| Halloween Horror Nights Orlando attraction | |
|---|---|
    | |
| The Weeknd: After Hours Nightmare (Orlando) | |
| Attraction type | Haunted House |
| Event | Halloween Horror Nights 31 |
| Park | Universal Studios Florida |
| Area | Woody Woodpecker's Kidzone |
| Year | 2022 |
| Housed in | Second Parade Warehouse |
| Based on | After Hours (2020) |
The Weeknd: After Hours Nightmare was one of ten haunted houses that were featured during Halloween Horror Nights 31. It was located in the Second Parade Warehouse.
History & Location[]
On July 26th, 2022, Universal announced that musician The Weeknd would be coming to Universal Orlando Resort and Universal Studios Hollywood as a haunted house for that year's Halloween Horror Nights events, The house would be based on his 2020 hit album, After Hours. They would directly collaborate with the singer/songwriter in the creation of these houses.
The house would be located in The Second Parade Warehouse, a large building built to store any excess parade floats that can't fit in the First Parade Warehouse.
The codename for this haunted house was Shampoo because of The Weeknd's hair.
Description[]
Enter the macabre mind of The Weeknd in this haunted house as he stalks you through the surreal nightmare of his After Hours music.
Prepare to enter the macabre mind of The Weeknd in this haunted house as he stalks your squad through the surreal nightmare of his After Hours music. A slasher carving a smile at an otherworldly rave. Bandaged maniacs performing extreme plastic surgery. A grotesque mannequin masquerade. His nightmare is now yours.
Experience[]
Queue and Facade[]
The queue entered from the outside of the entrance for Dreamworks Destination. Guests would walk through the indoor queue area for Dreamworks and exit out the back. They would then go along a road that would contain a few switchbacks before going along the pavilion that contained some parade floats underneath. The queue would switch back and forth underneath this pavilion many times.
Going along the side of the Parade Warehouse, guests would round a corner and see a giant picture of The Weeknd After Hours' Logo on a vinyl painted on the side of the warehouse. The Weeknd's music would also be playing in the queue for the house, as bright and colorful lights would flash. At night, projections would also play on the vinyl that would go along with the beat of the songs playing. Guests would enter the house through a door underneath the vinyl.
Haunted House[]
When guests entered the house, they would immediately hear Die for You playing. They quickly pass through a hallway, where canisters filled with The Weeknd’s colorful “brain juices” could be seen on the right. These were also stained with dark splotches. In the first room, The Weeknd could be seen strapped to a chair with a device strapped to his head and glowing colorful wires coming out of it. TV monitors would also show disturbing images and the contents of his mind.
Guests would then enter the After Hours Club, where In Your Eyes would play. It was full of Masked Club Members, two of which would come to life and scare guests. The Weeknd can also be seen dancing on stage with a woman in front of a projection of a DJ and some cloudy blood. The music would slow down and distort, and the Weeknd would slit the girl's throat with a knife. Exiting the scene, guests would pass by two of the unmasked partygoers, revealing themselves as Lizard People.
The next scene was the After Hours Club Hallways, which featured a bunch of pipes glowing different colors. The Weeknd would jump out at guests on the right. Further down the hallway, guests would find a broken glass case on the wall. The In Your Eyes Woman would jump out on the right and attack guests with an axe which came from the case. There was also a tarp with the silhouette of the In Your Eyes Woman decapitating The Weeknd behind it. At the end, the In Your Eyes Girl would jump out holding The Weeknd's head.
Guests would then enter the Club Bathroom where Sacrifice would play. In this room, they would find a hideous body on a table with a Plastic Surgery Nurse operating on her. This would serve as a distraction, as another Nurse would jump out at guests from behind her. After that, guests would be led into another bathroom, this one being much dirtier. Various body parts were scattered throughout the room, and guests would encounter another Nurse putting the Weeknd on another mutilated body, which was holding a mirror. At the end of the room, guests would see a large pile of body parts. Behind it, a seemingly motionless Headless Male Stripper would jump out at guests from behind them. Before exiting the scene, guests could see a slot machine above the door, which would spin into three toads. One final Nurse would attack guests on the left as they left the scene.
The next scene was the mirror maze, where a remix of Blinding Lights would play. Guests would be surrounded by moving orange lights, bright orange arrows, and large letters spelling out "Touch", "Lust", and "Greed". A Bandaged Maniac would jump out at guests immediately on the left. This scene would then transition into a hallway with moving blue lights and seemingly endless corridors, where another Bandaged Maniac would attack guests on the right. Before entering the next scene, guests would find themselves in a small, wallpapered room, as another Bandaged Maniac would attack from the left.
