Universal Horror Unleashed Haunts Las Vegas at Area 15 Entertainment District
Story, photos and videos by Cassie Hepler (unless otherwise noted)
Universal Horror Unleashed comes to haunt Las Vegas, Nevada! This first-ever, year-round horror entertainment experience by Universal Studios lives inside a huge warehouse in AREA15 Entertainment District with four terrifying haunted houses inside including my favorite Universal Monsters, Blumhouse’s The Exorcist: Believer, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Scarecrow: The Reaping. The horror extends to the bloody food and beverage offerings, with themed bars and food locations serving craft cocktails and grotesque bites in select areas, and a retail location with the most unique collectible merchandise. Actors dressed as various spooky season creatures lurk about waiting to scare you at any moment as well! Make sure to NOT pack anything metal besides car keys, they have a metal detector… RIP tripod.
Also, make a note that you will stop and watch a whole scene from a movie at points which really makes this unique and different from a regular haunted house. Props are on point too and tons of fun photo opportunities abound. No flash allowed but videos and photos are encouraged. The team has timed entrances to ensure everyone their own experience and we only got clustered once so good job on that guys. We’ll be sharing more videos from this space in honor of Spooky Season but make it spooky all year long! It’s about time all the dark souls have somewhere to play. And a second location planned for Chicago perhaps with new movies in store.
We’ll start with my favorite, all the monsters! Universal Monsters haunted house, where the cinematic legends have broken free from the silver screen to stalk unwitting visitors. Guests will pass through the crumbling mausoleum of famed monster hunter Van Helsing and into the cursed domains of creatures that defined the genre. From the shadowy halls of Castle Dracula, to the sandy tombs guarded by The Mummy, to the crackling lab where Frankenstein and the Bride still draw breath – this haunted house resurrects the most legendary monsters of all time in one continuous nightmare. Face cinema’s most feared icons with Universal Monsters!
My second favorite, The Exorcist, blew us away at Universal Horror Unleashed! Blumhouse’s The Exorcist: Believer was probably the most intricate haunted house in the whole exhibit with its believable house with bedrooms, walls and more in store. We legit saw the girl go upside down and backwards, totally rad! This demonic setup is a direct sequel to the original 1973 film that follows a desperate father, Victor Fielding, whose daughter and her friend disappear and return three days later with no memory, only to show signs of demonic possession. Even the line to wait in is full of what the heck am I looking at fun, glued down for purposes of curious guests, some Goodwill tags still attached to clothes.
Descend into demonic possession and find yourself deep in the shadowy woods where best friends Katherine and Angela mysteriously vanish – only to be discovered days later with no memory of what happened. From there, the terror builds room by room as the girls’ disturbing transformation unfolds, going from the hospital to the girls’ homes to witnessing the actual exorcism as everyone is surrounded by supernatural chaos.
The next two haunted houses I call the hillbilly edition of Universal Horror Unleashed! That’s what I called The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Scarecrow: The Reaping exhibits. And before you give me shit, I grew up in Central Pennsylvania aka Pennsyltucky so there. Lots of scary inbred, redneck chaos inside with fun for everyone to scream and laugh. I highly recommend rewatching your favorite horror films before coming here to get brushed up on some of the staged scenes they have inside. For all those who haven’t watched yet, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is about a group of youngsters come across a family of psychopaths who attack them with a variety of gruesome methods, including a chainsaw, before those who survive escape, still pursued by the saw-wielding Leatherface. Scarecrow: The Reaping tells the story of the 1930s Dust Bowl in Midwestern farmland, where careless farmers have devastated the land, leading to a vengeful return of the earth itself in the form of bloodthirsty, monstrous scarecrows. Insert banjo here!
Face the dust storms of the Midwest in Scarecrow: The Reaping, an original story that will take them back in time to a dry, barren 1930s farmland ravaged by farmers and taken over by horrifying inhabitants arising from the land: bloodthirsty scarecrows bent on revenge. Twisted scarecrows lurk in the shadows, emerging from the mist-covered cornrows – silent, soulless and always watching.
Take a journey through the 1974 horror masterpiece in the The Texas Chainsaw Massacre haunted house, placing them in the footsteps of the victims as they face horrifying iconic scenes and characters. Guests will come face-to-face with Leatherface and every member of his deranged family and their victims, as the terrifying sound of chainsaws haunts them at every turn.
Once we got visiting all the haunted houses out of our system, we poked around the rest of the space which can be just as fun of a spooky experience as well! Some folks were bellied up to the huge, wraparound bar in the middle of the joint. Others lingered around some restaurants and the cleanest bathrooms we ever did see. Interacting with the actors is so much fun and they will legit invade your space, stalk you and talk to you however you cannot touch them unless you want to be ejected outside into the hot desert sun… a goth’s worst nightmare!
