Lora Sauls has been part of the Halloween Horror Nights development team at Universal Orlando since 1998. “My story is kind of unique, but fun,” she tells blooloop.
“I started at Universal Orlando 28 years ago as a singing and dancing Bride of Frankenstein. I never thought that would be my trajectory into Halloween Horror Nights. But 28 years later, I have had the great privilege of working as a show director for the shows, haunted houses and scare zones for Halloween Horror Nights. Now, I have the honor and privilege to lead the team that creates all the content for Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Orlando.”
Sauls is Universal Orlando’s assistant director of creative development and show direction for art, design and entertainment. She leads her team through the creative process and execution of all Universal Orlando marque events.
The world’s leading Halloween event is in its 33rd year at Universal Orlando, with 10 new movie-quality haunted houses and five scare zones. Horror IP used in this year’s haunted houses is A Quiet Place, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, Insidious and Universal’s classic monsters.
The original haunted houses, created by Universal Orlando’s entertainment team, are ‘Slaughter Sinema 2’, ‘Goblin’s Feast’, ‘Major Sweets Candy Factory’, ‘The Museum: Deadly Exhibits’, ‘Monstrous: The Monsters of Latin America’, and ‘Triplets of Terror’.
Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Orlando has two icons this year: Sinister and Surreal. They feature in the ‘Duality of Fear’ scare zone. Icons, Universal says, serve as “a tangible representation of that year’s twist”.
Universal Orlando’s Halloween icons
Sauls expands on this: “We’re very excited to have two icon characters that are female presenting in Sinister and Surreal. These two characters embody all of horror. Sinister is the physical, torture and gory side of horror. Surreal is the psychological, demented and twisted side of horror. They really represent all sides of horror and that’s what the event has to offer. There’s something for everyone’s like; so we have more of that ghostly side of horror with ‘Insidious: The Further’.
“Everyone that comes out of that haunted house is just blown away at the scare inside. It is the scariest haunted house in the event, our guests are saying to us. Our design team really did a unique design in that house. It feels like there are more scare actors in that house than any other house. So that is the kind of twisted that would fit within Surreal’s bucket.”
Inspired by the Insidious film franchise, this haunted house transports guests into a paranormal dimension of tortured souls and demonic entities. Fans of the films can meet the Red-Faced Demon, who will try to lure them into his lair. They will also encounter KeyFace from Insidious: The Last Key, as well as the Bride in Black and the spirit of the Man Who Can’t Breathe.
The Ghostbusters haunted house is another example of Universal Orlando’s sinister offering. “This is the second time we’ve had the Ghostbusters franchise in the Halloween event. We’re so excited about this house this year as Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire gave us such great ghosts and characters”.
“On that sinister side, we have A Quiet Place. Those creatures will rip you apart. If they hear you, they will hunt you. What’s so cool about that haunted house is that the sound design was so unique, and fans love it.”
New IP at Halloween Horror Nights
“And then, of course, we have all of our original content haunted houses that come from the creative brains at Universal Orlando. We’re so proud of all of those haunted houses. We’re bringing back ‘Slaughter Sinema’, a successful house for us in 2018. That haunted house is a testing ground for our team’s ideas that don’t have fully fleshed-out haunted house experiences. We’re excited to see what the fans gravitate towards.”
This year’s Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Orlando features an all-female cast playing Universal’s classic monsters, from the Bride of Frankenstein to Dracula’s Daughter. “Universal Monsters is an intellectual property. But for us, it’s kind of an original because we get to create new stories for those monsters,” says Sauls.
“We have an all-female monster cast with a female show director leading the charge in Kelly Malik and a female composer in Sara Barone, who recently got nominated for an Emmy. So we’re pretty excited about that house, and all our haunted houses.”
