Don’t you just scream out for some local flavour during this state-side imported festival called Halloween? Why would a decapitated pumpkin head with a sinister grin scare the general populace, except those with a strong aversion to vegetables? And bats? Powdered and ground down, it’s good traditional medicine for the preservation of vision. Bring on the bats, they are our friends!
So, having ran for my life through the maze of four huge horror houses and three scare zones (effectively outdoor horror houses), I am happy to report that there is a very strong ethnic theme that all who have lived in Singapore and the region can identify with at “Halloween Horror Nights” at Universal Studios Singapore. It is reminiscent of 1980s Hong Kong classics like “A Chinese Ghost Story”, and of the golden years of Malay cinema with local horror show characters like Orang Minyak, Pochong and Pontianak.
The most terrifying of the four horror houses were the Siloso Gateway Blk 50, The MRT and Hell House. These were convincing, immersive, immense sets that easily scared the bejeezus out of me. Thrust into the thick of the chaos from the get-go with action happening all round me, it was a good five minutes of heart-pounding scares at each location.
Siloso Gateway Blk 50 is a stygian nightmare scene of “Resident Evil” proportions. Walk through a dark and dank HDB apartment block infested with the undead, while security forces maintain a tenuous hold on the situation, urging you to pass through quickly. The detail is fantastic and the familiar surroundings only heighten the experience, adding a dose of realism. Spot the entire families casted for this attraction. Real families are hired to play the parts of the zombie-plagued residents.
The MRT is another locally flavoured attraction, this time teaming up with Russel Wong’s “True Singapore Ghost Stories” for inspiration. Bidadari Cemetry has been uprooted for a new MRT train station and you have fallen through the cracks in the ground, left in a Malayan folklore supernatural abyss with nothing but your wits to escape.
With the Seventh Month festivities having just passed, have you ever wondered what happens to the burnt offerings? How do our nether-worldly loved ones partake in the splendours that we committed to the flames? Papier-mâché people, and houses come alive as you are thrown into paper parlous replete with cardboard cars and pulp damsels. Don’t tarry too long as the hell fire will soon consume all that is combustible.
After the triple scares of “The MRT”, “Siloso Gateway” and “Hell House”, dip your feet into the darkness once more. The “Tunnel People”, is the event’s first dark house, where your other senses will be tortured with smells, blood-curdling shrieks and sensations you’d least expect.
What lurks around the corner? Who are the sinister adherents of the Blood Moon cult? What abomination are they conjuring up and what do they want with you?!
As you make your way between each of the horror houses, the treacherous roads are rife with demented denizens of the streets attempt to waylay you at every turn. Right smacked in front of city hall, hoards of insectoid aliens are in a pitched battle with a motley crew of Earth’s defenders. A saucer-shaped craft hovers above the streets of New York with appendages fanning out above the city, like tentacles claiming the metropolis for itself.
Between the entrance and New York lies “Sector #5”. (View the Google Cardboard Virtual Reality video here) A ghetto of the god forsaken. Within dwells the blood moon lunatics who partake in all manner of depravities. Left to their own devices, the deformed and diseased will have their way with you for this is the home for the hopeless.
As you stumble past the paranormal fairgrounds, pray that you don’t wander towards the haunted village of the “Hungry Ghosts”. Burning a blood red in the night skies, it’s always the Seventh lunar month in the calendar there. Pontianaks, oriental vampires and muscle bound hell henchmen wander the alleyways at night. The gateway to the netherworld stays unlocked there all 24 hours of the night.
What: Universal Studios Singapore: Halloween Horror Nights
Where: Universal Studios Singapore, 8 Sentosa Gateway, 098269
When: 2 till 31 October 2015, 7 pm till 11 pm
Tickets: Readers of Asia 361, get a special discount via this link. For more information, visit http://www.halloweenhorrornights.com.sg/.
