Three years ago, the Warner Bros. Studio Tour dipped its toe into the Halloween market with an intimate screening of The Conjuring and an event called Horror Made Here. Few saw it, present company included, and the raves were consistent. We knew something would be coming. This past July, Warner Bros. Studio held court in a packed presentation at Midsummer Scream and announced their nefarious plans for Halloween. With an all-new haunted house based on IT, a visit to the Arkham Asylum, and a walk around Camp Crystal Lake, our appetite for blood-soaked horror in an all-new environment reached fever pitch.

Warner Bros. Horror Made Here opens tonight. Will it live up to the anticipation?

The Experience

To begin with, forget what you are expecting from places like Universal where the scares are effective but made to process thousands of guests a night. This is a different beast… for now. Using the phenomenal, far more intimate and personalized Warner Bros. VIP tour as a starting point we are checked in at the base of the large beige building in Burbank just outside Gate 5 at the Warner Bros. Studio.

After check-in, we are guided to hop aboard small, 16-person trams and are driven past the tiny security hut, and into the venerated Warner Bros. Backlot. Facades instantly tower over us and are at once abstract and somehow recognizable. We zig-zag past offices, buildings, and other non-descript facilities to suddenly arrive at a makeshift carnival scene. We hop off the tram and are admitted, past the metal stanchions and into a macabre carnival that seems to funnel us into an alley. Great. Now we are headed into the Joker’s mouth. This might not end well.

We venture forth and arrive at one of the many “Town Square” backlot sets that we are all familiar with. Except here, the area has been transformed into a Halloween festival. Center stage is a carnival drop tower ride, sparkling with bright LED lights. Surrounding it are the majority of the offerings; 4 Maze/walkthroughs, a screening of highlights from The Exorcist, and a horror movie museum. The area is also dotted with the usual festival food stands, churros, pretzels, chowder, beer, and wine. There is an 80’s themed arcade lightly tinged with references to The Lost Boys, the awesome Little Shop of Horrors store where you can pick up your souvenirs, and our personal favorite, the Fangtasia bar from True Blood.

But we want to be scared and scared bad. Does Horror Made Here do it? You bet it does.

The Conjuring Universe

The weakest of the mazes (at least when we went through) was The Conjuring Universe. Pulsed as a room-by-room tour through a house, this is old-school Halloween fun. Each room begins with a character from the films greeting us, telling us we are in danger, and then a delightful boo scare happening before being quickly ushered to the next scene. All of the actors were on their marks and pitch perfect. However, when we went through the effects seemed to be missing their mark. Timing was off, scares landed with a thud, and there were more titters than gasps. I am not sure I can really ding them as this was a bit of a preview, and we can only assume that the polish will come.

Stage 48: Script to Scream

Script to Scream is the existing, wonderful Warner Bros. exhibit that regular guests during the day get to experience. Except during the Halloween Season, we are treated to a few wonderfully spooky additions to the mix. Most of the additions are thanks to Tim Burton. Films like Beetlejuice, Corpse Bride, and Mars Attacks are all on display here. This is a great place to take a break from the in-your-face scares and soak in the genuine Hollywood vibe.

Nightmare on Camp Crystal Lake

We experienced Nightmare on Camp Crystal Lake twice and got vastly different, equally terrifying experiences.

Looming clouds were threatening rain on the press preview and we wanted to hit this first fearing it might be closed down on account of rain. So, as soon as night had fallen we hopped aboard another tram and were soon whisked away for a mini-tour of the backlot before being dropped off at Warner Bros. Jungle and Forest sets for a walk to Camp Crystal Lake.

There is something viscerally terrifying about being out in the woods, in the dark, and spotting that tattered hockey mask atop a menacing, stocky figure. As we entered the experience the first time, we instantly came upon Jason attacking a camper by the lake. He spotted us, headed or way, and man did I scream. Loud. Bolting into the dark. I then happened upon a house on fire. Huh? Jumping out from the bushes, Freddy came after me. Weird. I was looking for Jason.

Back into the woods, the darkness surrounded me again and off, in the distance Jason spotted me again. @@*(#$(!)!#@)!!!!!!! Then Freddy was at a campsite. Huh??? Back to Camp Crystal Lake. We make it to the Campers bunks and suddenly, in a confined space, Jason barrels out of a door, machete in hand, and is headed toward me, I have nowhere to go! I literally fell, stumbled, dropped my sweater, got up, and ran. This was the best scare of the night for me. I did that dumb thing that dumb people do in the movies where they are running from the killer and they fall. I did that. I’d be dead.