As for the scare zones, this year’s originals are ‘Duality of Fear’, ‘Torture Faire’, ‘Demon Queens’ and ‘Swamp of the Dead’. Universal Orlando teamed up with horror film production company Blumhouse for the fifth scare zone. “Our scare zones are also very, very inclusive. You walk the streets of Universal Orlando, and the zones take over. It’s amazing. There’s something for everyone – there’s that psychological side and then the blood, guts and gore. It just depends on what you like,” says Sauls.
Back to the haunted house based on A Quiet Place, which is described as groundbreaking. In this new experience, guests must stay silent as they explore a post-apocalyptic world inspired by A Quiet Place and A Quiet Place Part II.
“We knew going into A Quiet Place that developing the sound for that haunted house would be unique. Most of our haunted houses have musical scores. Most horror movies have a musical score – and some very iconic musical scores for very iconic horror movies.”
Universal Orlando becomes ‘A Quiet Place’
“With A Quiet Place, we dove into the research and listened to what the movie gave us as a score, and there was one. It was not a musical score, though. It was this drone-ish sound effect, and all other pieces of audio within the film were environmental sounds. That was new for us in a haunted house experience. We wanted to stay true to this film as well and use that low drone sound,” she says.
“Any other sound is either an environmental sound – and that environmental sound will usually cause the creature to come out. It was an experiment, of course. What we’re seeing so far is our fans are going with us on that experiment. We’re not seeing too many people scream. We’re seeing people try to be quiet.”
“In one of the first scenes in the movie, you hear a twig snap, and the creature is right there. Those kinds of things are what our fans are going along with completely. So we’re very proud of taking a unique spin on the sound design of A Quiet Place.”
Halloween Horror Nights has been running yearly at Universal Orlando since 1991, when it debuted as Fright Nights with one haunted house. Here’s how Sauls and her team keep the experience fresh:
“Our haunted houses are new every year. We try not to repeat, and if we do repeat, like we’ve had Insidious in the event before, but this is a whole new haunted house with Insidious: The Further. We’ve had Ghostbusters in the event before, but not Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. We’ve had Slaughter Sinema before, but this one is all-new,” she says.
New Halloween content at Universal Orlando
“So I think our fan base comes back to see the new content that we have every year. We’ve built our fan base over the years, and our fans have grown up with us. They’ve had children of their own, and those children are now fans, and then they have children of their own. In Orlando, it is a rite of passage.
“Personally, when my stepson was a freshman in high school, he said, ‘I need the shirt before anybody else can get the shirt.’ When my niece was a ninth grader in high school, she came to the event. She said, ‘I don’t really want to go but I have to go, so I’m going to go with you.’ And then I made a fan of her. I think it is a rite of passage for those in Orlando. But I think the fanbase keeps growing bigger and bigger and bigger because we create new content every year, and people want to see what we get to create.”
This year at Universal Orlando, Halloween Horror Nights started in August – earlier than ever before due to high demand. Other theme park operators like Six Flags are expanding and enhancing their eerie events, taking advantage of spooky season’s growing popularity and boosting sales.
“I think everyone just loves this season and so they want it more. Universal Orlando’s Halloween Horror Nights is the world premiere event. I’m happy that other places are joining in the fun, but we stand as the best, and we’re proud of that. I think people just want this season more,” Sauls says.
“When this spooky season starts, the entire holiday season starts. So having the Halloween season and Halloween Horror Nights starting earlier, it just allows for our fans to enjoy it earlier, and get more of it, and really start off the entire holiday season.”
Spooky season’s expansion
The Bride of Frankenstein character is one of Sauls’ favourite IPs to bring to life. “There are so many,” she says. “I mentioned this earlier; Universal Monsters – we love creating stories for the monsters, and I have a background with it. Our senior show director, Charles Grey, and I actually performed together. He was Frankenstein, I was the Bride of Frankenstein in the ‘Beetlejuice’s Graveyard Revue’ stage show. So we have a place in our hearts for those Universal Monsters.”
The monsters are so popular that they are getting their own land at Universal Orlando’s new theme park, Epic Universe. Themed to characters like Frankenstein, the Mummy and the Wolf Man, the new land will include Universal’s most terrifying attraction to date.
