While Halloween Horror Nights icon Jack the Clown takes over Universal Horror Unleashed in Las Vegas, he leaves Universal Studios Orlando in the hands of Terrifier slasher Art the Clown for a bloody good time. And essentially, Art feels like this year’s master of scaremonies at the 34th Horror Nights, between having the most extreme house and roaming around his Clown Cafe. But unlike the West Coast version of HHN, which boasts primarily movie/TV franchise frights, Terrifier isn’t the only draw here, as this year’s slate of IP houses is perfectly balanced by original concept horror houses. io9 recently visited Universal Studios Orlando—tickets for access were provided for review purposes—to see how this year’s HHN and Halloween offerings stack up. One of the key takeaways we found is that the Orlando park has just so much to offer for Halloween in comparison, between a much stronger version of Horror Nights, the Universal Monsters dominating at Epic Universe, and the introduction of a family-friendly Scooby-Doo-themed spooky season event at Volcano Bay. It really outshines the West Coast park in Hollywood, California, to make the most out of the fall-based festivities. The Good… Galkin: Monsters of the North and Other Original Houses The best house at the event, as so often happens with the East Coast, is Galkin, an imaginative original story inspired by Norse monsters and demons. From the start you’re transported away from humid Orlando and into a chilly village invaded by grotesquely horrifying creatures. The monster design is stunning, and the scares are unexpected as you’re transfixed by the sets—the distraction gives the “scareactors,” Universal’s official term for its fightful performers, time to prey on you. The scale is just next level, as you go from mountain terrains to a village with a tall, burning wicker man (not actually burning, but just simulated with clever lighting). This was the one I wanted to go through over and over again. We’ve also got to give El Artista a shout-out as the other heavy hitter at this year’s event. Following an artist on a creative retreat in a very haunted house driven to madness, it felt like we were on a European countryside vacation gone wrong through a gorgeous manor with terrifying specters and demons. The kills in this one were beautifully harrowing. Honorable original house mentions: Grave of the Flesh and Hatchet & Chains: Demon Bounty Hunters (which had some amazing Lava monsters). Terrifier Damien Leone’s Terrifier is such a huge phenomenon with big fan expectations, and the East Coast house didn’t disappoint. Inside the Terrifier Carnival facade is a full-on greatest-kills walk-through of Art’s design. It’s bloodier and, by extension, wetter than its West Coast variant (you will need a poncho). It also has more Sienna, the franchise’s final girl, featured in her Clown Cafe dream sequence look and her badass angel warrior armor. The true delight is how all the Arts inside look like they’re having a blast while targeting their scare victims. I got got quite a few times, and I’m usually a seasoned pro at this. Fair warning: the house isn’t for the faint of heart. The gore is extreme and really captures the energy of Leone’s cult-gone-mainstream hit films. The only thing we hope is that Art returns next year and maybe goes up against the Killer Klowns from Outer Space in a vs. house, which Universal has done with other titans of terror. Additionally, there’s a real Cown Cafe cart with awesome food and drinks themed to the films. It looks so good, and the drinks are more solid than the West Coast version, which went for more Instagrammable creations than actually tasty refreshments (like the Art’s Delight, a gross, vanilla-and-black lemonade beverage more designed to look like Art, rather than tasting good). Making the Clown Cafe being the photo-op while the foodie offerings being solid on their own was a better way to go. That, and if you’re lucky, Santa Art the clown might show up to roam around to judge your choices in theme park snacks with his bag of tricks. Five Nights at Freddy’s Orlando gets the fans here, and it’s obvious from the house to the pop-up Five Nights at Freddy’s restaurant. The houses are very similar between the two coasts, but Orlando wins where Hollywood missed a massive opportunity. The heart of Five Nights at Freddy’s, and what sells the concept to folks who haven’t delved into the fandom but grew up going to Chuck E. Cheese, is seeing the animatronic band on stage. Orlando’s FNAF house sets up the plot by showing all the animatronics performing their in-universe show right from the jump, which does an excellent job at establishing the rest of the story for those who haven’t seen the Blumhouse film or played Scott Cawthon’s games. As a fan of the film, I loved seeing the Henson animatronic puppetry showcased for the house (and the pizza smells really took me back). I sure had dreams of Chuck E. chasing me through his child casino growing up, so this was a nostalgic nightmare come true. Speaking of the pizza, the Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza pop-up was executed way better on the East Coast than the West. I didn’t even bother to line up for a regular personal-sized pizza in a box slapped with the Fazbear logo in Hollywood because it was