As a fan of the Fallout franchise, both the games that started it all and the series you can watch with a Prime Video subscription, there was no house I was looking forward to visiting at Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood more than the Fallout house. The same was true of CinemaBlend’s Tiffney Ma when she recently went to HHN in Orlando. This is why it was so disappointing when we both came away putting the Fallout house far down our rankings of this year’s Halloween Horror Nights.
Fallout was meant to be one of the highlights of this year’s event. It was the very first officially announced house, and yet, it just didn’t work at HHN, which is not to say the idea doesn’t have potential elsewhere.
HHN’s Fallout House Looks Great, But Fallout Isn’t A Horror Franchise
The Fallout House at Halloween Horror Nights is specifically based on the Prime Video series, so it includes characters like Ella Purnell’s Lucy and Walton Goggins' Ghoul. The house takes you through a rough summary of the show’s popular first season. Visually, the design of everything is on point, but there’s just one problem. Fallout isn’t a horror series.
Fallout isn’t the first non-horror franchise to appear at Halloween Horror Nights. Just last year, the event gave us a house based on Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, and scares, while there were some, they were simply not the focus of that house. Instead, in the Orlando house, especially, it was all about crafting an immersive experience that focused on designing incredible creatures and set pieces, and it simply didn’t worry too much about jumping out to scare you.
To be sure, there are scary things in the Fallout universe. From raiders to ferrel ghouls to deathclaws (which the Fallout series has yet to officially debut). Fallout has plenty of scary things that might try to kill you, but that’s not really what it’s about. Still, if the house had leaned into those things, it might have given us a horror version of the story.
Unfortunately, the Fallout house seems to walk the middle of the road, and as a result, fails to work due to a lack of commitment. It has some cool design, which you don’t necessarily notice because your attention is grabbed by the jump scares, which feel out of place, and don’t hold a candle to the best that Halloween Horror Nights has to offer.
Fallout Would Be Perfect For Universal’s Fan Fest Nights
However, I think that Fallout shows a lot of potential at HHN, and I would love to see it again at Universal Parks. However, let’s skip future Horror Nights appearances and bring it to Fan Fest Nights.
Earlier this year, Universal Studios Hollywood debuted Fan Fest Nights. Structurally, it’s very much like HHN, as it’s an after-hours event that includes themed walk-through attractions. However, the focus is on more narrative experiences, as the characters you come across generally speak to you, conveying a story as you move through the space.
This feels like where Fallout belongs. Even if the house had gone hard on the horror elements, making it fit in with the rest of the event, that probably isn’t what most fans of the show would be looking for. Something that lets Lucy and the Ghoul be real characters, rather than simply set pieces, would have been a better use of this IP.
The Fallout series certainly hasn’t reached the level of popularity of the tentpole parts of Fan Fest Nights, like Star Trek, Back to the Future, and Dungeons & Dragons. Still, with the second season of Fallout arriving before too long, and Fallout Season 3 already confirmed, that may start to change. I certainly wouldn’t be against the announcement that Fallout was returning to Universal theme parks, as long as it happens in the right place.
