To celebrate Halloween, Universal Studios SG will throw open its doors after regular hours for a spooky good time

There’s nothing spookier than experiencing large and lively venues in its quiet, eerie, and empty after-hours version.

That’s exactly what Universal Studios Singapore is offering this Halloween. From a wholesome fantasy neighborhood, it transforms into a den of demons, opening late in the evening for the 9th incarnation of its award-winning Halloween Horror Nights.

There are five horror houses and two scare zones. Last year’s crown jewel, the Stranger Things horror house has transformed into Hell Block 9, a ghoulish interpretation of a maximum security prison that plays on the fear of very, very cramped spaces. Here you’ll be met with a lot of banging on metal pipes and hulking jail guards screaming on your face.

“We’ve also made a brand new scare zone called Death Fest Live,” Markham Gannon, the annual frightfest’s creative director. It’s like attending a rock concert from hell, complete with pyrotechnics, aerial stunts, a macabre ceremony that involves blood onstage and black-clad metalheads who know nothing of personal space.

This year’s centerpiece horror house is dedicated to Naga, the Serpentine  Spirit. It’s a collaboration between Universal Studios and iconic Thai horror directors Parkpoom Wongpoom and Gunn Purijitpanya of “Shutter” and “4bia” fame. It begins with a drink of snake’s blood at the entrance, a journey through a tunnel with hypnotic swirls, and finally transporting you to a Thai village under the spell of the snake spirit.

Here is where the eye of the directors are on full display: magnificent set design (enter a giant snake pit!), elaborate costumes (Thai silks draped on bloodied corpses, and those 12-inch brass claws (not unlike our own janggay) for traditional Thai dances that now take a sinister edge when worn by Naga herself), and well thought lighting.

It’s a great way to learn more about Southeast Asian lore, really. Where else would you learn about the langsuyar (a Malaysian female vampire), the Hantu Raya (a Malay demonic master of ghosts), and the disturbing toyol (an undead infant used as helpers for shamans), all housed in the Chalet Hauntings horror house, touted to be the biggest gathering of Southeast Asian spirit lore under one roof, and based on a Singaporean urban legend of teens who disappear after checking into a hotel room for the weekend.

I would love to see a manananggal, a malevolent vampiric spirit native to the Philippines whose name literally translates to “one who removes”—in this case, blood— hold her own someday in this macabre melee. It would be a magnificent feat of special effects to see her pull apart from her midsection, entrails dangling all bloodied as her bat-like wings unfurl, spread for flight in search of victims to drain the life of.

She would leave behind her vulnerable lower half, hidden surreptitiously between banana palms. A guide would make a game of finding it, handing out out a handful of rock salt, and instruct everyone to sprinkle a bit of it on the exposed guts. It would run aimlessly around, boil, sputter, and foam in a disgusting mess…signaling her death.

Now that would be blood-spattered horror gold. You hear me, HHN10? — LA, GMA News

Until October 31. Tickets. Guests can choose from 16 event nights (10 peak nights + 6 non- peak nights). Tickets are available at P2,600 for peak nights and P2,250 for non-peak nights. Guests can also enjoy many of the theme park’s exciting rides and attractions during event nights.