As a lover and connoisseur of Universal Halloween Horror Nights, I was so excited to hear LA’s hotter party girl of a neighbor Las Vegas was getting a year round haunt. They officially opened on Thursday, August 14th, and I visited the following week, on August 21st. I say this because while this isn’t a review, some of the tips or general “good to know” things may change as they work out the kinks.
Overview
Universal Horror Unleashed is officially part of Area 15, but opened in a new expansion section called “Zone 2.” It’s a little less than half a mile from Area 15 proper, and has a different address, so make sure you are headed to the right spot. If not, it’s not that far and there’s a tram or an 8 minute walk, which will feel a lot longer in summer heat.
The experience is inside of a massive warehouse and includes:
- 4 haunted houses
- 2 bars
- 1 quick service restaurant
- 1 sit down restaurant
Houses
I’ve read people have had some different experiences in the first couple of weeks based on when they went, so take this with a grain of salt. The houses, in order of my favorites, best to worst (but I literally saw the opposite order on Reddit):
- Scarecrow The Reaping: Really cool set and great jump scares. Cherry on top is the effects and story telling while waiting in line in the inside queue.
- Universal Monsters: Such incredible set design! I expected this to be the house I liked least, but there were some awesome scares and the change in design as you meet different monsters was so cool.
- The Exorcist Believer: Some good scares, and the winner here for me was the effects. There was a cool exorcist moment the first time I went through, but later on my second time through no theatrics.
- The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Don’t come for me. I expected this house to be my number one, and maybe it’s because I am unfairly comparing it to HHN, but it fell a little flat for me. It was still fun, I am not saying it’s bad, but I think they leaned a little too hard into the pre-recorded lines and not enough into proper jump scares. Leatherface was great as always though.
Bars
- The Boiler Bar: This is the first bar you’ll see, and staying true to its name, it’s a massive furnace looking thing that blows out steam every so often. The bar wraps around three sides with stools, so it’s a great place to grab a pricey drink, enjoy the atmosphere, and people watch.
- Jack’s Bar: At the very back of the warehouse there’s a stage where Jack the clown and his team perform “Stay or Slay” with the audience, and just behind that is Jack’s Bar. There’s both stools against the bar and some tables and chairs to enjoy a drink. There are some small one-off performances that happen near here, so you might be lucky enough to catch one.
Restaurants
- Rough Cuts: This is the quick service restaurant with ribs, sandwiches, corn. There’s a counter to order and a couple of tables and chairs in front of it.
- Premiere House: This is the sit down restaurant, and it’s Blumhouse themed. There are some photo ops for The Black Phone, Purge, Megan, and while I was there Megan came out and did a little dance. The food is appetizers and it hit the spot while we were there. We had no problem walking up and getting a table, but you can make online reservations through the site.
The Layout
After you enter the warehouse you go through security, scan your ticket and boom, you’re in it. I haven’t seen a map (it’s not that big I suppose), so the way I think about it is in three sections:
- Front
- Universal Monsters House
- The Boiler Bar
- The Texas Chainsaw Massacre House
- Middle
- Rough Cuts (quick service restaurant)
- The Exorcist Believer House
- Back
- Scarecrow The Reaping House
- Jack’s Bar
- Premiere House (sit down restaurant)
As you walk through the open warehouse space, there are scare actors, little stages where performances happen, and photo-ops.
Horror Unleashed Ticket Options
There are a couple of ticket options, so depending on how much time you have, how much your budget is, and how big of a haunt lover you are, you can make the right choice.
It’s open Thur-Mon from 2pm-10pm, and while all tickets are timed tickets, once you’re in, there isn’t a limit on how long you can stay, so earlier is better IMO. See more below for ideal timing.
One-Time General Admission Access
Price: $69-$99 ($10 discount for NV residents)
Entry Times: time slots every 20 minutes 2 pm-8 pm
House Access: one time entry to each
This is the cheapest ticket option, and while you only get to go through each house one time, if haunts are not your jam, this could be a good fit for you.
