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Hits and misses at Halloween Horror Nights 6

I'm a timid person but HHN6 didn't scare me that much.

Azra Rauff

Published: 28 September 2016, 12:00 AM

On Monday night, I was given the opportunity to be scared out of my skin (and possibly have a heart attack) by attending Universal Studios Singapore’s (USS) highly-raved annual Halloween event: Halloween Horror Nights 6.

Being a huge horror fan (and very fearful at the same time), I’ve attended Halloween Horror Nights (HHN) over the past few years and couldn’t wait to see how the sixth installment would stand out from previous years.

The park looked like it was straight of out a horror movie with smoke and dim lights. It screamed “You are going to regret coming tonight!” at every corner.

One of USS’ popular restaurant renamed for HHN.

However, with five different haunted houses and two scare zones this year, I expected a lot more spine tingling moments and excitement than what I experienced.

Here are my hits and misses from Halloween Horror Nights 6:

Hits

Haunted houses

This year’s haunted houses felt like the scariest horror movies and your biggest fears put together. It will make you jump, scream and cry (if you are just like me).

Two of my favourites were Old Changi Hospital (OCH) and the Salem Witch House.

This year’s headliner house – Old Changi Hospital

With Japanese soldiers screaming in your face, prisoners of war crying out for mercy and banshees at every corner, OCH felt like I was transported back in time to the Japanese occupation.

On the other hand, Salem Witch House was eerie and definitely something very different from what I had seen at HHN in previous years. With witches popping out from behind doors or hanging from the the ceiling, you might just pee in your pants. My other favourite? The two witches casting spells in the first few rooms of the house.

You don’t want to miss this one!

Ghost fashion

What sold the haunted houses were the ghosts, with their spooky make-up and costumes. The costumes were well designed to suit the themes of the houses. They caught my eye and definitely made the scarers look 800 per cent more real.

Some of my favourites included those during ‘March of the Dead’ and at Hu Li’s Inn, which included some very dramatic (and creepy) pieces.

We came across this terrifying cat-like creature in Hu Li’s Inn.

Check them out when you head down!

Misses

Shows

One thing I was really looking forward to was the Opening Scaremony. Based on previous years, this was something that would blow up on social media and get people talking.

This year’s, however, fell short of that.

The show opened with a comical DJ set that lasted five minutes too long. Once the DJ set was over, the pyrotechnics came on and the scare actors came out, but within two minutes, it was over.

The only way you would be able to enjoy this Opening Scaremony would be if you were high on alcohol. (Sorry…)

Scare zones

Scare zones (open areas where you can walk around and take pictures with “ghosts”) were a huge miss this year. It felt like more of a live art exhibition at a museum than a scare zone.

Most of the ghosts were not aggressive and were not very interactive with guests, unlike previous years. They solely stood at the corners of the scare zones and waited for guests to approach them.

The scare zones are more insta-worthy than scary.

All in all, HHN did manage to scare the crap out of me and leave me up at night. Considering that this was its sixth round, I expected a much bigger, better, and scarier show.

Hopefully it’ll be more exciting when it opens to the public than it was at the media preview!