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Welcome to Universal Studios Hollywood – Halloween Horror Nights 2015! Here you will experience some of the most terrifying and not so terrifying movies come to life right before your eyes in horrifying mazes! Universal Studios has brought their movie quality set designs, make up and scares to a Halloween Event that is sure to absolutely mesmerize you! It’s an incredible feeling being able to walk through the World Famous Universal Studios backlot, but once the scares start producing, your only thought is to survive! This year was beyond better than 2014 and had us running and jumping out of our shoes! Do you dare enter through the turnstiles and visit some of your favorite Horror Icons? If you do, read our review and see what we think of HHN!
Mazes:
Halloween – Michael Myers Comes Home
Nothing had me more terrified entering Halloween Horror Nights than knowing that Michael Myers has returned home. Entering his old abandoned home and seeing young Michael inside was a great way to start off the maze! It gives the guests walking through a flashback of what he did when he was younger and that he won’t be stopping anytime soon! The maze was well executed with memorable scenes from the movies as well as a small tribute to Halloween 4- Season of the Witch. This maze is the only maze that literally made me fall to the floor! Yes, almost all of the scares resemble each other in all the mazes, but I feel like this one executed it best! And that ending! Not knowing when or where Michael would attack kept my heart racing until the very end! This maze was easily one of my favorites for the night!
Insidious – Return to the Further
Into the Further we go! Insidious – Return to the Further was one of the scariest mazes of the night besides Halloween and Crimson Peak! We enter the Lambert house with already haunted activity happening and it just gets worse from there. With constant visits from The Bride in Black and Lip-Stick Demon, you venture deeper and deeper into The Further by entering the red door which is a transition for each movie. Within the second red door, (Insidious Chapter 2) I was a little surprised that we only got a single visit from Mother Parker. I also liked the small touch of from one of the dead that creeped us out. I won’t say what it was, but his warning to us was unsettling. Into the red elevator doors (Insidious Chapter 3) you get haunted by The Man Who Can’t Breathe. These scares were alright except, I believe, two of them. Walking down a hallway you get visited by this demon multiple times, but the scares weren’t as strong in this area . The timing of them could have just been off because it was opening night, but I really hope they figured out this scare because it can literally bring people to their knees! And the finale room! Let’s just say you will be in for a big surprise that definitely had us running out of the maze!
Crimson Peak
Beware of Crimson Peak! Where do I even begin with this maze?! Not only is this maze absolutely visually stunning, but it’s terrifying as well! Even though this movie has not been released yet, it is still pretty easy to follow the life of Edith Cushing as it guides from her traumatic childhood to adulthood with Allerdale Hall that she lives in. The maze brings you in front of terrifying ghosts and hauntings that are sure to chill you to the bone. The sets in this maze are probably some of the best I have ever seen and the actors makes it one of the scariest mazes Halloween Horror Nights has ever put together. There were some off moments with some of the scare actors, but besides that? The maze was flawless! Well done Crimson Peak, you are easily in my top 5 for best maze in Halloween Horror Nights Hollywood history!
The Walking Dead – Wolves Not Far
This maze, by far, has been the best The Walking Dead maze HHN has done! Not only do we have to fear the walkers, but when cannibalistic humans come into play, this maze sets a whole new tone. Terminus is under attack and a scene they put in that maze is probably the darkest I have scene in a Horror Nights maze, ever! Not only is that scene dark and twisted, but the whole maze is. Recreating scenes of our favorite survivors, well, not surviving brings back some terrifying and haunting memories from Season 5 to life! This maze gets long incredibly early and will reach over an hour before the park even opens to the public (early entry is key), so go to this maze first or second!
This is the End in 3D
The apocalypse is nigh! This is the End is a brand new maze at Horror Nights for 2015 and is set in a 3D environment. I was worried about this maze because Horror Nights here in Hollywood has never really done a comedy based maze. This maze was a lot of fun and had its fair share of funny and scary moments, but out of numerous other mazes that could come into play, this one felt a little disappointing. The 3D in the maze was absolutely stunning and all performers and sets were on point, but it lacked in the scares of previous 3D mazes like Clownz, Black Sabbath and Alice Cooper. Walking through Franco’s house filled with crazies, demons and possessed Jonah Hill’s was a ton of fun as well as getting your ticket to “Heaven”, but this maze could have been so much scarier or gone with a different theme completely.