Also, you can take it slow. Go through Texas Chainsaw Massacre, get a drink at the bar, watch the performer zip line through the air, etc. Lines too long? Great time to sit down and grab a bite. Basically you aren’t trying to cram as many trips through the maze as possible so you can really take in the atmosphere.
Unlimited General Admission Access
Price: $99-$149 (No NV resident discount)
Entry Times: time slots every 20 minutes 2 pm-8 pm
House Access: unlimited entries
For the average Joe or Josephine, this is the most expensive option (there is also a crazy VIP experience option – if you’re considering this please take me with you). The obvious upside is you can go through the mazes as many times as you want, and now that they have more entry times for unlimited, the only downside I can see is the lines. The unlimited ticket holders get sent to a separate queue from one-timers, and this can get busy. I waited a solid 40 minutes in the Exorcist line and have heard of people waiting up to an hour. Not sure if this is every day, but it was the setup when I was there.
I went on a Thursday, entered with a one-time admission ticket at 6:40 pm, upgraded for $40, and did each house twice. While we had a blast and tried everything we wanted to, I did feel rushed. I didn’t take extra time to watch certain performers and grabbed my drink to go from the bar instead of sitting and enjoying a little break.
Crowd Considerations
It’s still very early days, so TBD on what sort of crowd patterns we start to see, but we can take some pretty solid guesses. With that said, your best bet (instead of reading my little predictions) is to check the cost calendar since they have variable pricing based on demand. If you have flexibility, find the cheapest day to save your wallet and sanity.
Houses & Lines
Houses: The houses will be periodically closed to give the scare actors a break. During this time the other open houses will be busier, but if you ask the workers when it’s going to reopen, you can cruise in towards the front of the line once it re-opens
Lines: As mentioned above, once they scan your ticket you’ll be directed into one of two queues because they separate one-time general admission and unlimited general admission. Unlimited was always the longer line while I was there, but only once did I have to endure a super long wait.
Day of Week
From least to most busy if I had to guess:
- Monday: Early afternoon on a Monday is probably a pretty chill time.
- Sunday: Big checkout day for tourists, but not EVERYONE leaves Sunday, so not the least busy, but defo not the worst.
- Thursday: I was there the second week it was open, and it was pretty busy, but word on the street is that earlier in the day it was pretty empty. A lot of people fly in Thur afternoon, so the evening is probably gonna be poppin’.
- Friday and Saturday: These two are probably a toss up. If I was a bettin’ lady (I am, and craps is my game), I would say Fri over Sat, but maybe it’s horror Friday and clubbing Saturday, so we’ll see.
Time of Day
Here are my thoughts:
- 2 pm-3 pm: Amazing. Opening is almost always the best as we all know. Once you are in, you can stay as long as you like, so you can imagine how that compounds throughout the day.
- 3 pm-6 pm: Busier town. New ticket holders every 20 minutes and all of the unlimited folks getting in line over and over again.
- 6 pm-8:45 pm: “HHN after Universal started overselling tickets” busy. Okay, no not that bad, but it was the busiest for us. People are arriving as late as 8 PM, unlimited folks are going through the houses as much as possible in a short period of time, so it can be a bit of a mad house.
- 8:45 pm-9:30 pm: You are living. Exorcist, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Monsters were all walk-ons, we were sometimes the only ones around, and even got longer interactions with the scare actors. This might not hold true on a Fri or Sat, but the timing logic should still apply.
Season
While we can probably all assume spooky season will be lit, it’s important to note that Universal is expecting upticks any time there’s more tourists in town, so for instance we’re seeing high ticket prices between Christmas and New Years, and while it’s not the spookiest of seasons, it’s a big time to travel to Vegas.
Universal Horror Unleashed Final Thoughts
The ticket prices aren’t cheap, and while they are comparable to most Vegas prices, when it’s the same price as Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights but less houses and no rides, people are justifiably a little put off. For me, I do think it was worth it, but I’m not sure how much of a re-visitability factor there is. Only time will tell, but I feel like I got to explore and see what there was to see, checked this off my spooky Vegas list, and will be good unless they make updates or changes.