After that, guests would enter the After Hours Hotel, where they could see the Weeknd standing up on a stage with a toad. Save Your Tears would play in this scene as guests wound their way past tables full of masked party guests. Two of the partygoers would take off their mask and jump out at guests, revealing their faces to be monstrous. Every once in a while, the Weeknd would lick the toad, causing blacklights to flash all over the walls revealing faces in the windows as screams could be heard. A snake could also be seen wrapped around the room when the lights went out.
Winding through the corridors of the hotel, guests would see a pair of monstrous arms belonging to the Weeknd, as he is now transforming into a monstrous toad. Further on, a door hidden in the wallpaper would open to reveal a Half-Weeknd Half-Toad Creature. At the very end of the scene, a monster camouflaged into the red wallpaper would rip itself free from the wall and attack guests.
The following scene took place in the After Hours Station, where Take My Breath would play. Entering the graffiti filled subway, guests would be attacked from above by the Weeknd Toad's hand. Walking onto the subway tracks, guests would see the Weeknd Toad walking back and forth on a platform on the right, which served as a distraction as another Toad would attack guests on the left. At the end of the scene, guests would be startled as a subway train moved towards them, honking its horn and shining its blinding lights at guests.
After the subway, guests would find themselves back in front of the chair from the opening scene, this time being empty. Blinding Lights would once again play as guests walked around it. They would notice that the TV screens have been shut off and the wires are now glowing bright white, no longer flowing with the Weeknd's nightmare. Blood could also be seen leaking from the ceiling and staining the seat. The finale of the house featured a room surrounded by Bandaged Maniacs, with three of them being real and attacking guests. As guests left the house, the wall in front of them would distort and quickly show disturbing images of The Weeknd in bandages, before changing back to normal.
Settings[]
- After Hours Club
- After Hours Club Hallways
- Club Bathroom
- After Hours Hotel
- After Hours Station
Scareactors[]
- The Weeknd x3
- After Hours Club Victim
- Rhinestone Skull Mask Clubbers x2
- In Your Eyes Woman x2
- Plastic Surgery Nurses x4
- Headless Male Stripper
- Bandaged Maniacs x6
- Unmasked Partygoer x2
- Half-Weeknd Half-Toad Creature x2
- Wallpaper Monster
- Weeknd Toad x3
Quotes[]
• “Die For You, Baby I would Die For you..” - The Weeknd
• “In your eyes, I see there's something burning inside you, Oh inside you..” - The Weeknd
• “I don't wanna sacrifice, for your love, I try. I don't wanna sacrifice, but I love my Time...my” - The Weeknd
• “Oh, baby, I hope you know that I, I tried. Oh, baby, I hope you know I love my time. Oh!" - The Weeknd
• “Sin city’s cold and empty!” - The Weeknd
• “I saw you Dancing in a Crowded Room. You Look So Happy When I'm Not With you” - The Weeknd
• “Yeah I broke your heart like someone did to mine, And now you won't love me for a second time.” - The Weeknd
• “Take me back 'cause I wanna stay, Save your tears for another, Save your tears for another day... " - The Weeknd
• “Take my breath!” - The Weeknd
• “Oooooh I'm Drowning in the night, but when I'm like this you're the one I Trust. Hey! Hey! Hey!” - The Weeknd
• “AAAAAAAAHHH!” - The Weeknd
Pictures[]
Videos[]
Soundtrack[]
Trivia[]
- The victim in this announcement video is called The Selfie Queen whose obsessed with her beauty and taking many selfies of herself unbeknownst to her she catches the attention of The Weeknd and group of surgeons and bandaged followers who lead to her to her end.
- The Key Art was done by @Morganananna on Twitter [1].
- Mike Aiello, Charles Gray, Chris Williams and John Murdy all worked were all in on the concept of this house and scenes more than ever before [2].
- The journey for the house has been described as a "fever dream" hellscape about "surviving L.A." and the horrors that come with [3].
- The concept for the house was many of nightmares of The Weeknd being extracted from him while he's creating the album [4].
- The house has a visual inspiration from The Weeknd that comes from the films that inspired him such as A Clockwork Orange, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Jacob's Ladder [5].
- The house isn't a retelling of the album but nightmares through his songs with surrealistic and horrific imagery from his music videos featured [6].
- The house is broken into three sections, preceded by an indoctrination into the performer's subconscious [7].
