Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights is scaring the life out of punters with Terrifier. Kelly Williams decided to give it a go and left with goose bumps and utterly horrified
Despite having never been to Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights before, I knew the Terrifier was going to be bad, but I didn’t expect it to feel like my stomach – and nerves – were being tested with every step.
The smell hit me before anything else – putrid rot, bleach, coppery blood, even the stench of faeces. It stuck to the back of my throat so thick I nearly gagged. The house started deceptively dry, as if lulling me into thinking I’d make it through clean. That didn’t last.
Within minutes, I was in the middle of a full-on blood bath. Red splattered walls, dripping ceilings, and warm droplets spraying across my arms. They say it uses six gallons of blood and 35 bodies – the most ever – and I believe it. Every corner I turned was another slaughter.
And then there was Art the Clown. Not just once, he appeared everywhere, each guise worse than the last. He came at me dressed as a sick parody of Santa, revving a chainsaw and plunging it gleefully into a victim’s back with that same, mocking grin.
A few rooms later, I caught him mid-kill, snapping someone’s jaw with a crunch that echoed through the hall. The squelch of him disembodying someone else was another gruesome scene that still haunts me.
In another chamber of hell, he stood behind a screaming man, dragging a blade across his throat as blood sprayed into the air, and I had to turn my face away. The worst was the bathroom scene. It stank of mold and sewage, and the sinks were clogged with guts.
There were bodies piled in the bathtub and a mirror streaked with gore. I wanted to close my eyes, but Art was there too, standing so still it made me wonder if he was waiting for me specifically. Then came the familiar warped jingle of the Clown Café, cheerful and wrong, like a lullaby for nightmares as Art danced nonchalantly along.
By the finale, I was lightheaded from the smell and the sights, practically stumbling toward the exits where I was faced with a choice – dry path or blood bath (of course, I went for the latter). My stomach lurched with every step, I came so close to throwing up. But I made a run for it, and when the warm spray of blood (water really) finally hit me in the last corridor, I felt it on my skin long after I’d escaped.
I staggered out laughing, but it was the kind of shaky laugh you let out when you’re not sure if you survived or just got broken. Terrifier wasn’t just a haunted house. It was being dragged into Art the Clown’s world – unrated, unrelenting, and almost too much for me to handle.
Book the holiday
Virgin Atlantic Holidays offers seven nights on a room-only basis at the Loews Sapphire Falls Resort in Orlando, starting at £1,719pp, including Virgin Atlantic flights from Heathrow and a ticket to Halloween Horror Nights. Find out more and book at virginholidays.co.uk.
More info at visitorlando.com and universalorlando.com/hhn/
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