Nightmare Fuel / Universal Studios

And if you thought the park was only scary during Halloween Horror Nights...

Ah, Universal Studios. The Darker and Edgier counterpart to Disney Theme Parks, and the operator of Halloween Horror Nights. Basically, they can go all out in scaring the daylights out of you when they can.

NOTE: Jurassic Park River Adventure and Halloween Horror Nights have their own pages.

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Revenge of the Mummy

• The "soul-sucking" portion of the Revenge of the Mummy roller coasters, at least in the Orlando design: you're sent up a hill where Imhotep's massive face is projected in front of you, screaming "Your souls are mine!" and it suddenly launches the car at 45 miles per hour up the incline and through his mouth with a massive roar.
  • There's also the first scene with Reggie's soul getting sucked out.
    Reggie: Are you insane?! Get outta here! The curse is real! This whole place is a trap! He's after your souls! (Imhotep emerges) Look for the Media symbol! It's your only hope!
    Imhotep: SILENCE! (sucks Reggie's soul) With your souls, I shall rule for all eternity!
    • The Singapore version of the scene isn't any better, as you come across a poor explorer getting mummified to death...
  • The "false ending" too. You arrive at what appears to be an unloading station with a ride operator standing behind a window, only for said operator to be disintegrated into a skeleton and for Imhotep to suddenly emerge in her place. Oddly enough, almost everyone riding finds this hilarious.
  • And the part with the scarab beetles. The ride gives off the illusion of thousands of them crawling all over the place...
  • Plus the scene when Imhotep's henchmen pop out of nowhere. (pictured right)
  • Did we mention the part where you're going high-speed in almost complete darkness and whizzing past freaky mummy spirits and people getting tortured? Most would agree this ride reigns supreme as far as scare factor goes. It's heavily implied that this is the Egyptian Underworld. — more specifically, it's Egyptian Hell.
  • The Singapore and Hollywood versions of the ride are both set in an Egyptian temple, which is not a film set, but rather, being actually excavated.

JAWS

• At the beginning of the ride, it is revealed that the shark has returned, as it sinks and eats the passengers of another boat. You get to hear the not-so pleasant sound of that boat's skipper begging for help and then screaming over the radio transmission.
• There's also a scene where the boat enters a dark boathouse, which suddenly begins to crumble apart due to the shark attempting to break in. It succeeds, pops out of the water, and lunges right at you. All in the dark.
  • Additionally, upon entering the boathouse, you are first treated to the sight of some gory pieces of flesh from another shark lying on the floor.
• After the boathouse, the shark lunges right out again to the left of the boat, creating a rather effective jump scare. In the original version of the ride, it actually bit into the boat and dragged it a couple of feet before the skipper eventually regained control.
• The ride's gruesome ending where the shark accidentally bites a power line, electrocuting and then completely frying it. You even see its roasted remains, until it reveals that it's actually still alive when it makes one final lunge towards the boat before being killed by the blast of the skipper's grenade launcher.
  • The ride's original ending was arguably even more graphic. The skipper would shoot a grenade right into the shark's mouth. The shark would then go back underwater, only to explode mere seconds later, leaving behind a pool of blood and pieces of skin and flesh.

Earthquake: The Big One

• Even the minutes before the ride even started was quite chilling, the ambient subway noise in particular succeeded in creating a feeling of absolute dread in regards to what you knew was about to happen.
  • The unsettling voice of the subway announcer combined with the lights turning off one-by-one as the vehicle began to move forward also added much to the creepy factor.
• The absolute chaos of the earthquake scene itself, the unpredictably of it from the perspective of a first time rider made it even more scary.
  • There are several moments that stood out in particular, such as the ground above you coming apart, which results in a giant gas truck coming down and nearly exploding in your face. There was also a moment when an incoming subway train on the other side de-railed and almost collided with the one you're in. Bear in mind that this all happened while you could hear the sound of people screaming in terror.
• The ride takes on a different level of scary when you realize that the station is designed to resemble a BART station. This isn't just some movie-themed ride, this could be you on an actual trip in the BART system. If you grew up around San Francisco in the 80s, the premise will sound very familiar.

