Spoiler Free Review: The Darkest Deal Halloween Horror Nights House Orlando 2023

As the third weekend of Halloween Horror Nights in Orlando concludes, we have walked through The Darkest Deal house six times. Are you ready to sell your soul in The Darkest Deal Halloween Horror Nights house?

For some background on this original style Halloween Horror Nights (HHN), we wrote about what we expected from this house back in early August. Universal Orlando, at that time, released some basic information about the house. This review will focus on things that will not spoil the house for you during your visit.

Universal Orlando Resort describes this house like this, “Blues musician Pinestraw Spruce will have to face the music after meeting with The Collector and trading his soul for musical glory. You and your squad learn the terrible price of fame.” Guests will enter this house, walking through each step of Pinestraw Spruce’s deal with evil.

The backstory of The Darkest Deal

This house comes with a backstory about how Pinestraw Spruce made his deal with the collector. You will need to know this before you enter the HHN house. The Discover Universal Podcast covers this in more detail. Our only warning about listening to the backstories for Halloween Horror Nights houses connects to the fact the podcast version often fails to match the house’s storylines. We experienced this several times last year. This year, the podcast versions line up better.

However, we know Spruce learned about the possibility of becoming a famous musician before meeting The Collector. Once you enter The Darkest Deal house, the encounter between Pinestraw Spruce and The Collector becomes center stage.

The Darkest Deal house features a façade themed to Bub’s Lounge. You will enter a less-than-high-class establishment to help create the proper setting. This Halloween Horror Nights house utilizes an original soundtrack to help with the idea of a musician selling his soul.

Though team members have not been doing it (very often) since opening weekend, they might ask you: “Are You Ready to Sell Your Soul?” We enjoyed this repeated line in the queue during opening weekend. This set the scene for guests entering the house without knowledge of the backstory.

Changes

This house has gone through some changes since the opening weekend. The level of lighting has been adjusted up and down a few times. This past week, the light levels were excellent. In one section, a wood structure guides guests through the queue. On opening weekend, guests ran into that wood structure numerous times. That problem has been resolved.

The masks and scenery of this house enhance the walkthrough. Some excellent scares will be seen and maybe even experienced on your journey to find out the fate of one who sells their soul.

The obvious moment of paying the price for the deal with the Collector gives guests the reason they waited in the HHN queues. We suggest when you see that moment that might feel like it happens too soon that you pay close attention for things to happen. Things are not always how they seem at Halloween Horror Nights.

Our experience with this house has varied greatly. We have had some excellent runs, with everything working perfectly. However, we had two walkthroughs in which elements did not work well. Your experience may fall in between these quality levels. The experience comes down to how well the major scene occurs during your journey in The Darkest Deal.

We placed this house in our list of best Halloween Horror Nights houses so far in an earlier article. At this point, we stand by that. We expect most guests will enjoy the fun, interesting plot, scenery, and a few scares unless they sell their souls like Pinestraw Spruce. Enjoy the spooky!