Twenty years of spooks and creeps culminated to create a fantastic Halloween Horror Nights experience at Universal Studios in Orlando.

Houses such as Hades, Havoc and The Orfanage daunt multitudes of people that surge through the narrow passageways. Other houses, like The Hallowed Past, incorporate bright colors and fascinating illusions. For example, at one point visitors walk through a room across a “bridge,” an illusion that makes one feel as if the walkway tilts as they walk across. The surreal feeling creates a fun house atmosphere.

Directly across the pond, the Zombie Gras scare zone parallels The Hallowed Past with its use of bright colors. However, this scare zone only leads to the scariest house of them all: Havoc. War-like scenery with armed soldiers and deranged prisoners startles the guest tremendously. This attraction neighbored the Men in Black ride, one of the few open rides at Universal. Unfortunately, the most entertaining roller coaster, the Rip Ride Rocket, was closed for annual maintenance.

Even so, this only placed a slight drag on a night filled with exhilaration. Scare zones encompassed nearly every street corner in the park, allowing for nonstop thrills.

The event surprisingly catered to a wide range of individuals, with entertainment for children, young adults, and parents. One of the shows, Bill and Ted’s Excellent Halloween Adventure, proved quite worthy of its hour-long run time. This entertaining show provided a diversion from the terrors that swept through a majority of the area. It commented on all of this year’s major events, such as the BP oil spill and the Tiger Woods fiasco. The shows proved much more impressive than those of last year. In fact, nearly everything at Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights proved better.

However, this event definitely had some flaws. For example, they placed the weakest haunted house closest to the entrance. Additionally, the park didn’t provide enough dinner options, with the few places providing poor-quality food. Lastly, the prices were extraordinarily high. Souvenir shirts, for example, ranged from $21-$30.

All in all, though, the event never ceased to amaze. Houses led to horror, and horror led to happiness.