Vents MagaZine Music and Entertainment Magazine
Related Articles
Every year, the denizens of SoCal have a fairly large selection of Halloween haunted attractions to choose from. These range from labor-of-love yard displays and residential walk-through experiences to full-blown Hollywood productions. The new production at Universal Studios Hollywood has shown that Universal not only still loves its monsters, but that they also continue do a great job of keeping the scary bodies fresh.
This year, the perennial theme park’s Halloween event welcomes scare seekers with two seasonally-themed shows, four creepy scare zones, and no fewer than eight new haunted mazes – plus the latest incarnation of their Terror Tram experience. Five of the mazes are based on Universal-owned intellectual properties (IPs), including the post-apocalyptic Fallout; the slasher-based Terrifier; the Friday the 13th-themed Jason Universe; the eponymously named Poltergeist; and the video game-turned-film-turned haunted maze Five Nights at Freddy’s.
The non-IP-based mazes include WWE Presents: The Horrors of The Wyatt Sicks, Monstruos 3: The Ghosts of Latin America, and Scarecrow (featuring music by Slash). The Terror Tram, once again, features a collection of characters and vignettes from the films of Universal partner studio Blumhouse Productions.
While many horror fans enjoy the experience of walking through scenes from their favorite horror films, I’m generally more enthusiastic about totally original experiences. Having said that, it was pretty cool being accosted by the demonic clown doll and walking past the possessed steak (from Poltergeist); additionally, since I’ve not seen any of the Terrifier films, it was entertaining to experience the twisted antics of the series’s antagonist, Art the Clown. Additionally, it’s difficult to resist the appeal of the evil animatronic children’s characters of Five Nights at Freddy’s. Finally, given the comprehensive nature of the Jason maze, it was admittedly wonderful to see such a large range of characters and scenes from the franchise all compressed into one maze – from Crazy Ralph announcing our doom, to the shrine to Pamela Voorhees, to the various incarnations of Jason.
For the non-IP mazes, WWE Presents was very well-designed with many outstanding gags and plenty of energetic scare actors. Monstruos 3 continued the annual tradition of showcasing frightening characters from Latin American folk stories in spectacular fashion – lots of characters jumping out of windows in that one. Scarecrow marked the seventh Universal haunted maze that has featured original music by Slash. That maze was particularly fun and featured a story about Mother Nature taking revenge on settlers – via scarecrows.
As for the Terror Tram, some years the tram ride, itself, is not much more than a means of conveyance – adorned with commercials – to drop attendees off for a lovely walk through various vignettes and year-round set pieces (e.g. a crashed plane and the Psycho house). This year, though, it was a good one. The commercials were augmented with an amusing, original video wherein the homicidal doll from M3GAN seemingly took control of the tour. When we were dropped off, various characters from Blumhouse productions, ranging from Black Phone to The Purge, joyfully threatened us on our walk.
The Halloween shows included “The Purge: Dangerous Waters” and “Chainsaw Man: The Chaos.” The former was introduced to the park in 2023 and consists of an original Purge storyline accompanied by an impressive showcase of pyrotechnics, physical stunts, and vehicular water stunts. “Chainsaw Man” is brand new, and, regrettably, I did not have time to experience it; however, a rep identified it as an original, horror, anime short with series characters Denji and the Devil Hunters doing battle with the Halloween Horror Nights Devil and his zombie army.
Finally, the four scare zones included Chainsaw Clownz, Carnival of Carnage, Noche de Brujuas, and Murder of Crowz. Apart from Murder of Crowz, they are all new – or at least variations on past scare zones. In any event, these handsomely decorated areas of the park play just as much of a role in the conjuring of spooky vibes as the mazes, themselves. Additionally, with no lines or staff members to keep said lines moving, these areas are terrific for folks who just want to linger a bit and absorb their respective atmospheres. Speaking of which, there are also a number of horror-themed food and drink options that guests can experience.
There are additional areas of the park which guests can enjoy while taking detours from the Halloween-themed experiences of Horror Nights. These include Super Nintendo World, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and The Simpsons area – all with accompanying rides. Various pricing tiers are available for tickets, including express, frequent visitation, and RIP (i.e. VIP) options. Any way you slice it, if you’re a horror fan, then this is your season, and you should get thee to Universal for a fresh dose of first-rate scares.
For more information, visit Universal Studios Hollywood.
