|
WHAT WE EXPECT IN THE MAZE: Blending Alice Cooper's legacy of darkly themed rock songs and his outrageous stage act filled with mock-violent illusions and antics, WELCOME TO MY NIGHTMARE is a bold, experimental maze for Universal Hollywood. Creative Director John Murdy and the HHN design team have had success mixing screaming guests and horror rock before, partnering with Rob Zombie for several mazes including this year's returning HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES, so the concept has a solid track record attracting Halloween fans. What remains to be seen is how well Cooper's classic and current musical mayhem translates into a concept maze on its own. There is no arguing against Alice's credentials earned while entertaining his fanbase for nearly four decades: he and his original band are often credited with innovating the fusion of rock music and horror as both a recording style and an on-stage performance. A range of top rock artists claim Cooper as highly influential on their music and careers, including Zombie, John Lydon of the Sex Pistols and even Bob Dylan praised him as "an overlooked songwriter." But will Alice Cooper's larger-than-life persona and concert-scaled nightmare imagination become all the more frightening to HHN fans up close and personal in a haunt attraction maze?
Spawned by Cooper's distinctive 1975 concept album Welcome to My Nightmare, bookended with its 2011 sequel releasing this month, expect a greatest hits of his song and stage horrors brought to life before your eyes and ears. Always fond of stage illusion executions, no doubt heads will roll from a bloody guillotine and flesh will fry in the electric chair to keep it warm for your visit. The concept art below previews a giant Black Widow throne (inspired by the song of the same name) to creep out all you arachnophobes whose skin crawls as you become entrapped in its maze-like web. If spiders don't shake you, snakes will as another staple of Cooper's concert acts.
WHAT WE WANT IN THE MAZE: Beyond a collection of Alice Cooper's greatest hits, the WELCOME TO MY NIGHTMARE maze should take its title to heart and conjure up a bizarre netherworld of themes characters populating the shock rocker's songs for decades. Cooper's dark-toned music always exploited the frailties of human psychology and his stage act often had Alice bound in a straight jacket, so the insane asylum scenario in the maze is a natural fit. A wealth of such material can be mined from early tracks like Sick Things and Steven to later works like the rare and aptly-named song Can't Sleep, Clowns Will Eat Me and his new track The Nightmare Returns. Alice Cooper's own kingdom of the spiders, inspired by songs Black Widow and I Am the Spider, ought to ensnare those who fear a worldwide web of terror and carnivorous insects. While many HHN mazes may strive for bloody realism in their crazed killer themes, here the more fantastical, strange and exaggerated the rooms and characters are, the better! Still, expect plenty of gruesome horror inspired by songs like Dead Babies, I Love the Dead and Killer to set the tone as murderous monsters take their punishment on the head-lopping guillotine and electric chair. Alice Cooper's demented nightmares, like his music, should embody a frightening rebellion against the rules and logic of the waking world, pressing enough fear buttons in maze goers to infect their minds after they exit. We expect Murdy and crew to have some fun with the Alice Cooper theme and celebrate the horror rock icon's years of musical madness.
FILMEDGE'S POTENTIAL FRIGHT RATING: The WELCOME TO MY NIGHTMARE maze is Universal's opportunity to experiment with classic haunt scares and shock rock from the past but spin it on its ear with the Alice Cooper twist. Perhaps leaning more toward gruesome fun than terrifying frights, there will still be enough beheadings, electrocutions and ghoulish demons to haunt your nightmares. The puppet master Alice Cooper will be pulling your strings as he entangles you in his web of night terrors this Halloween season.
|
