Halloween Horror Nights 12 (2024) Review for Singapore

I had been thinking of hitting HHN Singapore for a while. I got close last year as part of my large trip to Japan but at a 6 or 7 hour flight I just couldn’t make it work with the schedule I had in Japan. But this year I started what I aim to make a yearly tradition: a visit out to USS for HHN. Thankfully my credit card points have been squirreled away for precisely this moment and I was able to get a business class seat on the very, very long flight from the US over the Pacific to Singapore. I ended up going 3 nights, getting RIP for two of those nights and getting Express for my non-RIP night. I have lots of thoughts about the event and my review should be taken in the context that it’s meant: as coming from an American who’s a superfan of the event but has the Orlando and Hollywood events as points of comparison.

And don’t take that to be a disclaimer for a bad review because it’s not. This event was wonderful. What it lacks in size compared to its stateside brethren, it makes up for in uniqueness and character. The houses do things that Orlando and Hollywood can’t and the scare zones have an entire different philosophy than the ones in the states. As part of this review we’re going to go through all the houses, scare zones and shows at the event, give a little review of them, share some pictures and hopefully share this fantastic event with Americans who are less familiar with what USS puts on.

Houses

Cursed Scrolls: Dynasty of Darkness

I didn’t like houses with the dayglow look and/or with 3D glasses. Unfortunately I only have been going to HHN in Orlando for the last few years so I didn’t get to do any of the 3D houses that fans revere and actually I didn’t even get a chance to do the ones fans didn’t (thinking of the Chance house from 2016). On the other hand, I’ve done plenty of them at Six Flags and Cedar Fair caliber events as well as my least favorite HHN house of all time: Pandora from 2019 and 2022 in Hollywood. Based on those experiences, I’ve always seen 3D/dayglow as cop outs, as ways to really cheap out on the black walls. Slap some paint on a couple foam props, toss a scareactor or two with dayglow costumes, surround them with black walls and you have yourself a cheap and easy house. Well, this is the first house that I can say actually was better as a result of it.

First let’s set the stage: you can find the backstory in much longer detail at Dejiki’s fantastic site but to keep it very short for my Westerners: we encounter a priest/magician who casts an ancient spell to unleash mayhem which we’re naturally plunged into the middle of. That provides a fantastic set of transition scenes being rooms with hanging Chinese characters that we push through that represents the words flying off the page and plunging us deeper into hell. The scenes themselves are varied. They range from a swamp with the awesome laser and fog effect that’s among my favorite haunted house ones ever, to a village strung up with intestines with a demon that tries to feed you some with chopsticks. The soft, fuzzy room is such an interesting contrast with a feeling that is rarely represented at the event and the last room is such a cool finale. It features a bungie floor (we’ll talk about this a little more in the review for Under The Castle), distracting you as you step down and giving you uncertain footing as you look up at the original priest/scroll master continuing to summon this living hell.

Like most of the Singapore houses, that last scene utilizes LEDs to great effect. There was some discourse in the HHN Orlando fandom about whether the recent trend of screens in houses are good or bad. I think a lot of that discussion was shaped by the SCREENZZZ conversations that happened after Kong and Fallon and Fast & Furious all opened in short order. To be honest, I thought they were used well in Orlando, especially in Goblins. And I think they’re done just as well here, especially in this house. The screen is used as a huge background instead of a focal point in itself.

Interestingly enough, this house probably felt the most Orlando-y in the ways that I mentioned earlier. I can’t think of any scare-actors in this house that stand out in the open and have the ability to follow you or interact with you. Instead, they’re a mix of the standard HHN boo-holes along with some of the best from the states including the bungee priest that tends to surround you in his arms as he charges at you and the scroll masters at the opening scene and closing scene as he looms above you. The fuzzy room is another Orlando approved scare. The actor in the middle of the scene has a couple of boo holes to pop out at you including following you around if you’re particularly jumpy! Think the Insidious curtain room at a slightly smaller scale.

