On Friday, September 18th, Universal Studios Hollywood kicked off the haunting season in grand fashion with their annual Halloween Horror Nights, which celebrates everything we love about this time of year: monsters, mayhem, unexpected frights, and ghouls waiting to terrorize you at every turn. This is my seventh year attending HHN and I can say that this may very well be one of the best years yet, all created by designer John Murdy and his entire team who worked tirelessly to bring the gruesome festivities to life.

While I enjoyed everything about the experience at Universal Studios overall, the three standout attractions for me at this year’s Halloween Horror Nights were the Halloween, Crimson Peak and This is the End 3D mazes, and all for very different reasons. With the Halloween house, attendees get immersed into the world of the first three films from the series, which was an enjoyable twist for me, especially since Halloween III generally exists outside the Michael Myers universe. Doctor Loomis is also a central figure to the maze, as his famous “Devil’s Eyes” monologue greets you at the entrance and we see his epic showdown with Myers later on as well. You also get tormented by "monster kids" who wear the iconic Season of the Witch masks at one point, and one of my favorite bits was walking through a funhouse-style maze of mirrors stacked with endless Michaels from start to finish.

The Crimson Peak maze was a thing of horrific beauty. I’ve managed to stay away from most of the trailers and teasers for Guillermo del Toro’s upcoming ghost story, so thankfully the Horror Nights attraction didn’t really give away too much in regards to the details of the plot. Some of the creatures were so magnificently twisted-looking, though, that I really just wanted to spend hours wandering around, and I thought the design of the actual maze itself was stunning, dripping in a creepy gothic aesthetic. October and Crimson Peak cannot get here fast enough.

The biggest surprise for me, though, was the This is the End 3D maze, which did a fantastic job blending together laughs and real scares, something that’s not easy to do with haunted attractions. I’m a big fan of the film itself and Murdy and his collaborators found some really clever ways of using specific set pieces from the film to throw attendees right into the middle of the apocalyptic chaos from This is the End, providing you with a few chuckles to boot (a personal favorite moment of mine was the guy dressed like Craig Robinson, who greets you at the Pearly Gates with a “welcome to heaven, mutha f----s”, which had me cracking up). On a side note, there is a gimp included in the maze as well, but to my dismay, it was not Channing Tatum.

This year’s The Walking Dead attraction was also a blast, as the maze is probably one of the biggest featured at Halloween Horror Nights and effectively took us through some of the major events from season five. A nice bonus to this maze was that before you even entered Terminus, there was a gaggle of walkers positioned outside the entrance so that you already had to be on your toes even before entering. The Insidious maze was also really cool but sadly, it was the worst-paced event of the night as we ended up being jammed in each room with at least 20 other folks at every turn, which made it hard to enjoy all the creepiness going on inside.

The Purge Terror Tram was another highlight for me at the 2015 Horror Nights, as you are forced to survive by making your way through the backlot area, fending off hordes of Founding Father supporters who are on the hunt for new victims for the annual purging. This year’s Scare Zones were also a lot of fun—Dark Christmas was an area I really dug from 2014 and due to popular demand, it was brought back again this year (much like last year’s Alien Vs. Predator maze), and I thought the concepts behind both the Exterminatorz and Corpz areas were really well-executed too.

If you’re in the Los Angeles area or are planning on being out here sometime before Halloween, I cannot recommend Horror Nights enough. By and large, this is truly one of the best years for the event and some of the tweaks Murdy and his cohorts have made to this year’s celebration make it a truly spectacular time all-around. I do always recommend picking up Front of Line passes just because the wait time for general admission can eat up the bulk of your evening (most wait times last night hovered around the 80-minute mark) and getting through the lines faster only ensures that you can enjoy all the mayhem for yourself without wasting too much of your time.

For information on the 2015 Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood, or to grab your tickets early, click HERE or visit www.halloweenhorrornights.com.

  • Heather Wixson
    About the Author - Heather Wixson

    Heather A. Wixson was born and raised in the Chicago suburbs, until she followed her dreams and moved to Los Angeles in 2009. A 14-year veteran in the world of horror entertainment journalism, Wixson fell in love with genre films at a very early age, and has spent more than a decade as a writer and supporter of preserving the history of horror and science fiction cinema. Throughout her career, Wixson has contributed to several notable websites, including Fangoria, Dread Central, Terror Tube, and FEARnet, and she currently serves as the Managing Editor for Daily Dead, which has been her home since 2013. She's also written for both Fangoria Magazine & ReMind Magazine, and her latest book project, Monsters, Makeup & Effects: Volume One will be released on October 20, 2021.