Go "all in" at Halloween Horror Nights

Clanking chains, screams echoing throughout rooms and body parts floating in tanks of water; these are all things that can be found at Halloween Horror Nights XXI this year.

Different things probably come to each individuals mind when they think of what frightens them most. For some, spiders and cockroaches may cause them to wet their pants, while for others, the thought of ghosts and demons could scare them into a coma.

It surely takes a lot of thought and preparation to try to put together an entire event based on fear itself, which is exactly what T.J. Mannarino, Show Director of Entertainment for Universal Orlando, uses to help coordinate Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios, Orlando, each year.

2011 sparked the 21^st year of the Halloween Horror Nights event at Universal. The theme this year is based on the beautiful, siren-like Lady Luck, who lures unprepared people in with her charm and beauty before turning into an atrocious savage.

"Every year we sit down as creators and think about what scares us and what would be exciting for our audience," Mannarino said. "We also look at what's current in film and TV as well as things that we have never done before."

The idea behind the theme was to show that everybody takes chances in life. The haunted houses are the proof that once one decides to play their hand with Lady Luck, there will no longer be a chance at having good luck.

Having eight haunted houses at the event, with a separate story for each, could prove to be quite difficult for some, which could lead one to wonder where the ideas come from. The houses featured at Halloween Horror Nights XXI are Nightingales: Blood Prey, The Thing, Saws n' Steam: Into The Machine, H.R Bloodengutz Presents: Holidays of Horror, Winter's Night, Nevermore: The Madness of Poe, The In-Between and The Forsaken.

 "We also try to pull ideas from our history," Mannarino said. "We kind of consider ourselves the ‘modern monster makers' and for us to create characters such as Dracula, Frankenstein and Werewolf, that the audience would be frightened of, that is where we draw some inspiration."

On top  of the houses, there are six scare zones set up within the park, complete with "scaracters" (scare characters) roaming around to provide an extra fright for Horror Night goers. The way these scaracters work their magic is to walk right along with a group of people and then use their personalized special effect to scare unsuspecting people.

The featured scare zones at this year's event are Acid Assault, Canyon Of Dark Souls, 7, Nightmaze, Your Luck Has Ran Out and Grown Evil. For those brave souls who venture into Lady Luck's games without a map, they will have no way of knowing where the next scare zone lies.

There are surely some people who have no interest in being scared into a coma, yet get dragged to the horror event, so for those of you who fall into this category, I would advise you to partake in one, or both of the two shows that are featured this year, Bill and Ted's Excellent Halloween Adventure and Death Drums.

There are also a few rides open throughout the night to take advantage of while the rest of your party is peeing their pants in fear, Revenge of The Mummy, The Simpson's Ride, Hollywood Rip Ride Rocket, Jaws and Men in Black Alien Attack.

If you dare to try your luck this year, Halloween Horror Nights XXI awaits you.