Now the million dollar question is: was the addition of the 3D glasses good or bad? Like Pandora in Hollywood, it’s possible to do the dayglow style house without needing glasses. The argument for the glasses goes something like this: “the glasses distort the light, making you see double and intensifying the colors. It makes the whole experience much more disorienting which causes some of the hidden scare actors to get lost and get better scares”. The anti argument goes something like this: “the glasses are disorienting and they cause people to miss some of the beautiful scenic design in the house”. If you read Dejiki’s review, he falls on the anti side whereas I fall on the pro side. I thought that it was so disorienting that I lost my balance a couple of times (it wasn’t the Tiger beer+soju that did that although I’m sure that didn’t help) but I understand the anti argument given that whenever I poked my eyes above or below the glasses, I’d repeatedly see details I’d missed. Ultimately the novelty of a good 3D house won out for me but if I had a longer tenure in Orlando, I might feel differently!

But 3D or not, this house is fantastic and was likely my favorite at USS this year! Seems like the general public liked it too as one of my new Singapore friends let me know that it was the highest rated at the event!

Sweet Home

(Quick side note, that’s my hotel in the background of the picture!! Next year I think I’ll pay extra for a park view)

Making its triumphant return to the event is a Netflix show, the third in the short history of HHN SG. Thankfully for us Americans given how mediocre the last two Stranger Things houses were, rarely do they overlap with our stateside Netflix houses. Instead SG has gotten cool Korean horror, last year being All of Us are Dead and this year being Sweet Home.

I binge watched the show on the plane ride out to SG and made it most of the way through the first two seasons before I landed. I would recommend that you watch it, it’s fantastic, especially the first season but if you don’t care, read on and I’ll give you a little bit of backstory on the show: it follows this dense apartment complex in Seoul at the outbreak of some sort of pandemic that causes Monsterization where people become monsters based on what they desire the most. The main character Hyun-Su gets monsterized early but ends up being the rare monster that is in control. The show follows Hyun-Su and the rest of the residents in the home as they fight monsters and try to survive this outbreak.

The show might has well been made for an HHN house given that it has so many interesting, unique monsters that it doesn’t have to resort to my biggest pet peeve about IP houses: the hero scare. Nothing says scary like the good guy from a movie or show jumping out at you! Right??? That’s not to say that there aren’t heroes jumping out at you in this house, there are. But they never feel like they’re carrying the scares. Instead they’re the supporting scares to let you see the characters you care about. And the whole experience was also scary. There’s one scene from the show where a character (Eun-yu) is in a stairwell being attacked by a monster. In this scare as you round the corner she’s facing you and jumping out with a shaker can but when you’re distracted, the monster she’s fighting jumps out at your feet from around the corner. It was a devastating scare that I legitimately saw someone get knocked down by.

I’d also like to give a shot out to the costuming. The Hyun-su scareactor with his massive wing was such a cool prop prop/actor swiping down at you. The tongue and hearing monsters were done huge and intimidatingly with actors and one of the smallest details that I appreciated was the Yu-ri actress wearing a pregnancy bump that would squirm at you representing her…. interesting… pregnancy.

The house also makes the wise decision of treating it more like a haunted house and less like a faithful adaptation. It includes bits and pieces from the second season, instead of just filling those couple scenes with filler from the first. It also plays a little fast and loose with time and flashes us back and forth through the season to get the best flow of scares.

When you add all these strengths together, this house avoids the trap that a lot of the USA IP houses fall into and functions as both reasonably true to the source material and more importantly, a scary and good haunted house. Can’t wait to see what kind of Netflix show I’m going to have to binge before next year!

Singapore’s Most Haunted: The Killings

I’ve written in previous reviews for other coasts that one of the models for classification of houses that I like is dividing them on two axes: silly vs serious on one axis and played straight vs played tongue in cheek on the other. I find that it’s an interesting way to classify houses and specifically to classify the houses that I like in particular. My favorite houses lie in the serious/played straight quadrant. If you’re from Orlando, think Puppet Theater or Dead Man’s Pier. Well, this house is the most clear house in that quadrant at this event in SG.

In my tours my guides just kind of assumed that everyone knew the backstory here but I didn’t so I’ll set it up for you if you’re not Singaporean: there was a red house (“Red house Singapore” is probably what you want to Google if you’re still curious) that had some sort of link to the colonial administrators of the country. There was some sort of alleged murder in the house and it fell into disrepair. Over the years, the youth would sneak into the house on dares and would swear that it’s haunted. So the legend goes, if you lit a cigarette and put it in the mouth of the lion statues that sat out front of the house, you’d be safe. But as soon as that cigarette burned out, you were in trouble.

And that’s where we start. As we walk into the house, we walk past some lion statues with lit sticks of incense at their base (I’m curious why cigarettes weren’t used here when I believe that’s what the legend says. Cigs are pretty persona non grata in the US but they seemed to be in wider use in Asia from my travels - although I can’t speak about Singapore in particular) that should give us safety although we quickly find out that that’s not the case. After we enter the dilapidated house, The first room seems to be some sort of ghost hunter setup as they search for proof of the supernatural. The rest of the house is an intense journey through the house and its grounds as we encounter tons of monsters and ghosts along the way. Some of the highlights to me were the toy room with the scareactor sitting and camouflaged in toys and the fire room with an LED ceiling, which, funny enough on my first night, also felt like it had the heater on full blast. By the time we hit the exit, the incense sticks are stubs and we’re lucky to make it out alive!

This house was initially my favorite but it ended up falling down on my list. It’s a great, intense house, don’t misunderstand me. But it felt the most like an Orlando house and lacked some of the unique elements and features that I’ve noted in some of the other reviews. Maybe what took part on the inside of the house is all part of the legend and I, as an American, just didn’t know but I would’ve liked a little more story and character work instead of “this is a spooky place, walk around it”. But again, maybe it was a manifestation of all those legends and every Singaporean walking through the house was nodding along while I was lost. But overall, I think that’s a small complaint in the grand scheme of things. It’s a great house and a really (metaphorically) dark one that I hugely enjoyed.

Under the Castle: Team Wang Design

Here’s a statement that is huge if true: Singapore is not the United States. Things that fly in Singapore wouldn’t fly here and vice versa whether that’s cultural differences between the countries or lack of laws in Singapore that the US has for disabled access (the ADA). I think this is the house to dive a little more into that topic and how refreshing the diversity is.

Ultimately, this house follows in the footsteps of the Weeknd both in Orlando, Hollywood and Singapore and takes it one step further. Jackson Wang, the K-Pop star is the frontman for this house although, unlike the Weeknd, this house is not based on imagery from his music videos but instead, a creation of his Team Wang design project and following a similar exhibition in Shanghai. Imagine a castle and medieval house with an interesting, green and neon visual twist.

I wanted to highlight a couple of the scenes and use them to explore those differences I mentioned in the first paragraph. First, after you walk through the brief outdoor village section at the beginning of the house, you’re met with a raised bridge/drawbridge before you enter the castle guarded by a gargoyle that ends up being a live actor. That drawbridge isn’t raised a ton, maybe 6 inches or a foot(?) from base to high point but it’s a little unsteady and is ultimately a tripping hazard if you’re not paying attention. So I am not a lawyer at the end of the day but from my understanding, the ADA in America says that you need to make reasonable accommodations for disabled people. Not that you can’t have interesting stuff like this or the bungie room in Cursed Scrolls that isn’t exactly wheelchair friendly but that you need to have alternate routes for those guests to bypass the problematic parts. But given that that’s more space to take up, it rarely makes sense to do it in the States when you can just design one path that works for all. As far as I’m aware, that hasn’t happened here and there were no other paths for those guests to go through. Maybe I’m just missing them but I think it’s just the way that it is here (no alternate paths). On the other hand, beyond the strict legal aspect, you have to consider America’s litigious culture. If I’m walking through the house and there’s a random unannounced floor rise or fall, our American culture would argue that that if I trip and hurt myself, it is ultimately the fault of the company for not sufficiently warning me. And at Universal’s scale, they make a juicy target for a lawsuit. Singapore seems not to have that culture as far as I can tell which makes it possible to get cool, unique things like this.