Shrek 4-D

• There's a scene where Shrek teases Donkey with a spider dangling from a web. Freaked out, Donkey blows the spider towards the audience (do remember this is in 3-D!), only for dozens of spiders to suddenly and randomly drop down from the trees and land on the ground. The seats in the theater then utilize a "leg tickler" effect to make it seem like the spiders are crawling all over the audience's legs. Arachnophobes beware.
• The stone dragon Farquaad's ghost uses in an attempt to kill the two titular heroes. Remember "Dragon" from the first movie and how vicious she was before falling in love with Donkey? Picture that but ten times worse. It's also worth mentioning that its roar quite literally is so loud that it shakes the entire theater and you are given some rather unpleasant close-ups of it (in 3-D!).
  • So loud in fact, that it can even be very easily heard during the preshow.
• One particularly memorable thing about the attraction is that the whole pre-show room is themed as a torture chamber, complete with dozens of classic torture devices positioned all around you, including right above you.
• There's also another disturbing little detail to the pre-show room. While you are walking into the main show room, listen very closely to the background noise. You can faintly hear people being tortured and screaming for help.

The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man

• Electro and Scream attacking the vehicle you're in; Electro by electrocution and Scream by jumping on the vehicle and basically attempting to claw your whole face off.
• Those are nothing compared to the climax. Doctor Octopus lifts the vehicle with an anti-gravity device and when Spider-Man thwarts his plan, you plummet seemingly to your doom until he catches you with his webbing.

Other Rides

• Kongfrontation (gone but not forgotten) had you going face to face with the giant ape himself. And we mean that literally. He was a giant animatronic that was really right in your face. In addition to all that, the ride would simulate the feeling of him picking up the vehicle you're in...and dropping it.
• The dementors and giant spiders in Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, especially with how close to them the ride puts you.
  • There's also the animatronic dragon that shows up after you're chased around by the screen version. It's right in front of you, almost completely visible through a hole in the roof, and the combination of sound, heat, mist, and lighting effects makes it seem like it really is breathing fire at you, right in your face!
• Skull Island: Reign of Kong the area for the queue has many nightmare fuel moments. 1) The animatronic shaman woman who's chanting starts low but gets louder and louder with extra voices chanting, to an almost deafening level. 2) The pitch black gaps in the walls where (real!) hands suddenly reach out to grab someone. Terrifying for many children and adults.
• E.T. Adventure is a great example of unintentional nightmare fuel. Firstly, the animatronic policemen are heavy in the creepy department. Plus E.T.'s friends on the Green Planet look rather...disturbing, to say the least.
• The Tyrannosaurus in the Back to the Future ride, specially with how you get swallowed by it.
• The now-defunct Alfred Hitchcock: The Art of Making Movies had a couple creepy moments, particularly during the 3D segment where the movie screen is torn apart by birds, with the illusion then being given of them attacking the audience.
• "Poultra" in the former Jimmy Neutron's Nicktoon Blast ride. A giant chicken monster-thing with corrosive green breath and loud footsteps that violently shake the vehicle.
• All of the Decepticon encounters in the Transformers ride. The Decepticons are already scary as is, but when you add in 3D effects and intense ride movements, ho boy...
• The many technical malfunctions that have plagued Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit since its (delayed) opening. One such malfunction left a batch of riders stranded on the first lift hill for over two hours (and mind you, the first lift goes up at a near 90 degree angle).
• Twister: Ride It Out is about, well, trying to survive a tornado as it destroys the town around you.
• In the Studio Tour, when you pass Bates Motel, sometimes you'll see a door open...and Norman Bates step out, carrying Marion Crane's body wrapped in a shower curtain, and load her into the boot of her own car. Then, he'll turn around...and he sees you. Quickly, he'll pull out a knife and begin an Unflinching Walk towards your vehicle. The tram gets out just in time, but not before he tries to stab one of the guests!
  • There's also the scenes that inspired the aforementioned JAWS and Earthquake rides…
• Doctor Doom's Fearfall where you are treated to Doctor Doom teasing you and laughing before you are ejected into freefall.
  • The ride queue gives a pretty disturbing setup, stating the ride is using you and the other guests as test subjects to extract the fear experienced from your plummet to fuel a weapon of mass destruction. Several minutes of brainwashing propaganda footage is played while riders wait in the line set up as a supposedly inspiring call to arms for the citizens of Latveria, encouraging them that serving as guinea pigs for Fearfall is their duty to their country. And while obviously the ride is all in good fun in real life, the queue videos imply that the fear extraction process might be lethal in the continuity of the ride's backstory.
• The Cat in the Hat ride has Thing 1 and Thing 2 about to drop a piano down a flight of stairs in the direction of your vehicle.
• The trolling fountain in The Lost Continent may be funny for some but it can get downright creepy at its worst.
• Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem reveals that Gru apparently has an anti-gravity recycling compactor in his lab. Hell, Gru and his daughters nearly met their dooms in there.

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