Will we survive encounters with three legendary creatures? Enter Monstruos: The Monsters of Latin America, and see how you fare.
Editor’s Note: This house, and subsequently its review, mention instances of child death. Reader discretion is advised.
House
¡Ten cuidado! With La Muerte as your guide, try to survive the night with three terrifying legends: Tlahuelpuchi, La Lechuza and El Silbón.
Backstory
The house is based on one of the same name from 2023’s Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood. It features the same legends. The three monsters are inspired by Latin American myths but are not meant to be fully authentic representations.
La Lechuza, the Owl Witch, has origins in Mexican and Texan folklore as a shapeshifter who usually took the form of an owl. The version of the story used for the house is that the villagers put her to death as a result of witch trials, and she comes back as an owl. She lures victims by imitating the sound of a crying baby.
Tlahuelpuchi hails from the Tlaxcala region of Mexico. The myth that the team used says that anyone can be a Tlahuelpuchi if they conduct a ceremony around puberty in order to transform into an animal (usually a turkey vulture) and drink blood from their victim’s flesh.
The story used for the third “monster,” El Silbón (from the Los Llanos region of Colombia and Venezuela), is below.
A boy living on a farm falls in love with a woman who his father doesn’t approve of. The father comes in and sees her and murders her. The boy then murders his father. His grandfather comes home and sees what happened. He whips the boy until the flesh falls off his back and pours alcohol on his wounds before setting dogs upon him to rip him to shreds. As the boy crawls into the woods, he gives him a bag of his father’s bones and condemns the boy to carry the bones of his father on his back.
The boy becomes El Silbón, a 12 foot tall creature with a distinctive whistle. The legend says if you hear the whistle and it sounds far away, he’s actually very close, and vice versa. He preys primarily on womanizers and drunkards. When guests enter El Silbón’s village, they will witness the scene of a pulqueria massacre. He has killed every single person inside.
El Silbón has particular methods of murder. If the victim is a drunk, he sucks the alcohol out of their body through the navel. With womanizers, he rips them limb by limb, removes the bones from their bodies, and adds them to his sack.
Review of Monstruos: The Monsters of Latin America
Monstruos: The Monsters of Latin America is another visually beautiful house supplemented with puppets. This one had weaker Scareactors — not the actors themselves, but their variety. There were plenty of the three monsters, but we feel more villagers were needed to ground the story.
As you saw at the top of this article, we warned of instances of child death. In this haunted house, multiple babies are graphically eaten and can be heard crying. This could potentially be very upsetting for some, so keep that in mind should you decide to walk through this house during your time at the event.
El Silbon was only 12 feet tall once in the house. The most effective monster, in our opinion, was the enormous La Lechuza. She is terrifying, unsettling, and really, really cool. There was also a puppet La Lechuza head who came at us without relenting. The tall Muerte outside of the exit for the house was also neat.
There are a couple of really good scares here, but we wouldn’t call it our top house of the event. We still hope we get the sequel house that’s present at Universal Studios Hollywood this year, purely so we can face El Cucuy.
Rating out of 7: 5
Location of Monstruos: The Monsters of Latin America
The entrance to Monstruos: The Monsters of Latin America is located between the Universal Studios Store and Despicable Me Minion Mayhem. Find it at A on the map below.
Halloween Horror Nights 33 at Universal Orlando Resort runs on select nights from August 30 – November 3. Stay tuned for our full guide to this year’s event.
More Monstruos: The Monsters of Latin America at HHN 33
Guests can dine on dishes inspired by Monstruos: The Monsters of Latin America. El Mercado de los Monstruos is located at the bar window for Cafe La Bamba in Hollywood, and serves vegan Heart “Beet” Tostadas, Chocolate Tres Leches, and more.
While no merchandise specific to Monstruos is available, it is featured on the house lineup merchandise.
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