Standing at the entrance to Stage 29, a small group of journalists including yours truly, stood in the summer sun. Mercifully, the air-conditioned soundstage billowed cool air in our direction every so often as we waited for Creative Director for Universal Studios Hollywood, John Murdy to arrive and give us a special guided tour and preview of the new Stranger Things maze.

Soon enough Murdy appears, almost magically, from the recesses of the ornate panels and fake trees. Tired, in the home stretch, Murdy is still in good spirits. He lets us know what we are to see. Chatting us up, Murdy mentions how lucky they were to land this spot inside a soundstage for HHN this year. “Yeah, this is actually the first time we’ve had a maze in an actual soundstage.” Before anyone can object to this apparent misstatement, Murdy clarifies “We did have Alien Vs. Predator in Soundstage 747, but that wasn’t a proper soundstage. Here, for Stranger Things, we have scaffolding, sound insulation, air conditioning, the whole nine yards.” He continues, “Just before we were in here, Steve Harvey was shooting Family Feud. When they wrapped we were able to move in.”

It would seem a no-brainer that Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights would do a Stranger Things maze. However, there is a list of things that must click into place. To begin with, Murdy needs to know about it. We can thank the persistent fans of Halloween Horror nights for that. When Stranger Things first arrived on Netflix, thousands of Twitter followers told Murdy that Stranger Things must be developed as a maze. Great idea. But how?

To begin with, Murdy wrote up a treatment ahead of time and had a pitch meeting with Netflix before even meeting with the show creators Matt and Ross Duffer. “It’s funny,” said Murdy. “Netflix shared the treatment with them and they literally had no notes.” A treatment, for the uninitiated, is a play-by-play description of what would happen as a visitor walked through the maze. “Netflix came back to us (Universal) and they said that the Duffer Brothers had no notes.  None.”

The biggest question many of them might be asking at this point in time is, “What about season two?” Murdy explains that they made a conscious decision to remain in season one. The maze, or house for our east coast fans, starts as we are suddenly in a forest just outside Hawkins Laboratory. The iconic bike sits on the outer rim of the security fence. Soon enough we arrive at the Byre home. Thick, incandescent Christmas lights dangle from above and lead us to the living room where Joyce decodes messages from her son.

Venturing through the room of Will Byers we pick up the details from the set decoration department like a boom box on his desk or a hamper full of dirty clothes. We venture to Castle Byres and are told by Murdy that we will continue to run into the Demogorgon, with progressively closer encounters.

Check out the pictures below in the photo gallery.

We want to leave the finale for you to experience in person, but yes, it takes place in the classroom pictured in the gallery. Personally, wandering through this immaculate recreation of moments from this wildly popular series, I couldn’t help but anticipate not just the scares, but the reaction from the legions of rabid fans.

From what we have seen this experience looks nothing short of amazing. Please stay tuned for our live coverage of Universal Studios Hollywood Halloween Horror Nights this Friday!

Also…

THE BEST WAY TO HAUNT!

Join HorrorBuzz as we return to the foggy, moldering streets of Ghost Town and gather for the annual Knott’s Scary Farm Meet! In a tradition that is reaching its 3rd year, HorrorBuzz will be leading a group through the grand-daddy of haunts with the friendliest group of people around.

What makes going to this event different from just buying the tickets on your own? A LOT!

• Backstage Tour of mazes with haunt creators
• Meet and greet with Haunt Designers
• All-you-can-eat Boo-Fet
• Early Admission into Knott’s Scary Farm
• Front of the line access to mazes
• Front of the line access to attractions
• VIP Treatment all the way

GRAB YOUR TICKETS NOW!

The cool stuff we get to do for the Haunt event!