Trip - Universal Studio Singapore Halloween Horror Nights 2018

Hi Blog,

It's Oct again, and you know how will I spend one of the days? Yes! My yearly event is to visit USS Halloween Horror Nights 8! (link and my favourite Dejiki's review) As promised since last year... I saved up for VIP tour! (As I have to buy this tickets from Mr D, four months in advance) It served as a relaxation therapy for my mind.

Are we ready for this tour?

Credit Mr D who was a return customer from 2017 HHN7, we got great discount for this year VIP. So... it worthed the value! Let's me show you the joy as a VIP guest and HHN8 mini review.

According to Mr D, we need to reach USS by 6pm and visitors were starting to walk out from the USS.

But the Halloween merchandise stores already started their business

And drinks too

While it was still bright, taking pictures with the USS globe is a staple.

Looking at the panels of the iconic characters for this years, made me a flash back of my past visits. Sweet sweet memorises.

The best was, I got myself a VIP treatment :D become R.I.P guest!

OOOOO VIP reception! :D Paid to be served and treated as one; if without, we can get lost from there.

One interesting character walked out from the reception.

And while waiting for Mr D to arrive, let's take a picture with her. Scary stare. Make up makes a difference. Surprisingly, I asked her whether can we wait for Mr D in the reception, she responded that she is our tour guide! Small co-incident!

It seemed like a small waiting counter.

Looking around. My apology, it was quite dim in this area.

But at least, it was decorated with Halloween themed.

I wondered where can I get this interesting candle light. :D Love the effect!

The web made my imagination runs wild somehow.

Standard decoration.

But the fake candle can really make a scene.

I wondered if this place was real... How will I react? Will I feel as calm as now or jelly-legs?

Since it was fake, then took it with a smile :)

We were given a HHN8 VIP lanyard! Yippee!

Have to credit ZN and XY for the photos. My phone can't make it, as compared to Huawei and iPhone 7.

We were told to have dinner at somewhere, as we walked in, they were trying to clear the area for HHN8.

One of the scare-houses looked at us with a grim.

Night and day time can really set a tone.

First preview of one of the scenes

Just prop but they are nicely crafted.

The guide told us the red paint will glow at night under black light, interesting.

Is it a spider or just a face?

We told the guide that the vegetarian menu in this restaurant isn't suitable for us... More for Vegan... So no food for us...

Ended up, we just purchased an $8 salad... without dressing... because there is onion in there... Hope USS can do something about it. As for fellow vegetarians, next time try to bring your own food.

It was around 7+ and the sky started to dim, darkness was arriving.

The first performance was about to start sooner.

We just waited here excitingly to watch the nicely animated and filmed videos about HHN8

Here are some videos except Oiwa which I manage to find on youtube, well done to the directors.

Hold our VIP light sticks and...

take a picture infront of EVERYONE!

Testing the limit of both phones, it seemed like Huawei wins.

iPhone SE can die now.

oooooo! Yes yes! Let's take a picture of me wearing a mask!

I can't see clearly. (without my glasses)

EPIC

The show started!

Oh my Operation table...

Something pop out!

Interesting!

Check out the fireworks behind the performance, made the audiences go wild and excited!

Iconic characters for HHN8 - They were the best decorated scare-actors and they will be the hosts for the night.

Tour Guide wanted to meet us at a destination so she can brief us.

Our guide was funny, she wanted us to stand here to observe the audiences once they opened the gate.

And it was like zombie apocalypse, trying to get the first line of the queue!

Like this

As for us, we just walked in a row calmly, looking at the visitors...

Thinking... What is the rush? Hahaha (my apology: just soaking in the service)

Long long queue

We will start Stranger Things - Have you watched that series before? NOPE! Where got time?

Stranger Things - one of the first haunted house in HHN history that tied with TV series.

VIP queue has NO queue, just cut Normal and Express line. Like a boss!

Let's check it out!

I managed to find a walk-through for Stranger Things scare-house by YouTuber, Wilson Ng. Thanks for taking a walk through :D

Stranger Things review

It is one of the first haunted houses, which themed a famous tv series, Stranger Things. Inside Stranger Things House, there are 10 famous scenes from the episodes, so for those Stranger Things fan will definitely enjoy and submerge in the iconic scenes.

There are many creative stun moves in this house - lift and torchlight. (don' want to spoil further)

The bad thing is that we can't enjoy watching and submerge in the scenes which they are trying to portray. Due to a huge crowd and you cannot just stand there to watch the scenes, you have to keep on moving forward than holding the line.

Next stop...

Haunting of Oiwa

Thank you Wilson Ng for putting up this video on his channel. Let's take a look!

Oiwa setting is very detail and brings us to the scene.

