Universal Is Making a Girlboss Haunted House

This one’s for all the mean girls. Photo: NBCUniversal

Brat Summer is so last season. All the “It”-girls, mean girls, brats, baddies, and Julias are already gearing up for Bat Autumn. Universal Studios has announced its newest haunted-house experience for its upcoming Halloween Horror Nights event on both coasts, and this one’s for all the green girls. Universal Monsters: Eternal Bloodlines will star an “all-female assemblage of classic Universal Monsters,” because women can be anything they put their minds to, including undead spooky ghoulies.

If you’ve never experienced the pure theatrics that is Halloween Horror Nights, what you need to know is that Universal’s haunted houses are so much more than that. These things are set decorated down, they are mood pieces, and they have plots. The plot of “Eternal Bloodlines” is as follows:

Fans will encounter Saskia Van Helsing, a new fearless huntress and daughter of revered Abraham Van Helsing — who killed Count Dracula by driving a stake through his heart and destroying his reign of terror. Saskia now faces Dracula’s daughter, Countess Marya, who arose from the dead to seek revenge for her father and destroy the Van Helsing bloodline. With a mission to kill, Dracula’s daughter, from 1936’s Dracula’s Daughter, forms a deadly alliance with the She-Wolf, inspired by the 1946 film She-Wolf of London, and Anck-Su-Namun, from the 1932 film The Mummy — only to be intercepted by Saskia and an unlikely ally, the Bride of Frankenstein.

To summarize, the cast of ghoul-bosses includes Dracula’s daughter, Van Helsing’s daughter, She-Wolf of London (not to be confused with the She-Wolf of Shakira’s 2009 album), a lady-Mummy, and the Bride of Frankenstein. It’s a thrilling ensemble, just one monster short of being able to stage a production of Six. With the exception of new creation Saskia Van Helsing, all of these characters hail from classic Universal monster movies of the 1930s and ’40s. That’s exciting not just for fans of the golden age of Hollywood but also theme-park heads, because in 2025, Universal Studios Florida will open Dark Universe, an Epic Universe land themed around Universal movie monsters. Dark Universe has its own lore, including original character Dr. Victoria Frankenstein, who, of course, is the Victor’s great-great-granddaughter.

It’s interesting to see Universal committing to this whole daughters-of-horror-characters thing with Eternal Bloodlines. And it’s frankly awesome that this haunted house will essentially be Dynasty but spooky. Consider it a trailer for Dark Universe. Maybe it will have Easter eggs and hints about things to come. I can just imagine the characters they’ll introduce to Eternal Bloodlines in 2025 if this goes over well: The Invisible Man’s niece! The Creature from the Black Lagoon’s fiancée! Michelle Myers! The attraction will open on August 30 in Orlando and on September 5 in Hollywood, just in time for back-to-ghoul.