Did Seeing ‘The Exorcist: Believer’ Movie Help with the Halloween Horror Nights House in Orlando?

For Halloween Horror Nights 2023, the Blumhouse movie “The Exorcist: Believer” was a featured house. One concern voiced about this house had to do with when the film would be released. We saw “The Exorcist: Believer.” Did it help with the Halloween Horror Nights house?

The history of Halloween Horror Nights (HHN) houses performing well based on properties that have not been released to the public yet is not great. Many HHN fans moaned at the thought of this house being used before the actual movie hit theatres.

We walked nine times through “The Exorcist: Believer” house in Orlando before seeing the movie. Now, we have researched the upcoming house and the film. We knew what to expect. Still, the storyline of this house reflected “mostly” scenes from the movie trailer.

Despite that, “The Exorcist: Believer” HHN house presents a scary tale about exorcism and demon possession. Still, even for us, some scenes lack context to enjoy. We heard from many people that the Halloween Horror Nights house was scary, but they did not enjoy it as much since they did not fully understand the storyline.

“The Exorcist: Believer”: How Do We Feel About the HHN House After Watching the Movie?

If you believe the rumors, this movie went through some changes along the way. Those changes were supposedly based on poor test screenings. The initial reviews reflected those reviews. At the most recent Blumfest event at Universal CityWalk Orlando, we watched a screening of “The Exorcist: Believer.”

Since we have walked through “The Exorcist: Believer” Halloween Horror Nights house at least eight times, we have a decent feel for the flow of that HHN house.

We previously voiced some concerns about the issues of walking through an HHN house based on a movie not released yet.

After watching the movie, our conclusion leads to some parts of the HHN house being better, but some parts are not making sense now. We will describe those parts without any spoilers.

Examples

For example, the opening scene of the house makes more sense now. However, anyone watching the trailer should have already figured out the setting for the opening scene. The exorcism scenes with this house look very similar to the movie. One of those scenes makes far more sense now in the context of the movie

However, some characters in the house carry out different tasks than in the movie. After watching the movie, we find that section of the HHN house more confusing. Also, the final scenes of “The Exorcist: Believer” HHN house do not connect to the movie as much as we would like with a standard intellectual property HHN house.

Overall, our hope that watching the movie would enhance the Halloween Horror Nights house failed to materialize as much as we wanted. We still enjoy this HHN house. This might be the scariest house this year. However, those looking for an understanding of the plot of the house will still struggle even after seeing the movie.

In fairness, we must point out that several colleagues felt the house made more sense after viewing the movie at Blumfest. However, as you can tell, we disagree, and their responses to our voiced concerns after the movie did not hold up.

Despite that, we found many Halloween Horror Nights houses enjoyable this year. If you plan to visit soon, enjoy the spooky!