Universal Studios -Hollywood Halloween Horror Nights
By Asabe Hawkins
This Halloween season Universal Studios opened their very popular Halloween Horror Nights in late September. During my coverage of the opening evening, I got more than my fair share of chills.
The start of Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios is always thrilling. Skewed & Reviewed was invited to attend the Eyegore Awards which honored various celebrities for their work in the horror genre. The awards ceremony was held inside a hall done up like a campsite with picnic tables and 2 cabins with Campsite #666 written throughout the room. Hosted by McKenzie Westmore from the show Face Off, we were feted with great food and an unlimited bar. The awards were for the scariest movies and the actors and actresses in them. In attendance were Bridget Marquardt, Alice Cooper, Chad Michael Murray and Angelica Vale, just to name a few.
Halloween Horror Night is filled with vampires, witches, scary clowns and this year, the Walking Dead. The loud noise of a saw machine going off behind you will make you jump. The mazes are the best but be ready to scream and run. Four Scare Zones, Silent Hill, Toyz, Witches, and Klownz are setup and each is more disturbing than the last.
Visitors have to make your way through thick fog to get to the Walking Dead maze. Along the way were statues of zombies, and if that wasn’t creepy enough, killer clowns popped out at us while a clown on a stage made jokes at people who were walking by.
The first maze that we were escorted to was the Walking Dead which is based on the extremely popular television show. Dead bodies in bags were spread around a coroner van, inside which there was a zombie eating a dead corpse. I have to admit that seeing a zombie eating a corpse was terrifying but it did not compare to having the dead jump out and try to grab me. When we entered we saw bodies with their insides coming out which really set the tone for the maze. While walking through the dead bodies hanging from the ceilings, there were arms trying to grab me through the doors as well. One room contained a dead girl on the floor and a dead man on the couch. It looked like the man killed the girl and then himself. We passed through a hallway with legs hanging from the ceiling only to find that the zombies followed us out.
The next maze was called Alice Cooper Goes to Hell. More and more clowns with knives and axes were popping out. In the front of Alice Cooper there was a huge snake head with fire around it. Before we went in we had to put on 3D glasses. When we got inside the pictures and colors popped out. There we demon clown babies trying to get out of their crib and hanging from the ceiling. There was a curtain where we had to go through. Behind the curtain was a caged man trying to get out. There was a doctor experimenting on a man by electrocuting him through the heart. There was a woman who wanted plastic surgery and she was trying to attach the part of her face that had been removed. The clowns had axes and knives and did a convincing job of trying to kill us while dead clown dancers tried to convince us to come back.
If this was not enough, the popular Tram tour is now the Terror Tram, and involved an attack by The Walking Dead. Several of the park’s popular rides were up and running including Transformers: The Ride 3D, Revenge of the Mummy, The Simpsons Ride and Jurassic Park- In the Dark.
There was also a great live show based on the Bill and Ted movies called Bill and Ted’s Excellent Halloween Adventures.
Walking about were monsters trying to grab other people. With the fog everywhere making it even scarier, you walk around with great fear, not knowing who or what will come out at you.
Universal Studies uses the full talents of the legendary film and television studio to bring to life the best of the best in ultimate Halloween scares. From the top-notch sets, makeup, effects, and acting, it is as close to being in a horror movie environment as you can get.
Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood is a great place to go to get scared and have an amazing time, and is a must visit attraction during Halloween season.
