We are finally here. The first Universal Studios Hollywood Halloween Horror Nights Tracker for 2017. Tune in here each week for an update on the latest HHN news. It’s May and we have begun to see the first signs of horror goodness popping up in the park. The first maze to go up is in the long stretch of unused asphalt behind The Revenge of the Mummy coaster AKA the extended queue. The day we shot our update was, coincidentally, the day the second maze began construction. What maze is it? We aren’t sure. But when we do we will tell you.
Halloween Horror Nights Catch Up
To take stock, there have already been two announcements. Both of them pretty awesome.
First up we had the no-brainer that we called last year, which was the return of American Horror Story on both coasts that was announced back on March 29th. That is super early for an announcement but, at the same time, a foregone conclusion. This franchise is perfect for an event like Halloween Horror Nights as it is an endless wellspring of environments, monsters, and is a wildly popular property.
We had to wait a month and a half for the next major announcement, which turned out to be…
Yes, the Shining would be coming to both Universal Studios Hollywood Halloween Horror Nights and Universal Orlando’s Halloween Horror Nights. Another bi-coastal announcement.
Before we begin let’s give credit to one of the most prolific tweeters on the planet, Universal Studios Hollywood Creative Director, John Murdy. He is the man behind the insanely addictive @HorrorNights Twitter account that offers updates and dialogue with fans about Universal Studios Hollywood’s Halloween Horror Nights event. If you are not following it, DO SO NOW!
With Murdy’s recent Tweet on May 5th, we here at HorrorBuzz knew that it was soon going to be time to start tracking the progress inside the park.
We are transitioning from design to production. Still a few things in design but construction on the first maze will be starting soon…
— Horror Nights (@HorrorNights) May 5, 2017
So here we go!
CODE NAMES
Every year, Creative Director for Universal Studios Hollywood and Halloween Horror Nights, John Murdy, begins toiling away at the treatments for every maze. Treatments are a written play-by-play of everything that happens in the maze. Think of it as a video walk-through, but just written down. Mr. Murdy began writing back in December, the poor guy. When he completes a treatment he devises an impossibly obtuse code name for each maze and uses it to toy with the legions of blood-thirsty fans following his twitter account.
Below are his tweets listing the code names for the mazes that he has announced so far.
Finished the 1st maze treatment for HHN 2017 at USH today. It came in at a whopping 119 pages! The code name for this maze is “Lemonade” ???
— Horror Nights (@HorrorNights) January 10, 2017
And the treatment for maze #2 comes in at a spritely 71 pages. The code name for this maze is “Charles” Now on to maze #3 #HorrorNeverSleeps
— Horror Nights (@HorrorNights) January 20, 2017
And the treatment for Maze #3 comes in at a hefty 121 pages! The code name this maze is “WRITER’S BLOCK” to go with my photo hint earlier
— Horror Nights (@HorrorNights) January 28, 2017
Finished the treatment for maze #4 today. It came in at a spritely 62 pages. I think I’ll code name this maze “The Big Chill” Hmmm…???
— Horror Nights (@HorrorNights) February 15, 2017
Nope! Still no clue, right? Well, we do find out what “Charles” is later in this article so keep reading.
Scare Zones
It seems that we will be returning to Scare Zones this year as opposed to the one long, spacious scare area that was The Purge: Election Year. Below Murdy refers to multiple zones in a tweet.
Just finished the treatment for another maze, this one came in at 72 pages. We also locked the THEMES for the scarezones for this year…
— Horror Nights (@HorrorNights) March 21, 2017
Terror Tram
We also have evidence here that a new Terror Tram theme is headed our way.
Finally finished writing all the maze treatments for HHN 2017, started in December! Now moving on to Terror Tram design…
— Horror Nights (@HorrorNights) April 13, 2017
Random HHN fact of the day. Not counting Terror Tram…have written over 600 pages of maze treatments so far this year! Yikes!
— Horror Nights (@HorrorNights) April 14, 2017
Upper Lot
We begin the in-park pics with a stroll through the upper lot. Yes, we know that The Walking Dead attraction will be operating during HHN so that is kind of the first maze, the oasis of terror that creeps out slowly and takes over the park every year.
Of course we can’t help but say hi to the amazing actors working out in the park right now.
This Doc Brown was AWESOME!
Frankenstein and the one and only Dracula
Thank GODS for our year round walkthrough attraction.
Nothing happening up here OBV
The Shining • Maze #2
Down on the lower lot we see considerable progress already on The Shining! The tent is up, walls are built, and we are beyond excited to see what will be tormenting us within.
