HalloweenAlbert LamAugust 02, 2016Long Beach Convention CenterLong Beach, Long Beach Convention Center, Universal Studios Hollywood, Halloween Horror Nights, panel, Midsummer ScreamComment

Midsummer Scream 2016: Universal Studios Hollywood Halloween Horror Nights Panel

HalloweenAlbert LamAugust 02, 2016Long Beach Convention CenterLong Beach, Long Beach Convention Center, Universal Studios Hollywood, Halloween Horror Nights, panel, Midsummer ScreamComment

Long Beach Convention Center

Our second Midsummer Scream update of the day takes us to the Saturday headlining panel featuring Universal Studio Hollywood's Halloween Horror Nights. Creative Director John Murdy and Art Director/Production Designer Chris Williams took the stage in what turned out to be the most enlightening presentation of the weekend.

In a noticeable departure from previous year's presentations at Scare L.A., Murdy and Williams did not announce any new mazes or bring any special guests. Instead, they gave a detailed overview of the history and evolution of past Horror Nights mazes featuring this year's icons--the Big Four--Freddy Krueger, Jason Vorhees, Michael Myers, and Leatherface. Their talk went over designs and tricks used in previous mazes themed to A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Halloween, and Texas Chainsaw Massacre, then continued with details about the mazes premiering this year themed to these franchises. It was more of a "behind the scenes" discussion than a big unveil, though Murdy and Williams did reveal certain previously secret details of the new mazes for 2016.

Murdy and Williams began their talk with a history of Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood in its current iteration. After bringing it back in 2006, they were able to implement their master plan in 2007 of "bringing horror movies to life." In other words, transporting guests into iconic scenes and moments from their favorite horror films.

They then went over the three mazes themed to Freddy, Jason, Michael Myers, and Leatherface for 2016. There was a familiar formula: review past HHN mazes themed to these icons and talk about the evolution of props and effects and scare tactics used in these mazes that paved the way for similar effects to be used prevalently elsewhere.

Many standard Horror Nights gags evolved from rudimentary form and were developed in past versions of A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Halloween, and Texas Chainsaw Massacre mazes.

Effects like: using lighting and a two-way mirror to allow a scareactor to startle through the glass, or the living/fake statue trick, or stretching walls (moving hands and faces through fabric), monsters bursting out of prop bodies, and using puppetry and animatronics for dramatic scares.

The Freddy vs Jason maze will be set behind the facade of the abandoned boiler factory that staged their climactic fight, and it will vary the victor with more than one ending, enticing repeat visits. A tribute to Wes Craven will also be tucked in as an easter egg tribute to the classic horror director.

Meanwhile, the Texas Chainsaw Massacre maze envisions a sequel that was never made--an original story featuring Leatherface and his brother, bringing guests into scenes never really shown in the movies but inferred.

The Halloween II maze will pick off right off the events of the original (and last year's maze), taking guests through all the iconic sequences of the sequel. Murdy and Williams know they have big shoes to fill, following up on last year's highest rated HHN maze ever.

Here are the NUMEROUS slides shown during the presentation: