PUBLISHED ONSeptember 19, 2025 11:26 AMBYMelissa Teo For over a decade, I've attended almost every single edition of Universal Studios Singapore's (USS) Halloween Horror Nights.
Despite being quite a scaredy cat, I get a kick out of meandering around the dark corridors of a haunted house, keeping my eyes peeled for ghosts, monsters and other entities trying to elicit a scream from me.
I am well aware that these are all just props and scare actors, but the way the entire event is orchestrated makes it feel pretty real at times.
And it also makes me wonder how the team behind Halloween Horror Nights does it.
Ahead of Halloween Horror Nights 13, which will be held from Sept 26 to Nov 1 at USS, my colleague and I had a peek at what goes on behind the scenes of one of the scariest events of the year.
Besides a scare actor's acting, hair and make up are other important aspects that bring their characters to life.
During the media preview, we were shown how four scare actors were transformed into prominent characters of Halloween Horror Nights 13.
The first was Mr Rabid, a terrifying human-sized rabbit who appears in the Once Upon a Time...To Die live show.
We were told by Claire Loh, the head of creative costuming at Resorts World Sentosa, that the choice of fabric for Mr Rabid's costume were "opulent" and the colour scheme featured dark, shadowy colours which "emulate the blood and gore that is about to follow".
On Mr Rabid's stomach is a clock which shows the time 13 o'clock and this is framed by a rich velvet waistcoat.
To make the actor look more like a rabbit, they created thick padding around the legs to mimic the strong hind legs of an actual rabbit, as well as gloves crafted with leather, fur and "claws".
The face mask, which had a permanent snarling expression, also featured a very realistic snout which moved when the actor wiggled their nose.
"His snarling expression reminds us that this is more predator than a cuddly guy," Claire said.
The look is complete with a top hat and a neck bow.
Next up was the Black Spirit from the Death Whisperer haunted house.
"Her appearance is hauntingly simple but effective," said Khatijah, the Black Spirit's costume designer.
As the Black Spirit is a Thai ghost, she wears an "aged and ragged" black traditional Thai funeral attire.
"[This] suggests the timeless nature of her existence as a vengeful spirit from a funeral possibly gone wrong," shared Khatijah.
The ghost's hair is also made to be long, dark and dishevelled to partially cover her "lifeless but deathly" expression.
Khatijah added that while the Black Spirit's costume doesn't have any embellishments and is relatively simple as compared to her other ghostly counterparts, the outfit is deeply rooted in traditional Asian ghost aesthetics, which "delivers effective scares through simplicity".
We also met Demon Sinseh from the Singapore's Most Haunted: Build to Horror haunted house.
Demon Sinseh's costume designer, Khairina, shared that the character was a once respected traditional Chinese medicine practitioner in ancient Singapore before he acquired dark powers.
The character's head is embedded with "cursed" acupuncture needles that "trap his victim's souls".
His outfit is inspired by Hua Tuo, a renowned Han dynasty physician, and features a three-piece attire consisting of a long hanfu robe, an outer vest and a coin belt. Its bright red colour serves as a main focal point and apart from symbolising good fortune and luck, it also draws in Demon Sinseh's victims. Gold is used as an accent colour to highlight the demon's wealth.
For accessories, Khairina designed a layered wooden bead necklace which represents vitality. If it looks familiar, it is because the inspiration was from the famous beads uncle busker who used to swing a chain of wooden beads around his waist along Orchard Road.
Head of Hair and Make Up, Saifuddeen, introduced the final character, Daredevil, who can be found in The FEARground scare zone.
Saifuddeen shared that prior to starting work on the Daredevil's costume, plenty of background research was done so they could create an accurate version of the character. They also went through several designs before picking the one they felt fit the Daredevil best.
The mask is made with silicone that is poured into a detailed mould of the character's face. Once cured, the mask is removed, painted and adhered to the actor's face with strong adhesive. A customised wig is also created to fit the entire ensemble.
Apart from crafting hair-raising face masks, Saifuddeen shared that costume designers also have to ensure that the prosthetics is flexible so the scare actors can move and talk.
The Death Whisperer house was inspired by the popular horror film franchise and tells the tale of a vengeful spirit in search of a new host in rural Kanchanaburi, Thailand, in 1972.
While we didn't get to visit the entire haunted house, we were allowed to experience three of the rooms — the witches hut, the forest tree top, and the swamp — and learn the details of how the team turned the movie into a haunted house.
We were brought into the haunted rooms twice — the first to experience it in partial show mode with audio, lighting and scare actors, and the second without these effects.
