Today, we will take a break from my ongoing review series on Epic Universe to talk about the other major new Universal attraction to open in 2025:
On August 14, 2025, Universal Horror Unleashed will open at the Area 15 complex in Las Vegas. This is the first year-round haunt attraction with multiple haunted house attractions that I am aware of.
I got a chance to attend a preview night of Horror Unleashed on August 8. Because of that, it is entirely possible that elements discussed below will have been refined prior to the official opening.
It was clear from my conversations with the front of line team members that the people working this attraction are enthusiastic about the product and eager to make it as good as it could be. So, I am confident that the product will be operated at a very high standard.
The Attraction
Universal Horror Unleashed is a 110,000 sf indoor attraction located at the Area 15 entertainment complex in Las Vegas. Area 15's original building is located about a block away from Horror Unleashed, and at the time of my visit, the shuttle bus between the two was not operating. Instead of taking the bus, we walked through an active construction site. Presumably this will be rectified around the time of the official opening.
Upon entering the facility and passing through security, guests arrive in a large L-shaped room that has a vaguely "prop warehouse" look, including a couple of actual horror or monster film props.
source: Real Heroes are Sandwiches
As you walk through the space, the common area's theme shifts to match the haunted house in the same area. In front of the Universal Monsters house, a live actor portrays a vampire flying above the ground on an overhead track. By the Texas Chainsaw Massacre haunted house, a masked slasher walks around displays of mutilated corpse props. The back of the facility has a clown theme that is not associated with any haunted house, but there appears to be a stage for a live show in this area.
The live actors in the common area include photo opportunities, stage performers, and interactive actors.
I had a conversation with the masked slasher character who was quite funny. But ultimately I don't particularly enjoy that type of interactivity in my themed entertainment. So, I may not be a great judge. The actors were very good, but it's definitely not for me.
The Haunted Houses
Universal Horror Unleashed has four haunted houses. In general, they all cover territory that has been well covered in previous Halloween Horror Nights attractions. The actors were consistently great at all of the houses, and the costumes were detailed and effective as well.
Universal Monsters ★★★☆
This is the first house guests see upon entering Horror Unleashed. It includes several of the classic Universal Monsters and generally could be considered a Gothic horror-type setting. My favorite scene in this house has guests walk through the crashed chandelier presumably the work of the Phantom of the Opera.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre ★★★½
It represents the slasher genre, but it may have been the house with the fewest jump scares. It is set in the 1970s and does a good job of establishing the environment. This house has a strong sense of dread and uses silence as a way to up the tension in a number of scenes. It has a number of larger scenes that allow the environment to feel more fleshed out than a typical haunted house.
This was my favorite house at Horror Unleashed.
The Exorcist Believer ★★½☆
Based on the recent Blumhouse reboot of The Exorcist series, this house has a contemporary setting and has a number of larger scaled set pieces.
There was something about this house where the larger set pieces didn't click for me. I am not sure if it was the staging or what. But the show stop scene has a lot going on, yet it doesn't feel focused. The demon over the fire place is hard to see from where guests are instructed to stand, and the static mannequin is in an active pose, but guests are in the room long enough that they just seen frozen.
Scarecrow: The Reaping ★★★½
This house is in the classic Halloween / fall festival category, with demonic scarecrows haunting a farm. The final scene where guests must go through the corn fields and push over stalks of corn was especially inventive.
What is New and How Does it Work?
Each haunted house has a short themed queue where guest's tickets are scanned. (My ticket allowed unlimited access to each haunted house, but I am not sure what the final ticket options will be.) After the short wait, a grouper sends your party into the haunted house alone, with approximately 15 to 60 seconds between each group, depending on party size. I was told that they intend to allow approximately six guests into each haunted house every minute.
Source: Real Heroes are Sandwiches
The upshot of this operating paradigm is that guests have a very good chance of entering a haunted house with only their party in sight. In my traveling party, I ended up in the front every time, and I found it to be difficult to regulate my speed through the haunted house. I want to see everything, but I am not at all frightened. So, I found myself being very self conscious about my pace through the attractions. As a result, nearly all the jump scares occurred to the people behind me.
