In this companion piece to An Evening At The Eyegores, we at FM take you on a textual walkthrough of Universal Studios’ terrifying transformation into Halloween Horror Nights.
Every year Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights keep getting bigger and better as more and more bloodthirsty souls flock at Universal’s gates to get the living daylights scared out of them. This year the Terminator and WaterWorld theaters sat dark and empty as we said goodbye to the ROCKY HORROR tribute and SLAUGHTERWORLD, but new sections of the park sprang to life as the sun went down with the arrival of six haunting mazes and five terrifying “Scare Zones.”
Be warned, you’ll have to wait in an incredibly long line to get to go through any of the mazes, so try going on a Thursday or Sunday night to avoid the crowds – an idea Universal is trying to promote by offering discounts in an attempt to even out some of the Friday/Saturday crowd.
But for those of you true Horror fans (or at least Halloween fans) who have that “crowds be damned” attitude, fear not. Once you make it through the lines, Universal’s mazes will give you all the scares, blood, guts and gore you could ask for, and then some!
Alice Cooper: Welcome To My Nightmare — In honor of Cooper’s long-awaited sequel album “Welcome 2 My Nightmare,” Universal has branched out from their usual movie-themed mazes to take you deep into the depraved mind of the famous shock rocker. Taking you on a twisted trip through Cooper’s horror-filled discography, you will come face-to-face with a bone-saw wielding Dr. Alice, a stilt-walking Headmaster Alice and more guillotines, electric chairs, snakes, spiders and asylum halls than you can handle.
“We’ll be creating this living horror movie within screaming distance of the sound stages where horror movies first began, so there’s no place more appropriate to offer a preview of the new `Welcome 2 My Nightmare.’” Cooper said, “ This will be a nightmare that will haunt visitors’ dreams for a long time to come.”
Located on the lower lot, this is an incredibly popular attraction, so you’ll probably want to head for the escalators toward the beginning of your evening if you want to beat the rest of the horror-loving horde.
La Llorona: Villa De Almas Perdidas (The Weeping Woman: Village of Lost Souls) — This frightening maze is based on the Mexican legend of a deranged mother who is forced to wander the earth forever after she drowns her children and then herself. You may remember La Llorona from its appearance last year as one of the park’s “Scare Zones,” but it proved to be more confusing than scary to those who were unfamiliar with the legend’s back story and so this year it got an upgrade into one of the best attractions at the park.
From the stoic statues that will surprise you with every burst of black-lightning to the rotting pig carcasses hanging in the Carniceria to the grotesque La Llorona bursting through a bedroom window and feasting upon a young child, this maze is tactfully built and truly entertaining.
The Thing: Assimilation — Built to promote and accompany the upcoming thriller (THE THING… duh), this maze throws you in TheMiddleOfNowhere, Antarctica. There you will wander through a creepy research facility that has been overrun by an epidemic of shape-shifting alien parasites. Whether it was the elaborate creature costumes and intricate sets or just anticipation for the movie, this science-fiction nightmare landed near the top of my list for Horror Night’s successes.
Universal teamed up with Marc Abraham and Eric Newman, THE THING’s producers to create this chilling maze. “We want people to live the film and experience the same terror that affects the film’s characters,” said Newman. “Our collaboration with Universal’s creative teams brought the vision of the film to life.”
Eli Roth’s Hostel: Hunting Season – Get ready for possibly the goriest attraction at this year’s Horror Nights. Well executed, the Hostel maze proves to be one of the more immersive ones, starting right in the waiting line some Slovakian prostitutes chat you up and invite you inside the creepy building, hoping you don’t notice the torture chamber silhouettes in the upstairs window. Once inside, you are taken on a tour of the gruesome factory of death, complete with a carnage pile, barking dogs, and countless torturous death traps. Hostel is located on the lower lot as well, and will pick up some of the overflow from the Alice Cooper maze, so be sure to hit this one early as well.
Rob Zombie’s House of 1000 Corpses: In 3D ZombieVision — 3D ZombieVision! What is that? Chaos, that’s what it is. As you head into this maze you’ll enter Captain Spaulding’s Museum of Monsters and Madmen, where you will be forced to wander through the world’s most bizarre and deadliest tourist attraction. Full of more mayhem and carnage than you can shake your 3D glasses at, you won’t be disappointed by Mr. Zombie’s diabolical creation.
The Wolfman: The Curse of Talbot Hall — Last, and possibly least, we have the WOLFMAN maze. Based on the 2010 movie and set in Universal’s year-round haunted house building, this maze was fairly underwhelming. Due to the building’s normal function, there are a lot of built in features that don’t really make sense and it just doesn’t feel like you are making your way through Blackmoor Woods and into Talbot mansion. That being said, when you are lucky enough to have a Wolfman jump out and try to scare you, the masks and costumes look pretty darn fantastic.
Terror Tram: Scream 4 Your Life — With the mazes out of the way, we finally arrive at the Terror Tram. Usually taking you through the happy daytime attractions like Whoville and the enormous King Kong 3D tunnel, the tram instead takes you to the set of “Stab 8” where things don’t exactly go as planned and you are forced to dismount the tram and trek through Universal’s now-haunted backlot.
After being assaulted by some deformed goons with chainsaws, you head up to the Bates Motel – which has been infested with a gaggle of Ghostfaces out to kill you, or at least jump in your face and make you SCREAM. Then you head up to the Psycho house and finally to the WAR OF THE WORLDS plane crash set, which is now “Zombies on a Plane.” It’s an awful lot of walking for a “tram ride” but with all the scare-actors hiding around every corner and the opportunity to get up close and personal with some of Universal’s most famous sets, it is definitely a worthwhile experience.
In addition to the mazes and Terror Tram, the park also hosts five “Scare Zones” where terrifying “Scare-actors” – mutated Freakz, Grim Reapers, Zombies, Ghostfaces, and Klownz brandishing chainsaws – lurk in the foggy shadows, waiting to jump out at any unsuspecting guests that happen to wander by.
If that isn’t enough for you, you can party on with Bill & Ted’s Excellent Halloween Adventure or hop on one of the park’s other rides – The Simpsons Ride, Revenge of the Mummy, and Jurassic Park In The Dark – which will still be running throughout the night. All-in-all the event is a terrifying, worthwhile and memorable experience, so check it out!
Halloween Horror Nights will continue to run from 7pm to 2am on select dates as follows: October 7th, 8th, 9th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 20th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd, 27th, 28th, 29th, 30th, 31st.
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