Universal Orlando Will Open Two Haunted Houses This Weekend, Despite Halloween Horror Nights Being Canceled

This past July, Universal Orlando canceled its annual Halloween Horror Nights event for the first time in 30 years – but the theme park remains hellbent on letting guests participate in some Halloween-themed scares. Two of the haunted houses that were part of this year's Halloween Horror Nights lineup are being opened to visitors as part of what the park is calling "Halloween Seasonal Experience Testing," and as of right now, the houses will only be open this coming weekend. Get the details below.

InsideUniversal reports that Universal Monsters: The Bride of Frankenstein Lives and Revenge of the Tooth Fairy will be open during daytime hours on Saturday, September 19 and Sunday, September 20, 2020, with "safety guidelines" in place, including social distancing guidelines enforced in the lines and Plexi-glass panes installed between visitors and the actors who will jump out to scare them.

Younger visitors will also be able to go trick-or-treating at Islands of Adventure for the first time this year; certain retailers will be marking their buildings with pumpkin stickers as a sign that they're participating.

It seems...unwise to open haunted houses amid an ongoing global health crisis, but evidently these are being done in soundstages which will theoretically provide a bit of extra room for people to move around without getting too close to one another. That wouldn't be nearly enough to convince me to visit this experience personally, but I suppose everyone has their own comfort level with the risks they're willing to take during the pandemic.

Annual passholders will reportedly be able to RSVP on Friday, September 18, 2020. Here's a breakdown of the two haunted houses:

"We belong dead." The last words of Frankenstein's monster on that fateful night when his Bride rejected him. But his end was her beginning. Now the Bride is stepping out of the shadows to bring him back. And there's nothing she won't do as she sharpens her brilliance by experimenting on unsuspecting victims. The mate will have her monster. And the monster his mate.

The innocent traditions of the tooth fairy hide a darker ritual. All children must give up their baby teeth to the goblinesque tooth fairies or pay a gruesome price. Step into an old manor that has been overrun by yellow-clawed fiends who extract teeth by force. It's an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.