The Halloween Horror Nights (HHN) that was scheduled to happen in 2020 was cancelled due to cultural conditions. There were some parts of HHN that happened in 2020. Yet, way back in October 2020, the Puppet Theatre: Captive Audience house was announced in a video promo for HHN 30 in 2021.This is one of the houses I did on my RIP tour in the area behind the MIB ride attraction.
Our tour guide, Jim, as usual, gave us the backstory of this house before we entered. He told us a puppeteer and a ballet troupe were trapped in this theatre after a natural disaster. They had been trapped for years. The victims are supposed to be happy to see you. Their plans involve turning you into a human puppet. This plot was easy to follow as we experienced the house.
The façade for this house is excellent in sunlight or the intended darkness, You enter the rickety looking theatre, called the Grandeur Theater. The story dates it back to 1917, and the backstory involves an earthquake damaging this theatre.
Universal Creative did a great job creating this illusion. The story is about an earthquake trapping a puppet company and a ballet troupe.
Outside the theatre façade was a classic HHN reference that even I noticed. There is a sign outside the theatre that reads A.L. Caine & Co. This is a reference to Dr. Albert Caine, the HHN Icon the Caretaker.
As you enter the “theatre”, you discover remains and some survivors of the earthquake. Further in the dilapidated theater, we discover survivors of the tragedy who where trapped inside. The expected insanity develops and is presented.
There were some solid scares that were more than just the average jump scares. I found the puppets to be the main scares for me.
The interior of the house was artistically appealing making it easier to visualize a grand theatre. There were many “bodies” trapped under deteriorating rubble and there were some gross props with inner body parts exposed. Also, as the backstory implies, some unlucky sufferers have been turned into puppet-like creatures.
The sets for this house were excellent. It is no wonder that Universal Creative wanted to promote it via video almost a year in advance.
The scares were ample.
This was not my favorite scary style house, but it was an excellent house.
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