Universal is slowly starting to reveal their line up for this year’s Halloween Horror Nights. That means we’re going to get a slew of houses based on some of the most popular and chilling horror movies, both from the past and the future. While all we know that’s happening is the Shining and American Horror Story, we have no clue as to what else is coming. We aren’t guessing either.
Instead of plopping down the rumors, and giving the list of what is coming, how about we talk about what we’d like to see happen at Halloween Horror Nights? We got together with our friend YukenDoIt to compose a video of Five Horror Films we’d like to see made into mazes at Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights.
Check it out:
That’s a solid list, with solid reasons why they should be.
In case you skipped the video, well…shame on you, but here’s the five we talked about in the video:
1.Evil Dead Series
2.George Romero’s “…of the Dead” Series, Night of the Walking Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead
3.Killer Clowns From Outer Space
4.Scream
5.Hellraiser
That’s a great list…but why stop at five?
We asked you on Facebook and Twitter what movies you’d like to see made into houses, and we got some really interesting answers. Here’s five more movies we think should be made into haunted houses
Trick r Treat
Trick r Treat was the 2007 Halloween anthology that has become a Halloween classic. It takes several smaller stories and intertwines them into one tale about Halloween myths, legends and traditions. The main link between the stories is Sam, the spirit of Halloween.
The Closest we got: The actual movie hasn’t been used, along with the characters, but in 2008 there was the Skool House. It was a spinoff of the Skool maze from 2005. While that maze used the story from the theme, Terra Cruentas, The Skool House was closer to Trick r Treat, with kids in costumes, creepy preachers and a ghostly bus that the cast would arrive on suddenly, and then disappear on suddenly.
What we’d like to see: Trick r Treat has a lot of great visuals. There’s werewolves, vampires (sort of), maniacs, zombies, and of course tons of Halloween iconography. We’d love to see Sam leading you through the story as you walk through the creepy woods in search of werwolves, or even go trick or treating as maniacs pop out and try to kill you…carving heads as jack o lanterns. Of course, there’s also the huge rock quarry and the zombie kids, back for revenge. Personally, I’d love to walk into a soundstage to see a house covered in Jack o Lanterns.
Poltergeist
Poltergeist is a classic horror movie that is rated PG. Seriously! It’s one of the scariest films of all freaking times! It’s very atmospheric, it’s eerie and it has some great jump scares. It was directed by Tobe Hooper of Texas Chainsaw Massacre fame, and produced by Steven Spielberg. It’s the perfect 80’s movie that used kids in questionable ways. It tells the story of a family that moves into a house that is haunted by ghosts from the other side. Things get crazy, and the youngest kid gets kidnapped by ghosts! Later in the movie, the ghosts destroy the house as it’s sucked into a crazy wormhole vortex, thing.
The closest we got: Really there’s been nothing remotely close to Poltergeist. There’s been one maze that’s featured a haunted house, Dead End in 2012. While that house was AMAZING, it wasn’t the same. It featured a house that everyone believed was haunted…and with the American Gods effect, if you believe in something hard enough, it just comes true. But there’s been no really haunted house even close to Poltergeist.
What we’d like to see: Personally, Poltergeist could be a stand alone attraction, like an escape room…but that would be asking too much. The obvious scenes here would include seeing the kids being thrown across the room, and the creepy clown doll. Of course, the scene where you have the giant dead tree breaking through the window would be amazing, but how would they pull it off? I suppose you could harness an actor to the tree, but that’s pretty risky. An animatronic tree, not unlike the whomping willow would probably work. It would also be amazing to see the HHN crew pull off the scene in which the family is being pulled off the bed. Of course, the finale of the house being sucked into the other realm is one thing that we’d love to see as well. Lots of spinning tunnels, and fog effects, along with tons of ghosts popping out would make for one scary ass house. Of course, practical effects would work as well.
The Cornetto Trilogy
If you’re not aware of the Cornetto Trilogy, it’s three films of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, directed by Edgar Wright. Blood, and Ice Cream. These three films have nothing to do with ice cream, other than the fact that they each have scenes in which someone is eating a different flavor of Cornetto Ice Cream. It’s an inside joke that has linked the three films together. The three films are themselves mashups of different genres. Shaun of the Dead mixes Rom-Coms with zombie movies, Hot Fuzz mixes buddy cop movies with a slasher film, and The World’s End mixes a sci-fi horror with a coming of age/realization film. Not exactly all horror films, but they each work.
The closest we got: Well, there was a Shaun of the Dead scene in Silver Screams in 2009…there’s also been comedy houses, but other than that…yeah, not much.
