I Was a Halloween Horror Nights Team Member and I’m Letting You in on a Behind-the-Scenes SECRET (2024)

I’m a HUGE fan of Halloween Horror Nights. So much so, that I got a job working at Universal Studios Orlando just so I can experience what it’s like to put it all together. And let me tell you it was beyondmy expectations.

Working as a team member for Halloween Horror Nights (HHN) included a lot of blood, guts, sweat, and tears. And for those big fans who are curious enough to take a peek behind the blood-splattered curtain, I decided to share my experience so you can fully understand what it’s like to bring your nightmares to life while operating inside of said nightmare.

You can practically feel the Halloween vibes in the air as everyone gears up for Halloween Horror Nights. Since tickets dropped in April 2024, it’s been a whirlwind of speculation and excitement about what’s in store for HHN 34. And this year, the screams start even earlier, with the frights officially kicking off on August 30th and the all-new Premium Scream Night on August 29th!

Taking place at Universal Studios, Halloween Horror Nights is a special ticketed event that transforms the park into a fright fest of epic proportions, with cinematic haunted houses and scare zones running from Wednesday to Sunday starting at 6:30PM until 2AM. A word of warning: Halloween Horror Nights is an intense event not suitable for all ages.

So, as a horror movie fan and a fan of getting scared in general, HHN is an event designed for people just like me. But going to the event just didn’t seem like enough; I wanted to be a partof it. And so here are some of the behind-the-scenes secrets of being a Universal Team Member for Halloween Horror Nights for those brave enough to find out.

We go through ear safety training

The volume inside of those haunted houses is NO. JOKE.

During my time working for Halloween Horror Nights 31, I was stationed at the Universal Monster’s Legends Collide house (which was deserving of its name as it truly was legendary). But before even stepping foot into Universal’s sound stages where they put together some of the houses, we had to undergo some training- including one dedicated to ear safety. A course called Hearing Conservation teaches us all about how to lessen the damage done to our ears while working inside the houses.

I don’t think it comes as a surprise to anyone when I say that the houses are loud but I had no idea of the potential damage they could cause when you’re inside of them for a prolonged amount of time. Team Members work inside the houses for hours, rotating positions from room to room, and because of this we can’t risk any permanent hearing damage, so earplugs are a must.

And this was cool to learn because it’s a tip I now use as a guest experiencing the event!Ear plugs are great for those who want to enjoy the houses but aren’t particularly fans of overly loud noises. So if you or a friend want to experience the event but are hesitant because of the noise levels, I definitely recommend bringing a pair of earplugs the next time you go.

Oh, and a funny thing I learned during that course: automatic hand dryers installed in restrooms are actually way worse for your hearing than the houses themselves; they’re actually at the highest level of damage! So, besides picking up some tips on ear safety, I also walked away with a newfound fear of hand dryers. AHHHH NOT THE AUTOMATIC HAND DRYER!

Scare actors still purposefully try to scare us when doing a walk-through of the house

Speaking of fear, as a Universal Team Member, you’re still not shown any mercy.

The scare actors really turn it on when it’s show time and we wouldn’t have it any other way…as a guest. But as a Team Member, walking around the houses when we were doing rotations or even going through a quick sweep made the process even harder. It’s like wearing that Universal name tag turns you into a walking target and the people you’d wave goodbye to on your way out of the park transform into these creatures and monsters that you’ve been fearing your entire life and it’s now their goal to terrify you.

It’s hard to keep a professional demeanor when you just got the pants scared off of you by a flying Dracula launching straight at you (does anyone remember how cool that was?), but if anything, it’s kinda like survival of the fittest and you come out stronger (or you learn to look away from specific spots in the houses and scurry a little faster to the exit). All in all, the lengths scare actors go to are really impressive and despite the many times I shrieked while trying to get out of the house for my lunch break, it was always one of the highlights of the night.

We find ourselves in some pretty wild scenarios

And some of them are as scary as the houses themselves.

You can expect an event like Halloween Horror Nights to have a lot of insane things happening throughout its run, especially behind the scenes, and I finally got to experience what those were for me. And no matter what I prepared for mentally, I was not expecting half the things a team member has to go through.

One of my experiences that I will never forget is being inside the house and supervising the groups entering the room. One particular group was so spooked that they completely forgot which path to take and decided to open one of our employee-only doors and boltedbackstage!

Now, I’m not going to reveal all the backstage secrets (there needs to be a little magic left for your imagination after all), but one thing I can tell you is that it is pitch blackback there. Nothing but total and complete darkness and there were now unauthorized people running through the area totally blind and screaming for their lives. So what do I do? I chase right after them. In the dark. Because that’s the rightful duty of a Halloween Horror Nights Team Member, and I took my position pretty seriously. All in all, they were securely escorted out without any humans or mummies (or vampires or werewolves) harmed in the process.

So please, if you find yourself unsure of where to go when you’re inside the houses, just ask a team member instead of running into a dark abyss of the unknown. You never know what could be lurking back there…

We’re trained to be lowkey FBI agents

The Men in Black got nothing on us.

