Halloween Horror Nights 2011 Audio

Universal Studios Singapore had its inaugural Halloween Horror Night last year, and featured a high quality maze - Vengeance of the Matriarch.

Jump over to my Yilun Audio Tours podcast for a full length show where I present the audio walk through of the Vengeance of the Matriarch maze in binaural audio!

Yilun Audio Tours is a bi-monthly podcast on traveling in Singapore, with in-depth tours, reviews and commentaries about Singapore.

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Halloween Horror Nights After Event Review Pt3

This is part three of the review of Halloween Horror Nights in Universal Studios Singapore.
Pestilence
Scare Factor 4.5/5
Production quality 3.5/5
Overall Show 4/5
Located in the streets of New York and the waterfront area, Pestilence packs lots of scares in this small compact area. This scare-zone is highly unique, and resembles more of an outdoor haunted maze than a scare zone per se. This follows the story of how a contagious zombie-making virus has entered the slum area of New York.

This zone has a really compact layout, and the fact that half of the maze faces towards the harbor definitely adds a false sense of security. The ambiance is excellent, and the scares are at the very least unexpected.



The entrance is located near the still defunct Sci-fi stage area. The entrance resembles a pair of cast iron gates, with a great fog effect behind it. One of the first scares was by two scareactors on bungees. I found this scare highly effective and gives an "out of control" feeling to the maze. Another innovative scare technique is that of the electric sparks, whereby a scareactor seem to give off sparks on a metal grate while guests are walking past.

This maze is overall pretty cool, and is rather innovative for an outdoor maze.

To be continued...

Halloween Horror Nights After Event Review Pt2

This is part two of the review of Halloween Horror Nights in Universal Studios Singapore

The Vengeance of the Matriarch
Scare Factor 4.5/5
Production quality 4/5
Overall Show 4.5/5
Arguably the most detailed and elaborate section for the entire event, VotM is a solid maze with great show sets and many innovative scare tactics. The story is loosely built around a crazy Peranakan lady inhibiting an old colonial shop house. The story is really very flimsy, but the production quailty made up for it.

While VotM didn’t have the “Hollywood” energy of Post Apocalyptic Rage or the Void, what it did have was creepy classic Halloween cranked up to 11! While scare zones impressed me with the show production, I found the tricks and techniques used to scary me in this one impressive. This haunt was unique and deserved a scare rating of 4.5 as many of the scare techniques are totally unexpected.

The maze entrance is located at the boundary between Hollywood and New York, and the queue winds into the backstage sections of the park, before ending up at a small door leading into a Soundstage. The queue is just some makeshift ropes and is not themed at all, but this is understandable for this temporary event.

Tip
The queue is very long, and can easily bump up to 75 minutes, so it is best to visit this maze at the start of the event.

The maze starts with a full scale facade of a Peranakan Shophouse, complete with balconies and tiled floors. This facade area is generally well lit but still manages to set the eerie feel for the maze. The next area is the welcome room. It is a highly detailed living room, typical of colonial shophouse buildings. The matriarch is sitted on a rocking chair in the middle of the room. The scare here is the fact that there are two mirrors at the two sides of the room, and one of the mirror is slide-able and a scareactor can pop out from behind. This room leads into a portrait room, full of details and amazing period portraits. Some of the portraits were slideable openings for scareactors to appear.

Some other notable rooms include a dining room with a scareactor cannibalizing a human head, while other scareactors jump out from the sides, a walk through wardrobe full of hanging cloths, which gives a highly claustrophobic feel, as well as a room with hanging body bags and a butcher hiding among the bags. These rooms are the common staple of overseas Halloween events, and is great to see these scares coming to Singapore for the local audience here.

The best room in this maze is still the courtyard scene. This scene is very empty on first sight, with minimal decor and lots of space. This really adds to the false sense of security of the place. Out of nowhere, a scareactor on bungee then appears and scares the heck out of guests. The speed and the unpredictability of scare is highly effective and very disorienting.

Overall, this is a great house, and packs a great deal of scares. Given that Halloween is quite new in Asia, this house really pioneers lots of innovative and groundbreaking scare techniques that may be considered as staples in the West.

To be continued...