Halloween Horror Nights 22 is loaded with scares, but sometimes you’ve got to laugh just as much as you scream. Luckily for us Penn & Teller have teamed up with Universal Studios Florida for their very own haunted house, New(kd) Las Vegas. Yes, it seems the “Bad Boys of Magic” went and nuked Sin City but you’ll reap the rewards in this 3-D scarefest.


Penn & Teller entertain you while you wait in the queue line.


The 3-D glasses for Penn & Teller’s New(kd) Vegas


After a less-than-pleasant greeting from one of the containment crew outside, Penn keeps things lively with a running audio commentary throughout the entire house and 3-D videos in other rooms.  As you run through the clean room to enter the casino where a showgirls has a very interesting mutation, to say the very least. After taking a romp through a radioactive honeymoon suite that even Marvin Gaye can’t make sexy, you find yourself backstage at Penn & Teller’s show. And like much of this nuclear wasteland, the magic tricks have been changed... especially the woman that’s been sawed in half.


A trip through the light room will get trippy; it’s almost like the walls are going reaching out for you in there. Or perhaps they are? You’ll find your way to the casino slots where the scareactors are literally overflowing with cash. The wedding chapel will have you walking down an aisle where the people at this precious occasion might not be all that happy to see you.



And no trip to Vegas would be complete without a trip to the buffet? But this isn’t the all-you-can-eat variety so much as it’s an all-you-can-freak thanks to some interactive functions designed to startle visitors to go along with some of the food walking around on the floor. Just when you think you’ve finally gotten out of the trip unscathed, Penn & Teller have a few parting shots for you. The first night of Halloween Horror Nights, Penn & Teller were actually scaring people in the last room of the house. Now that’s a surprise! Who knows if they’ll be back later this month when their Las Vegas Show goes on haitus?
  
New(kd) Vegas Must-See Checklist

  • Throughout the house there are hidden interactions to push and pull. If you get the chance, do it, even if they are marked “Don’t Pull.”
  • Someone mixed a clown costume in with the hazmat suits in the clean room.
  • The house on its own is a lot of fun, but don’t miss out on the 3-D effects.
  • Don’t miss your chance to meet Elvis -- well, an Elvis impersonator -- in the wedding chapel.
  • Penn & Teller have a finale that will prove they’re always clowning around.
     

For more information on Halloween Horror Nights, check out BestofOrlando.com’s Ultimate Guide and get a behind-the-scenes look at becoming a scareactor.

Orlando, Fla. 10/03/12