Halloween Horror Nights 5 – Before Dark

By Dejiki on August 29, 2015 in Attractions, Halloween Horror Nights, Theme Parks

The Blood Moon has evoked Universal Studios Singapore‘s transformation into a realm haunted by terrors close to home. Witness the impending evil in the HHN5 Before Dark photo reports.

Dejiki.com’s Before Dark series is a day-time photography series documenting the elaborate creative production of Universal Studios Singapore’s blockbuster event in October, Halloween Horror Nights 5. Check out past years’ Before Dark features here.

◂ The Invaders ▸

The Invaders is staged in New York zone, which has been the venue for ‘flagship’ scare zones in past editions of HHN. It’s not difficult to see why – the most elaborate effects are done here, along with large sets and props.

This year, we have a Portal as the gateway to the area. The entire structure has panels that glow, and appears to be switched on even in the day for testing.

Universal Studios Singapore - Halloween Horror Nights 5 Before Dark Day Photo Report 1 - The Invaders scare zone, gate wire detail

Grating on many panels – perhaps the portal could emit theatrical fog.

The street only has a few movable sets for now – it’s a month away after all. A few of these street pieces, which we’ve seen before in past years.

Magnetic Field.. Now, which movie is this referring to? 😉

Another hint: Dead crows.

And of course, there’s a military vehicle with a mystery weapon.

Caution. ALIENS! Would we see some of them return from The L.A.B haunted house from last year?

◂ ConTERMINATED ▸

New York’s Sting Alley will host a scare zone again this year. From what I’ve seen, this will be a hybrid experience like Bogeyman (2014) which means it’s actually an outdoor Haunted House. Whoo! ‘Bonus’ Haunted House!!

The sign.. could be nicer, though.

Because of the messy layout of this scare zone, the area is closed off to guests. You’ll understand why when you see the alley later.

It’s organised chaos inside. See anything familiar..?

The entire area is quarantined for our maximum enjoyment in October.

New for this year: A raised path forming a bridge of sorts.

The park has certainly gone through a lot of trouble to build this.

With the walkway narrowed, ConTERMINATED will indeed have the Haunted House style of encounter with scare actors. We’ll be trapped in the middle, and scare actors can get to us on both sides. And we’ll need to move in one direction. It won’t be as open as the other scare zones.

You can see how high this ‘platform’ actually is. Other than hiding the cables running across the actual floor, what would be the unique scare element here?

At the far end, there’s this gigantic mountain of trash. There’s a small door at the side for scare actors.

◂ Hungry Ghosts ▸

Last night’s the real Hungry Ghost Festival (15th day of the Seventh Month, lunar calendar), but for HHN5, you’ll get to experience Hungry Ghosts continuously, thanks to the Blood Moon. Yes, that night will keep repeating in USS. The nightmare won’t end until ~~dawn~~ the park closes at 12:30am (1:30am for select nights).

The Hell House, as an official partner to the village of Hungry Ghosts, is a one-stop shop for offerings, joss papers and papier-mâché craft kits. You can get your seventh month supplies there, but not all kinds of money are accepted. Certainly not your SG50 Commemorative Notes.

Both Hungry Ghosts marquee signs state ‘this way to Hell House’, hinting that the entrance to Hell House might be inside Jurassic Park this time. For the past few years, the entrance is always at the empty area between Jurassic Park and Ancient Egypt, because the haunted house is really sandwiched between those two zones. USS would build a unique gate to lead guests into the house, which is done for Songs of Death (2013) and MATI CAMP (2014).

As there’s no mention of The MRT haunted house, it is likely that the park would have it completely separate from this scare zone. That means it’s HHN pre-2013 style, where the entrance and exit is at Waterworld. After all, the story of The MRT revolves around a Malay cemetery, while Hungry Ghosts takes place in a village (that could be a Chinese cemetery). So many cemeteries. If only Whittemore Graveyard is part of this year’s HHN5 – we’ll be getting all our scares from beyond the grave.

For now, there’s a lot of movable walls and large props covered.

But some things… can be quite obvious.

Oh dear, these are not those really creepy old-style Chinese tombstones… or are they?

◂ Haunted Houses ▸

It’s a month away but it looks like most of the scare zones are at least a third done. We can assume the same for the haunted houses too, as the park needs sets to produce promotional materials.

Reminder: For your own safety, please do not trespass and enter the park’s back of house areas.

Wow! Hell House will indeed have a life-sized ‘paper house’ as part of its design. It looks so amazing from far away – I guess the HHN5 team is working towards Songs of Death (2013) level of realism. It’ll be a dream for me (and nightmare for some) to explore and document this haunted house in its entirety.

Tunnel People looks far darker than before. Curtains were added to surround this house (it’s built below an open sheltered area. It’s going to be really dark. Please don’t wear your flashing headbands inside, okay?