Get your first look at the HHN9 scare zones and houses in this Halloween Horror Nights 9: BEFORE DARK update.
About Halloween Horror Nights 9: BEFORE DARK
BEFORE DARK is DEJIKI.COM’s original series documenting the transformation of Universal Studios Singapore for its Halloween Horror Nights event. Any relevant updates about the event will be included in this series too.
With less than a month away to opening night on 27 Sept 2019, the park has been doing a lot of setup work, with themed props arriving in the past week.
There are quite a number of changes this year, starting with the park’s Hollywood zone.
Halloween Carnival
For the first time ever, the area around the Hollywood lagoon fountain will be used for the Halloween Carnival.
The carnival is part of the park’s new Daytime Halloween Fun experience that is starting ahead of HHN9. This includes family-friendly activities, Meet-and-Greet sessions with some park characters in Halloween mode, and the return of the Trick or Treat with Sesame Street show. This seasonal event takes place from 6 Sept to 31 Oct 2019.
At this moment, a few of these posters hanging off a metal tower might hint at some of the carnival’s attractions, namely food stands, divination, and a puppet show.
After the sun sets, the fair will transform into a Haunted Carnival – who knows, this might also become a mini scare zone.
Death Fest
Brace yourself for the “most hardcore music festival” of the year, taking place at the park’s New York zone. Two fiery towers mark the start of the Death Fest scare zone.
The towers feature LED strips that will glow red, and an elaborate lighting matrix overhead will push you through the fire and flames.
Apart from the towers, there are only two other large props within the zone. With a park-wide procession (parade) known as Death Fest LIVE, it is likely that this zone will not feature too many immovable props.
One of the sets comprises stacks of stage cases. According to the concept art, this should have a giant skull prop.
A huge wheel set with chains, and body parts hidden under the wraps.
The stage for this morbid metal concert looks like the tallest and widest the park has ever built, and even more complicated than the one used for The 7Sinisters.
Given how the Hollywood area has taken shape so far, the HHN9 Opening Scaremony is likely to shift to New York. This could allow the park to manage the crowds better before and when the event begins, with more space for guests to stand and multiple rope drops happening at various points in the park. Those who arrive later may also have an advantage to hang around in Hollywood and then scoot to the other end of the park, bypassing Death Fest completely.
Great to see the display tech from last year’s Infinite Fear show being used again.
There’s already a bewildering amount of equipment at the Death Fest zone so far, and probably more special effects will be installed. Look at this row of fog machines already on the first level.
Dead End
On the other end of the spectrum is the somber Dead End scare zone, which is currently filled with a lot of dead things. This zone, being the realm of The Undertaker, is said to feature funeral rites and gruesome sights.
Creepy and familiar things wrapped up.
Mummified, or Pocong-lookalike things.
And then all these wooden “baskets”.
If we have learned anything from scare zones built here – you don’t really need a lot of things to build the atmosphere. It’s really “less is more” for Jurassic Park scare zones.
Haunted Houses
The clowns have arrived to set up their Twisted Clown University at Waterworld queue.
It’s great to see more effort being put into decorating these usually bare walls.
The nearby haunted house, The Chalet Hauntings, has a queue entrance that matches the ‘actual’ chalet. Almost all the lights here have blue gels.
Have a peek. Not sure if there’s a real reason, but this year two of the regional/Asian horror houses are returning to the same sites as before. The Jurassic Park site has been home to the Pontianak last year.
Spirit Dolls is taking over the space used for The Haunting of Oiwa in 2018. At the moment only a small portion of the house (roofs) is visible from within the park. Please do not trespass into park backstage areas.
Hell Block 9 is being built beside Soundstage 28 and much work has been done to create the prison buildings and barricades to resemble the concept artwork.
That means that the last house, Curse of the Naga, is in the Soundstage 28 building. And with that, I’ve created this park map of all the Halloween Horror Nights 9 highlights:
HHN9 Vlogs
To kick off the launch of this year’s BEFORE DARK series, I’ve also recorded a short vlog. I may be posting a full walkthrough in a few weeks, when more things are up.
More updates in the next BEFORE DARK article
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Prepare for Halloween Horror Nights 9
Get all the info you need on Halloween Horror Nights 9 at my Halloween Horror Nights 9 Event Guide.
