January is the perfect time to start thinking about Halloween. If you’re like us, you really never stop thinking about it. If you’re John Murdy from Universal Studios Hollywood, you just can’t escape it…but you can bring in some others to join you in the madness. Ever year Murdy brings fans along for the ride, and has fun torturing, and tormenting their warped little minds by dropping hints about the all new mazes for Halloween Horror Nights. This year the tease starts extra early, as Murdy has rolled out the very first code name, and hint for HHN 2015. Are you ready for the madness?
Every year John Murdy, Creative Director for Halloween Horror Nights Hollywood drops some bombs on the official Twitter account @HorrorNights. The bombs come in the form of demented puzzles that no one is really meant to figure out. Code names are tweeted, along with a small handful of hints. They are damn near impossible to figure out, because they have no connection to anything solid that you may know. We came close, taking a clue down the right highway, then turning off at crazy town to get lost along the way.
This year, the fun starts early with the first Code Name dropped, almost out of the blue. It usually happens when plans have been solidified for the houses, and a script and plan is well underway.
The only way you may find out what the houses are, is if you keep an open mind, you inhale as much useless information as you possibly can, and you try to know Murdy. Good luck with that.
Update
As the code names are being revealed, we will add a new category at the bottom of each called “The Reveal”. Once the name has been revealed, John Murdy likes to tell you how impossible each code name was to guess by giving you the run down to the clues, and how they all are. If you’re thinking something simple, like “Post Punk” is Mad Max…or something like that…well my friend, you need to expand your mind a lot more, because these are damn near impossible.
On to the Code Names:
Maze 1
OK you’ve been warned. Here we go. The first maze codename is “Post Punk” (pause for dramatic effect).
— Horror Nights (@HorrorNights) January 24, 2015
Clues:
- The name “Post Punk” refers to the genres of music that followed the Punk revolution of the 1970’s
- The hint to the name of the maze is found in a song title of a band associated with the Post Punk movement
- The key member of the group the song is by shares one of Murdy’s names…of which he technically has four
- One of the words in the song title is something that modern technology has pretty much killed off completely
- Song was originally released as a single
Brainstorm:
Alright, the genre of music spanned from the late 70’s until around 1984. It was often mixed with pop, and included synthesizers most of the time. The Buggles song “Video killed the radio star” first comes to mind, but radio stars are bigger now than videos…so it could be that, but it wouldn’t be so obvious.
Maze 2
The codename for maze #2 is “Rock Festival” Today large music festivals are held all over the world but that wasn’t the case in the 1960’s..
— Horror Nights (@HorrorNights) February 17, 2015
Clues:
- Back in the 1960’s, there was only a handful of rock/pop festivals with attendance of 50,000 or more people
- The hint that will reveal the theme “Rock Festival” is either an artist who played at or song performed at a major rock/pop festival of the 60’s
- The code name could also refer to the location itself where the festival was held
- This artist (or song) performed at (was played at) more than one major rock/pop festival of the 1960’s
- The hint could be the location of one of the three major festivals. Could also be a song played at, or an artist who performed at the festival
- The three festivals are 1). Monterey Pop, Woodstock , Altamont
- The state (or states) where this maze property takes place is home to teams from all four major sports leagues (NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL)
- What does a character from the Old Testament, the New Testament and the Star Wars film franchise have in common
Brainstorm: This damn thing is all over the place. So, let’s look at what could be the most obvious. What does the old and new testament have in common with Star Wars? Luke. It’s obvious, but that could be on purpose. It could also be too obvious to be right. Woodstock took place in in New York, and the other two took place in California. The only band to play all three was Jefferson Airplane. Their song, White Rabbit, is a tribute to drugs and alludes to Alice in Wonderland. It was played at all three concerts. Could a demented Alice in Wonderland be on tap for HHN Hollywood? Alice was a focus in 2008 at HHN Hollywood for Scary Tales 3, and it was also used in Asylum in Wonderland. Of course, the hit Somebody to Love was also played, but it was used in The Cable Guy… As for the sports team, California has all four major sports leagues…so does New York, but California has a major lead here. California is also the home to many horror films…The entire Scream franchise takes place in California, so does Frankenstein vs. Dracula, as well as the Howling. Scream has been done in Hollywood before.