Alien vs. Predator
This maze has returned by popular demand for the Horror Nights fans. This isn’t a bad thing in the slightest, but what is a little disappointing is that almost nothing in this maze has changed except, from what I noticed, a scare at the very end. The maze itself is gorgeous from going through the alien space ship and then entering through a rural home that turns out to be an alien breeding ground and ending with the a huge surprise. What I wish the team at Horror Nights would have done is made it as an ongoing story from last year. Make it an all new maze with new scares and surprises. Take us to space to the mother ship and have soldiers get in the middle of the battle of Alien and Predator like they did in Florida. To myself, it was unfortunately the same old song and dance with a very minimal amount of new scares/surprises.
Scare Zones:
Exterminatorz
This was quite a different scare zone than what Universal has usually done. Instead of doing a scare zone based on monsters that are human, they took on a new challenge with Exterminatorz which are bugs and pests! I was loving the high energy in this scare zone with the fire effects and awesome music, but the sets in here were a little low. We got some amazing scares, but unless you are entering or leaving the event, the monsters only have a corner to actually try and scare you in. Hopefully in the future, HHN will put a new maze down in that area so that these enthusiastic monsters will scare you!!! I loved this scare zone and the energy that filled it!
Dark Christmas
Best scare zone Horror Nights has done. If this becomes a new maze in the next coming years, I will definitely be a happy camper! The monsters worked there butts off for the scares and they definitely got them! The music was definitely creepy and the elves, Santa’s and Krampus totally gave us the chills! Amazing job, Dark Christmas! I hope your scares continue for years to come!
Corpz
This was the Scare Zone I voted for last year to appear for Horror Nights 2014 and I am glad they brought to the event this year!! It’s not an amazingly themed scare zone but, it definitely worked where it was. The monsters were high energy and the World War II theme fit. I would have possibly liked this scare zone more where Dark Christmas was because it could transition pretty well with the fire effects over in Exterminatorz, but I liked it none the less and the scares were solid!
The Purge: Urban Nightmare
As I have said with Terror Tram. The Purge isn’t a good theme to use unless you are using it for a maze. Having “regular citizens” running around trying to scare me with weapons was just… Not scary. Of course with the big containers there were a few pop out scares, but nothing besides that. The victims were awkward running away from “Big Daddy” laughing and screaming “Help Me!” Which definitely made this scare zone the weakest Horror Nights has put together! I just wasn’t impressed with it and I hope The Purge either leaves next year or gets its own maze. The scare zone vibe of The Purge just doesn’t flow well. Which leads us to the Terror Tram.
Terror Tram: Survive the Purge
Okay. I’ve always thought that the Terror Tram was an interesting and cool concept. Getting to walk amongst amazing classic sets such as the Bates Motel, Psycho House and War of the Worlds, but that is where the cool factor is left behind. Year after year Horror Nights has done the Terror Tram and it has always been a huge disappointment for me. Besides the chainsaw brigade at the beginning and a few cool scenes they have in between Bates Motel and War of the Worlds, this just isn’t scary or fun. Walking in huge groups and trying to lose them to get scared is an incredibly difficult and frustrating task. We weren’t scared even a little bit with The Purge theme. As a Terror Tram theme, it just doesn’t work for me at Horror Nights. I wish they took the path that Florida took and made it into a maze where AvP is. If you can get all mazes done at Horror Nights, then visit the Terror Tram. It is not a must do thing in the slightest.
Jabbawockeez
So this year inside the Special Effects Stage has the incredible dance crew called the Jabbawockeez. Unfortunately for this review, we wanted to focus more on the mazes and scare zones than focusing on a dance show. It wasn’t something that would bring us in like Bill & Ted, so we decided to skip it. From what I’ve heard though, it’s an amazing show and well worth your time.
Halloween Horror Nights was MUCH better than previous years and I cannot wait to see what amazing hauntings they will come up with next year! Amazing job, HHN! You surely did not disappoint!
