Each year the creative crew at Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood puts together several walk-thru mazes based on iconic horror films, television shows, video games and even rockers that produce music within that realm.
There have been a couple of times when these immersive experiences have also served as living trailers for films that have yet to hit theaters when the seasonal event opens in September. That’s been the case with one of this year’s attractions, which is based on the forthcoming Universal Pictures and Blumhouse Productions movie “The Exorcist: Believer.”
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“It takes some intense coordination with our movie studio and Blumhouse since the movie was filming at the same time we were working on this,” Halloween Horror Nights executive producer and creative director John Murdy said. He’d receive daily updates with footage from the film and hop on the phone with the production designers and makeup artists to ensure his team was nailing all of the details from the film for the maze.
“We were in it from the ground floor, from the first draft of the screenplay,” he continued. “As the production evolved, we were trying to keep the pace with that while designing it at the same time.”
The movie was originally scheduled to be released on Friday, Oct. 13, a fitting date for a film that continues the story of the original “The Exorcist” movie, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. However, the number 13 is also superstar Taylor Swift’s favorite number. When she decided to take over movie theaters with her “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” concert film, which was filmed at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood in August, the studio thought it best to not try to pair singing fans who were swapping friendship bracelets with gorehounds looking forward to their own screams, and bumped up the release date to Friday, Oct. 6.
“It…
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