Update
We’re going to make a guess on this one, and this comes from a variety of factors, not just the clues, but one clue stands out. Thr sports team state. We were going about it all wrong…let’s figure out one clue, and throw that against the wall to see if the rest stick.
The state is Illinois, with two MLB baseball teams, the Chicago Bears, The Chicago Bulls, The Blackhawks, the White Sox, and the Cubs. Now, lets look at the state as a horror setting. Only one major horror film takes place in Illinois, and that’s in the town of Haddonfield. That of course is Halloween, with Michael Myers. How does this relate to Rock Festival? The film was made in California, but thats where our trail ends. We’re not sure where Jefferson Airplane, Star Wars or the Bible fits in…but that’s just a start at this point.
Maze 3
OK the code name for maze #3 is…wait for it…”Name Game 2.0″ I’m going to give you 4 hints that, if you solve them, reveal 4 names…. — Horror Nights (@HorrorNights) March 14, 2015
Clues:
- There are four names for the maze. The four names in and of themselves are not hints to the maze, but connected together they reveal the ultimate hint to the maze
- The first name of a member of a famous boy band. The band member you’re looking for shares the same first name as a famous Oakland/LA Raider
- The name of a famous Broadway musical which has won a Tony award, but has never been turned into a movie released in theaters
- The name of a “significant other” of a character in a famous Teen Comedy, and a main character in the film, it’s from the 1980s
- The name of a band that started in the 1960’s that some would characterize as “Garage Rock”, has had one of their songs covered by The Ramones.
- One of the significant others, and there is four, is SLOAN, as in Sloan Peterson from Ferris Buellers Day Off
Brainstorm:
The first thing, simply because I know this one…The garage rock band could be The Rivieras, Love, The Seeds, The Troggs, The Music Explosion, The Trashman, and …in a stretch, The Kinks. Technically the Ramones didn’t cover it, but Marky Ramone did.
The boy band is insane. There have been so many, and the Oakland Raiders have had some huge players. BESIDES…how far back are we going. Technically the Monkees and the Beatles were some of the first boy bands, but are they still considered a boy band?
So many different things to come up with.
The Reveal
This one ended up being Crimson Peak, it was the first maze revealed. John Murdy prides himself in the clues being diabolically difficult, and this one seemed to match it.
- The band that was covered by the Ramones was Love. We had it in the list above, just didn’t narrow it down that far.
- The Tony Award Winning Musical that was never a film was Pippin
- The significant other was Sloan…Sloan Petersen Ferris Bueller
- The boy band was Jordan
So, Love, Pippin, Sloan and Jordan were the four names that were connected. The names together mean nothing, but them together and it reveals the ultimate clue. You really needed to eat your Wheaties for this one. The four names, Love, Pippin, Sloan and Jordan played for the Chicago Bulls. Bulls translated into Spanish is “Toro”. The director of the film is Spanish director Guillermo Del Toro. Oy.
Maze 4
“…”1967″ not only is 1967 the year of my birth but a seminal year in music… The theme of this maze can be found in an album that was released in 1967…kind of vague huh…well let’s give you some hints”
Clues:
- “The theme of the maze is either an album name, a song title, a lyric or the album cover art itself. You have to figure out which one”
- “The album you’re looking for is not obscure. In fact it’s on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.”
- “The band/music artist in question is also not obscure. They are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame”
- “While the code name and hints are music based, this is not a music based maze. It’s based on some other medium…”
- “There is a literary connection to this band/album that might help you decipher whether the theme is in a song, lyric, cover art, etc”
- “The band/music artist in question is not from America…though they were extremely popular here.”
Brainstorm
Don’t know why, but I’m getting a definite AC/DC vibe. The song and album, Highway to Hell definitely sticks out here, though Hells Bells could also be a theme. This isn’t a music house, so it could definitely have some other theme that relates to one of the many songs from a band.
What are your thoughts? Keep in mind that every set of clues has a “red herring” or a clue that isn’t really a clue. It’s just there to throw you off.
The house names should start rolling out this Summer, most likely in July. We’ll update the list as we get more code names.
Stay tuned for more from Halloween Horror Nights, and be sure to get social with us on Facebook, and follow along with us on Twitter @BehindThrills for the latest updates!
