Universal Studios kicked off Halloween Horror Nights in Hollywood California last night starting a nearly two-month special event that will take place on select nights from now through November 4th. The creative minds at Universal have brought to life the most recognizable horror franchises and movies to life giving horror fans the chance to come face-to-face with their deepest fears.

This year is choc full of promising experiences that are like an enticing feast of horror madness. Saw: The Puzzles of Jigsaw, Insidious 4: Beyond the Further, Ash Vs. Evil Dead, American Horror Story: Roanoke, The Horrors of Blumhouse, Titans of Terror, The Walking Dead, and The Shining, based on the classic Stanley Kubrick horror masterpiece.

This includes three separate scare zones; Toxic Tunnel, Hell-O-Ween, and  Urban Inferno all of which are pretty solid.

The park closes The Wizarding World of Harry Potter during the event, but the entire rest of the park is open for guests including Transformers The Ride, Despicable Me Minion Mayhem (which is freaking cute as heck), The Simpsons Ride, and a scary version of the Tram called The Terror Tram: Titans of Terror.

For the most part the event is consistently entertaining as it is terrifying. The selection of IP’s is a mix of classic horror and contemporary that will please most horror fans while entertaining those looking for a good scare.

Red Carpet

Every year the event kicks off with a special red carpet arrival of celebrity fans of the event and the who’s who of horror. We were able to speak to a few folks including old friends and new, and of course Creative Director of Halloween Horror Nights, John Murdy.

Jabbawockeez 

Halloween Horror Nights isn’t all scares and thrills. For those who want a little bit of a rest and a heck of a lot of entertainment there is the all-new Jabbawockeez dance show. This world-renowned dance troupe has been entertaining HHN guests for three years now and people really seem to dig it.

The show is an amalgam of hip hop, break dance, dubstep music laced with a plot that is more or less a theme. Here the Jabbawockeez are space travelers that need to find three pieces in order to repair their ship to return home. Who cares. People are there for the music and the dance and this show does not disappoint on that front. 

Mazes

This year, the line up of mazes consists of strictly horror film and TV properties. For the most part the line up is surprisingly consistent. With only a few missteps. We will list the mazes in the order of importance, saving the best for last.

Saw: The Puzzles of Jigsaw

This maze is the one genuine weak spot in the HHN line up this year. While a sprawling experience, we enter a warehouse on fire (?) to see the torturous creations of the mastermind killer. The unfortunate problem of this maze, as was the case with previous Saw mazes, is that it lacks the variety of environments that is usually a HHN maze hallmark. We are in a warehouse, fair enough, but the path doesn’t help with the majority of the scenes playing out as if we are observers in a Grand Guignol museum.  The only scares come from the predictable pig head monsters popping out of very obvious sheeted passageways.

The Walking Dead

The permanent attraction inspired by AMC’s record-breaking television series is considered a part of the maze line up for Halloween Horror Nights and , while familiar, it does the job. When we went though the attraction there were a scant amount of actors, though the main scare points were populated. No real changes for HHN nights, pretty much the same. Still a solid, efficient walkthrough.

Titans of Terror Tram: Hosted by Chucky

This Terror Tram overlay transports guests on the familiar path, down to the Whoville set into a nightmare of carnage pitting guests against these four horror icons—Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees and Leatherface with the tram driven by infamous serial killer doll Chucky on the world-famous studio backlot.

The theme for this year offered some fun scares and a few chuckles. Yet the longer portion of the path into the hills has been closed off again this year, and the crowds bottle neck in various spots, making the scares impossible. A lot like a protracted scare zone, we are left at the Bates Motel set where we experience Jason doing his thing. then up the hill to where Freddy Krueger presides over the War of the Worlds wreckage. Then we funnel into a Texas Chainsaw Massacre mini maze area.

While it is cool to be able to see these classic sets up close, this route is not only shortened, it is tired.  The Terror Tram needs to be freshened up for it to be effective in the future.

American Horror Story: Roanoke

Based on FX’s critically-acclaimed, Emmy® and Golden Globe® Award-winning television series.

As a fan of the Roanoke season of American Horror Story, I was excited to dive into the realm of The Butcher and the Blood Moon.  Consistently beautiful and scary, this was a maze that was worth the wait while delivering the quality that we have come to expect from Murdy, Williams, and Universal Studios Hollywood.

Insidious 4: Beyond The Further

The first half of this maze is a little bit of a mess. It is understood that we are wandering through scenes from a movie we haven’t seen yet, so, okay, we will give them that. But these areas are devoid of any major scares. The maze only gets going when we wander into the Further and see a blend of the familiar faces with the new ghosts.

This one has one of the most intense endings in recent memory that almost redeems the bland beginning.

Ash vs. Evil Dead

Based on Starz’s comedy horror television series, Ash vs Evil Dead was a refreshing surprise. While the entrance was not as promising as one would expect, once inside Ash’s trailer the Deadites start attacking and Ash delivers his quips. 

Funny, goofy, gross, this one was a blast. I really had fun in this unhinged maze.

Titans of Terror

A maze that unites slasher film villains, Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees and Leatherface seemed like an odd idea. Then I entered the maze and was instantly won over. Dare I say a little touched? The maze began in a kid’s room. In bed, wearing a hockey mask, the child is cozy, up late and watching horror films on TV. We then dive into the worlds of these three scary Titans of Terror.

As I made my way through the scenes, I could remember the times I was a young horror fan, up late, scared to death and loving every minute of it. This maze had as much heart as it did scares and I fell for it hard.

The Horrors of Blumhouse

This unorthodox maze is the longest one at the event and is surprisingly good. Spreading out from the Parisian courtyard and into Universal Plaza, the maze blends three Blumhouse properties; The Purge, Happy Death Day, and Sinister. Only familiar with The Purge, I still had a good time getting scared in this mammoth-sized walkthrough.

The Shining

John Murdy has been referring to the Stanely Kubrick masterpiece, The Shining, for years as an impossible maze to create.  He has achieved the impossible. While we are not given the grandeur of The Overlook Hotel, the maze distills the essence of Jack’s descent into madness and gets right to business.

The horror and uneasy feeling is reinforced by the exquisitely recreated set pieces and art direction based on the film. As close to a Haunted House as anything that has been at HHN in years, The Shining is filled with a palpable sense of dread, spiked with moments of terror.

This is one of the best mazes to come to Hollywood’s Halloween Horror Nights in years. It captures the film wonderfully, while at the same time playing to a modern audience that is looking for theme park scares.

As we said this is, overall a solid year for Halloween Horror Nights in Hollywood. Our advice to you, is ALWAYS buy the front of the line pass.  Always. If you simply cannot afford that, the next best thing is to buy a regular ticket and show up EARLY.  There will be early entry every night of the run and you can easily cover all of the mazes on the lower lot in the hour and a half that happens before actual opening.

Hat’s off to Murdy, Williams, and the entire Universal Hollywood Team.  Nicely done.

For tickets visit http://www.halloweenhorrornights.com/