As mentioned, there are duties a Universal Team Member must uphold. Sometimes it’s chasing after screaming people in the dark, and sometimes it’s keeping an eye out for people trying to ruin the fun for others. We know how fun blinky cups can be, but we also know the potential trouble they can get others into. With that being said, we are trained to always keep watch of everyone who enters the house. That means that we take note of every little detail such as their hair color, what kind of shoes they’re wearing, t-shirt design, etc. Why, you ask?

Well, for those moments a ‘spookity-drinkity’ might make someone a little braver than they should be. One of the main rules of Halloween Horror Nights is to keep your hands to yourself, especially when it comes to the scare actors. In this case, I experienced someone thinking it must have been opposite day and decided to rough it up with our resident werewolf. Now, werewolves are professionals, they don’t have time to teach someone common sense or decent courtesy. Instead, that’s where we come in and our vigilance gets justice for all of Monsterkind.

So although the person may go all the way through the house thinking they’re getting out scot-free, they’ll be personally met by a security guard at the exit because we already let them know everything we observed, including a detailed description of what they looked like. And that’s exactly what happened during one of my shifts. So fair warning, if you think you can get away with breaking any of the event’s rules, think again. There are eyes everywhere.

We share the same cafeteria as scare actors

You kinda get a little star-struck honestly.

As a fan of these movies and stories that Universal is putting together for their Horror Nights event, sometimes I forget there are actual people behind the mask. And that’s great for immersion inside of the houses but it’s a little jarring when you’re eating a chicken tender and you see a giant roach seated at the table across from you (specifically a giant roach from Bugs: Eaten Alive, not an actual giant roach in case your confused and thinking there are mutant bugs backstage).

Universal Studios at night should be a house in itself

At the end of our shift, after we congratulate one another for surviving another night, we make our way out of the park, and depending on what section you’re working at, you’ll traverse a lot of the themed lands. In my case, to get to our soundstage, we had to walk past Men in Black, and the streets of London at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter section, which was the same route we had to take to get out of the park. The thing is, you’re walking these lands after hours, and aside from you and a couple of coworkers (sometimes I’d have to go on a ‘tinkle trip’ after my shift and end up walking out by myself), you’re completely alone in this massive and seemingly deserted theme park.

Being inside a theme park that typically hosts up to 20,000 people in a day and not seeing a single soul feels almost illegal. When you’re at a theme park noises are at an abundance, whether it’s from groups chatting excitedly with one another or ride-goers screaming on a rollercoaster, you can barely hear yourself think most times. So suddenly being able to hear a pin drop fall is a little unsettling. Honestly, if Universal ever wanted to spice things up, they should just have people walk the park alone at night as a Horror Night experience. It’s definitely eerie, to say the least.

You’re practically a zombie by the end of the run

Who needs another year of The Walking Dead when Universal has us roaming around the entire time?

It’s funny because you start the first half of the event’s run like a spring chicken with pep and your step and enthusiasm and cluckity cluckity clucking about how excited you are to be a part of the team. But then, after a couple of nights under your belt, you end up feeling like a chicken whose head just got chopped off (a little morbid, but kinda fitting given what we’re talking about, right?). Every time I’d check my steps at the end of the night, it would display nothing less than 18,000 minimum. We. Were. Exhausted.

This didn’t mean that we didn’t do our job right though, if anything we were focused on running it as smoothly as possible and our tasks became muscle memory at that point, but it did take a toll physically and mentally. Every afternoon we’d be out in the sun setting up all the poles and ropes that are used for the queues for the houses and then every night after working the event, we’d take it all down, head home, and then do it again the next day. Our brains would be mush and sometimes I thought it was fitting because I truly felt like a zombie. So much so that little things kinda go over your head. Like the fact that I had Jojo Siwa walking right beside me and did not notice until my co-worker pointed it out. Cool if I were a spring chicken, but at that point, I was a headless one, so my zombie brain thought my head meeting my pillow at the end of the night was more exciting.

Being a team member was tougher than I could have ever imagined, but going through that made me greatly appreciate the event even more. The team members and scare actors immersing you in the world of your favorite horror movies or stories put a lot of time and energy into this. Every Team Member is integral, every task is purposeful and it all comes together to make the event as big and memorable as it is. Even when we did feel exhausted, it was our main goal to have guests enjoy it to the fullest because this event was as important to us as it was to everyone who attended.

So if you’re heading to Halloween Horror Nights this year, remember that every Team Member you come across is putting in the most and the best thing you can do is understand and be as kind as you’re capable during the run.

Halloween Horror Nights 33 is gearing up to be as incredible as the years before it, with 6 original houses already announced and more announcements underway! Stay tuned as we give you all the latest updates, we can’t wait for everything the event has in store!

EVERYTHING We Know About Halloween Horror Nights 2024 at Universal Orlando

Do you have any stories of your time working or attending Halloween Horror Nights of years past? We’d love to read about it in the comments!