Halloween Horror Nights is Off to a Screaming Start

In five years attending Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood, I’ve never been disappointed. Part of that is thanks to the Halloween event’s only true competition, Knott’s Scary Farm, setting the bar pretty low. That being said, Universal could easily rest on its laurels given its meteoric growth over the past few years, but that doesn’t seem to be in the cards thanks in no small part to John Murdy, the creative director of the event.

This year a limited number of Frequent Fear passes were sold for $99 a pop for eight pre-determined nights, so naturally I picked one up for myself and my brother-in-law. The first two nights were back-to-back, starting on opening night. I’ll have more in depth posts on each maze in the coming month, but I’m going to start with a weekend snapshot so you can best prepare for your visit NEXT weekend.

The weekend’s big winner: Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Saw is the Law

Thanks in part to its gruesome atmosphere, but primarily because of the phenomenal acting, Texas Chainsaw was by far and away the best maze of the first two nights. The crew set a high bar on opening night which was handily surpassed by the cast on the second night of the event’s run. The timing was right on, the queue moved quickly and the effects were spot on. Keep your eyes peeled (so to speak) when you enter the “outdoor” section near the end of the maze…it’s a pretty “dark” moment – and was executed beautifully both times I checked the maze out.

The weekend’s big loser: Universal Monster Remix

This maze, perhaps all to predictably, fell flat last night. It’s easily the least atmospheric and features the fewest number of scares, in no small part because the actors have a limited number of places to hide…the physical maze exists all year round as the House of Horrors and was not designed with many live actors in mind. With so much focus on the music it left the maze feeling less scary and more humorous, including a scene with Frankenstein’s Mosnter as a DJ and his bride as a Go-Go Dancer. The House of Horrors location has historically held the worst maze of the event every year, and that doesn’t appear to be changing any time soon.

The weekend’s biggest surprise: La Llorona

The entrance for Alice Cooper Goes to Hell 3D.

Last year, the La Llorona maze was one of my biggest disappointments as it failed to cash in its delightfully creepy backstory. Not so this year. With major prosthetic and puppetry work being the E-Ticket scares in this maze, the maze was chocked full of spooky sets and big scares. The Universal team did great work turning this maze from a dud last year to a part of an all-star lineup in 2012.

The weekend’s biggest disappointment: Terror Tram: Invaded by the Walking Dead

There is a lot of excitement surrounding the Walking Dead maze and Terror Tram experience, which probably isn’t doing the Terror Tram experience any favors this year. A god-awful bottle neck to start the experience mixed with too few actors made for an uninspiring experience. This attraction has the best chance of improvement, though, so I’ll bring an updated report when I go again on October 7.

My first weekend rankings:

1. Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Saw is the Law
2. The Walking Dead: Dead Inside
3. Welcome to Silent Hill
4. Alice Cooper Goes to Hell 3D
5. La Llorona: La Cazadora de los Ninos
6. Universal’s Monster Remix

I plan to have a plan of attack up within the next couple of days so you’ll know where to head first and what to save for last if you only have one night to spend at Horror Nights this year.