REVIEW: Sweet Home at USS Halloween Horror Nights 12

Escape from monsters and hostile survivors straight out from Netflix’s Sweet Home series at Universal Studios Singapore’s Halloween Horror Nights 12.

Warning

This article contains spoilers. Photos from Halloween Horror Nights 12 are featured here in a special showcase.
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Overview and Thoughts

Last year’s All of Us Are Dead haunted house was one of the most popular houses, and Sweet Home will mark the third attraction based on a Netflix series in Singapore. It’s no longer about zombies, but grotesque monsters, and the monsters within us.

What’s good about this house: Most characters are recognisable (unlike last year’s, where you have to look at some student nametags amid the chaos, to be sure). The environments feel “more or less” there, but the lighting in the show is quite different compared to reality, and this is something that’s impossible to replicate in an attraction. In terms of the scenic design, it doesn’t quite hold up in some rooms – they either look too plain or clean, as compared to how messy the show looks. Perhaps there should have been fewer rooms, but I think the intent was to have a more definitive story. I had also hoped to see the Eyeball Monster and Protein Monster. Or maybe even the Speed Monster as a stunt.

There are around 9-10 scenes in this haunted house, based on the events of Sweet Home Season 1 and the first few episodes of Season 2, before the time skip. I thought that this house could have focused on the first season and end with the Green Home building destroyed. Should there be another Sweet Home haunted house in the future, there will be enough content to adapt from Season 2: The Stadium setting alone could already offer enough environments and characters for a haunted house; followed by another house focusing on the terrifying discoveries in the sunken Banseom facility.

As you walk under the giant show marquee, a corridor filled with Sweet Home’s iconic illustrated opening sequence transports you to the Green Home Apartment Complex…

Lee Eun-Hyuk is busy in the security room, keeping a lookout for monsters moving around the apartment complex. Is he starting to turn?

Kim Seok-Hyeon is wary of you. He wants to throw you out.

There’s nowhere to go – the shutters at the building entrance were already closed and barricaded by the residents. But wait – there is someone hanging in the air.

It’s the Tongue monster. Run!

You make a dash for the lifts. The doors slide open to reveal the building security guard who was stuck inside. He has turned.

Cha Hyun-Su is right behind you, ready to fend off the monsters. Blood slowly oozes out of his nose and he runs off.

You’re now alone in the corridor – but there seems to be someone lurking in the shadows. What appears to be roots from a tree has grown haphazardly around the corridor, blocking the lights.

It’s the Blind Monster. Do not. make. a. sound.

You manage to evade the Monster and into an apartment – and it’s Hyun-Su’s. While he’s resting, a neighbour is banging on the door – demanding that you let her in. You can see her from the intercom…

After she leaves, you try to make your way down. You meet Lee Eun-Yu, a once-aspiring ballerina who has given up on her dreams.

Eun-Yu chases you to the basement, which is filled with even more terrifying surprises.

Beware of the Spider Monster, and other hostile survivors here.

You make your way back to the ground level and stumble inside the Minimart. It’s aunty An Seon-yeong… or is it?

Seok-Hyeon from earlier has succumbed to the curse and transformed into a monster – one completely covered with hair!

Han Du-Sik warns you to stay alert. The military has stormed into the apartment complex. Their priority is to contain the situation, and not to rescue all survivors.

In the corner, a hooded man is watching the chaos quietly. It’s Jung Ui-Myeong… or is it?

Soldiers demand that you leave Green Home immediately. You are brought into a research facility along with a few others.

You meet Pyeon Sang-Wook, the contract killer… or is it someone else?

Firefighter Seo Yi-Kyung has succeeded in infiltrating the facility and found the body of Nam Sang-Won. Suddenly, her pregnancy is rapidly advancing, and she struggles with pain.