The other interesting difference between the two events comes later in the same scene. After we enter the castle, we walk past the throne past kneeling mannequins at our feet only to have one lunge at us on our knees. That’s right, they come right at our legs while we walk past. My Americans reading this undoubtedly see the issue here, especially the scare actors among us. If this existed in America, within the first weekend, that scare actor would get their face kicked in. America is a violent culture, even when you take away the most obvious firearm outlier. Scare actors can attest that they get assaulted all the time (unfortunately - obviously - it’s disgusting that it happens) and it’s refreshing that Singapore isn’t like that, that scare actors can seemingly do these risky scares without as much of an issue.

In the rest of the house, we explore the rest of the castle, going through the dungeon, the crypt etc. This house more than others was very apparently inspired by Orlando’s greatest hits of effects, yeah yeah, I’m well aware that these may have started here and were copied by Orlando (tell me if that’s the case). Just off the top of my head, they featured the “headless” scare from Oddfellow (which also showed up in Most Haunted) and a classic Observatory scare in the dungeon with the cage. But there were plenty that were either new or I couldn’t think of an analog off the top of my head: some highlights are the MASSIVE puppet at the end of the house that swings in at guests, the horse with the rider in the stables and a really cool scare with a scare actor sitting in a chair still. You look at their arms which is a usual tell tale sign of whether it’s a human or an actor and the arms are fake looking so you relax only to get scared as the human that was sitting in a seat with mannequin arms jumps out at you.

The Weeknd houses in Hollywood and Orlando have been okay but haven’t cracked my favorites because of just how random they are. They seem to jump from idea to idea seemingly arbitrarily (yes, I’m aware a lot of it is imagery from his videos and therefore those jumps aren’t random because they’re all connected) but I think this house is a great counterpoint to those houses that a non-Horror artist can make a cohesive, great haunted house.

Oh and who can forget that HHN Bear is in the house but he didn’t exactly get the memo about dancing when he hears Bear, Bear, Bear. Oh well, maybe it got lost in translation!

Scare Zones

HHN Singapore scare zones stretch the definition of what a scare zone can be at HHN and the United States parks could take note. Two of the three ones on offer in the park this year are less scare zones than outdoor mazes and the other one takes the party zone concept done in Orlando a few times and fleshes it out to such perfection that it has become my favorite zone of the year. Let’s go in depth with what you can expect in each one.

Vampire Alley

If a zone’s theme can take advantage of it, there really isn’t a better place at the parks for a zone than Sting Alley. Singapore features a similar one to the one in Orlando and it remains just as tight and claustrophobic as Orlando’s. It’s a level of detail that can’t even be matched in the houses due to the permanent structures and money that went into them. Making Sting Alley into Vampire Alley was a great choice that takes full advantage of the surroundings. Vampire Alley is this seedy back alley infested with vampires. As we walk in, we’re accosted with vampires selling us black market blood, offering more carnal pleasures and finally guarding the entrance to the Viper Lounge (which I’ll cover in more detail later on). If we survive this far, we’ll continue through some body filled shipping containers and dodge vampires until we finally exit near SciFi city.

Like I mentioned earlier, this is really less of a scare zone in the Orlando or Hollywood vein and more an outdoor maze. It’s a one way experience where you’re led through these sets with large scale props. There really isn’t any hanging out in these zones like you might in Orlando.

This is my #2 favorite scare zone in all HHNs all year, only falling behind another Singapore scare zone we’ll cover soon.

The Lost Kampung

For those non-Singaporeans like me that are reading this, a Kampong is a village, generally more primitive than the surrounding area. Singapore only features a handful of these now apparently and this scare zone is meant to represent the terrors that might exist in one that was lost to time. Fittingly, this takes place in the lush jungles of the Jurassic Park area curving all the way around to the landing of their River Adventure rapids ride. Like Vampire Alley, this is less a scare zone in the Orlando sense but instead it’s basically an outdoor house where you walk in one direction from point A to point B with props and actors along the way with less detail than you might find in a house.

