Women Rewrite the Scares for Universal's Halloween Horror Nights
[Special Halloween Edition] Human Horror Rebooted with a Femme Touch
When it comes to scary stuff, most of the monsters populating horror novels and films are, well … dudes. Women are often relegated to roles that involve running, hiding, and screaming. Only the most clever (we see you, Jamie Lee Curtis) survive.
But this spooky season, if you’re planning a visit to Universal Orlando’s Halloween Horror Nights, you might notice a paradigm shift. The “Universal Monsters: Eternal Bloodlines” haunted house brings female monsters out of the shadows. And you’ll find women lurking (make that working) behind the scenes.
Under the direction of Kelly Malik, the first female show director for the park's haunted houses in over a decade, an all-female creative team reimagined classic Universal monsters through a feminine lens. The house features legendary characters like The Bride of Frankenstein and Dracula's daughter. Emmy-nominated composer Sara Barone crafted an emotionally charged score, with tracks like “The Monster Reborn,” and “We Belong Dead,” that weave female vocals throughout the experience.
"These female monsters have kind of been sitting in the shadows, if you will, and not having as much popularity in previous times," Malik explained in a Rolling Stone interview. "We thought about really bringing them to the forefront."
Barone's score does more than just frighten – it tells a story through different cultural soundscapes as visitors move from Egypt to Romania to London. "It was a chance to do something that was incredibly thematic," said Barone, who joined the project through Universal's Composers Initiative.
The team's attention to detail extends beyond music to character design, where they deliberately avoided traditional feminine monster tropes. As Lora Sauls, Assistant Director of Creative Development, noted: "There are so many times when we've been told to just put lipstick or eyelashes on the monsters, and that's what we didn't want to do with this haunted house."
The result is a haunted house that honors the Universal Monsters legacy while carving out new territory for feminine horror.
Here’s where you can get tickets to Universal Orlando Halloween Horror Nights »