By Charly SHELTON

There comes a point every year when Halloween haunts end, the fog clears, the mazes come down and horror fans are expected to go back to being “normal” people until next fall.

Universal apparently decided that was unreasonable.

Universal recently invited me to Las Vegas to experience Universal Horror Unleashed – its permanent, year-round horror destination just a few minutes from the Strip. The massive indoor attraction takes much of what works about Halloween Horror Nights and gives it something the seasonal event rarely has: permanence. 

I visited during the Resident Evil Takeover, a seasonal experience that transformed part of Horror Unleashed into Raccoon City. Rather than a traditional haunted house walkthrough, this one leaned closer to an escape room. Guests had to search for clues, solve puzzles and complete objectives to move forward while zombies and other Resident Evil characters chased them from room to room in between puzzles. The experience was originally scheduled to end in August but has been extended through Sept. 27.

Beyond the seasonal extras, the four permanent houses include The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Exorcist: Believer, Scarecrow: The Reaping and Universal Monsters. Of those, Universal Monsters was easily the best house. For longtime Universal Studios Hollywood fans, it feels a little like a spiritual successor to the old year-round monster walkthroughs that once occupied the Upper Lot, including Universal’s House of Horrors. What I particularly loved about it was that the designers did not feel the need to reinvent the monsters. 

Don’t get me wrong: there is nothing wrong with reinvention. Halloween Horror Nights has produced some fantastic new interpretations of Dracula, Frankenstein’s Monster, the Wolf Man and the rest of Universal’s classic creatures, often with new designs, mythology and music. But sometimes Dracula can just be Dracula.

At Horror Unleashed, these are the classic monsters as generations of movie fans remember them. Frankenstein’s Monster is shocked to life in the laboratory. Renfield feasts on rats and spiders in an asylum cell. Dracula stalks castle hallways. Even the Creature from the Black Lagoon makes an appearance, which was super fun because I cannot remember ever encountering him as an actual character before. These are the quintessential versions of the Universal Monsters, and they really do not need much help.

Universal Monsters was the best, but honorable mention goes to Scarecrow: The Reaping, one of the best original houses Halloween Horror Nights has ever produced and one that benefits tremendously from having a permanent home. The scenario is of the house being on a dying farm during the Dust Bowl. As guests move through dead cornfields toward the farmhouse, a giant (projected) dust storm looms on the horizon while wind blows through the stalks around them. The environmental effects give the house a sense of place that temporary attractions don’t usually build out.

Another surprise came from Jack the Clown and Chance, two recurring Halloween Horror Nights characters known as “icons.” That concept has always been much bigger at Universal Orlando than in Hollywood and, as a West Coast Horror Nights regular, I never really understood the fascination. But after seeing their live dinner show, I get it.

Jack serves as a demented ringmaster for a collection of circus and acrobatic acts, with Chance joining him in the chaos. More importantly, the two roam through the audience interacting directly with guests. Unlike the quick character encounters you normally get at a theme park event, these moments have time to breathe. Jack, especially, was fantastic – essentially an even meaner version of the Joker with a circus to run – and Chance was an even-more-violent version of Harley Quinn. Interacting with these two on a smaller scale, brought to life by some fantastic actors who can keep the characters alive in personal interactions, really brought something you can only find here at Universal Horrors Unleashed – a personal touch.

Universal Horror Unleashed is an easy escape from the casinos and crowds of the Strip and is close enough to work into any Las Vegas trip. I happened to visit shortly before Halloween Horror Nights opened for the season, so I did not have to wait long for my next dose of fog. But I think Horror Unleashed may be even better in spring or early summer when October still feels painfully far away. It’s nice knowing there is somewhere in Las Vegas where Halloween never really has to end.