This delivers more scares but I don’t think it’s quite as good as Vampire Alley. First, it’s really really dark. That’s fantastic for hiding characters, who take advantage of it but it’s terrible for seeing details. Second, the zone didn’t naturally lead to as actor interactions as Vampire Alley. The actors in Kampung were more just scary and quiet than playing a part like they were in Vampire Alley. I recognize that that somewhat flies in the face of my stated preferences of scary vs silly but what can I say, I contain multitudes. I think scare zones in particular can and should be places where you get a little more interaction than you can get in houses where throughput is the cardinal metric. Kampung just had less than Vampire Alley.

But don’t misunderstand me. This is still a fantastic zone that puts the best of Orlando’s to shame this year.

Nether-Land

(Hope you’re ready for pictures because I took a ton here!)

Had I had this site in 2019, you would’ve been treated to a long digression about why Rob Zombie’s Hellbilly Deluxe scarezone in Orlando was the best scarezone that Universal had done in a while and that “party zones” served as a lovely change of pace from zones that thankfully do still tend to lean towards scary instead of silly. Well all of that applies here as well! Nether-land is the “party zone” that takes place along Singapore’s New York zone. Instead of rock music like Hellbilly, Nether-land features electronic music with 3 different DJs that play different styles of EDM: DJ Elixir, DJ N-Trance and DJ Deadbeatz. There are 5 or 6 mini stages set up throughout the zone with performers dancing on top, 4 or 5 mini floats that characters on the ground will push around and then plenty of characters walking around. Like other “party zones”, this is not meant to be as scary as something like Vampire Alley or Lost Kampong. You’re meant to want to interact and dance with the performers, not run away from them.

This was my favorite scare zone of any scare zone at any HHN this year. First, their music mix tended to lean towards the early to mid 2010s electronica which is when I followed it the closest and therefore is my favorite. I was rocking out all night! Second, in the context of the other scare zones, being able to take a little break from the scary and instead just relax and enjoy the upbeat atmosphere a little bit was incredible. But most of all, the performers were really something to be impressed with. Singapore is hot and humid. I was dying the entire time I was there (my last visit to Singapore before this one was in January and it was still hot and humid) but that didn’t stop the performers. They were literally dancing and moving all night and didn’t stop once. There was one scareactor who would go around and scream at the top of her lungs every few minutes and although it was awesome, I don’t know how she didn’t tear up her throat on night one with that strain! The rest of the scare actors too were so interactive and brought so much energy. They were fantastic, it was the place I would spend an hour+ every night I was there hanging out and just watching. This zone was incredible. I only wish I could’ve spent more time there!

Shows

Dark Dreams

In other reviews, I talk about the importance of diversity of tone in HHN. I have issues with Orlando’s event sometimes being a little too tongue in cheek and silly at the expense of being solely straight dark and scary. In my personal ideal event, the latter is the main focus with the former giving a nice change of pace. USS has the opposite issue that Orlando has, that the houses and zones tend to be too dark and scary with nothing lighter to offer a change of pace. Well, this show is the perfect change of pace that the event needs. Dark Dreams is the main stage show at HHN and takes place in the Pantages Theater in the New York section of USS. It’s the signature show of the event Icon: The Dream Reaper. The Dream Reaper takes the stage and spins the Wheel of Misfortune to decide how to torture the victim. These include drowning and claustrophobia as well as clowns.

The show features plenty of projection mapping and a really cool sequence where a massive sheet is pulled over the audience to simulate drowning. But the part I think makes the show stand out and really complement the rest of the event is the humor. Although this isn’t a comedy show per se, it does feature several joking moments that really lighten the tone of the show from what it could be of a purely dark event that would be a continuation of the event tone as a whole but in that case would miss out from the change of pace that this show provides. This show is worth your time at the event!

