As a huge fan of Halloween Horror Nights at both Universal Orlando and Universal Studios Hollywood, I love visiting each park every year to see the various mazes. While many of the mazes at the two parks are based on the same property, they are never the exact same, as they are made by different teams for completely different types of configurations and buildings, often resulting in wildly different experiences.
A few days ago, I did my ranking for this year’s Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Orlando, and if you compare my new list below ranking the 2016 mazes at Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Hollywood, you’ll find several shared titles with Orlando that have quite different positioning.
Overall, this was an incredible year for HHN at Universal Studios Hollywood – one of my favorites so far. There was no true dud among any of the six mazes, and I’d call four of them outright great or better, as the annual event tackled some truly huge horror franchises, including The Exorcist and mazes featuring the likes of A Nightmare on Elm Street's Freddy Krueger, Friday the 13th's Jason Voorhees, Halloween's Michael Myers and Texas Chainsaw Massacre's Leatherface.
Suffice to say, I’ll be going again in the weeks to come.
Halloween: Hell Comes to Haddonfield
Last year, HHN offered an absolutely fantastic maze based on John Carpenter’s original Halloween, making me especially excited to see them do a follow up – one based on the events of 1981’s Halloween II. Perhaps those high expectations hurt a bit, as Halloween: Hell Comes to Haddonfield is fine, but not a standout. However, this maze does end in a strong, notably offbeat manner, as we veer off of the movie’s storyline and into a surreal landscape that includes a trippy, unsettling room filled with pumpkin-headed creatures (representing Samhain) that evoke Halloween II’s poster – and from there travel inside Samhain, as an awesomely warped version of “Mr. Sandman” plays, while Michael Myers attacks you inside a pumpkin gone oh-so wrong.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Blood Brothers
While only having a few noteworthy scares, Texas Chainsaw Massacre offers a really impressive, immersive experience thanks to how wonderfully repugnant it is. You feel like you are in the Sawyer house in all of its grimy, gory, disgusting glory – as the combinations of sights, sounds and, yes, smells surrounding you is nearly overwhelming in all the right, horrific ways. It's very cool how this maze was conceived as a sequel to the original movie (bridging it towards The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2’s events) and the cast seems to be having a ball – especially the gentleman playing the Cook who heard me make a joke about how gross it felt inside the place and put his finger on the “meat” in front of him, before licking his finger. Sick, dude! (Nicely done!).
American Horror Story
As I wrote in my Universal Orlando Horror Nights ranking list, American Horror Story feels like the perfect TV series for HHN, offering a non-stop barrage of bizarre, outlandish, visually evocative moments. Culling from Murder House, Freak Show and Hotel, the AHS maze had a lot of memorable scenarios, as you pass through one twisted room to the next, as a ton of characters from the show attack. Bonus points for the last room, which has a final scare, involving curtains, that is especially clever and playful.
I was legitimately shocked by how much I loved this maze. I wasn’t that into Krampus the movie or, really, Krampus the Universal Orlando maze, but wow, this was the version of Krampus I’d been waiting for. It takes the film’s Christmas setting and amps up the intensity, as the holidays go to hell. The kitchen, filled with attacking Gingerbread Men, is hysterical and the scares throughout the maze plentiful and highly effective – rarely has the tried but true “very loud noise” been used so well. The final sequence, taking you into an outdoor setting, awesomely uses high-pressure air conditioning to hit you with a sudden blast of cold, as you walk into the "snow" – where some Snowmen are there to unwelcome you. From start to finish, Krampus offers an inspired mix of horror and comedy.
Freddy vs. Jason
A really strong take on this villain vs. villain concept, Freddy vs. Jason only uses the core conceit of the 2003 film, essentially going in its own direction. From Elm Street to Crystal Lake, we travel through the familiar worlds of both iconic characters, and get cool appearances from the likes of Mrs. Voorhees or Freddy in his snake form from A Nightmare on Elm Street 3 – only here, he’s devouring the child version of Jason! There are a ton of Freddys and Jasons in this maze, and would you have it any other way? And they are commendably scary, with one great bit including Jason behind a scrim that has him “magically” appear behind a wall you’re walking alongside, before bursting out right in front of you.
The Exorcist
One of the greatest horror movies ever (many would say the greatest ever) gets the presentation it deserves, with one of my all-time favorite HHN mazes. This maze brings you right into the world of The Exorcist, from the moment you pass by Father Merrin standing outside the exterior of the house, recreating the famous poster image for the film. Overcoming the challenges of a adapting a film set mostly in a single bedroom into a walkthrough maze, The Exorcist intermixes the demon Pazuzu with the possessed Regan to provide lots of additional scares, while taking you through almost all the huge moments from the movie in some phenomenal recreations that bring the film to life before your eyes. Some of the rooms aren’t about anything leaping out to scare you as much as they are about beholding the appropriately disturbing artistry at work, as we see Regan levitate above her head, or her head spin around as she vomits. While many actresses play Regan, there are also some beautifully made full size figures that look creepy as hell.
Simply put, The Exorcist maze is a triumph from start to finish.
Halloween Horror Nights 2016 is now underway on select nights at Universal Studios Hollywood.
Eric Goldman is Executive Editor of IGN TV. You can follow him on Twitter at @TheEricGoldman, IGN at ericgoldman-ign and Facebook at http://ift.tt/LQFqjj.
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