A look behind the scenes of ‘A Quiet Place’ and ‘Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire’ haunted houses at Halloween Horror Nights Hollywood

Signs of Halloween Horror Nights (HHN) are popping up around Universal Studios Hollywood theme park near Los Angeles, Calif. But behind closed doors and under dark tents, there’s even more hidden from day guests view until opening night on Sept. 5, 2024. Luckily for you, we were invited to check out some of these hidden details inside the “A Quiet Place” and “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” haunted houses both of which will also be part of this year’s HHN over at Universal Studios Florida.

‘A Quiet Place’ at Halloween Horror Nights

“A Quiet Place” features the first two films of the franchise for its Halloween Horror Nights debut. Creative Director of Halloween Horror Nights Hollywood, John Murdy, notes how difficult “A Quiet Place” can be to translate into a haunted house despite the films’ popularity.

When looking for an intellectual property to turn into a house, they look for three things. First, public awareness of the property. Second, if it features a variety of environments that can be replicated in real life. And third, if it features characters that can be translated to live performers.

It is that third one that makes “A Quiet Place” particularly difficult considering the film features giant creatures that walk on all fours. These creatures have been created as six puppets and four animatronic figures for the haunted house. Although Universal got reference material from Paramount for the design of these figures, this will be the first time a physical Quiet Place creature figure is created as they’re entirely computer-generated for the films.

Halloween Horror Nights in Hollywood began using animatronic figures last year with the “Chucky” maze. The figures are made in-house with the park’s internal mechanical engineering department. The Hollywood theme park has built these animatronic figures for both coast events considering their experience with the process.

One learning from the Chucky animatronics, which was in an outdoor tent last year, is that the heat malfunctioned the figures. Air conditioning was brought into the tents to prevent further problems last year. This year, the “A Quiet Place” house is in the former “The Walking Dead” park attraction and therefore in an air-conditioned building to prevent this problem.

In addition to the creatures being a hurdle to overcome, another difficulty is creating a haunted house when the word “quiet” is in the title. Haunted houses are anything but quiet, and therefore the creative team must think about sound differently.

“The sound design of that film was pretty revolutionary,” states Murdy. “You think it’s silent, but it’s just a very clever way to design the audio. A lot of the sounds in the film are what you hear in nature. So, we needed to change the way we do audio.”

Stacey Quinealty is the Creative Director of AV Design at Universal Studios Hollywood. It was up to him and his team to come up with a new process for the “A Quiet Place” house given its uniqueness.

Instead of using large speakers high up above the maze, nearfield audio design is required. Smaller speakers hidden in tree trunks, behind bushes and in set pieces bring the audio closer to the guest’s ears, therefore creating the desired effect.

Another first being introduced in the “A Quiet Place” house is the use of American Sign Language (ASL) in a Halloween Horror Nights house. Given the fact that one of the film’s main characters is deaf, this house will honor that fact.

This will first be seen in a pre-show video in the queue where a deaf Universal Studios Hollywood employee who uses American Sign Language has been cast. Performers in the maze have also learned key phrases in ASL to be true to the film.

There may be a number of firsts when it comes to “A Quiet Place” at Halloween Horror Nights, but it’s sure to be full of the scares, attention to detail and everything else we love about a Halloween Horror Nights haunted house.

‘Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire’ at HHN

From a brand-new Horror Nights franchise to a returning one, we then head to the “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” house. This house entrance features a façade displaying Ray’s Occult Books shop. There will be a pre-show on rotation for guests to enjoy while waiting in the queue. Be sure and keep your eyes out for Slimer.

When we last saw “Ghostbusters” at Halloween Horror Nights in 2019, the haunted house was based on the original movie. This time it’s focusing on the latest film in the franchise. But there are nods to all films in the franchise throughout the house.

When asked if the animated series “The Real Ghostbusters” had any representation, Murdy noted, “There are just so many options with the live action that we haven’t dipped into ‘The Real Ghostbusters’ yet. Maybe in the future.” So, it sounds like there may be hope for fans of the Saturday morning cartoon in future years.

As we walked through the house, snow flocking was still in progress. But we did get to see some scenes nearly finished being covered in snow. This process seems to be even messier than the final step of blood splattering in most houses.

Two of the wow moments in the house includes the façade of the iconic firehouse and the Ectobmobile. The firehouse structure is so large that it literally touches the ceiling of the tent. And the house’s Ectomobile was created using a 3D file from the film. The body of the car is sculpted from a lightweight foam, and sourced original 1959 Cadillac parts are used to dress the exterior.

The previous “Ghostbusters” house ended with a giant Stay Puft Marshmallow Man for the Ghostbusters to defeat. In this new house, there are mini-animatronic Stay Puft Marshmallow men throughout creating all sorts of havoc.

When asked how Ghostbusters fits into Halloween Horror Nights, Murdy had this to say. “Ghostbusters is the comedy house. Insidious is the paranormal horror house. Texas Chainsaw Massacre is hardcore gore. As we put it together, we try to create it so that there’s different things. A variety for everybody.”

These are just two of the houses being offered at this year’s Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood. Read about them all here, and don’t miss out on the annual Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood when it returns for select nights September 5 through November 3, 2024.

Jeff DePaoli is an event producer and voiceover artist living in Los Angeles. He is the producer and host of “That Halloween Podcast” and works throughout the year with Halloween events including Midsummer Scream and Creep It Real OC. He can be heard as the voice of Disney Trivia on Alexa as well as the host of “Dizney Coast to Coast” podcast. Learn more and claim free gifts at DePodcastNetwork.com.

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