Photo TR: Universal Studios CA Halloween Horror Nights 2009

[robbalvey]

Once again Universal Studios Hollywood's Halloween Horror Nights reigns as the best Halloween event in Southern California! You will not find an event this intense anywhere in So Cal! Every maze will leave you feeling like 'OMFG HOW DID I SURVIVE THAT?!?!'

If you live in Southern California and you're going to any other Halloween Event...you've gone to the WRONG EVENT!!! =)

Ps. This report is very “image intensive” so it may take a little while for the photos to load, but I kept most of them as small as possible.

It was just such a great event it’s hard to capture the whole thing in just a handful of photos…

Yay we are here at Universal Studios Hollywood for Halloween Horror Nights!

Lots of ticket options...we recommend getting the "Front of the Line" pass or if you're a HHN fan, you'll want the "Frequent Fear" pass!

I wonder if we are cool enough to be with these guys???

Uh oh...looks like we better behave!

Eyegore awards...cool...but bring on Horror Nights!!!

Yay! We have been let into the red carpet! They know a true celeb when they see one!

Check me out! We're officially press now!

GGGRRRRR! I'm crazy press pass eating William! Gimme some candy!

All of these people are far more important than us!

I don't know who this guy is but he MUST be important!

"In case you don't know who's coming next...here's a clue!"

"Hey Jeff!!! You're the best!!!"

Spanish DirecTV viewers may know this person.

These guys need no sign! (Looking forward to your show later!)

Wow! They'll let ANYONE into this event! =)

Drew Daywalt - He won the Scary Good Movie competition! Congrats, dude!

John Murdy - Creative Director for Universal and Halloween Horror Nights chats with Theme Park Review!

Don't hurt us John!!! We'll say nice things about HHN, don't worry! =)

Oooh! We have lots of brand new HHN awesomeness to look forward to this evening!

And now...click to the next page as Theme Park Review brings you our visit to Halloween Horror Nights 2009!

Let's start with a maze based on Halloween. There has been a Halloween maze at HHN before, but this one was completely different than in previous years.

When I die, I want to be buried JUST LIKE THIS!!!

Some awesome scary stuff to look forward to...

Random dead zombie chicks.

This dude was one of the best street characters I've ever seen!

And did we mention he has GIANT EXPLOSIONS going on behind him???

Shaun of the Dead was there too...

The street characters were AMAZING this year!

And as always...lots of hot, bloody, dancing, close-to-naked chicks to make all internet fanboys feel that warm sensation in their pants.

Another maze...another movie property...very cool.

"Hey everyone...don't forget your Gate A front of the line passes so you don't have to wait in line!"

The entrance to My Bloody Valentine.

This blood soaked hotty could be my valentine any day! =)

I have a feeling not much of anything sensual is going to happen next.

Yay!!! MMMMMMMM: The Ride is back!

There isn't much you can see out on the streets...

...so that Shaun and Ed can scare the crap out of you!

Man those are TWO BIG.... gates.

It's very odd being at a Halloween Horror Nights with no alcohol! In Orlando there is booze every ten feet! At least in Hollywood you wouldn't be tempted to give Jell-O shots to minors!

Did we mention this area looked absolutely incredible?

Yes!!! My favorite part of the event!

We were told prior to the show that if you were here to see Jon and Kate Plus Eight....

...You should LEAVE!!! lol!

We were also informed that there would be cursing during this show. And if you were offended by this you could replace the curse word with something not quite as offensive. For example "Ass" could be replaced with...

Shia LaBeouf.

As in... "Hey check out that girl's..."

Shia LaBeouf!

This year's premise was a bit odd. The geeky dude on the right has stolen Bill & Ted's phone booth, dismantled it (boo!) and created a machine to bring movie characters to the show. I gotta be honest here, I've been seeing Bill & Ted shows since 2001 and this one was weaker in comparison to previous years. Having said that though, the Bill & Ted show, every year, is still the BEST THEME PARK SHOW I've ever seen!

It had Wolverine and all his cheesiness!

We got to see some Bill on Ted action! Wow!

The Christian Bale segment, IMO absolutely stole the show!

He argued and shouted at the bling-bling selling girl, and OMFG it was funny as hell!

The show opened with this bizarre light saber duel. It didn't seem to make sense, but it sure looked cool!

Yay! Billy Mays is back from the dead!!!

Ted is about to get some action!

As with all Bill & Ted shows there is a lot of dancing including half naked chicks and dudes!

