Year in and year out, Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood is the best haunted theme park event in Southern California and quite possibly the country.
For that reason, I hold Universal Studios to a higher standard when the movie theme park unveils its new lineup of haunted mazes and scare zones each season.
Known for its always fresh and ever-changing collection of movie studio-quality mazes, I find it curious that Horror Nights has decided to bring back The Walking Dead as the marquee maze for the third straight year.
Known for its always fresh and ever-changing collection of movie studio-quality mazes, I find it curious that Horror Nights has decided to bring back The Walking Dead as the marquee maze for the third straight year.
Even though the park plans to update the maze with new scares from the latest season of the Emmy-winning AMC television show, I can't help feeling I've seen this all before.
We'll have to wait until Sept. 19 when the month-long Horror Nights event debuts to see just how different this year's zombie apocalypse is from last year's walker infestation.
There's no doubt the hit show has pulled in record-setting crowds over the past couple of seasons, turning the relatively small park into a sea of humanity with maze lines stretching for hours on an average night. Universal's decision to up the maze count this October should help relieve some of the capacity issues.
Also curious is how similar the Horror Nights events have become on both coasts. The sister parks in California and Florida have started out in complete lockstep with coordinated maze announcements. That's probably good for both parks, with Hollywood hopefully expanding to Orlando's scope and size and Orlando adding more of Hollywood's authentic horror brands to its typically generic maze themes. But it will be interesting to see which park takes the lead in years to come.
At Universal Studios Hollywood, the horror themes for this year's seven mazes will be selected from a short list of current and classic films, television shows, video games, rock musicians and celebrity personalities.
To build suspense and create buzz, the park releases the maze and scare zone themes in dribs and drabs. I'll collect all the details about HHN 2014 here and update this post as new additions are announced.
So far, Universal Studios Hollywood has revealed three Halloween Horror Nights haunted mazes (Walking Dead, From Dusk Till Dawn and Face Off) and two scare zones (The Purge and Mask-a-Raid).
The Walking Dead
Inspired by Season 4 of the hit show, The Walking Dead: End of the Line maze will follow a small band of survivors as they flee a prison overrun by flesh-eating walkers and head out on a harrowing journey to an elusive sanctuary known as Terminus.
"The Walking Dead" executive producer and special-effect makeup supervisor Greg Nicotero has teamed with the park once again to help craft the sets and monsters for the maze.
Expect the new Walking Dead maze to be in the same location as last year on the studio backlot. I recommend heading to the backlot as soon as the park opens for the evening to beat the crowds.
The studio backlot Terror Tram will also feature a "Walking Dead" theme.
From Dusk Till Dawn
Based on the El Rey network television series inspired by the 1996 film, the From Dusk Till Dawn maze will travel inside the sinister Twister nightclub situated atop the cursed ancient ruins of a temple along the Mexican border.
Along the way visitors will encounter snake-charming dancer Santanico Pandemonium, the bank-robbing Gecko brothers, crime lord Carlos Madrigal and serpent-like Culebras vampires from the supernatural crime saga.
"From Dusk Till Dawn" filmmaker Robert Rodriguez will work with the park to help craft the MesoAmerican mythology of the new maze and the sordid creatures that inhabit it.
Expect the FDTD maze to occupy the 747 soundstage on the studio backlot that was home to Black Sabbath 13 3D last year.
Face Off
The Face Off: In the Flesh maze will bring to life 22 nightmarish creatures designed by contestants during the first six seasons of the SyFy makeup special-effects competition show.
Located inside the park's year-round House of Horrors attraction, the Face Off characters will be grouped into thematic scenes such as insect-human hybrids and Alice in Zombieland.
Universal Studios Hollywood will be featured Sept. 9 on "Face Off," with the winner of that episode's challenge getting their creature creation added to the maze.
Last year, Universal added the "Face Off" winners of the Future Frankenstein design contest to House of Horrors, which turned out to be the highlight of an otherwise unforgettable maze.
I'm hopeful this year's complete "Face Off " overlay will be the perfect fit for House of Horrors, which has always been a woefully bad Horror Nights afterthought.
Unannounced mazes
Over the coming weeks, Universal is expected to announce four more mazes for HHN 2014. Horror Nights creative director and executive producer John Murdy has been dropping hints on Twitter, where he's assigned code names for the as-yet-unannounced mazes.
The most anticipated of the upcoming mazes has been code named Beauty Is Only Skin Deep: "Prepare to freak out," Murdy tweeted. "This maze is going to blow your mind."
Two other mazes, cryptically known as Soap Commercial and Empire, are expected to be based on horror-movie properties.
The final maze, dubbed Original Concept, is inspired by an NPR news report and will involve a celebrity partnership.
Scare Zones
Just inside the park's main entrance, visitors will immediately step into the madness of a lawless night where all crime up to and including murder is legal. Based on the 2014 thriller sequel, The Purge: Anarchy scare zone will be teeming with sadistic masked murderers wielding knives and chainsaws.
Horror Nights fans voted for the theme of this year's French Street scare zone. Set in pre-Revolutionary War France, the Mask-a-Raid scare zone imagines a masquerade ball attended by aristocratic cannibals wearing elaborate masks.
The remainder of the as-yet-unannounced scare zones are expected to be inspired by myths and traditions, which should be an improvement over the generic Killer Z themes employed in seasons past. (You remember Toyz, Witchez, Klownz, Freakz, Scarecrowz, Pigz, Lunaticz and Nightmarez.)
Stay tuned to this space for further updates as they are announced.
