah, but it was still wasn’t really exciting for those of us who liked The Bride. Yeah, well, you know, and I’m sure you’d find merch like that at San Diego Comic-Con, but sadly not at Universal. And we went through a lot of the Universal stores.
DHB: Yeah. Well, I also wish they would lean into the horror, not even horror, but like the villain side of the Super Nintendo world. Even if
I: It was blocked off, it was blocked off and the lights were turned off. And I was like, excuse me, there’s ghost houses in all of the Mario games. The Boos are a thing that has been in Mario forever. And there was like none of it. There wasn’t even any like merchandise for it. So.
RB: Yeah, it would be nice if they leaned more into it. They did all of that design. You would think that they’d be able to do something before Horror Nights.
DHB: Well, yeah, even if they did something as basic as like what they do at Disney where they have the character out there that you can take a photo off and just walk by. Even having Bowser at his castle saying something, that would be cooler. Dry Bones, give us the Dry Bones in there, that would be really cool.
RB: Well, or like Bowser, because they have Megatron.
DHB: Yeah, the Megatron from Transformers.
RB: Where he’s talking shit at everybody?
DHB: Yeah.
RB: Have Bowser, like…
I: They have a velociraptor.
RB: Oh, blue, yeah.
I: It comes out of Jurassic Park, so it’s not like it’s beyond the realm of possibility.
RB: Yeah. Well, and when David and I went for Press Day, we got to see Princess…
DHB: Princess Peach. Peach and… Mario and Luigi.
RB: So we know that they have suited characters. It wouldn’t… It shouldn’t be hard to have Bowser and do something Halloween-oriented.
DHB: Yeah, especially just to lean into it just for a month.
RB: Yeah. So yeah, I think that kind of covers our Universal Halloween Horror Nights experience for 2024.
DHB: Yeah. The one thing I will add on is, I know there was a weird talk about the Purge thing at the Waterworld.
RB: Oh yeah.
DHB: Like that is still one of the coolest shows they have down there, but I’ve heard somebody talk, this might be the last year, next year might be the last year they do it. I’m like, don’t, cause that was such a cool thing. And… Not only is it a nice break from walking around and standing in line, the performances and everything, the pyrotechnics, everything they do, they’re just fun to watch.
RB: It was neat to see them kind of flip the Waterworld experience into the Purge experience. Because I’ve done the Waterworld, I was a fan of the movie, but that’s also a dated franchise. Well, it’s not even a franchise, it was only one movie, which was a considerably expensive movie, but that thing’s been around forever. And so giving it that Purge kind of vibe, was a great use of the space.
DHB: Yeah, I just hope they keep doing that and keep, even if they change it up, put something else just as cool in there because there was the year they did the Five Nights at Freddy’s thing and this year it was the Chucky late night TV show which is still fun to do. So even if you’re gonna change it out, just do something like that, keep using it in that kind of fun, explosive way.
RB: Yeah.
DHB: Pun not intended.
RB: Yeah, and having some of those experiences that are not haunts or not the scare zones is nice. Like you said, you’re able to sit down, rest, but also it’s kind of an interactive, well, slightly interactive experience, especially with the Chucky thing. The Purge thing, you could hoot and holler and you really get behind the characters. Yeah, the Chucky thing was fun. Okay, now I’m gonna talk shit. I really wish that they release, that they get rid of the Simpsons area. I’m so ready for a revamp. We’ve had the Simpsons for a million years now. And I’m ready for something new in that space.
DHB: I think that’s-
I: I thought they were. Yeah, I thought they were because we were kept seeing the chunks of the roller coaster that was-
RB: Well, no, that I think is the new Fast and Furious.
I: Yeah, but it was like right there and they easily spread out that into Fast and Furious world.
RB: Oh, family.
DHB: Well, you know that so that area used to be where the Jabberwocky’s show was at. There was a couple of other things over there with the Fast and Furious. But there is I believe last year there is talk that they’re going to be either revamping or changing out the Simpsons thing. I mean, it’s owned by one of their competitors as well. So it’s we’re giving free publicity outside of obviously making some kind of money. But at the same time, Harry Potter is doing the same thing.
RB: Yeah. Well, and then I heard that Netflix was going to be doing a new Harry Potter show. Yeah. So, yeah, I would I would really like them to get to to to revamp that area. I don’t know what they would stick in there, but there’s a lot of different franchises and things that Universal has access to that they could put something fun in there.
DHB: Well, even if they want to do it with one of the other IPs that they don’t own outright for Universal, there’s so many other TV shows that they could put in. They’re like Solar Opposites, or even Rick and Morty, stuff like that. I mean, yeah, it’s a little more adult-oriented, and I’m not sure if Simpsons is supposed to be the kid-friendly zone. But it’s…
RB: Welcome to the kid friendly zone. Have a three pound donut and give your kids diabetes.
DHB: Well, but that’s what the playground is done by the Jurassic Park areas for. Right.
RB: Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, so I think that kind of wraps it right.
DHB: Yeah. It wraps up the short version of all my thoughts on what happened at Horror nights.
RB: Fair enough. And of course, we have Universal opening up something here in Las Vegas in 2025.
DHB: Yeah.
RB: So I’m really looking forward to seeing what they do with that. And hopefully we can get in for a press thing there.
DHB: Yeah, because they’re doing the horror nights out here, but then they’re also doing fan events at Universal Hollywood. One’s for Harry Potter.
RB: The D&D.
DHB: There’s a D&D. There’s one for Back to the Future and one for Star Trek.
RB: Yeah.
DHB: And it’s kind of like a horror nights experience where they’re taking over the park for the nighttime for like a month or whatever. And it’s all about that one specific IP.
RB: Hey, do you know where you see those characters at outside of Universal? Usually, I mean, I see them at like a bunch of conventions like Comic Con.
RB: Yeah, Comic Con.
I: Like San Diego had one, right?
RB: Yeah, San Diego Comic Con. All right. Well, that’s that’s going to be us talking about our Universal Halloween Horror Nights 2024 experience. Thank you, Ike. Thank you, David. And catch you next time.
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