- The house leaned in on psychological terrors and was presented in a way that they haven't done before [8].
- The lights were programmed to interact with the music as if guests were walking through a nightmare of a music video[9].
- The songs were remixed by the Art & Design team in collaboration with the Weeknd [10].
- The beginning and end of the house in the nightmare extraction was inspired by live performances done by Kenny G.
- The monitors in the first scene had multiple references to what was going on inside the house.
- The flame was a reference to the line "I see there's something burning inside you."
- The tube going into someone was a reference to the liposuction scene.
- The Bandaged Person was a reference to Abel in the bandages.
- The Party People in the After Hours Club scene where the same mask worn by Patrick Greenway in the Super Bowl Halftime Performance and the Save Your Tears music video.
- There was a UV axe in the After Hours Club that served as a reference to the Blonde Girl.
- There was a sound effect of a distorted scream from the Carnival Graveyard: Rust in Pieces haunted house in the first bathroom scene.
- There was a spider hidden in every house in 2022. The spider in this house was located on a shelf in the dirty bathroom on the right.
- The Lighting for the Male Bathroom with the Flashing Red was inspired by a Scene from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. [11].
- The way the body parts were scattered about in the Male Restroom scene was inspired by the Hospital Scene from Jacob's Ladder. [12].
- There were several pieces of graffiti and writing in the Female Restroom such as:
- Perfection
- Hurt
- Inside
- XXX
- In the Male Restroom scene, the mirror was broken and the shards of glass were shoved into the hands of The Weeknd.
- The Casino Slot Machine images were foreshadowing events that had happened in the house and those that were going to happen.
- The exit sign being a reference to the Blonde Girl from In Your Eyes leaving the Club.
- The Female Dancers being a reference to the Female Restroom scene.
- The Male Dancers being a reference to the Male Restroom scene.
- The Queen Card having the Plastic Surgery Girl on it as a reference to the Plastic Surgery Girls.
- The microphone and martini glass being a reference to the Save Your Tears Club scene.
- The frog being a reference to the Frog in the Save Your Tears scene.
- The slot machine before the mirror section was reused from the Lady Luck section from HHN Icons: Captured.
- The mirror maze has "Sin City's Cold and Empty" as the only lyric from Blinding Lights since it's the transition to the Las Vegas part of the house.
- Additionally, some of the seven deadly sins could be seen in lights on the wall such as Lust and Greed.
- The Save Your Tears Club scene's effect was reused from The Shining.
- The UV snake on the ceiling of the Save Your Tears Club was a representation for Adam and Eve with the Frog being the apple.
- The Weeknd Toad in the After Hours Hotel section had part of a reused mask from The Thing: Assimilation.
- The Train Station had graffiti references on the wall such as:
- Xo
- After Hours
- Blinding Lights
- In the train station, the map listed songs produced by The Weeknd as destinations.
- The train and the hotel rooms had Ws on them, which stood for Weeknd.
- On opening weekend, only the three songs from After Hours were featured in the house. However, the house added Die for You, Sacrifice, and Take my Breath following opening weekend.
References[]
- ↑ https://twitter.com/Morganananna1/status/1552059454891384832?t=CaNF-VEvfYZJhMnYfm-SEg&s=19
- ↑ https://twitter.com/john_murdy/status/1552069089400688641?t=Hneel_50MsRWb1m64aEjew&s=19
- ↑ https://ew.com/music/the-weeknd-after-hours-nightmare-universal-halloween-horror-nights/
- ↑ https://ew.com/music/the-weeknd-after-hours-nightmare-universal-halloween-horror-nights/
- ↑ https://ew.com/music/the-weeknd-after-hours-nightmare-universal-halloween-horror-nights/
- ↑ https://ew.com/music/the-weeknd-after-hours-nightmare-universal-halloween-horror-nights/
- ↑ https://ew.com/music/the-weeknd-after-hours-nightmare-universal-halloween-horror-nights/
- ↑ https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/experience/america/theme-parks/2022/08/28/universal-orland-halloween-horror-night-hhn-31-exclusive/7893597001/?gnt-cfr=1
- ↑ https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/experience/america/theme-parks/2022/08/28/universal-orland-halloween-horror-night-hhn-31-exclusive/7893597001/?gnt-cfr=1
- ↑ https://twitter.com/nlinguini/status/1566809911362785287?t=XcrE2Ibx5ctM9dKTSUmQGw&s=19
- ↑ https://youtu.be/ozexZsgkTzE
- ↑ https://youtu.be/ZrxkwIcLG8w