Ocu.lar’s Rave

So like I mentioned earlier, there are three different DJs in the Nether-land that rotate through the stand and play different music and have some different looks. But in addition, several times throughout the night, there are more “official” shows including this one: Ocu.lar’s Rave. Like the regular scare zone, it revolves around dance music but adds in some dancers. I watched it and I enjoyed it but it didn’t stand out in my head!

Night Terrors

It has broken my heart over the last couple years that Orlando hasn’t brought back their lagoon show, especially for what last year could’ve given us with Oddfellow as the MC of the show. But Singapore has an event that matches that “passive” show with their Night Terrors show. This show is a projection show that takes place projected against the Shrek castle in their Far Far Away area. It’s about a 5 minute show so it’s not one that will take too much time out of your night but the visuals make it one that’s worth watching! Maybe the park layout was just too complicated for this stupid American but Far Far Away was a dead end in the park without a connection to the park entrance and since it lacks an HHN attraction, it tends to get empty with only the kids coaster as a minor draw. This show draws people back, even if it is only for a few minutes. For whatever its worth, I showed up 10 or 15 minutes early and was able to get a great seat right in the front.

Experience

The Viper Club

(Lots more pictures incoming!)

When Americans go to Singapore and talk about how the event feels like a throwback, this is what I have to assume they mean. This is an upcharge (a sample of which is included as part of the RIP tour) experience that takes place in the upstairs of KT’s Grill. It’s themed as a secret bar run by the Vampire Elders with copious picture opportunities as well as some drinks and a small finger food set which is included with the separate ticket.

The experience starts from the Vampire Alley scare zone. When you get about halfway through, through most of Sting Alley and right before you get into the shipping container section between Sci Fi City and New York. You’re greeted by a vampire who asks you to show your bite marks (temporary tattoos given as part of your tour or ticket) and asks you why they should let you in. My tour group was too shy to come forward first so I took the lead. I told her that she should let me in because I hate the Sisters of the Sun and that was good enough to get let in! It’s this 30 second to minute long one on one interaction that really immerses you in the experience. This would be impossible to do in the States with the size of the events. They’d either have to cut the time down to seconds or else they’d have to make the restaurant massive and have multiple greeters but then you’re dealing with the opportunity cost of what could be there for higher revenue/lower cost and… But I digress. This is something that just won’t likely scale so let’s enjoy it while we have it at USS!

But that greeting is only the beginning. You go up the stairs surrounded by posters to come to this red bathed, dimly lit bar that feels on edge and provocative. You take your seat and are offered the hors d’oeuvres and a choice of drink if you paid a la carte for the experience or the option to buy them if you are here as part of the RIP tour. As you sit and enjoy your food and drinks, you can immerse yourself in what’s more of an interactive experience than a show. First, there are tons of photo ops to take your picture with and plenty of things to look at. But the highlight of the event is the pack of vampires that interact with guests and perform several storylines for you while you eat. They range from killing a (fake) victim, getting their blood and using it to make an elixir (apple juice) that is passed to everyone in the bar who raises a toast to the vampires to a coup that results in a (stunt glass) bottle getting cracked over the head of one of the vampires. Eventually the storyline loops so if you stay long enough, you’ll get to see all the plot no matter when you join.

That’s cool. But it’s not even the best part! Like the entrance, there are opportunities for interactive, one on one experiences with the vampire storylines (Note: Dejiki has written about this and I’ve adopted his naming scheme for the characters and storylines). Let me detail the one I got to be a part of: Loyal to the Lady! So this was my third day in the bar, my last night. As far as I can tell, a lot of the actors and actresses were consistent from night to night with only minor cast changes as far as I could tell. And as such, they got to recognize me a little (being out of place as a big, muscular white dude in Singapore) and so I was singled out. First, the Lady vampire, the clear second in command, took me aside and mentioned to me that she was tired with the way her brother (the head vampire) was running the place and that she was planning on taking his place as leader. She asked if I was willing to help her and be loyal to her. She told me to think about it. I was pulled aside by a different vampire, the Lady’s right hand, X, and asked for my answer, I said yes obviously. X replied by telling me that I’d be called on at some point and that I needed something to signify my loyalty. I was given a small blood red pendant necklace. Eventually, the Lady starts her coup which kicks off the vampire brawl. During the act I was referenced and looked at while it was happening, eventually culminating in the aforementioned stunt glass smash.