A common complaint about Halloween Horror Nights is that every haunted house is like being in a long conga line. However, after experiencing a haunted house where I truly could experience it at my own pace, I am not sure that the conga line is such a bad thing. The best part about the conga line is that it forces guests to experience the haunted house at a consistent pace, and jump scares can be more randomly timed to the different members of your party.
The elimination of the conga line definitely impacts the overall capacity of the attractions: if these haunted houses are operated with six guests every minute, that is a capacity of only 360 people per hour per haunted house. I was also told that the performers have a 15 minute break every hour, and it appears as though the houses are simply shut down for the duration of the break. Because of this, the actual capacity of each haunted house is a mere 270 people per hour, similar to a larger capacity water slide or double that of a theme park character meet and greet. It is my understanding that the haunted houses at Halloween Horror Nights operate at nearly seven times that capacity. On the other hand, Horror Unleashed utilizes timed tickets and may not need to operate the houses at a higher throughput.
This lower capacity allows at least three of the haunted houses to operate with scenes that play while the guest is stopped in a room. Unfortunately, a guest's ability to experience these scenes will be limited by the timing of their arrival at these scenes. Of the seven times I went through a haunted house with a show stop scene, I only got to experience that scene on two occasions (just over one quarter of the time). Of the two show stop scenes I did experience, the one in the Universal Monsters house was great, but the one in the Exorcist house didn't seem to add much.
The placement of these show scenes may impact their effectiveness. The scene in the Universal Monsters house is very close to the end, and works like a grand finale (if you are lucky enough to experience it). But the show scenes in the Exorcist and Scarecrow houses are closer to the middle, which I think reduces the impact.
As cool as these show scenes can be when the timing is right, I probably would prefer that they not be present, given how infrequently guests will be able to experience them. When you arrive at a show stop scene late, it feels like you are missing something, so the experience is distinctly worse than the experience of being in a typical walk through haunt scene.
Perhaps I am in a minority for my preference for the higher capacity versions of these experiences. I am fully aware that I do not experience these attractions the way a typical visitor does. So, don't let my opinion here sound like a criticism. I am happy that Universal is experimenting with the form and using the lower capacity as an opportunity to try something new.
Staffing and Puppets
Given the recent experimentation at Halloween Horror Nights for the use of large scale puppets in haunted houses, I was expecting them to be used extensively here, especially as a way to potentially reduce the required labor or the strain inflicted on scare actors in more physical roles. I was thinking that potentially a year round attraction would be difficult to keep staffed because other hospitality and entertainment job opportunities in Las Vegas are potentially less physically taxing than being a scare actor.
However, I only noticed one puppet in the entire facility. If Universal has been using more puppets in Halloween Horror Nights over the last few years, it probably wasn't in preparation for Horror Unleashed.
When I asked how many scare actors were in use, I was told that approximately 25 actors are active at each house in a given time.
Perhaps the 45 minutes on / 15 minutes off system will allow the facility to operate without being too stressful for the scare actors year round.
Predictions
Because Universal Horror Unleashed is something new, I thought it might be fun to make some predictions about it. Feel free to hold me to these so we can learn just how little I really know about this sort of thing:
Universal Horror Unleashed in Las Vegas will remain open over the next five years with no significant disruption in daily operations (90% confidence).
Horror Unleashed will always operate with four houses, even when new houses are being built (90% confidence). Of course the occasional technical issue may lead to the temporary closure of a haunted house for up to two weeks at a time. But I don't think that the operating plan will involve the long term closure of a haunted house for months at a time for upgrades.
By August 14, 2026, the show stop scenes will no longer be in use in normal operations (75% confidence).
At least one of the four existing houses at the Las Vegas location will be replaced within three years of opening (75% confidence).
Universal Horror Unleashed will open and remain in operation at the Chicago location for at least five years (60% confidence).
At peak times, Universal will operate the haunted houses conga line-style (60% confidence).
Final thoughts
I think Universal Horror Unleashed will work in the Las Vegas market. It is a great experience and has lots of stuff for all sorts of haunt fans. If Universal keeps things fresh with the occasional new offering, attention to detail, and operational excellence, this attraction will be successful for many years to come.