Halloween Horror Nights 12 (2024)
HHN12 REVEALED: Ticket and Event Guide
HHN12 MEGA REVIEW: Photo Tour of all haunted houses, scare zones, shows and Special Experience
HHN12 RIP TOUR Review and Vlog (VIP Experience)
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Under The Castle by TEAM WANG design | Netflix's Sweet Home
Cursed Scrolls: Dynasty of Darkness
Singapore's Most Haunted: The Killings
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The Lost Kampung | Nether-Land + Ocu.lar's Rave | Dark Dreams
HHN12 BEFORE DARK: Day Tour of Halloween Horror Nights 12 setup
Universal Beijing Resort (UBR) 2024
Scares @ Universal 2024 Event Guide
Halloween Horror Nights – The Archives
Click to Expand and see all posts from past Halloween Horror Nights
Halloween Horror Nights 11 (2023)
HHN11 REVEALED: Ticket and Event Guide
Sneak Preview: DIYU: Descent Into Hell, Rebirth of the Matriarch, Icons and more
Halloween Horror Nights 11 MEGA Review: Photos of all Haunted Houses and Scare Zones
HHN11 RIP TOUR (VIP Tour) Review
Features on Haunted Houses, Scare Zones and Experiences
Grimm Encounters | The Weeknd: After Hours Til Dawn Nightmare
Judgement Day (Opening Scaremony) | Netflix's All of Us Are Dead
DIYU: Descent Into Hell | Rebirth of the Matriarch
Dead Man's Wharf | The Cursed Kiramam
The Hacker + The Hacker: GAME OVER
Universal Studios Japan (USJ) 2023
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Halloween Horror Nights 10 (2022)
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SPECIAL FEATURE: Behind the Scenes at HHN10 Haunted Houses
HHN10 RIP Tour (VIP Tour) Review
Features on Haunted Houses, Scare Zones and Experiences
The Silenced Auction (Opening Scaremony) | DIE-ning with The Dead | Monsters & Manifestations
Escape The Breakout | Killustrator: The Final Chapter | Hospitality of Horror
Operation: Dead Force | The Hunt for Pontianak | Dark Zodiac
Universal Studios Japan (USJ) 2022
USJ Halloween Horror Nights 2022 Review and Photo Tour
Trick or Thrills (2021)
Halloween Horror Nights Exhibition
2021 Day and Night Halloween: DIE-ning with the Dead, Universal Monsters Scream Alley | Zany Zombies and IT'S SHOWTIME! Premium Experience
Halloween Horror Nights 9 (2019)
HHN9 REVEALED: Ticket and Event Guide
Halloween Horror Nights 9 MEGA REVIEW
SURVIVAL GUIDE for Halloween Horror Nights 9
HHN9 RIP Experience (VIP Tour)
Features on Haunted Houses, Scare Zones and Experiences
The Chalet Hauntings Revisited | Spirit Dolls | Hell Block 9
Curse of The Naga Revisited | Twisted Clown University
Dead End | Death Fest + Death Fest LIVE
2019 Opening Scaremony (The Undertaker)
SNEAK PREVIEW: Curse of The Naga | The Chalet Hauntings | Behind The Scenes of HHN9
HHN9 Construction Updates (BEFORE DARK)
Part 1 | Part 2 (with Daytime Halloween event) | Part 3 (Horror Truck) | Part 4
Universal Studios Japan (USJ) 2019
Universal Surprise Halloween/ Halloween Horror Nights 2019 Event Guide
Halloween Horror Nights 8 (2018)
Meet the Killuminati / The Ceremonial Sacrifice (HHN8 press conference)
HHN8 Construction Updates (BEFORE DARK): Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5
FIRST LOOK: Stranger Things haunted house with Behind the scenes tour
Halloween Horror Nights 8 COMPLETE REVIEW
SURVIVAL GUIDE: HHN8 Tips, Strategies and Secrets
HHN8 RIP (VIP) TOUR and Behind the Screams (BTS) Tour review
Features on Haunted Houses, Scare Zones and Experiences
INFINITE FEAR Opening Scaremony show | Zombie Laser Tag 2018
Pagoda of Peril | The Haunting of Oiwa | Stranger Things | Pontianak | Killuminati
Apocalypse: Earth | Cannibal
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Halloween Horror Nights 7 (2017)
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HHN7 MasterCard Priceless Experience (Overnight Survival Camp)
Inside The Mind | DEATH Mall | Make The Cut | TERROR-Cotta Empress | HEX
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Before Dark ZERO: Scare actor auditions
Before Dark 1 | Before Dark 2 | Before Dark 3 | Before Dark 4 | Before Dark 5
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Hawker Centre Massacre | Salem Witch House
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Jack's Recurring Nightmare Circus
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Five Nights... at HHN6 (Final Cut)
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Halloween Horror Nights 5 REVIEW
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Features on Haunted Houses and Scare Zones
The Minster of Evil (HHN4 Opening Scaremony) | Jack's Nightmare Circus
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Survival Guide: Halloween Horror Nights 3 Tips and Tricks
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Halloween Horror Nights
shaping up to what looks to be an interesting event this year!
Omg it look much better
Guess my survey on want more clown come true
Interesting to see that the scaremony will be at NewYork. Will like to see how the park will divert the crowd towards NewYork after scanning the tickets. We have to run so far now to get to the front haha. It seems that the 2 massive props at Deathfest (the tyres) will be hard to move, does this mean some parts of the crowd wont be able to see the show well? They have to control the people heading straight to Naga and Hell Block 9, if not it will be mayhem! In my opinion, the original location at Hollywood seems to be the best. However, we will never know until we experience it! (we have to see how the park is gonna handle this.) Thanks for the write-up!