The fear factor

SINGAPORE — Boo! Are you ready to scare yourself silly again as the Halloween month of October looms? Halloween has become a big retail and entertainment business in Singapore—with clubs, costume shops and even attractions going all out to woo customers.

One of the most successful ghoulish events organised here is Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Singapore (USS), Resorts World Sentosa (RWS). It has even become a bona fide blockbuster that regional travellers seek out.

The number of foreigners who make a beeline for it has also increased. Organisers peg that 20 per cent of the visitors to Halloween Horror Nights are travellers, mainly from countries such as Malaysia, China, Thailand and Indonesia.

“There has been a year-on-year increase in the number of people coming. Last year, we hit a record-breaking attendance of 170,000 tickets sold,” revealed Scott Peterson, director of events and production at RWS. “We hope to break a new record this year, with more offerings and scares.”

Only 365 days to Halloween

For the team at USS, planning for the next Halloween Horror Nights begins the moment it ends. “We start brainstorming a year in advance. We travel to check out the trade fair Halloween and Attractions Show in St Louis (Missouri) every year and interact with vendors to learn about new tricks, illusions, innovations and even new scents to see how we can incorporate these elements into our show,” said Peterson.

And to outdo last year’s highly successful outing, which paid tribute to SG50 with a horror house modelled after an HDB block and another after MRT train cabins (and were expectedly enthusiastically lapped up), the production team has upped the ante this time around to feature … a hawker centre and the old Changi Hospital.

Peterson revealed that the team was inspired to incorporate a hawker centre after reading the news following a spate of food poisoning cases at eateries this year. As for the old Changi Hospital, it was a place that the USS team had always toyed around with, but they had put it on the backburner for the last two years as they wanted to do more research on it.

While local content has been well-received, the traditional (read: Western) horror elements are not forgotten, either. This year, a witch house will be going up for the first time for Halloween Horror Nights. “We’ve never done a witch house before. And you know how there is always that lonely house at the end of the street that is always creepy and eerie?” enthused Peterson. “And whatever the culture, we are mystified and fascinated by magic and witches. We grew up with them in a way—with fairy tales.”

Having a scream

Once the concepts have been confirmed, the work of bringing them to life for 16 nights (up from 14 last year) begins. Halloween Horror Nights deploys 400 “scareracters” (scare characters, get it?), 100 make-up artistes and 80 to 100 employees who do everything from ensuring operations run smoothly to getting the costumes laundered every night. Scott estimates that up to 700 people are involved in staging Halloween Horror Nights every year.

And yes, all these resources and efforts have paid off. Guests have been so petrified at the scare fest that they simply crouched down and refused to move—so much so that USS has had to send crew in to bring them out. But there hasn’t been anyone fainting from fear—yet. “At the end of the day, people are out to have fun. We want to keep the scares impactful, but we don’t drag them on for too long,” said Peterson.

Some die-hard fans have even written to the team to offer suggestions and ideas, while there are others who have returned every night just to experience it over and over again. “I think Halloween Horror Nights has become a staple event for many,” said Peterson. “That pushes us to work harder every year to make it even better!”