Sauls says: “There’s been a great amount of content that we’ve been able to bring to life. Bringing the Beetlejuice haunted house to life was a special moment. Again, because of our careers, it was a special moment for us. The Ghostbusters franchise. A lot of our team were Ghostbusters back in the day in the park. So we all have a special place in our hearts for Ghostbusters.”
She adds: “Working with new intellectual properties, working with Blumhouse on all of their content, has been amazing. But also, we really, truly love getting to tell those original stories. One of my favourite parts of development is that first week when we do our creative brainstorming.
“In that room we have scenic designers, graphic designers, and our show direction team. We’re all coming up with cool characters that we want to see in the event, and cool environments and themes. We throw them all on the board – and this is just one week – and we come out of it with around 10 original ideas that have character, environment, theme and concept. That way we can pitch it to our senior leadership.
“That is a fun week where we all get to throw out amazing ideas. I love seeing someone’s character idea and someone’s environmental idea come together. Then the room starts to snowball in talking about that idea. I think that is one of my favourite parts of our creative process.”
Universal Orlando looking for horror brands
In 2022, The Weeknd partnered with Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Orlando on a new haunted house inspired by his record-breaking ‘After Hours’ album. Select tracks from the record were reimagined as a horror movie soundtrack for a haunting experience. Guests were stalked by “slashers, bandaged maniacs, gruesome toad-like creatures and other unfathomable horrors”. The Weeknd has returned to Universal Studios Hollywood for Halloween this year.
Sauls says the Universal Orlando team is “constantly looking for the biggest and best in the horror genre and beyond.”
She adds: “Working with The Weeknd – he is connected slightly to the horror genre – was beyond. We are always looking to work with partners that will fit in with our horror event. And we’re constantly looking to ensure that we’re giving our fans a diverse slate. There are fans of slashers, and if we had a whole slasher event, those fans would love it. But we want to make sure that we have something for everyone.”
“We constantly are looking for amazing horror brands and beyond to be a part of Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Orlando and create new ideas.”
On the subject of new ideas, Universal Destinations & Experiences is opening a year-round horror attraction at Area15 in Las Vegas. Universal’s first permanent horror experience outside of its parks is called Universal Horror Unleashed. The new venue immerse guests in Universal’s vast library of classic horror films and characters such as Frankenstein, Dracula, the Mummy and the Wolf Man. It will also house attractions based on its modern horror stories through collaborations with filmmakers like James Wan and Jordan Peele.
“Our team has been heavily involved since the very beginning of that project,” Sauls reveals. “That is in really good hands with the creative team from Orlando. That’s pretty much all I can say. It’s going to be an amazing experience, we love that Halloween Horror Nights is now its own IP and has grown beyond even just the parks.”
Horror outside of Universal’s parks
On expanding into more LBE locations outside of Universal’s parks, she says: “I will say this: we love Halloween Horror Nights, and we love to see it grow and grow and grow, and it has. It started here in Orlando with Fright Nights in 1991. Now it’s in Universal Studios Hollywood, it’s in Singapore, Beijing and Japan. It’s now going to be in Horror Unleashed. It has grown so much and we continue to want it to grow.”
Universal Destinations & Experiences is also growing. Plans for a UK theme park were shared by the company in 2023 after it purchased a 476-acre parcel of land south of Bedford. But will Halloween Horror Nights be created for a UK audience?
“We are constantly hoping to expand all over the world and we are constantly looking for new opportunities. We’re hopeful that Halloween Horror Nights can be branded all around the world,” says Sauls.
Returning to Orlando:
“We are very excited about this year, and 2025 is looking to be a great year as we are well in development for original stories, and just starting to work with our intellectual property partners. So we’re very excited about the 2024 event that is doing extremely well, and we’re excited about our 2025 event and beyond,” she says.
“The team here at Universal Orlando, from the scenic and character designers to the show direction team that I get to lead, we just love what we do, and it really shows.”
Images courtesy of Universal
