9 Reasons Universal's Halloween Horror Nights Should Be on Your Bloody Bucket List

Did your friend go a few years ago and tell you what to do and what to avoid? Well, you can't rely on anything, because Halloween Horror Nights changes every. single. year. The houses are different, the scare zones bring new ideas to life (or death), and the experience as a whole provokes fears you probably weren't even aware you had. Murderers with chainsaws chasing you around? Last year. People from The Purge auctioning off innocent people for slaughter? This year.

If you thought you could attend to hang out with your family and friends and just avoid the haunted houses, you're in for a sinister surprise. Because of the multiple scare zones around the park, you can't just walk around without a care in the world. In order to actually make your way around the park, you have no other choice but to walk straight through these zones (if you go another route, you'll face another scare zone). These themed areas have been everything from dead fishermen lost at sea to murdered high school students trying to get to the prom.

Haunted houses wouldn't be complete without a few jump scares, but Halloween Horror Nights takes things to an entirely different level. While people (and things) will definitely jump out at you, you'll also smell very specific things, hear music, and (now) have to look above you in addition to around every corner. Do with that what you will.

One of Halloween Horror Nights's featured houses this year is The Shining, which brings to life one of the most terrifying movies ever made (based on Stephen King's classic book). And if you attend this year and walk through the Overlook Hotel, you'll honestly feel like you're on the movie set. Not only does snow gently fall on you as you enter through the hotel's maze, but you're also forced to go through Room 237, the Gold Room (which features the creepy bar), the Torrance's hotel apartment, and the main hotel hallway, which features all of those old photos from the hotel's parties in the 1920s.

They don't call it Halloween Horror Nights for nothing. While you can expect to get all of the typical kinds of scares, some of the haunted houses feature things that will genuinely shake you to your core. If you attend this year, you can expect to see the skeletons of dead children still in their cribs, as well as a young girl hanging from the ceiling.

Whether you go into the haunted houses or not, you will definitely find yourself running for your life. There are people with chainsaws everywhere, and they love to sneak up behind you, chase you, and basically stalk you until you leave the designated scare zone or try to find relief in a store or restaurant. And acting a certain way also won't help you. If you look afraid, they'll come for you. If you look tough, they'll try to test you.

Haunted houses are usually all about the details once you get inside, but Universal, as always, goes one step further. You're able to actually walk up the front porch steps and through the front doors of some of the most iconic houses in history, which have included Halloween and The Exorcist (street lamp and bedroom light shining down on you and all). While this simple detail of entering a house isn't a grand scare, it will send chills all the way down your spine.

While you can kind of know what to expect when entering a haunted house centered around a famous movie, you'll have absolutely no idea what you're walking into when it's an original house. And Universal Studios has a lot of those this year, including The Fallen, Scarecrow the Reaping, Dead Waters, and Hive.

Attending Halloween Horror Nights can be a fun test for both the scared and the brave. If you think nothing can make you scream anymore, you should go to see just how long you can make it without calling your mom for help. And if you're scared of anything and everything, you should still go and have the time of your life with your friends (before you inevitably die from all the fear, of course).