It’s time to get back out into Universal Studios Hollywood and continue tracking all of the Halloween Horror Night goodness. Yesterday Creative Director of Universal Studios Hollywood, John Murdy, confirmed with HorrorBuzz that three HHN mazes have begun construction. The locations so far are the obvious ones. The Jurassic Park extended queue, the Backlot, and the Revenge of the Mummy extended queue are all sites that are used every year, however we are still not sure what mazes will be going in those spots. Within just one week we can see noticeable progress on the three mazes, leaving us to wonder where the others will pop up.

If you missed the first HHN Tracker click here.

The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead attraction is growing more forbidding every day as artists begin to put the finishing touches on the façade. Last week the beige building showed little distress aside from the tattered blinds in the second story window. Now the building is scorched black with distress and fire damage. Murdy explained that this coming Monday night, after the park closes, a crashed helicopter will be installed on the top of the building which will billow smoke and act as a beacon, drawing guests into the walk through.

A permanent installation that will operate year-round, The Walking Dead teams Murdy with Executive Producer of the TV series, Greg Nicotero, and beloved art director for Universal Studio Hollywood, Chris Williams. The three have been working for two years on this experience and we are crazy excited for it.

The day that we posted last weeks article, Murdy tweeted…

Starting to test animation and special effects now. Another major difference between this attraction and an HHN maze…animatronics, etc

— Horror Nights (@HorrorNights) June 11, 2016

He also mentioned…

The Walking Dead attraction is really starting to come together now. Scenic looks amazing, very different from a temporary maze…

— Horror Nights (@HorrorNights) June 11, 2016

HorrorBuzz and a few other outlets were invited to come and take a look inside the new experience. Although we were not allowed to take pictures or shoot video, we tweeted a play-by-play of everything that we saw from beginning to end. Universal will be supplying us with approved imagery by next week and we will then deliver the full article for you then.

Going for much more of a real world look for this attraction, under the expert art direction of my longtime HHN partner Chris Williams…

— Horror Nights (@HorrorNights) June 11, 2016

We can attest to the words above in saying that if you thought that the sets for The Walking Dead HHN mazes were detailed, this is going to look like Hi-DEF. Substantial is another word that comes to mind. The sets here are not made of wood and plaster. The sets in this experience are made of cement and steel. Low ceilings are gone and we walk through multiple scenes and set pieces that stretch from floor to ceiling.

Other notes of interest from Murdy include the following.

Started programming some Walker animatronics today for The Walking Dead. Huge milestone after working on this for the last 2 years!

— Horror Nights (@HorrorNights) June 15, 2016

Doing first looks at lighting for Walking Dead tonight. Audio starts tomorrow. Programming like mad on Monday…tick, tick, tick…

— Horror Nights (@HorrorNights) June 16, 2016

The Walking Dead will be as scary as anything that we have come to experience for Halloween Horror Nights and it is confirmed that it will be fully operational during HHN. We will be delivering a full report on what we saw inside the attraction next week.  Until then, stay hungry.

French Courtyard

One of the typical spots of construction is the French Courtyard. Last year it contained what was arguably the best maze from HHN last year, Halloween.

Mummy Extended Queue

Last week as we published our first tracker, Murdy tweeted that construction on his holy grail of properties, The Exorcist, had just begun. 

While Chris and I have been pretty much buried in Walking Dead, HHN 2016 matches forward. Construction of The Exorcist has begun!

— Horror Nights (@HorrorNights) June 11, 2016

Last week, there was nothing in this particular spot when we actually took the pics. This week, of course, here we are. So, The Exorcist will either be here or in the spot on the Backlot.

Jurassic Park Extended Queue

Another maze is beginning construction in the metro set area and of course we are well into construction on the maze in JP queue area…

— Horror Nights (@HorrorNights) June 11, 2016

Being the first maze to begin construction, the façade in the extended queue for Jurassic Park is the furthest along, giving hints as to what it is. We know that it is a maze that has NOT been announced as of yet. So, it’s not The Exorcist. What could it be?

It’s amusing to watch people speculate on Twitter about the maze were building in JP. It’s a house people! Lots of horror movies have them!

— Horror Nights (@HorrorNights) June 11, 2016

Speculation in the twittersphere is all over the map ranging from The Conjuring 2, to Texas Chainsaw Massacre, to Krampus. To shut all of the guesses down, Murdy gleefully tweeted…

And by the way…you’re all wrong! Mwaaa Ha Ha Ha Ha!

— Horror Nights (@HorrorNights) June 11, 2016

Backlot

We know that HHN will once again expand into the Backlot. This will be the first Halloween Horror Nights in Hollywood in almost 5 years where there was no active construction enriching on existing park space. Many speculated wondering if HHN would leave the backlot after Harry Potter was completed. The answer is a resounding no.

Drop off

The beginnings of construction are visible at the regular tram drop off spot here in the Brick Yard.

While it is possible that The Exorcist might end up near The Mummy, we REALLY hope that it ends up here. Murdy has been dying to do that maze for years and we would love to see him get the biggest space to play with in creating his dream project. 

Stage 747

While it was confirmed that only three mazes were currently under construction, that doesn’t mean that is it. We will see many a few more pop up and we expect another to be dropped into soundstage 747, the former place of Alien Vs. Predator.

Terror Tram

Finally a last bit of news. While on the tour of The Walking Dead attraction Murdy also confirmed that he had JUST finished writing the script for the Terror Tram on Wednesday. So, yes, that classic will return to Halloween Horror Nights. Will it be something new or will it be the same as last year. Only time will tell.

We also got a fun little bi-coastal treat this week as the Director of Entertainment – Creative Development Universal Orlando Resort for Universal Orlando’s Halloween Horror Nights, the brilliant Michael Aiello, came to visit Hollywood and spent time with John Murdy.

Look who I just ran into the park @HorrorNightsORL Hmmm…wonder what we could be doing today? pic.twitter.com/p89IT3Kw9X

— Horror Nights (@HorrorNights) June 15, 2016

Welcome to Cali Mike! We can’t wait to see you out there soon.

That about wraps up our Universal Hollywood Halloween Horror Nights 2016 Tracker this week. If you haven’t yet, take a look at last weeks Tracker Part 1.  Until next time, we will see you in the fog!