Murdy has been pretty active on Twitter about this particular maze. We are intrigued to see what he will do with this property after referring to it over the years as a nearly impossible property to produce. This was due to the character of Jack being such a key element to the horror and the difficulty of finding enough actors that look like Jack Nicholson to play the part throughout the maze. The Walking Dead attraction demonstrated that Universal was capable of creating lifelike masks to maintain character consistency. With that particular hurdle out of the way, the gates were wide open for this property.
Below are the Tweets associated with this maze.
Doing a mock up off site today for one of the mazes. A tricky little scene we had to replicate life size to figure out who to do the effect
— Horror Nights (@HorrorNights) April 21, 2017
Construction on HHN 2017 at USH has official begun as of this morning. The tent for the first maze is going up! Yay!
— Horror Nights (@HorrorNights) May 8, 2017
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. This fall, for the first time ever, #TheShining is coming to #UniversalHHN! pic.twitter.com/1DiQfy1Whx
— Horror Nights (@HorrorNights) May 19, 2017
“You are the caretaker…you have always been the caretaker. I should know sir. I’ve always been here.” CHARLES/Delbert Grady (The Shining)
— Horror Nights (@HorrorNights) May 19, 2017
Stanley Kubrick’s Horror masterpiece “The Shining” is coming to Halloween Horror Nights! Been after this one for over a decade!
— Horror Nights (@HorrorNights) May 20, 2017
I actually wrote a lot of this maze in Ireland in the winter, listening to the wind whipping outside…the perfect setting for writing it
— Horror Nights (@HorrorNights) May 20, 2017
The Shining’s being built right now behind The Mummy ride, same location as The Exorcist last year. The code name for the maze was “Charles”
— Horror Nights (@HorrorNights) May 20, 2017
I think the trick with the Shining is to convey the feeling of what it’s like to go mad. Luckily I have a lot of experience with that! : )
— Horror Nights (@HorrorNights) May 20, 2017
The other trick is to convey the idea of Danny Torrance’s visions (The Shining) in a live experience. Not gonna say too much else…
— Horror Nights (@HorrorNights) May 20, 2017
Had to share this amazing feat of patience and concentration. Giant blue print sized paper all hand drawn by our designer Troy! Craaaazy! https://t.co/yunCqS8Qui
— Horror Nights (@HorrorNights) May 20, 2017
I will say the mock up we were doing off site a while back was for The Shining…the Grady Twins scene in particular.
— Horror Nights (@HorrorNights) May 20, 2017
Please John, PLEASE use black hallways sparingly on this one.
Jurassic Park Extended Queue
Lucky for us, the day we were shooting this update the tent for another maze popped up in the usual spot of the Jurassic Park extended queue. We still don’t have any dea what this maze will be, but stay tuned.
Lower Lot
With the visible progress of Halloween Horror Nights and Mazes and all things scary out of the way, we now move to newsworthy bits from the park. Here we see the expanse on the lower lot that has been alocated for theme park use. What is coming? There are ideas being tossed around. We are just praying it’s not another screen-based attraction.
Incidentally, the fire station backstage is being expanded too.
Star Way
Meanwhile, the width of the Star Way is growing. We can see that the awning is being extended out to accommodate a wider path.
New York Streets
Out on the New York Streets section of the Backlot, there is a lot of substantial earth moving happening.
This is obviously tied to the adjacent construction of the new sound stages and the draining of the lake. Once the lake is filled in, we can expect to see this stuff moved.
Studio Tour
Of course, it just wouldn’t be a Universal Hollywood update without a few shots from the world Famous Studio Tour. This attraction, for you out-of-towners, was the original movie based attraction. Here at Universal Studios Hollywood guests board the Studio Tour and drive through the actual working movie studio.
As time went on, staged scenes were added to plus up the experience. First it was an avalanche, then a flood, then the parting of the Red Sea and a collapsing bridge. Soon Jaws was added to the tour in a lagoon, Battlestar Galactica, King Kong, Earthquake, all were added as attractions on the tour.
Universal Studios Hollywood is a working movie studio that became a theme park. When the Florida park was constructed, they had the ability to create a theme park that resembled a working movie studio with stand alone attractions that resemble what we had here in Los Angeles.
To this day you can still ride through the studio and see the actual movie sets that were used in film and TV. It is pretty amazing and there isn’t anything like it anywhere else in the world.
And that is that for this weeks Universal Studios Hollywood Halloween Horror Nights Tracker. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Youtube for the latest HHN news. Don’t forget to follow the #HHNTracker tag too!
OH! one more bit from Murdy…
Digging the facade concept we’ve come up with for the last maze I’m writing. Our own twist on the property and horror fandom in general.
— Horror Nights (@HorrorNights) May 25, 2017
That man. Mr. Murdy you are a MONSTER! and we love you for it. See you all in the fog!