The first room we entered was the witch's hut and to make it look realistic, the wall's of the space were embellished with bamboo. Gaps in the ceiling covered with mesh also let in some light from the outside of the haunted house, giving an eerie effect.
There were several sound effects used to send chills down guest's spine. One was the sound of water droplets on the roof and the other was the whispers of the Black Spirit.
Sticky red paint was also smeared on the walls and furniture to imitate blood.
The forest tree top featured two parts — stairs leading up tree canopy top as well as well as flat ground for wheelchair users.
We were told that the forest was designed with tree layers of canopy to make it look more realistic. Leaves were also scattered on the ground to imitate an actual forest and swamp.
Stranger Things is one of my all-time favourite television series ever, so I was the most excited to see how the team at USS would bring the Netflix show to life.
We were only allowed to explore two of the rooms that were inspired by Season 3 of the series — Starcourt Mall and the basement of Brimborn Steel Works — where the main character would be the Mind Flayer. For those who didn't watch the show, the Mind Flayer is a massive, hive-minded entity that controls and possesses humans to form its body.
Similar to the Death Whisperer house, we were brought to the rooms twice to experience it with and without audio, lighting and scare actors.
The Starcourt Mall's Russian Base room was based off the scene where the Mind Flayer would melt down and absorb infected people, also known as Flayed Residents, to make its body larger.
To showcase this, a massive figure of the entity was placed at the front of the room and surrounding it were mannequins decked out in tattered, bloody clothes to represent the Flayed Residents.
"We wanted a level of unpredictability in this space. You're surrounded by the Flayed Residents and then we strategically placed our scare actors so that they will be able to scare you when we least expect it," Gemma Lefaucheur, a Creative Director at Resorts World Sentosa, told us.
One important scene they wanted to capture in this haunted room was the moment when the Mind Flayer melted the bodies of the Flayed Residents into piles of goo and absorbing them into its body. To re-enact this, the team placed several severed mannequins that were covered in "blood" at the foot of the entity.
To add to the eeriness, the lighting was strategically placed to create the silhouette of the Mind Flayer and sound effects were used to make the guest feel they were in the show itself.
The second room we were showed, Starcourt Mall, re-enacts the scene where one of the main characters, Billy Hargrove, tries to kill the Mind Flayer but gets killed instead.
As they did not have the luxury of space to recreate the entire mall, the scenic designers had to work really hard to place the guest's attention not only on the focus of the room — which in this case, was the Mind Flayer — but also on the surroundings, which were to show the moment where Starcourt Mall started to fall apart.
Their priority was the size of the Mind Flayer and to do this, they created a 3.5m tall statue of it that looms over visitors while they walked through the room.
"It's breathtaking to see a beast of this size so scale was important," said Gemma.
To do so, they got the 3D files from Netflix and start moulding the figure.
Given its size, I was surprised to find that the massive figure first starts as chicken wire and polyfoam.
After the general shape is completed, the team works hard to make sure that the texture and paintwork of the Mind Flayer looks realistic.
In the show, the characters used fireworks to try and kill the Mind Flayer.
As fireworks obviously shouldn't be used in a small space like a haunted house, the tech team brainstormed and decided to embed sparklers into the body of the mind flayer to represent it being attacked.
For Halloween Horror Nights 13, guests can look forward to four haunted houses, two scare zones and two live shows.
Out of the four haunted houses, three are based off popular shows and books, such as Netflix's Stranger Things, Thailand's highest-grossing film Death Whisperer, and online Chinese novel Death Whisperer.
Tickets are $68 for non-peak nights and $78 for peak nights.
Going in a group? There's the Frights for Four bundle deal of four tickets. This comes with perks including early entry to the park and guests will have access to rides from 4pm. Tickets cost $480 for a group of four.
Another option is the Halloween Horror Nights RIP Tour, which is a guided VIP experience that lets guests skip the queues at the haunted houses and rides. Additionally, they can enjoy special experiences including a private meet and greet with select Halloween Horror Nights 13 characters. Tickets cost $260 for one pax.
Want to skip the long queues? Get the Halloween Horror Nights Express Pass, which allows guests to skip the regular lines one time at all haunted houses. There's also the Halloween Horror Nights Express Plus Pass that allows guests to skip the regular lines one time at all haunted houses, as well as participating rides and attractions.
Tickets for Halloween Horror Nights can be purchased on RWS Sentosa's website and through its official ticketing partner Klook.
Guests who have purchased the newly launched USS Season Pass can also enjoy exclusive discounts on select Halloween Horror Nights tickets. Do note that Halloween Horror Nights tickets must be purchased separately.
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melissateo@asiaone.com