And don't be fooled by this being a "theme park show", the acting, staging, production values, lighting, etc, are all TOP NOTCH!

There is even something for Piers! =)

They did a Michael Jackson tribute, and if you're into Mr. Jacko (I am not to be honest), you'll **LOVE** this segment!

Hooray! The phone booth is restored! Everything is back to normal! And we can look forward to next year's Bill & Ted show!

Every Halloween the Studio Tour is converted into something more terrifying!

They take the normal Studio Tour and let you walk around the back lot! And then scare the crap out of you! It's one of the coolest things you can EVER do at Universal Studios.

Insane Chainsaw Clown Posse!!! F**K YEAH!

Killer!!!

This year they let you get REALLY close to the Bates Motel.

"I'm gonna git ya! Me and my bloody knife...that's right! We're gonna git 'ya!"

Oooh...this place looks family friendly!

Dammit! Where am I supposed to put my Blazin' wings!

Suck it baby!!! Suck it!!!

Stop killing all the hot chicks dude!!!

Ok, who's idea was it to let Chucky drive the bus???

"No! Help me! I'm stuck in a prop from one of last year's mazes!" (Honestly, though, GREAT re-use of the prop! No one else would have even noticed.)

Does anyone want to play airplane? If you do EMAIL DAN! [email protected]

I wonder how long their flight was delayed for...

Random dead dudes just hanging from trees...just like at a REAL plane crash site!

Bodies, bodies everywhere, we're gonna get killed!

Old and stupid.

Chucky's Funhouse was in the park's year round maze "House of Horrors."

I was actually impressed with how much it was re-dressed for Chucky.

This is what Chucky will look like when he's 40 and has had a few too many beers.

The final maze of the night, and by far the BEST!

They had an animatronic Billy greet the guests.

NEEDLES IN YOUR EYE!!! NEEDLES IN YOUR EYE!!!

If you are a fan of the Saw movies, you'll recognize some of these scenes.

The saw gun trap.

Hooray for frozen boobies!

And this just looks yummy...maybe needs some balsamic vinegar.

Hey doctor...he's gone...no point in even trying to save him.

Oh man, this is going to be awesome!

Yay! We will grab our party pack and get ready to have some fun!

It couldn't get any gayer than this!

The Rocky Tribute was absolutely FANTASTIC! If you're a fan of the movie, and know the songs, you'll LOVE this!

The cast was also incredible. I've seen the whole show in London's West End and this cast was just as good!

"Let's do the Time Warp again!" (Ok, if there was any one criticism I had with this show it's that I felt they could have done a better job of getting the audience to participate. We were told at the beginning of the show that this was "interactive" and they even sold us packs of goodies, but at no point during the show did they have anyone instruct the crowd to hold up the glow sticks, ring the cow bells, or stand up to do the Time Warp. I hope this is addressed for next year!)

Columbia and Magenta were both amazing! Seriously, I can't say enough how great this cast was.

However the girl who played Janet totally stole the show for me. Not just because she was OMFG freaking hot, but she played the character PERFECTLY!

Janet and Rocky's sex scene was insanely artsy, but totally cool.

Riff Raff had a solo that make the crowd squeal with glee!

The Floor Show. Always fun and rockin'. Again, I was just blown away at how good this show was. And since it was in the T2 theater, they also made use of some of the theater effects! (I won't give it away.) If they can help the audience "get into it" then between this and Bill & Ted the event's shows will almost out-awesome the mazes!

Once again Universal Studios Hollywood's Halloween Horror Nights reigns as the best Halloween event in Southern California!

Thanks for reading! Looking forward to 2010!

--Robb Alvey
www.themeparkreview.com

ps. Special thanks to William Shandling for the extra photos!

 

[marc]

Great report, loved what they done with the Tram Tour.

The Saw stuff looked good, I hope Thorpe Park take a look at the pictures from Universal and see what theming is

I went to the Halloween night and Universal Studios Orlando 2 years ago and that was amazing.

 

[Ollie]

Awesome. I've always wanted to go to this event as I love Halloween stuff.
That Saw maze looks amazing and ties in with the film alot better than the ride does. The only thing I'm not keen on is the acting in American Haunts isn't really that scary as opposed to some UK or European Haunts.
Looks like an amazing event though.

 

[robbalvey]

The only thing I'm not keen on is the acting in American Haunts isn't really that scary as opposed to some UK or European Haunts.

I've been to "haunted events" all over the world (USA, UK, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden, Japan, etc...) and to be honest, it can be hit and miss anywhere you go.

I don't think I've ever felt that any one country does it better than the other.

