Mike Aiello remembers all too well how it used to be like at Universal Orlando's Halloween Horror Nights.
"My very first job in Entertainment at this Resort was as a scare actor. Back in 1997, I worked inside of that year's Hotel Hell haunted house. And my job was pop out of a washing machine 80 times an hour and scare people as they walked through that maze," Mike recalled during a recent interview.
"Mind you, back then, the only tools that a scare actor had to work with when it came to frightening people was their own voice and a shaker can. And after three weeks of jumping out at people and then screaming at the top of your lungs, your voice got completely shot," Aiello continued. "So by the time Halloween finally rolled around, all you could really do at that point is shake that can full of nails & screws at them, which made for kind of a lame scare."
Now jump ahead nearly two decades and Halloween Horror Nights at the Universal Orlando Resort is now this high tech affair where scare actors no longer use their own voices to scream at the guests. These performers now just hit a foot-operated peddle as they come springing out of the shadows. And then a digitally-recorded-&-edited-sound file comes roaring out of hidden speakers to scare the bejeezus out of people who are walking through that scene in the maze.
And Mike? Well, given that he's now the Director of Entertainment - Creative Development at the Universal Orlando Resort, Aiello's now the guy who helps to make sure that Halloween Horror Nights remains edgy & entertaining for UOR visitors while -- at the same time -- all these haunted houses and scare zones remain safe and comfortable places for Universal Orlando team members to work in.
"Take -- for example -- our 'Dracula Untold - Reign of Blood' haunted house, which is kind of a walk-thru preview for that upcoming Universal Pictures release," Mike explained. "In that movie, which is really Dracula's origin story, Vlad the Impaler is usually seen wearing a suit-of-armor. Well, a real suit-of-armor would be very heavy and extremely hard to move around in, especially given the dark & tight conditions that our scare actors typically work in when they're performing inside one of our mazes, which is why Universal's wardrobe department came up with this lightweight cloth version of chainmail that -- while it looks authentic -- is extremely comfortable for our performers to wear."
Another interesting aspect of Halloween Horror Nights 24's "Dracula Untold - Reign of Blood" haunted house is that it actually shares a soundstage with "AVP: Alien vs. Predator." Both of these elaborately propped, movie-themed mazes were built side-by-side inside of Soundstage 24. But Universal Orlando visitors will never see or hear anything that would give this physical reality away as they wander through "Dracula" & "AVP."
"Given that 'Dracula Untold - Reign of Blood' is very loud, what with the constant cannon fire that goes on inside of this maze ... Well, we thought that it would be smart to pair this haunted house with 'AVP: Alien vs. Predator' inside of the same soundstage. Since -- given that the Marines in that maze are constantly firing their pulse rifles -- it can get pretty loud in that haunted house as well," Aiello continued. "We basically figured that the cannon fire in 'Dracula' & the rifle fire in 'AVP' would kind of cancelled each other out."
As you talk with Mike about Halloween Horror Nights, it quickly becomes apparent that each individual maze that was built for this year's event had its own unique challenges. Like the Aliens who lurk in the shadows within "AVP." to avoid.
"We knew early on that we couldn't put performers in full-body Alien suits because the extremely tight conditions they'd be working in inside of our 'Alien vs. Predator' haunted house. Plus -- when people put on those oversized headpieces that then make them look just like the Aliens in Fox's film series -- it's hard enough for them to see in broad daylight. Let alone working inside of a darkened maze," Aiello stated. "So -- given that we'd had so much success with those werewolf puppets that we used in last year's 'American Werewolf in London' haunted house -- that's the route that we decided to take with our Aliens in 'AVP: Alien vs. Predator.' And these Alien puppets really are spectacular. They've even got a secondary internal jaw mechanism that the puppeteers can poke out & snap at the guests."
And sometimes it's the subject matter that a particular maze is built around that challenges the Halloween Horror Nights creative team. Like this year's "Halloween" maze, which is based on one of Mike's favorite horror movies.
"I've been trying to get a maze built around this classic John Carpenter film for years now. But given that 'Halloween' really only has a single antagonist, Michael Myers ... Well, how do you keep that going for an entire haunted house? If you just kept having the same character jump out at people room after room after room, that would get kind of boring after a while." Aiello explained.
So how did the Halloween Horror Nights folks handle their Michael Myers problem? They did clever things like having trick-or-treaters from "Halloween III: Season of the Witch" (i.e., the only film in the "Halloween" series that didn't feature Michael Myers) suddenly pop out at the mid-point of this maze. Not to mention creating a room in this haunted houses where there are 12 static Michael Myers figures set up in threatening poses while one live actor in a Michael Myer costume wanders around inside of that same space. And it's up to the Universal Orlando guests who are experiencing this haunted house to figure out which is which.
"That's what I honestly love about working on Halloween Horror Nights, finding ways to make the most of the source material for each of these mazes. Making sure that we're delivering high quality scares for our guests while -- at the same time -- making sure that Universal Orlando team members can have fun working at these seasonal events as well," Mike said.
And Aiello is obviously proud of the team he worked with on Halloween Horror Nights 24. Take -- for example -- how quickly he pointed out that many of the make-up artists who competed on SyFy's "Face Off" series were actually Universal Orlando employees.
"That's why we staged the 'Face Off - In the Flesh' scare zone on Hollywood Boulevard this year," Mike explained. "We wanted the opportunity to finally showcase some of the fine work that our make-up artists have done on that reality series since it debuted on SyFy back in 2011."
And you want to know the truly amazing part? A lot of the elaborate props and atmospheric pieces that help to make this year's four scare zones (i.e., "MASKerade: Unstitched," "The Purge - Anarchy," "Bayou of Blood" and the aforementioned "Face Off - In the Flesh") so memorable are rolled out from backstage and put into place in the 45 minutes between when Universal Studios Florida closes for the day and Halloween Horror Nights 24 opens for the night.
"Of course, the reason that we're able to do that so quickly is that we've obviously had a lot of experience staging Halloween Horror Nights here at the Universal Orlando Resort," Aiello said. "More to the point, we've now got a dedicated team of designers who work year 'round to make sure that this seasonal event is always the best it can possibly be. That we put in an effort to always deliver top-quality scares for our guests."
Which brings an intriguing question to mind: Given that this is Halloween Horror Nights 24, that means that 2015 will be the 25th anniversary of this seasonal favorite. So does Universal Orlando have anything special in the works for HHN's silver anniversary?
"Look, all I can tell you at this point is that we actually began working on Halloween Horror Nights' 25th anniversary four weeks ago," Mike concluded. "As to what the theme for next year will be or whether we'll be bringing back any memorable characters or mazes from Halloween Horror Nights of the past, I really can't say."
But that anniversary is a year or more down the line. If you'd like to experience Halloween Horror Nights 24, then you need to get to the Universal Orlando Resort now through November 1st. Just please be aware that this seasonal event is only presented on selected nights at the Universal Studios Florida theme park.
Orlando, FL – 09/25/14
By: Jim Hill | 
