Halloween Horror Nights is held on select nights from Oct. 2 to 31.

This year’s Halloween Horror Nights 5 has upped the ante.

On top of inundating the crowds with Hollywood bigwig studio horror cliches, Universal Studios Singapore is infusing the scare fest with a local twist.

But if the slightly steep price-tag for the ticket gives you reason to hesitate going, here’s our guide to getting the most bang for your buck.

1. Indulge in the exclusive shows and rides

To stretch your dollar, maximise your time and let your heart catch a break, swing by Far Far Away Castle for Scared Shrekless.

Selected rides will be opened at night.

This year, everyone’s favourite ogre will hit up the screen with the 21-minute Halloween TV special.

Perennial crowd favourites Battlestar Galactica, Transformers and Revenge of the Mummy will be operational during HHN5 so be sure to check those out as well.

As our guide had vouched: “It is a different experience when you take it at night.”

Also, if you’re the festival type, party hard at B.C. Beast Club with food, drinks and live entertainment. Think sexy beasts singing and dancing (quite literally) with electronic dance music spun by your very own Martian DJ. Perfect place for all your Snapchats and/ or Instagram shots, because pics or it didn’t happen.

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2. Show up prepared

The backbone of the Siloso Gateway 50 storyline involves a water tank contamination that results in a massive zombie epidemic.

Although it is not explicitly stated, you can more or less guess at the root cause from the entrance to the haunted house.

We shall not give away too much except to say that you will be in for a real showering treat at the beginning.

And by that, we mean that you ought to tuck those precious electronic gadgets away, lest they become inanimate carriers of the virus... or just flat out dead from all the sprinkler drizzles.

But at the same time, don’t keep those smartphones too quickly, lest you miss out on some amazing photo ops.

At The Invaders, for instance, your unfriendly alien intruders will turn really affable and chummy in a matter of seconds if you can whip a camera out. In fact, scare actors everywhere will stop to pose as long as you ask politely and do not offend the undead -- this is especially true of those who populate the scare zones. Turns out they are just as selfie-lovin’ as millenials, huh.

You can even have a little fun at the interactive backdrops scattered throughout, such as this one which contorts you beyond your wildest blood-stained gymnast dreams:

3. Arm yourself with these fun facts

Sure, at the end of the day, HHN5 is just a haunted house carnival on steroids where you barter some savings away for a fun-filled night of jump scares and atmospheric sound effects.

But to better appreciate this year’s fifth consecutive running edition of Singapore’s favourite Halloween event, here are some fun facts to gobble up before making a beeline for USS.

This year, close to 400 scare-actors have been engaged. We were informed that Siloso Gateway 50 is populated with an entire family of zombies -- yes, you read that right: family, as in the whole family went down to audition and were offered roles together.

The eagle-eyed observer may even spot their smeared family portrait hanging in one of the rooms. In the spirit of kinship, you can also hardly accuse the USS of ageism when the oldest scare actor is almost 70 years old! We are quite sure we may have spotted him or her at the Hungry Ghosts scare zone...

Where costume and makeup is concerned, if time is any indicator of effort, we learnt that the average amount of time needed to aesthetically get into character is about 1.5 hours, with some needing to sit in the chair for as long as 3 hours!

Over 150 makeup artists, with the help of 4900 pieces of prosthetics and 10 gallons of fake blood, will metamorphose the USS into a theme park of nightmares every night from Oct. 2 to 31 this year.

If you would like to see the event stripped bare of its witchcraft and learn how the crew conjures up a rotten, decaying ambience in under 20 minutes, the R.I.P. Tour is just for you.

But what’s the most important step?

Ultimately, your HHN5 experience is yours to make. You could go in with a show of bravado and come out feeling as if you had truly just experienced the most hellish heat and vision-obscuring fog without actually enjoying yourself, but that would just defeat the purpose, wouldn’t it?

Or you could go in anticipating a night of wild horrors with sporting company and I’m sure the only real-life scare you’ll be in for is the long, snaking, non-express queue.

Either way, look to having a blast and that will truly be the best way to maximising your ticket’s worth.

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