--Robb

 

[marc]

Having done the events at Thorpe, Universal and BGA I can honestly say what Thorpe put on is for kids.

I walked round BGA scared and jumping out my skin walking down the paths. The maze was fantasticand really worked.

Universal just transformed the whole park with live actors everywhere.

Ollie I did not think you had done the events in the USA? Videos, pictures do not do the events justice.

 

[Gazza]

No alcohol sold inside at the LA HHN? From what I've been told by a mate the Orlando HHN have it for sale every 20 meters.

 

[robbalvey]

^ That's why I was saying it's weird. In Orlando you can't walk 10 feet with out insane amounts of booze everywhere you go. And in Hollywood they were selling "energy drinks!"

Basically California is very culturally different and when people get drunk at the park you just get a bunch of drunken idiots that cause a lot of problems.

And yeah, while you have some drunken idiots in Orlando, it's not as big of a problem.

--Robb

 

[marc]

We noticed that at BGA and thats why we left the park early, sorry to say some people when they got drunk enjoyed taking the piss that we were British.

 

[Ollie]

Ollie I did not think you had done the events in the USA? Videos, pictures do not do the events justice.

Videos and Photos do do the event justice as it look bloody amazing which is why I'm desperate to go there.
I meant more on the way scare tactics vary from country to country. I've been studying haunts from around the world and most American haunts rely on quick sudden scares (nicknamed 'boo scares'). This is because they work quick and are effective on alot of people if they're looking in the right place at the right time.
It's also easier by this method to bounce several scares of each other but this requires quite a bit of planning to be done effectively.

In the UK we seem to have a different approach to haunts. As the industry is fairly new over here people are still getting to grips on what works and what doesn't. Also the more word spreads about such attractions the more popular they'll become. The scares in UK haunts (called Scare Attractions over here). Focus on a mix of scares to keep you in suspense. You don't know what going to come next. It may be someone suddenly jumping out or it may even be someone moving slowly and following the group menacingly and getting right up in your comfort zone.
This creates a strong feeling of unease but makes the environment you're in more involving without the need for complex scenery (that's usually finalised after scares are put in place).

What I'm trying to get it (but clearly not very well) is that the types of scares in events such as HHN and KSF seem to focus more on startling the patrons (what guests are called in the Haunt industry) by jumping out lots and having sudden loud noises.

I still bet it's really scary but after a while of that tactic it doesn't become as scary as you start looking for places that actors may be coming from. Or if mazes use decoys too often you know where the attack may be coming from which makes it less effective.

I hope I'm making sense here. It's nothing major. Just something I noticed.

Anyway regardless it's an amazing event and is something I've been interested in for years. Just a shame it's so far away and would be quite expensive to go just for that. It pisses all over Thorpe's Fright Nights but then it's expected as Halloween is much more widely celebrated out in the states than over here.

Anyway on a site note. Does anyone know if you can buy the merchandise that they have on the site from the UK? There's a couple of awesome T-shirts they have this year that I wouldn't mind getting but it doesn't say anywhere on their site about postage, how to pay or how if they deliver to the UK. Also I have no idea what size I'd get if they do as aren't American sizes different to ours?
http://www.halloweenhorrornights.com/or ... merch.html

Anyway some great pictures Robb. Shame they didn't do their usually epic opening ceremony and replaced it with an interview. Was a bit of a let down and not really a great kick start to an event such as this.


Also...
BRING BACK JACK TO CLOWN!!!!!
He's amazing.
Skip to 1:25
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SzRzMBgU9w

 

[marc]

I did not notice that in the maze, I had no idea where the actors were or where they were going to jump out next or bang next. Every corner of the maze was different and the story of the maze worked really well. Plut it this way we done the least scary one and that was scary enough for me.

It was the same walking round the park, I had no idea where they were etc. Path ways are filled with smoke, you simply can not see where the actors are.

Also in Orlando you could see the actors on the paths but had no idea who they would go to with the chain saw. The whole of Universal is just transformed it was like being in Batman Returns, thats the only way I can describe it. Actors on bikes going around the park, actors on the paths just amazing.

In the events in the USA they did not go up close to you though like they do at MT, but tbh that does not scare me anyway people jumping out does. So I do not agree with you

If the mazes are so good over here why do people always say how rubbish they are?

Also pictures and videos do not do the event justice, if you think they are good wait to you go You will never look at the event at Thorpe Park the same again.

We were there for Jack the Clown in 2007, the stage show was very good.

Sorry for going off topic btw.