By Peter Covino

Entertainment Editor

Halloween Horror Nights is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year and that screaming you hear is the sound of fright fans returning to one of the most popular Halloween events in the country.

The event returns with eight haunted houses and six scare zones, those areas you walk through at the theme park where you get attacked by zombies and crazies with chainsaws and sometimes both.

This year’s theme is fear, or Fear himself, as the marketing campaign says.

Fear and what he has created have horrified people for 19 years, at the event, Universal officials say. And this year, he will be more real than ever.

“Everything we have done for the past 19 years, everything we have learned, leads to this moment,” said Jim Timon, senior vice president of entertainment for Universal Orlando Resort. “This year’s Halloween Horror Nights is not about the past. It is about the future.”

The eight haunted houses are located throughout the theme park. To get to the houses, you also have to walk through the scare zones, those dimly lit zones full of creatures of the night. The scare zones often have more frights than the haunted houses.

One other good thing about the scare zones: there are no long lines. Halloween Horror Nights is so popular, that on the busiest nights, it is just about an impossibility to make it through all of the houses.

Universal does offer the express pass. For a fee in addition to the Halloween Horror Night’s ticket, you can by pass the long lines. The cost varies ($39.99-$79.99) depending on the day, weekends are more. The pass allows one entry into each participating express attraction.

Also available is the R.I.P Tour. The guided tour includes priority access to all of the houses. Tickets are $150, $175 per person.

Private tours, for a group up to 12, also are available for $1,500 and $1,800 per group.

Tour rates does not include admission to Halloween  Horror Nights.

A quick look at this year’s haunted houses:

Horror Nights: The Hallow’d Past – This house is almost a “best of” from years past. If you have been to Halloween Horror Nights before, some of this will look familiar.

The Orfanage: Ashes to Ashes – Ashes to ashes, forever now dust. For years she has existed in the shadows, never getting her due. Misunderstood by all around her, she has had enough of her playthings at the Good Harvest Orphanage - now is the time for vengeance. This burned out shell contains the souls of the forgotten and the lost who all scream one name: Cindy. Hades: The Gates of Ruin – Hades bids you welcome. Make your way into the Underworld, and come face to face with the most terrifying creatures of legend as you cross through the Gates of Ruin.

Psychoscarepy: Echoes of Shadybrook – The truth, as they say, is far stranger than fiction, and in this instance they happen to be correct. Although Shadybrook’s doors have indeed been closed for the last 15 years, the place is still very much alive with all of the criminally insane souls that have ever walked its halls.

Havoc: Dogs of War – Ten years ago, the Shadowcreek Enterprise was tasked with developing an elite corp

of soldiers. They succeeded. Through an inhalant that includes a compound of testosterone, adrenaline, and other anesthetics, Shadow Creek’s latest run of volunteer test subjects are ready for inspection. The project name: HAVOC. The subjects are known simply as the Dogs of War.

Catacombs: Black Death Rising – During a plague of Paris and Marseilles in 1534, thousands died due to an undisclosed viral outbreak. A group of doctors took it upon themselves to quarantine the most infected citizens of the city. They had no way of knowing that the townspeople would betray them, sealing them into their doom. They have been unable to escape for almost five hundred years. Now that the dead inside have found a way out, they are rising to take their centuries old vengeance on any living being that dares to enter the Catacombs.

Zombiegeddon – The United States government has re-taken the continental United States, and is actively engaged in clearing the remaining infested pockets of Canada. The government also licenses and sanctions private companies to capture “un-live” subjects and use them as practical targets during these training sessions. Dozens of independent training consultant “companies” spring up, promising the best training that money can buy...and then there’s ZAP...The Zombie Awareness Program.

Legendary Truth: The Wyandot Estate – The Spirit Seekers have come up with a machine that actually gathers spirits toward it. The group has decided to do a live broadcast from inside one of the most reportedly “haunted” sites in the entire United States, The Wyandot Estate, built in the 1920’s in Carey, Ohio by the entrepreneur Malcolm Wyandot and his wife Lydia. The house has been rumored to be haunted since Malcolm brutally killed 13 dinner guests and his wife Lydia before committing suicide on October 30, 1929. The team is about to get more than they bargained for as the murdered hear their call and answer with terrible violence.

This year’s Scared Zones:

HHN: 20 Years of Fear – Step into the shadows of the last Twenty Years of Fear. Move toward the lantern, and encounter the most frightening characters of Halloween Horror Nights past.

Fear Revealed – The souls of Chaos, Death, Sacrifice, Mythos and Vengeance — He created them and gave them terror. Each with a part to play, they fulfilled their tasks. Their malice provided him bone, their rage gave him blood, and their terror fulfilled his soul. What has been 19 cycles for some have been eons for him. He’s waited patiently for the final piece, and now on the 20th cycle… He is revealed.

Zombie Gras – This Mardi Gras parade has gone severely off course. Infected by the North American zombie infestation, the undead walk among us, searching for their next meal...

Esqueleto Muerte – Revel in the seductive taunts of Death as you wind through a glowing skeletal nightmare.

Saws ‘n Steam – Enormous trenches in the earth’s crust have opened below its vast oceans, exposing them to intense heat. Steam power is essential to the inhabitants of New Yorkshire, but diminishing oceans have put the city in jeopardy, forcing the citizens to evil lengths. Beware upon entering the city, as the water in your body is now a coveted resource. And the citizens will stop at nothing to get it.

The Coven – The Cult of the Raven has unsettled spirits, and its Sirens are screaming throughout the witches’ realm. As you creep past their obelisk, beware their spells. For those who don’t believe will be condemned to death.

The event also includes the return of Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, the annual skewering of celebrities and the pop culture and a show by illusionist Brian Brushwood.

Halloween Horror Nights runs October 2-3, 7-10, 14-17, 20-24 and 27-31. Tickets are now on sale for $74.99 plus tax. Florida residents can save up to $35 with advance online purchase. For tickets and event information, visit www.HalloweenHorror Nights.com. Due to the event’s popularity, tickets for weekend nights are expected to sell out and should be purchased well in advance.

Daily updates and exclusive details on Universal Orlando’s Halloween Horror Nights are also available on the event’s official Facebook fan page: www.facebook.com/halloweenhorrornightsorlando or search on Facebook for “Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights – Orlando OFFICIAL.”