While the walk-thru mazes are the main attraction at Universal Studios Hollywood’s Halloween Horror Nights each season, its scare zones are certainly not an afterthought.
These dedicated areas are filled with all kinds of monsters, ghosts and ghouls set out to keep guests on edge as they wander into the depths of the theme park and shuffle in between the mazes.
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HHN is open now, running select evenings through Oct. 31, and the 2023 crop of attractions include Stranger Things 4, The Exorcist: Believer, The Last of Us, Chucky: Ultimate Kill Count, Universal Monsters: Unmasked, Evil Dead Rise, Monstruos: The Monsters of Latin America and Holidayz in Hell. There’s also the Studio Tour, which at night transforms into Terror Tram…The Exterminatorz.
With as much careful planning and great detail that goes into scaring the pants off of guests and really immersing them into the worlds of these horror properties within each maze, HHN creative director and executive producer John Murdy and his crew put as much effort, if not more, into these original concept scare zones.
There are three main zones this year: Ghostz, Toyz and El Terror de Las Momias. All located on the upper lot of the park, guests are initially greeted by the spooky, blood-soaked, chainsaw wielding figures within the Ghostz zone.
“The chainsaw actors, many are men and women who are veterans and have been with us for a long time, they are probably the most passionate of all our performers because they function a bit like a military unit,” Murdy explained. “If you’ve ever watched our iconic chainsaw chase out at the end of the night, you’ll see that sort of discipline. We wanted to create something like that this year, but right as you walked in. So you just got off work, you were on the 101 freeway in traffic, you park, you go through security and once you hit those turnstiles, we hit you with…
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