Going into Halloween Horror Nights season this year, I was certain that Hellraiser was going to be the main event house of the year. It had all the makings of a huge ticket-seller for Universal Studios Hollywood. It was an IP that they’ve never had at Horror Nights before. The location was in the normal main event spot by the Curious George parking. While Hellraiser is certainly a great haunted house at the event, the true crown has to go to Sinners.
If you go to Halloween Horror Nights and follow the wait times religiously like I do, Sinners has taken the top spot for wait times from both Hellraiser and Ozzy Osbourne: Prince of Darkness. Ozzy would likely be the next closest for a true main event house but what exactly makes Sinners the king of the event?
The Recipe For A Main Event House At Horror Nights
Like I mentioned before, the placement of a house certainly decides its main event status. The good people at Horror Nights know that, and they strategically place houses at spots in the park that are highly trafficked, or in the case of Terrifier last year, place them where it’s not heavily trafficked so the queue doesn’t gum up important parts of the park. Looking at Terrifier from last year, there are several things that went into that house being the juggernaut that it was.
When I say that it was a juggernaut, I mean it sold the most merch, made the most social media impressions, the roaming Art the Clown characters drew people to the house, and it had far and away the longest wait times. Now, long wait times are a pain in the ass for everyone. When a house routinely gets above the 90-minute threshold, it becomes an issue for guests. Sinners, at least the past couple of times I’ve been to Horror Nights, has gone above that. I also haven’t seen merch numbers, but I would assume that Sinners is also selling a lot of merch.
So between wait times, merch, location, and word of mouth, what is making Sinners into a main event?
Sinners Is Bucking Trends For Normal Main Events
Sinners was an immensely popular movie last year, taking the box office by storm, and even the Academy Awards as well. I’d have to look back at the history of Horror Nights, but it might be the first haunted house with an Academy Award winning performance in it. That popularity was somewhat surprising for Horror Nights because in the case of past main event houses, they’ve had time as an IP for people to get obsessed with them. It didn’t take Sinners very long to reach that status.
Now all of this doesn’t even take into account the actual house and the contents inside. But the placement of Sinners is not normally a main event spot. Last year, Fallout was in this spot and that house was good, but it wasn’t main event level. Previously, we’ve had Evil Dead Rise, Universal Horror Hotel, A Quiet Place, and The Walking Dead in that spot known as the UBE Venue. Those all were fine, but didn’t get to the level that Sinners has.
Once you get inside the house, it all makes sense though.
A True Perfect House At Horror Nights
Once you make it into the house, the first scene is arguably the most iconic scene from Sinners, Sammy playing his song while it goes through the history of music. Out of there, the terror begins with double-decker rooms, iconic scenes, scares, vampires, and basically everything that made Sinners a special movie. The effects and scare actors have always been on top of their game. Without spoiling too much for those that haven’t been through it yet, basically every iconic scene that you can imagine from the movie, is in this house.
There’s a reason why the line is getting upwards of 90 minutes almost every night. And there’s plenty of reason why people are loving this house this season.
For more on Horror, make sure to check out Fright-A-Thon.
Reviews