What we’d like to see: Okay, so I think the only way the maze works is if you do all three together, and you do it in order of the movies. You start in Shaun of the Dead, walking into the Winchester and being surrounded by zombies, followed by being stalked through Sanford, Gloucestshire, and end up battling aliens through the Golden Mile. Yes, we want to see full sets from Shaun of the Dead including the Winchester, and of course the zombies pawing at the outside. Maybe we even get to walk through the streets like a zombie…and of course there’s this scene:
With Hot Fuzz, a bright clean grocery store would make for a perfect setting as actors pop out from behind the milk cartons, and you are chased through the streets by a hooded killer.
Of course it all tops off with The World’s End as aliens invade the town, and try to assimilate guests as they crawl through the Golden Mile. With the all the drinking that people love to do at HHN, it would be a perfect chance to take advantage. This house would be purely comedy, with some great scenes and scares. AND Universal could sell Cornetto Ice Cream in the stands outside the house.
Pretty Much Anything By Stephen King
Stephen King is just a twisted mind. The king of horror has written so many books that have scared the hell out of us, that any one of them would make for a great house. Of course, you could even do an entire event based on Stephen King books, and it would be scary as hell. This year we’re getting the Shining, the Stanley Kubrick version, but imagine if we could pick any six books/movies.
There’s not been anything remotely like it, so we’ll just skip that part and name off six books or films by Stephen King we’d like to see.
- Carrie-The story of a teen pushed to the edge, with telekinetic powers would make the perfect backstory. Of course we’d have lots of characters popping out, including Carrie’s mother, but the end would have to be the huge psychic meltdown.
- Christine-The story of a haunted car that basically possesses it’s owner is tricky. But could you imagine walking through a darkened house with cars slamming within inches of you?
- Cycle of the Werewolf-Universal does werewolves really well. This story is better known as “Silver Bullet” and would be great as a maze. Tons of werewolves and mutilations
- Children of the Corn-The creepy story of kids who kill their parents, and all adults in order to please “He Who Walks Behind the Rows”, a corn based demon. Creepy kids, cornfields, and demons all make for an amazing maze.
- The Mist-Grocery Stores obviously terrify me, or at least they’d make for a great maze setting. The story tells of a very thick fog that rolls into town, and brings in Lovecraftian creatures from another dimension that are very violent. Tentacles, and radical evangelicals would bring the scares. Let’s not forget about the mist itself. If there was ever a way to recreate the scene where creatures and people come slamming against the Mist encased glass of the grocery store, Universal would figure it out
- IT-The new Stephen King adaptation looks horrifying. Clowns in antique garb that kill children are the literal stuff of nightmares, and the stuff that makes a great maze. There’s other things at play in the story too, but Pennywise is the focus here.
JAWS
The 1975 Steven Spielberg classic tells the tale of a rogue shark that goes around eating people off the coast of Amity Island, New England. The film is a classic and has been an attraction at Universal Orlando before.
The closest we’ve got: The closest we’ve gotten was the Frightanic house…and possibly Dead Man’s Wharf from last year. There hasn’t been much to go on, admittedly, because…well, it’s a doozy.
What we’d like to see: How in the hell do you make a house based on a giant shark? That is literally the best part of the movie, the giant shark…so how do you create an entire immersive experience just based on that? The only way you can…by having the “Ghosts of Amity Island”. Think about it. Amity Island suffered through several different “fish episodes”, and even though Captain Jake’s Boat Tours (the fictional company in the JAWS Ride) tried to make light of it, it just ended up biting them in the end. So, now Amity is deserted and the only thing that you can find are the Ghosts of the victims that JAWS devoured. You walk through the streets of Amity as the ghosts of the victims come to haunt you, and they’re mad. They want to drag you into the depths. We’ll hear the haunting John Williams theme, and see shadows of sharks everywhere as we are taken to the murky depths. We’ll even visit the wreckage of the Orca, where Quint is waiting for us. It’s wet, it’s nasty and yes…we can even see a few giant great white sharks lurking around. Of course, the house wouldn’t be JAWS without the big guy, so naturally there has to be a giant puppet or animatronic shark on hand. This time, Chief Brody’s dead, and no one is there to save you.
What do you think? What movies would you like to see turned into HHN mazes?
We’ll be finding out which movies made the cut this year very soon!
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!
For our latest theme park videos please be sure to subscribe to us on YouTube!
For more information about HHN, including tickets, visit the official website by clicking here!
