Universal Amps Up Fear at Halloween Horror Nights for an A-maze-ing Haunt Experience

Tis the season for monsters to roam the darkness, killer clowns to scare up some laughs, and fright fans to get their fill of theme park terror as Universal Studios Hollywood unleashes its Halloween Horror Nights 2010 event upon Southern California. From FilmEdge's preview experience of the annual Hollywood mega-haunt, Universal should expect a busy Halloween season as fans flock to enjoy the massive, across-the-board upgrades in the Studio's chilling combination of mazes, scare zones and live entertainment created this year. Pumping up both the quantity and quality of frights inside the new haunted attractions, prepare to face what fear itself fears most as creatures from the netherworld literally surround you at every turn, lurking in the dark shadows to ensure you get your money's worth of mayhem this Halloween season!

MONSTROUSLY GOOD CREATURES: FilmEdge enjoys Universal's efforts at Halloween Horror Nights since the Studio has long possessed the upper hand in creating movie-inspired haunt mazes and shows, but in the past we've been slightly critical of their somewhat diluted scare factor in these attractions. This season, we retract our past doubts and happily report that Universal has stepped up to the challenge, literally crowding their mazes and scare zones with hordes of sliding, leaping, chainsaw-wielding ghouls and creatures providing solid scares at every turn in the park. Better still, this year's crop of characters apparently have received significantly upgraded monster training, compared to some lackluster performances at last year's preview. Deep in the mazes or running riot in the scare zone streets, USH's monster class of 2010 gets an A+ for excellent evil behavior in terrifying and surprising guests. This above all other highly noticeable improvements ensures guests receive excellent haunt value for their admission, and it's an accomplishment that John Murdy and the HHN team should take grave pride in this year.  MONSTER PERFORMANCE RATING:  ††††† FIVE KNIVES

MAYHEM IN THE MAZES: Horror Night fans will see some familiar film franchises on this year's list of mazes, but they may be surprised by the new attitude displayed in the layout, decoration and scare-actor casting of these haunted venues:

ROB ZOMBIE'S HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES IN 3D ZOMBIEVISION FRIDAY THE 13TH: KILL, JASON, KILL with Jason Voorhees NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET: NEVER SLEEP AGAIN with Freddy Kruger VAMPYRE: CASTLE OF THE UNDEAD SAW: GAME ON featuring horrific traps from the film series

The clear winner of the bunch is HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES based on Rob Zombie's cult horror hit: a skillful blend of the film's plot and terrifying environments, hard-edged rock music peppered with disembodied dialog from the movie, and top-notch scene decoration. It also takes advantage over the other themes by populating the maze with its wide variety of film characters. Expect to meet the demented killer clown Captain Spaulding, murderous blonde bombshell Baby, psychopathic fiend Otis, and the demonic Dr. Satan himself along with other creeps and victims amping up the scares in every room. Guests quickly progress from Spaulding's roadside attraction to the inner sanctum of the Firefly's murder house, ultimately running for their lives in the underground labyrinth of Dr. Satan's horrific torture experiments. Lest we forget, this entire maze is optimized for 3D viewing, and Universal's decoration demons did a superb job playing up to 3D's coolest eye-trickery while minimizing its most annoying side effects. Kudos to USH for avoiding the worst trap of 3D mazes: simply painting everything in five different day-glo paint colors as if the maze were one long mural ... and mercifully, there's no outdated Dot Room either! Instead, the Uni artists built a standard maze layout, decorated it and then highlighted selected props, costumes and set pieces to best utilize the 3D illusion. This not only makes the 3D effect truly stand out from the normal backgrounds of the sets, but it accentuates the pop-up or drop-back effects with eerily disorienting results.  Smart work, Universal, as so few haunt creators realize that simplicity is key to maximizing 3Ds distorting and startling illusions in a maze.  MAZE RATING:  ††††† FIVE KNIVES

Despite the film franchise's stumbling reboot, USH continues its success recreating Camp Crystal Lake for its FRIDAY THE 13TH maze, and we can't help but love the attitude behind the subtitle KILL, JASON, KILL which really boils down the relentless urge of the hockey-masked murderer. Winding your way through the shadowy forests and lake cabin ruins, expect to duck and dodge machete attacks and bloody victims as you seek your escape. Another fine casting job populates the maze with truly menacing Jasons who intimidate guests by their size alone if not their aggressive monster performances. A solid cast supports great exterior and interior sets which really open up the feel of the maze beyond the typical room-to-room experience. MAZE RATING:  †††† FOUR KNIVES

