Don’t go to Las Vegas to gamble your life savings away, go to Las Vegas to get scared relentlessly by Universal Pictures’ monsters, some possessed children, and murderous rednecks. Also, if you’re extra lucky, you might attract the attention of a giant alien space bug, like I did.
Area15 adds Universal Horror Unleashed
Universal Horror Unleashed is a part of Area15’s expansion with a new Zone 2 district. It’s a year-round experience that features four haunted houses, more detailed than the last (in the order I explored them in): Scarecrow: The Reaping, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Universal Monsters, and Blumhouse’s The Exorcist: Believer.
Similar to going outside after a two-hour movie, walking from bright, hot daylight into a dark warehouse dungeon was appropriately disorienting. After passing through security, live performers dressed as various ghouls, vampires, and possessed little girls are roaming around specifically to freak you out in the main area along with multiple bars and places to snack.
Choose your own chills and thrills
There’s no particular order that you have to experience each haunted house in. With the Scarecrow house recommended first, it was pretty clear why when you go through it. While the overall design is exquisitely detailed from the corn maze to each hanging set piece, the actual scares were fewer in between. There were a couple moments where I squealed, but then it was over.
Maybe being from Ohio, I simply don’t find scarecrows and corn fields scary. Regardless, that doesn’t take away from how creepy and haunting the set-up was, especially the corn stalks hanging in the air, smacking the top of your head.
Where the Scarecrow house lightly startled me, the Texas Chainsaw Massacre experience was every bit as terrifying as you’d expect. Serial killing, cannibalistic rednecks around every corner, with lighting flickering in and out, heightening a terrible dread in the pit of your stomach.
This one starts before you even get inside the building, there’s a creepy “photographer” showing off his collection of separated limbs and giggling under his breath. As a Black woman doing this solo, this was easily the scariest house for me. For obvious reasons.
Of course there were plenty of opportunities to be completely freaked out, but the most anxiety-inducing part is the dining room, where you definitely do not want to be the guest of honor.
Universal Monsters is like walking through a scary museum of some of the greatest fictional characters of all time. It’s almost hard to feel scared when you’re faced with all-time legends like Dracula, but if he doesn’t terrify you, his bride coming out of nowhere will.
Also featured: The Mummy, Creature from the Black Lagoon, the Phantom of the Opera (beware the mirrors!), and a load of others that I definitely missed because I was screeching like a banshee.
Last but never least, the house inspired by “The Exorcist: Believer” (2023), is, by far, the most intricate experience. From the splatters of black goo on the walls to the missing children posters to the life-like possessed mannequins suspended in the air, you can tell this got the most consideration when being created.
Walking through the kid bedrooms is too eerie and the jumpscares truly come out of nowhere here. The actual exorcism was the cherry on top of the cake. The live performers really give their all in this house, one would almost believe they were actually possessed.
Unhinged performances featuring clowns and M3GAN
Winding down at either Jack’s Alley or Premiere House will get you some delightfully silly shows along with a signature cocktail and food. Jack the Clown, his girlfriend and their band of clowns and M3GAN perform each hour.
Blumhouse features like “Black Phone” and “The Purge” are spread out inside Premiere House. If you happen to be there at the top of the hour, M3GAN Thee Doll will pop out to a hilariously somber performance of Chappell Roan’s “Femininomenon.”
Bring a date or don’t; Vegas local or tourist; it doesn’t matter, the entire adventure is worth the price of a general admission ticket, plus there’s even more to do in the area than before.
Writer and editor