The pendant isn’t a pricy one, sure, but it’s just this great little touch that doesn’t cost much but leaves a huge impression. Dejiki mentions one more special experience, Ingenue’s Lament that guests can be a part of. That’s two guests singled out every ~45 minutes of the loop. That is something that absolutely does not scale but is something that sets Singapore apart. Big congrats to the event, this is one of my favorite HHN experiences of any event this year! Hope it comes back next year with a new theme.

RIP Tour Experience

I’m a spoiled boy for sure. I started doing a night with public RIP in Orlando and Hollywood in 2019 and in 2023, I upgraded to private RIP in Orlando. It’s truly an amazing experience and worth it experience even though it is the furthest thing from cheap. Naturally then when I went to Singapore, I signed up for RIPs for two of my three nights (tried for all three nights but it seems like Jackson Wang being at the park on the Saturday meant that he took my RIP slots). So what’s the experience like vs Orlando and Hollywood?

To be honest, it’s kind of a hybrid between the two. First, like both Orlando and Hollywood, it features a guide who will take you to the front of the line for all houses, (some) shows, special experiences (Viper Lounge) and scare zones. That includes reserved seating at the Dark Dreams show but not at the other two listed shows (not that you need them to be honest) as well as front row to the (mini) opening scareamony if you have a tour starting at the right time. Like Orlando and Hollywood, the guides will walk you through the backstory to all the houses which is valuable information for an American like myself who’s clueless about the more local myths and flavor that the event has. It includes a special photo opportunity with an event icon as well as a printed version of that photo that you can pick up (I definitely didn’t forget to pick it up my second night…). If you get the early tour like I did my first night, you’ll be taken to Louie’s Pizza and have an hour or so to use the included meal credit that’s provided to eat a meal before you start. So not quite like Hollywood’s RIP buffet but close enough. But probably the most important thing is the Express that lasts after your tour is over like Hollywood.

So your tour looks something like this: you’ll check in at the VIP center outside the park, hang out for a few minutes until your group is ready, then be taken into the park where you’ll either eat your food and wait for the park to open or watch the opening. Afterwards you’ll start visiting all the houses and scare zones. At some point through the night you’ll be able to experience the Viper Lounge and be given the option to have the guides take you to the front of the line on some rides (I did Mummy on night one and Battlestar Galactica on night two). Finally you’ll wrap up around midnight or 1am, maybe a little earlier and at that point you’ll have Express to use on the houses and rides until the event closes.

How does it compare to the USA RIP tours? I’d say that this is easily better than the Orlando public tours and at a fraction of the cost (I think I paid ~$175 USD for it?) just because of the fact that you get the Express afterwards. I think Hollywood is a closer comparison. From an absolute perspective, Hollywood wins because of the very good buffet that Hollywood puts on as well as the dedicated RIP lines at the houses as opposed to the Express one at Singapore (not that I ever waited more than two or three minutes for any house in Express). From a dollars paid perspective, I think Singapore is a much better deal given that Hollywood has gotten to $400+ per person. At half the price, Singapore gives you a very similar experience and therefore is a much better value.

I’d encourage anyone that is heading to HHN Singapore from the USA to pay for an RIP tour. It’s a great deal and is a great way to experience this event!

Food

The food in Singapore doesn’t occupy the same lofty importance that it does in Orlando and Hollywood (we’re not beating those fat American jokes, are we??). That’s not to say that there aren’t unique food items, just that there aren’t as many and they don’t seem to get as much airtime as they do in Orlando. I specifically tried this interesting pizza but didn’t try a whole lot more.