Check out the Japanese panels here. HHN8 meant BUSINESS here. They treat their works with pride.

The Haunting of Oiwa review
Story of Oiwa is one of Japan's famous horror and tragic story 四谷怪談. (link) It is about Oiwa's crazy husband disfigured Oiwa and then murdered her. Oiwa's spirit came back for revenge.

In the haunted house, they brought out the Japanese traditional scenario but it was unclear on the storyline. All I can understand is a pitiful lady got disfigured for an unknown reason and she came back for revenge.

There are a few visual stun that got me, is the big Oiwa face on top, quite scary; other than that, this haunted house didn't leave any deeper impression besides their decorations.

Next stop Pontianak - I heard from my friends, they claimed this is one of the scariest houses. Hmm... let's see.

The entrance told us that Pontianak already started her killing.

Once again, YouTuber, Wilson Ng, showcased the walk-through of the haunted house, Pontianak. Quite impressive!

Pontianak review.
Ooooh! I managed to find where they got the inspiration and source for the video and haunted house setting!

Copy and paste from wikipedia (link)

The word pontianak means “woman who died in childbirth".

Pontianaks are usually depicted as pale-skinned women with long black hair, red eyes, and white dress smeared in blood, but they are said to be able to take on a beautiful humanly appearance since they prey on men and helpless people. (All pontianak scare actors have an easy make up session like Sabako.)

In folklore, a pontianak usually arises at full moon and announces her presence through high-pitched baby cries. If the cry is soft, it means that the pontianak is near, and if it is loud, then she must be far. Her presence can sometimes be detected by a nice floral fragrance identifiable as that of the plumeria, followed by an awful stench (resembling that of a decaying body) afterwards. (No wonder, it was a lot of ghostly laughter everywhere in the house. One thing that I need to mention, they actually put in effort to make the scent of flower and banana leave. Try to smell the environment when you are there.)

A pontianak kills her victims by digging into their stomach with her sharp fingernails and devouring their body organs. In some cases where the pontianak desires revenge against a male individual, the beast rips out the body organs with her hands. (as you can see right at the beginning before you walked in, they portrayed the scene well.)

Pontianak locates her victims by sniffing out the hanging laundry outside. For this reason, some Malaysians refuse to leave any piece of clothing outside of their house overnight. (Oh! That's the reason of the laundry part.)

The pontianak is associated with banana trees, and her spirit is said to reside in them during the day. (No wonder, she was everywhere when we walked through the banana plantation zone.)

Overall, Pontianak Haunted House is a well-thought haunted house with storyline. There are many creative stun-moves that they have used - Like crushing car and jump forward move etc. Love this house.

One thing to highlight on the title of Pagoda of Peril. The effort of blurry Chinese Characters are impressive! I am wondered how they did it. Very innovative! One of my FAVOURITE title of all times.

Speaking about effort - have you noticed the pagoda tower erected from no where. If you were busy queuing to get in, you might miss out this structure, as most of us will just focus on the interior of the haunted houses and miss out the exterior frequently. HHN can save money for exterior aesthetic especially this one which you barely look up. So plus point for that.

You may check out Wilson Ng's walk-through of Pagoda of Peril.

Pagoda of Peril review
Without knowing the story or idea behind Pagoda, you won't get the idea of what is going in this haunted house. Based on the guide's sharing, she said this pagoda is a place where they contain all evils under one roof and one spirit named 陰靈 Yin Ling somehow feeds on the evil's power to empower his.

Since this one is inspired from mixture of Chinese Folktales and ghost tales, there isn't much storyline. So let's talk about the stun-moves - there are a few that worth to mention - The upside-down corpse, two Hell-guards stood up tall and an ugly bat scared you from the bottom. Overall, still quite okay but meh, if you follow the line and cleared the house too fast.

By the way, check out the timing for normal queue.

You can try out Dejiki's advise on normal ticket, very helpful.

Photo Booth session! But...

That was Oiwa. Based on the guide, she claimed this timing will be Yin Ling from Pagoda will show up. Hmm.. some hiccups behind the scene.

Oh well, Better than nothing :D Smile for the picture!

Guide said that she will arrange a time slot with Yin Ling from Pagoda, meanwhile we will go for the performance.

Next stop - It will be a chill and relaxed performance, away from the loud noises and dark atmosphere.

Thank you to our guide, Susie, you take good care of us. :)

Found a full show video on YouTude! Thanks, Lionel for posting this :)

Just look how CLOSE we sat! We can see much much more!

Hmm... Is it a magic show?

Okay! it is a magic show performance!

I wondered how they squeezed so many people.

What an energetic group of dancer!