Increasing the 'body count' of Freddy performers in the NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET maze beefs up the scare factor, but once again this franchise adaptation suffers from the same weakness of the film series: it's a one-villain story and a haunt maze cannot take advantage of the metamorphic dream quality of its cinematic star. The feature films avoided this trap by turning Freddy Kruger into a wide variety of bizarre objects, shapes and sizes to exploit its nightmare psychology, but this maze is up against obvious limitations in this regard. The result is the more repetitive of Universal's mazes, as typical in the past. Because Freddy plays mind games with his murder victims, the maze monster version of the gloved gutter tends to be rather unimposing when encountered live in person, as indeed a 6-foot-tall, 250 pound Freddy makes no sense in franchise lore. Most of the Freddy performers were nearly silent in their scares, which is odd given the character's highly theatrical (even hammy) history, despite the Robert Englund-less remake. If there's one maze character who should bleed attitude until it splatters the walls, it should be Freddy Kruger and those cast in the role really need to let loose to sharpen the edge on their performances if this maze is to reach its full potential.  MAZE RATING:  ††† THREE KNIVES

Winner of the most improved maze award in 2010 is VAMPYRE: CASTLE OF THE UNDEAD, which stakes its claim in the House of Horrors full-time maze venue just past the park entrance. Since this attraction is a daily incarnation of scenes, sets and characters from Universal movies like VAN HELSING or THE WOLFMAN, it has little decoration work to do for its transformation into a Halloween Horror Night maze. Sadly, in the past the HHN creative team seemed to have let the environment do all the work as this maze was woefully understaffed with monsters which led to a long walk for short scares. Universal buried that downward trend this year, filling the castle with vampires and night creatures of all shapes and sizes, not to mention both sexes which is a refreshing change. Plenty of tempting female vampires lurk in and leap out of the castle's nooks and crannies, delivering energetic scares appropriate to their characters as inspired by Dracula's demonic brides. We witnessed the best teamwork between monsters here too, as female vamps would lure guests down hallways, distracting them as male monsters jumped out for big scares. This was the first maze FilmEdge visited in our preview and it set the tone for the park's increased monster quantity and their overall improved performance quality for HHN this year. MAZE RATING:  †††+ THREE-AND-A-HALF KNIVES

REVIEW UPDATED 10/28 — FilmEdge recently returned to HHN to experience SAW: GAME ON that we missed during our preview night visit.  This maze packs a very strong visceral punch, using scents and sensory cues appropriate to its torture-terror theme from the hit film franchise, ranging from rotting flesh stench of bloody victims to an icy cold spray of water in the freezer scene.  The various scenes blend old and new death trap concepts and illusions in a Greatest Hits list of movie series kills and dismemberments.  Scares alternate between Jigsaw's trap victims and the pig monsters menacing them and maze visitors at every turn.  This year's GAME ON theme raises the ante over last year's version but also repeats the franchises memorable traps which makes familiarity (and predictability) a potential weakness for yearly visitors.  With Jigsaw's victims remaining mostly stationary in their tortue devices — the crucifiction platform, the needle tank, etc. — the SAW maze is largely dependent on distraction scares from pig monsters jumping into scenes, which may not be the type of scare which 'gets' everyone attending. I've never found the pig monsters particularly scary themselves in the maze context, and the static nature of the attraction can't help but sacrifice a few fright points.  With the feature film series most likely concluded now, we're curious if a new licensed concept will arise in its place next Halloween?  MAZE RATING:  ††+ TWO-AND-A-HALF KNIVES

SCARE ZONES NOT SCARCE OF MONSTERS: Another indicator of Universal stepping up their efforts this year is evident in the increased population of monsters in HHN's six scare zones, and better still their performances are much improved. NIGHTMAREZ assaults you upon entry of the park as you must pass through a gauntlet of horrid creatures with chainsaws to jump start your fears. Past this area near the 'hub' of the upper level you'll encounter KLOWNZ who delight in terrorizing guests. Kudos to these circus freaks and fiends for having the most fun in character while delivering plenty of good scares. LA LLORONA is a new experiment on the Universal streets, themed to the legend of a mournful spirit who drowned her children and herself and now seeks new souls to replace her loss. Event maps weren't available at the preview, but if memory serves this scare zone was in the Old West area which was kept rather dark and spooky, though the La Llorona concept is a little hard to detect in walk-through. LUNATICZ have escaped the asylum and taken over the London streets, lurking in the thick fog to jump out at you for solid shocks in this small zone. Meanwhile the Paris streets serve up a banquet of FREAKZ menacing guests who may become the monsters' next meal if they don't escape quickly. Jigsaw has unleashed his horde of PIGZ on the lower level leading to the SAW maze, and naturally these porcine cut-ups are armed with chainsaws to slice off plenty of screams from guests. Overall the monsters improved greatly over last year in being clever and aggressive in creating good scares to fill all the open space of street scare zones. Universal's monster managing team have obviously stepped up their game in this regard and the monsters showed much talent in delivering scares themselves. SCARE ZONE RATING:  †††† FOUR KNIVES

TERROR TRAM DRIVES GUESTS TO MOVIE MADNESS: Kudos to the Universal creative team for their storyline behind this year's TERROR TRAM experience, putting Chucky in charge of the backlot journey after being "ratted out on YouTube" by fans who recorded and posted his off-color insults from his previous show. Now "fired" from Halloween Horror Nights, the much-improved Tram videos show that Chucky began his revenge by burning down the Studio backlot — a clever fiction devised to incorporate Universal's real conflagration which destroyed sets and the King Kong attraction in 2008. Chucky now takes his revenge upon HHN guests by running of the tram tour, leading riders to their doom as monsters, psycho killers and the undead roam the backlot seeking new victims. Kudos to the squad of quasi-Nazi chainsaw soldiers who greet the Tram's first stop, standing at quiet attention. These stoic figures already had guests scared to proceed and when the crowd reluctantly merged with the monstrous soldiers, chainsaws quickly fired up in unison creating true Halloween havoc.