We make our way through the cabins and after finding Mrs. Vorhees, Freddy makes another cameo. Freddy, stop it, we are running from Jason!

The actors that they have cast to play Jason have their parts down. The movement, the walk, the menace, I freaked out and I loved it. Sadly the infusion of Freddy Krueger does not work at all and feels like a bit of an afterthought. After running from someone as burly as Jason, Freddy popping out really just doesn’t work. These are scares on totally different scales and they do not pair well.

My third favorite experience, and easily the best scares of the night, Nightmare on Camp Crystal Lake was what Universal’s Terror Tram aims to be. To be fair Universal is pretty locked on where they can do their experience and they have been doing it a lot longer. The advantage here is that the Warner Bros. route is fresh, and hence, unknown and terrifying.

Make sure to do this before 10:15 as it closes early. Man, it is great.

The Exorcist – Forbidden Screening

Save this one for the end of the night when you need a rest. The Exorcist-Forbidden Screening is a great idea on paper. Take the most sacrilegious movie and screen its most terrifying scenes in a church, throw in some William Castle effects, a few good actors, and you have a great experience. Well, not really. It’s not that it is bad, it just doesn’t work entirely.

We are ushered into our wooden pews and seated. Told that we are to see the scariest scenes from the scariest movie ever made in the most inappropriate place, we hunker down for some scares. They never come. Somehow, Warner Bros. has selected the least frightening highlights. There is literally a scene with Ellen Burstyn walking along a D.C. sidewalk, leaves falling, it’s all very pleasant. Of course, I don’t expect to see the more graphic things in the film, but the clips could have been chosen to offer more impact.

That aside, the in theatre effects are mostly effective in enhancing the scares on the screen, yet without spoiling what they could improve on later, some bits came off as silly. This could easily improve as the run continues but at the stage we saw it, things needed to be worked on a bit more.

Escape From Arkham Asylum

The second best maze of the night, Escape from Arkham Asylum was a wild funhouse of surprises, scares, screams, and laughs. The sets, my god the sets. They were glorious. Entering the asylum we are quickly ushered before the Joker himself. High above us on a precarious bench piled with papers and legal documents, he barks at us and sentences us to a night in the Arkham Asylum. We are escorted into the bowels of this insane world and that is where things totally unhinge in a wonderful way.

Mostly a black light maze, we wander a hyper-colored world of demented criminals and supervillains. Harly Quinn and Two-face were staples, but upon the second pass, we encountered either The Penguin of Poison Ivy in what appeared to be totally different scenes.  Remarkable work. Of course, they seemed to have picked the most absolutely perfect people to play The Joker himself. Each actor had the voice, the cadence, the mannerisms down to a T. This is one of the major highlights of the event.

IT It knows What Scares You

Remember when IT came out and we thought OMG wouldn’t it be awesome to get an IT maze? Yeah, it’s here and it is everything that you would hope it to be and more. Winding in and out of two of the practical house sets on the backlot, IT It Knows What Scares You, never misses one single moment or character from the film. We witness each of the Loser’s Club members be mercilessly terrorized by their own personal fears. We get taunted by the bullies, we get chased into the sewers, The Lady in the Painting comes after us, The Leper. Yes, it is all here.

I found the experience to be remarkable in that it manages not only to capture the horror from the movie, it also caught the story beats. We pretty much relived the film, without it being a boring homage. Glorious and frightening, It is one of the best mazes of the year, no question. I would easily go back for more.

The Verdict.

While a bit expensive, Warner Bros. Horror Made Here is a phenomenal Halloween event. They have officially arrived offering one of the major highlights of the Haunt Season. It, Arkham, and Camp Crystal Lake are some of the best walkthrough experiences you are apt to find in Southern California this Halloween. This is also, arguably, one of the highest concentrations of Hollywood level talent that you will have the opportunity see perform in an intimate setting.

If you have the time, and the dough, you need to stop by and check this out. Issues aside we are sure that this event will quickly work out the kinks we noticed and be a knockout hit.

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