USA TODAY International Edition
UNIVERSAL’S PARKS TAKE A ‘SHINING’ TO HALLOWEEN
After Jack Torrance terrorized me, chopping his way through doors in the creepy Overlook hotel and stalking me as well as his poor son, Danny, in its hallways, I felt a sense of relief and a tinge of joy when he got his comeuppance. There he was, ax in ha
That’s the genius of Halloween Horror Nights, which is running on select evenings through Nov. 4 at Universal Studios Florida (sister park Universal Studios Hollywood has its own HHN event through Oct. 31). Rather than passively watch scary films such as Stanley Kubrick‘s 1980 tour de force, The Shining, visitors become characters in carefully reconstructed sets from the movies. There’s no hiding behind a bucket of popcorn. When Torrance threatens to huff and puff and blow the house in (Jack Nicholson’s distinctive dialogue from the movie is piped in), guests know they had best hightail it out of the Overlook.
The Shining is the best of the nine houses presented at this year’s Halloween Horror Nights in Orlando. With its lavishly detailed scenes and doting references to the source material, the maze pays homage to the film in grand style. And its menacing characters set a foreboding tone that sends tingles down the spines of those who dare to enter.
“In the popular zeitgeist, The Shining is one of the hallmarks of horror,” says Patrick Braillard, a creative development show director at Universal. “As fans, it’s a treat for us to be able to play inside that world.”
Another world Braillard and his team got to play in is the television anthology series, American Horror Story. A house dedicated to the show is presented in three acts and covers three seasons: Asylum, Coven, and Roanoke. With 14 scenes, it is the event’s longest maze. Like The Shining, AHS boasts impressive sets and production values.
“If you’ve seen the show, you’re going to constantly be in a state of ‘look at that,’ ” Braillard says. “And if you’ve never seen the show at all, you’re just going to get scared.”
Put me in the latter category. In one of the maze’s more disturbing scenes, a character tenderly combs the hair of a life-sized doll and then lashes out at guests in fits of rage. Set in a nursery, the unmistakable scent of baby powder lingers in the air. That’s part of the multisensory assault Universal takes in designing its Halloween attractions. Among other odors represented at the event, there is the pungent smell of burning flesh. HHN is decidedly not for the squeamish.
Jigsaw, the game-loving sadist from the Saw films, invites visitors to become one of his victims and try to make it through his maze. There are characters attempting to escape traps by amputating their own limbs. The Horrors of Blumhouse maze includes scenes from three horror franchises: Sinister, The Purge, and Insidious. Comedy, albeit in a sick and twisted form, mixes with horror in the maze based on the television series Ash vs Evil Dead.
Universal’s HHN event in Florida is the largest, most elaborate, and arguably the best theme park Halloween event in the country. In addition attractions inspired by movies and TV, , the four original houses really shine.
The best of the bunch is “Dead Waters,” which takes guests to the New Orleans bayou for a confrontation with the Voodoo Queen and her minions. The set design, which includes a halfsunken riverboat, is stunning. When brutish scarecrows weren’t attacking me to defend their Depression-era farm, crows were pooping on me (how’s that for multisensory immersion?) in “Scarecrow: The Reaping.” “Hive” features Nosferatu-like vampires, and “The Fallen” invokes a gothic vibe with winged creatures looming in its crumbling cathedral.
The event’s scare zones, which are set up throughout the park’s streets, are especially good this year. Retro aliens straight out of a schlocky 1950s B movie cause hilarious havoc in Invasion. In the Trick ‘R Treat zone, a sea of glowing pumpkins illuminate the trees, while foreboding characters seek candy from panicky guests. The Purge a staple at HHN, returns for more anarchy.
The vehicles used for the park’s famous Studio Tour are rebranded as Terror Tram for HHN. Visitors brave enough to wander the studio’s backlot encounter the Titans of Terror: Leatherface from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Freddy Krueger of A Nightmare on Elm Street, Chucky from Child’s Play, and Jason Voorhees of Friday the 13th infamy.