a clear move for social media virality. In Orlando, they actually curated a menu with food items inspired by the FNAF franchise. There was a pizza with spaghetti and meatballs on top of it, which looked like it was going to be overkill—but after having it while needing to refuel, it ended up being just what I needed. There was even a nod to the film’s character Mike with his breakfast sandwhich available, and even their cupcake was superior to Hollywood as it had cannoli filling on the inside. If a real Freddy Fazbear’s had taken over the Monsters Cafe instead of the Minions, I think horror fans would have been less mad. The So-So… Jason Universe Hollywood actually did a better job with its Jason Universe house, having more memorable scene recreations from the Friday the 13th franchise throughout and better pacing. Orlando’s Jason house was heavy on the Jason to the point where it was comical and not as scary. I really would walk a step or two, then—BAM! There’s Jason, here’s Jason, hi, Jason. The inclusion of Pamela Voorhees telling her side of the story and going into the mind of Jason through his mask were definite highlights, though. Show Entertainment and Scarezones Haunt-O-Phonic gave more Bellagio water fountains with projections of Halloween decor than a solid horror offering. It definitely feels like a placeholder show for what you’d hope would be a Universal Horror showcase with iconic scenes and music on the water. It felt like there was a little less effort put in with the show aspects on the streets on the East Coast as well; we miss the energy of the vampire scare zone with small show moments. One of the scarezones was just a DJ and masked go-go dancers. Not all the scarezones were duds, though; we loved the Masquerade Dance with Death area’s attention to detail and costuming, and the unhinged nature of the Cat Lady on Crooked Lane. If you thought the live-action Cats movie was wild, this one takes a page from that for some of the most horrifying creature work yet. Volcano Bay Nights After-hours access to the water park with a Halloween twist is an inspired idea but ended up feeling like there was room for improvement. Here you’re invited to enjoy the tropical weather as the Scooby-Doo gang investigates the mystery of the Ghost Clown, which feels like the perfect summerween concept but that’s the extent of the spooky offerings. We kind of wanted more Halloween hootenanny, like spooky Scooby-Doo inspired food and drinks if the theme was going to stick to the Hanna-Barbera cartoon. We did love that, at the end of the event, the guests are able to participate in unmasking the Ghost Clown. What makes Volcano Bay Nights’ inclusion in the fall offerings is the chance to have a space for a more family friendly Halloween offering and it should definitely go all in on that. There are so many awesome gateway horror characters in the Universal catalog we’d like to see join the Scoobies in other spooky-zone areas, like SpongeBob with friends facing off with the hash-slinging Slasher or the Flying Dutchman or some ’90s Casper fun. Hell, just put the Universal Monsters on a tiki trip! Epic Universe’s Dark Universe One of the things I was hoping for was some sort of seasonal offering within their year-round Universal Monsters portal. Yes, on its own it stands as a horror fan’s must-do pilgrimage to Frankenstein Manor, but there wasn’t really anything new to make it feel like a draw for the Halloween season. If it would have added a new monster meet and greet or a more playable storyline (outside of ordering the secret menu Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde potions) it would have been better for synergy. Dark Universe is already great, but this feels like a huge missed opportunity for the season. … and the Bad Fallout This house continues to be a massive dissapointment regardless of what coast you’re on, because both offerings are almost too linear. There were some real moments of horror on the show that were left out in Fallout‘s debut houses, but I’ll give Orlando more of a pass than Hollywood. They included the Trading Post set, which was fun and went beyond just the Super Duper Mart. Both coasts needed as many Ghouls in the Fallout houses as they had Jasons in the Jason Universe houses. The Crowds Around Art the Clown Performers Okay, this one’s not on Universal entirely, but there were some serious boundary issues when it came to Art as a roaming character around the event. Lots of people wanted to try and get pictures or videos of him up close, or queued up to try and take pictures with him—so the performer couldn’t really, well, you know, perform, and multiple times we saw Art being escorted away until crowds bent on content capturing dispersed. Maybe if there were more handlers to try and discourage people from hogging his time (we only saw one handler assigned to Art while we were there) it would help, but if you’re attending theme park events like this, you should always be mindful of both what a performer is open to and comfortable with when you approach them, so you both enjoy the brief time you’re able to have with the character. Trying to record performers for viral moments and getting in the way of other attendees is not it, and might mean we get fewer cool opportunities like this at future events.