Orlando's Halloween Horror Nights returns

The witching hour has arrived again in Florida as Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Orlando Resort recently kicked off its 33rd season, running now through Nov. 3.

Guests can visit 10 new haunted houses, some based on familiar properties like the post-apocalyptic “A Quiet Place” or “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire,” plus new and nostalgic originals like Major Sweets Candy Factory and Monstrous: The Monsters of Latin America.

Five outdoor scare zones will test your bravery, while the high-energy Nightmare Fuel: Nocturnal Circus live show features pyro, roaring music and Vegas-level illusions. Plus there are plenty of themed eats, treats and merchandise.

The Tampa Bay Times visited Halloween Horror Nights 2024 on opening night to put together this list of what we think ticketholders should definitely see, taste and try.

Our favorite adapted haunted house

This wasn’t even close. Yes, the animatronics and sound design of “A Quiet Place” impressed us, and approaching the dramatically-lit, massive red door at “Insidious: The Further” knowing that the Lipstick Face Demon stood waiting sparked real fear. But nothing at this year’s Halloween Horror Nights absorbs fans into the world of the movie more than the faithfully adapted and beautifully rendered sets of “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire.”

Enter past the neon sign for Ray’s Occult Books and meet a real-life Ray Stantz, stroll through the frost-covered dining room where an ancient artifact has released an evil entity and see a real-life Ecto-1 vehicle — one of only a handful of 1959 Cadillac Miller-Meteor ambulances left in existence, and which Universal apparently sawed in half for this attraction. Without spoiling any more, the house captures the newest movie, while throwing in a few familiar elements that only appeared in the original 1984 film and its 1989 sequel, which will delight eagle-eyed fans of the franchise.

Our favorite original haunted house

This was a much tougher call. At Goblin’s Feast, where you’re the main course, you will laugh (perhaps at the at the belching goblins chowing down on a leg) and you will probably jump in fear. For the true horror sickos out there, Triplets of Terror might be the goriest and most disturbing house of 2024, while also having one of the coolest concepts: transporting guests from the murderous Barmy siblings’ 1983 birthday party, to a true-crime podcast studio that adds realism, to the Blarmy’s 2024 birthday celebration. Surprise, they celebrate with more murder!

But if you find yourself with time for only one more house, Slaughter Sinema 2, set at a drive-in theater, is the move. It’s like eight mini houses in one. The sequel to the highly popular Slaughter Sinema house from a few years back delivers a whole new lineup of B-movie horrors, grindhouse gore and exploitation flicks, each with their own immersive trailer narration and posters that lead the way into a frightening scene from “The Mardi Gras Murders,” ocean-themed “Blood and Chum” or “Killer Kringles,” to name a few of the fictional films.

Our favorite scare zone

It’s hard to top coming face-to-face with the murderous, dancing, artificially-intelligent doll “M3GAN” at Enter the Blumhouse, and there’s something homey about visiting the waterlogged zombies at Swamp of the Undead in the Florida humidity, but medieval fantasy shows and books are incredibly popular right now and Torture Faire carries that fascination into horror attractions. Our tour guide told us that the designers of Halloween Horror Nights wanted to recreate torture devices that actually existed in this renaissance faire scare zone. Those displayed include “the breaking wheel,” the “blood eagle” and a bottomless rat cage strapped to a guy. An elaborate yikes.

Our favorite treat

First of all, shout out to Halloween Horror Nights for always having solid vegetarian options. This year’s best were the crispy, Slaughter Sinema-themed, jalapeno- and cheddar-filled “rocks from hell,” which might also be its worst-looking food ever, purposely resembling lumps of coal. For something more substantial, the “heart tostada” with red beet tartare, hummus, vegan feta and watercress on a crispy tortilla was very fresh.

The winner, though, has to be perhaps the cutest dessert ever designed: The “mini Stay-Puft s’more” is only a s’more — that’s chocolate, on graham cracker with toasted marshmallow. Delicious, not groundbreaking. But the marshmallow in this case is a whole, little marshmallow man. How’d they do that? I wanted to adopt him and bring him home, but I settled for a photo before happily devouring him.

If you go to Halloween Horror Nights

It runs Wednesdays through Sundays, now through Nov. 3. Single-night tickets range from $82.99 to $122.99 depending on the date, and express passes run from $149.99 to $239.99 at universalorlando.com/hhn/en/us/tickets.