The host of the talk show

Forgot his name, but we just enjoyed the front row of the performance :3

I am wondering, how he put up the make up

The show was about the keys of scaring. Interesting.

Sound motivating

I love that nice curvy couch, where can I get one?

Weird clown appeared out of no where!

Now you have all the four keys ingredient for scaring.

Dead Talks review
It is very entertaining with great interaction with audiences. This year performance was quite typical and no high risk move, focus on the topic. So just go for a great laugh. :D

Ooooo another Photo booth session again?

If can have a larger panel, will be great!

Just smile and don't complain!

Star character appeared - PONTIANAK!

As an actor, she did it professionally. True Spirit of a Scare-Actor! Totally submerged into the character!

Even walking up the stage, she did it professionally. Too bad, I forgot to turn on Live mode.

Are you ready?

ROAR!

Our Last Haunted House - Killuminati
Background story is about this secret cult which controls the dynasty for centuries. Okay... It is a fictional story.

Thanks Wilson again for uploading this. :)

Killuminati review
Since it is a fictional story so I won't touch on the story aspects. There is something new about this haunted house; a new approach: they split the line to two routes, so you and your friends might be separated. Two routes will have two different perspectives. Clap for this attempt.

But the problem is... it is very confusing at the beginning and when the two routes met, many people start to jam at one area and we barely move an inch for nearly three mins.

I don't have the mind to process the storyline , maybe due to my hunger (salad for dinner)...

About the stun moves in this haunted house, nothing much though... beside the separated route. I read or hear they claimed there is a secret room. Too bad, I don't get the chance to enter the secret room.

Scare-Zone - Apocalypse Earth
Background story: Earth Gaia got frustrated of what mankind had done to the Earth. Now she unleashed the Earth power to remove mankind.

Time to take pictures of the scare-actors! :D

As usual, I asked the scare-actors to take pictures with me politely.

This lady acted well! Very dramatic in this catastrophe.

I wanted to take pictures with her but... I am SHY!

I will prefer to take with a display model. LOL

Or someone who is deformed and can't recognise its face.

Have you seen the glowing effect? Under black light, the lava glows.

Another chiobu acting there, she acted well and into the scene, but... everyone just ignored her... Even I don't have the gut to take pictures with her. So sorry... lady.

But I took of this lady.

She/He looked restless here so I just took a picture of it while it was calm.

The face of 'Earth' - not as dramatic as last year though. If it can move it's tentacles, will be awesome! Hmm... tentacles...

The legendary Gaia! She is hot and mad! She looks like someone in Power Ranger.

RITA REPULSA!

Anyway time to take a picture with her! SMILE!

Professional Scare-Actor and someone trying to scare me from behind.

After Gaia, we finally got the chance to take picture with Yin Ling from Pagoda because of it's epic circulated fire ring!

Our last Scare-Zone - Cannibal
Background - Legend about a man-eating tribe which feeds on human meat.

Anyone wants to eat this oily meat?

If not, I can prepare a vegetarian meal!

Because no much meat left.

This one is wasted.

Or we can get from him! As long as you don't tie me up.

or even cage me.

Maybe we can consider eating this guy - he has all the meats you need on his chest.

Too skinny? Lean meat perhaps.

He still wants fat meat but I think you will be disappointed.

You can speak to your tribe leader and see he will allow you to eat me.

Okay! He told me, their leader wants my fat meat.

Insert "Game Over" tune.

Nah! I am protected by him; He protect any vegetation. Oh wait...

OH! I found your leader and complained to her.

She gathered her tribe to take a wefie for an apology

It was nearly 1:30am... We still can't find any suitable food to eat and consume the food voucher... So we spent on waffles ice-cream.

Okay! Sit down everyone.

I am the king of myself.

Has everyone enjoyed their HHN? I hope you do.

Not to forget to take a picture with this :D Never fail to take a picture with him. Thumb up!

Here are the eight Iconic characters for HHN8 - Too bad I missed out Zombie Laser Tag.

And I am also one of the horrors in this park, Hahaha.

Let's have one more shot here.

Love the colour of the globe :3

Credit to one of friends who acted as one of the scare-actors. He/She managed to scare the shxt of me. What had happened? In Pagoda, he/she approached me which then I hold my ground, but he/she started to call out my Chinese name three times which shocked me. I thought some random ghost knows my name and prepares to drag me to hell. Until I snapped out of it, and recalled that he/she told me he/she took part as a scare-actor.

I admired his/her courage to be scare-actor, it is not an easy and appreciative job. So we must learn to show our appreciation with a scare expression or smile for being scared or a thumb up to affirm their effort.

My pupils asked me, am I the killer? I reply back, I am Jeff, the Killer during Halloween.

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Bonus Videos

Jeff