Guests walk through areas themed around the La Llorona legend, Norman Bates' PSYCHO house, the WAR OF THE WORLDS plane crash site, and Chucky's own carnival zone. Expect quite a lot of walking through the Universal backlot, but again the HHN team has populated the area with more monsters this year to increase the scare factor, making it worth the hike.  TERROR TRAM RATING:  ††† THREE KNIVES

SURVIVE KING KONG IN 3D ON SKULL ISLAND: While it has little to do with Halloween itself, Universal naturally includes its newest attraction in HHN this year, KING KONG 360 3D. It's important to note that this Tram ride to the new Kong 3D film show is entirely separate from the Terror Tram experience which loads at the Upper Level of the park. To experience KING KONG 360 3D, go to the Lower Lot and enter at the queue for Jurassic Park. Otherwise the Tram-based 3D film/motion attraction plays exactly like it does daily on the Studio tour. Inside the mysterious tunnels of Skull Island, Kong battles with dinosaurs and giant spiders who attack your tram train, dragging it off the island path and down into a bottomless chasm before you escape primeval destruction. The show is a skilled blend of technology, giant seamless movie screens and motion platforms to create the 3D illusion that Kong lives and breaths right in your face. Read FilmEdge's full review of KING KONG 360 3D published earlier this year for more details.  KING KONG 360 3D RATING:  †††† FOUR KNIVES

BILL & TED TIME WARP AGAIN: Universal has pared down its live shows to the one crowd-favorite standard this year, namely the Studio's Halloween tradition BILL & TED'S EXCELLENT HALLOWEEN ADVENTURE. This long-running pop culture satire of current events from the last year mashed up with headbanging rock and slightly adult humor always draws a crowd, so expect to get in line as early as an hour before showtime to ensure you get in. This year's live stage show is built on the concept that a Hollywood deal broker (a la HBO's Entourage) has bought the show and is casting new celebrities to replace its outdated hosts Bill and Ted. As the agent quips, "How many in your audience have actually used a phone booth?" There may be more truth in this comment than intended, as the Bill & Ted concept is becoming outdated in its vintage 1989 outlook on slacker life and heavy metal mentality. For those loyalists expecting a good dose of Wyld Stallyns rock will instead get liberal samplings from the likes of Lady Gaga, Beyonce and many of today's top music acts . . . all of which have very little to do with Bill & Ted's franchise or characters. The show itself is good fun, a bit racy and sexy as expected, though its satiric swipes tended to ignore political and social topics from the past year, focusing almost solely on entertainment references. Songs and dancing are well executed, but again the music scene of 2010 leaves Bill & Ted 20 years back in the dust. This type of show is a must-see mainstain of the HHN experience, but might it be time to seek a new theme for it as B & T are less retro fun and more a part of history themselves by now? BILL & TED'S EXCELLENT HALLOWEEN ADVENTURE SHOW RATING:  †††+ THREE-AND-A-HALF KNIVES

Overall, FilmEdge was very impressed with Universal's event-wide upgrades, increases in monster staffing both for mazes and scare zones, and improved monster performances that showed the cast were having as much fun as guests. Halloween Horror Nights has a new attitude in 2010, offering plenty of scares and entertainment value for the admission price. We highly recommend HHN this year as a premiere Halloween event in Southern California and look forward to visiting again ourselves to enjoy another fright night as only Universal Studios Hollywood can deliver.

Those attending HHN who want to optimize their experience might well consider the Front of Line upgrade to their ticket, which is well worth the add-on price to save waiting in lines and gain time to see everything HHN has to offer this season. Visit Universal Hollywood's official site for HHN show dates and ticket information, and buy your passes in advance to save even more time and money on special offers.

READ FILMEDGE'S MAZE PREVIEWS FOR HALLOWEEN HORROR NIGHTS 2011

Get EXCLUSIVE Rob Zombie merchandise and all your Halloween haunting props, costumes and fashions at Halloween Town FILMEDGE Visit the official Universal Studios Hollywood HALLOWEEN HORROR NIGHTS website HALLOWEEN HORROR NIGHTS opens select nights September 24 - October 31, 2010 All original content of this site is © 2010 FilmEdge.net. All rights reserved All HALLOWEEN HORROR NIGHTS materials are © 2010 Universal Studios and used with permission. All rights reserved