On the drink front, there again isn’t as much of an emphasis on unique mixed drinks as there is in Orlando. Of course, it wouldn’t be an HHN event without blinky cups which are sold here too. In a move that’s sure to delight older US HHN fans, you see jello blood bags being sold at carts around the event. And finally, Tiger Soju sponsored or had a heavy presence in the Nether-Land zone and had a booth where if you bought 3 of their beer+flavored soju drinks you could get a token to operate a big gumball machine where you could win a handful of prizes. I was in a pickle because I wanted to win the little HHN stress ball that was in the machine but didn’t want to drink 3 beers. I tried to ask them to let me “forget” the other two beers but they didn’t get what I was trying to say so I stuck the other two in my backpack and took them home. The stress ball was worth it!

Merchandise

My only disappointment with the event was here. Orlando and Hollywood have taken merchandising to an art. They offer hundreds of unique items. There are dud years (like this year) but generally I end up walking out of the park spending hundreds of dollars. I expected Singapore to not take it to the same level but I expected more than what we got. I kid you not, the entire collection consisted of 4 Weeknd shirts/hoodies from last year, a color changing mug, a retractable lanyard, the Chucky popcorn basket, Lil Boo Sipper and a table of Under the Castle/Team Wang stuff (plushes, stickers, magnets and pins). Not a single t-shirt for the year shocked me beyond belief. No exaggeration.

I had some stateside friends that are massive HHN fans ask me to pick stuff up for them and their friends while I was in town but both they and I ended up passing on anything beyond the event Blinky cup. There wasn’t a single thing that intrigued us enough to buy. I understand that local tastes might be different and I understand that the USA is probably an outlier with respect to how much random garbage people will buy but if nothing else, I wanted an event t-shirt like the house shirts I have for other events.

Universal, on the off chance you’re reading this, please add more unique merch! You have this super fan that will spend hundreds of dollars if you do!

Other Thoughts

• Let’s talk lines. They were surprisingly not bad. I think there was a period of a couple hours on one of the nights (I want to say Friday night) where the lines were really full and I was really glad to have bought Express. But otherwise it just didn’t seem as crowded of an event as it gets in Orlando and Hollywood. But just like those parks, if you can’t afford Express or RIP just hold tight until the end of the night and you’ll find so many walk ons.

• Not sure if you followed the news in the states but there was so much consternation about teenagers (teenz) and how disrespectful they were. It’s funny, I didn’t notice them being any more or less awful than they usually are in the states. But I thought they were a lot worse here. I had multiple teens getting right up on my back as I was walking through houses. If I was taking forever to hog all the scares, I’d deserve that but I was about a foot or two away from the person in front of me! Big surprise.

• I was really pleased with the HHN fans that came up to me at the event. First off, I ended up getting the chance to talk to Dejiki himself for a little bit (turns out I ran into him and didn’t know it in my last trip to Singapore in 2022 - small world!) but in addition, I was sitting and relaxing at a table and chatting with some locals one of my nights. I mentioned something about the Weeknd and one of them told me that he had a house in the US this year. I kinda chuckled, “why yes, I did it two weekends ago!” We got to talking some more and he mentioned that he was a massive fan and gave me a few insider tips about what he’s hearing about the event next year (5 houses, full budget, 13 theme!) I’d love to get more plugged into the fan communities in Singapore so if you’re reading and you’re Singaporean, please reach out!

Final Review

In case you can’t tell after reading this far, the event was fantastic. It was small compared to Orlando but all of the houses were so well done with such unique elements compared to the US. The scareactors were clearly given more free reign to scare than they would be in the “trigger -> jump out -> rinse -> repeat” cycle that Orlando can fall into if they’re not careful. All of the scare zones were leagues ahead of their Orlando counterparts. The shows balanced the darker tone of the event out well. The food and drink and merchandise especially left a little to be desired but that’s much easier for the park to improve. This event is a fantastic addition to the pantheon of events and does the name proud. I recommend all HHN fans make their way out here!

As far as me? I’ll be heading back next year. I have huge hopes for next year. It’s year 13 at the park and given that they’ve really played up the numbers in the past (7 deadly sins for HHN 7, etc), I think we’re in for a big one! I’ll be there to cover it for you all and will write another review when the time comes!