This year’s Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights is the scariest it’s been since its opening in Hollywood in 1997. The park gets a ghoulish makeover for the Halloween season as nightmare inspiring horrors terrorize visitors everywhere they look. Themed mazes based on popular movies and television shows help add to this ghostly affair.
The event takes place every Friday, Saturday and Sunday during October, with exceptions on the 18, the 25which are Thursdays, ending on Wednesday October 31.
John Murdy, the director of Halloween Horror Nights said,
“Halloween Horror Nights not only offers ghoulish mazes that have the amazing special effects, but hilarious shows like ‘Bill and Ted’s Excellent Halloween Adventure’ and rides like ‘The Simpson’s”.'”
“Bill and Ted’s Excellent Halloween Adventure” is a show that is a parody of things in pop culture that took place this year. This year they did a skit off the film, ” The Hunger Games,” and all the contestants were celebrities. Contestants were stage actors portraying Justin Beiber, Nicki Minaj, Will Smith, and Usher. The show would take “The Hunger Games” event and create scenarios with other celebrities that were featured in other films. For example, the show had skits from the recently released ” Men in Black” and ” Batman” films. The show is a suspenseful thriller comedy of the ” Hunger games,” resembling a scary movie.
Some new additions to this year’s fright fest are enough to make previous goers want to come back again. These new additions include mazes that have been modified to be larger, have more special effects, and even different smells with every room you walk in. The new additions make you feel as if you are walking into that setting of the maze.
Mazes featured at this year’s Halloween Horror Nights in Hollywood are Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Saw is the Law, La Llorona: La Cazadora de los Ninos, The Walking Dead: Dead Inside, Alice Cooper Goes to Hell 3D, Welcome to Silent Hill, Universals Monsters Remix, and The Walking Dead Terror Tram. Killer Clowns, cursed witches, deadly toys, even zombie nurses and Pyramid Head from the Silent Hill franchise roam the different scare zones as park goers make there way from maze to maze. Jurassic Park, Simpson’s and The Mummy are still opened during the event, so don’t forget to ride your favorites in a new spookier setting.
The Walking Dead Terror Tram has guests board a tram that takes you to the Universal Studio’s Back Lot, while a brief movie explains that the walking dead have invaded the west coast. As soon as the movie ends you are kicked off the tram and have to make your way through hordes of zombies. It’s an all outdoor maze that is the longest one in the park. In order to escape, you must make your way through the maze (which takes about 20 minutes). Part of the maze has you walking through the Bates Motel from the movie “Psycho” and even up on the Hollywood Hills mountain side, at night. Fans of the AMC show will be at home when recognizing familiar characters and locales from the Walking Dead show.
