The Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights 2019 Mazes Ranked
I love going to haunted attractions during the Halloween season! It’s one of my favorite times of the year, and Universal Studios’ Halloween Horror Nights is always a must-go! They’ve always put on an extremely fun show, and they fill their theme park with lots of mazes to terrify the guests.
I had the opportunity to attend opening night of Halloween Horror Nights last week, and it was a ton of fun! They had some great mazes this year, and I ranked them below from best to worst.
I do have to say that I was a little disappointed this year because it was the first year that I’ve gone where they didn’t have the Terror Tram! I l always enjoyed the Terror Tram and being able to walk around Bates Motel and the iconic Psycho house. It’s a shame they ditched it this year. In its place they had little mazes for Us and Curse of Pandora’s Box.
The lines to get into these mazes are super long if you don’t have an Express Pass, so if you want to make a prioritized list of what mazes you should hit up first, here's my list.
Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man
This was by far my favorite maze. I love the classic Universal Monsters, and this one brings to life Frankenstein and The Wolfman in a very cool a nightmarish way. There was a lot of effort and care put into creating this maze and the costumes.
guests will follow in the footsteps of the Frankenstein Monster, lured by exotic music towards a nearby gypsy camp while desperately seeking sanctuary from a mob of angry villagers determined to destroy him. It is within the gypsy encampment that the Frankenstein Monster meets The Wolf Man and where the madness begins as guests are led along a path of destruction through the murky Moors, to a creepy cemetery and into the smoldering ruins of Castle Frankenstein and its icy cellars beneath.”
Creepshow
As a longtime fan of the Creepshow franchise, this maze experience packs quite a punch with all of the crazy and terrifying stuff they packed into it from the classic anthology films. There was actually some pretty grotesque and scary stuff to enjoy!
Capturing the essence of the original film that touted, “the most fun you’ll have getting scared,” to Shudder’s assertion that “a new generation of horror has risen from the dead,” the five frightening fables featured in the maze include:
“Father’s Day” – Years ago Nathan Grantham, the cruel patriarch of the wealthy Grantham family, was murdered by his long-suffering daughter on Father’s Day. Now Nathan’s maggot-infested corpse has risen from the grave to take revenge on his inheritors…and finally claim his Father’s Day cake.
“The Crate” – An unlucky janitor finds a long-forgotten shipping crate under the stairs of a science hall in a small east coast college. Little does he know, the crate contains a ravenous beast that’s been hibernating for over a hundred years…and it’s just woken up.
“They’re Creeping Up On You” – Eccentric billionaire Upson Pratt lives in a hermetically sealed “germ proof” penthouse apartment in Manhattan but he still has a bug problem. When a citywide blackout cuts his power, Mr. Pratt’s pest problem is about to get a whole lot worse.
“Gray Matter” – Ritchie Grenadine, an alcoholic former factory worker, unknowingly ingests a strange mutagen after guzzling a can of cheap beer. Now an alien fungus has taken over his rundown apartment and his body…creating in him an insatiable hunger that can’t be quenched by his favorite ale.
“Bad Wolf Down” – The surviving members of a decimated American army platoon in the North of France during World War II are holed up in a small village jail awaiting the German army to overwhelm them. The clever lot, however, have an ace up their sleeve that the German’s won’t expect; the men are all werewolves and tonight is a full moon.
Ghostbusters
I wasn’t sure how this maze would end up, but it was blast! What I liked most about this maze was how inventive the creative team got when trying to bring aspects of the original film to life for the fans, and they succeeded in their efforts to deliver something great.
In each maze, guests will follow in the footsteps of the Ghostbusters – Peter, Ray, Egon and Winston – as they venture through artfully recreated scenes from the film, including the firehouse, New York Public Library and the Temple of Gozer, as an army of ghoulish spirits, hideous specters and ectoplasm-dripping phantasms attack from every corner. As they delve deeper into the maze, guests will come face-to-face with an array of paranormal creatures, from the voracious Slimer to the all-powerful Gozer the Gozerian and in its ultimate destructor form – the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, to brave the demonic spirits and survive the night.
Holidayz in Hell
This was actually pretty terrifying. It put a horrific twist on each of the major holidays of the year. The maze was film with all kinds of creepy-ass creatures and blood-filled holiday brutality. There are parts of this maze that are sure to disturb you.
Inspired by the popular scare zone of the same name, the “Holidayz in Hell” maze will feature an original score by Electronic Music Artist and Producer Figure and offer guests new reasons to dread the holidays. A tortured Tunnel of Love, inhabited by a crazed Cupid on a quest for hearts to break or take will make this Valentine’s Day anything but romantic; an unhinged Uncle Sam will create a sinister July 4th killerbration; treacherous turkeys will gobble, gobble an unsuspecting family; and a sick Santa will adorn Christmas Trees with human body parts, with many other milestone killer holidays.
Ah, the Holidayz from Hell have arrived.
Those who survive the Holidayz need not let down their guard just yet as a creepy Christmas-themed scare zone with additional frights awaits to fill beating hearts with holiday fear.
Curse of Pandora’s Box
This was an original idea for a maze that was created and because of that it was refreshing. Most mazes at Universal are based on an existing property, but this one tries to do something different and unique. They did a fantastic job bringing this to life and I loved the concept, creatures, and madness that they brought to it.
Greed is the underlying theme of this all-new maze, resurrected from Universal Studios Hollywood’s vault of masterful storytelling that transports guests from the land of the living into the nightmarish netherworld of Hades. The scene begins with “Pandora’s Cabinet of Curiosities,” a dilapidated storefront set in modern times that is, nonetheless, eerily reminiscent of a structure that belongs in the dark and dangerous back alleys of Victorian London.
Amid every occultist artefacts and forbidden relics known to man, the bizarre shop houses an all-consuming collection of evil trapped behind glass-encased cabinets, including a giant, ornate box inlaid with human bones and adorned with the silhouette of a mysterious woman clasping her body with skeletal arms.
As guests pass through the shop they will hear a faint, yet seductive voice echoing the words, “anything can be acquired, anything our hearts desire,” beckoning maze-goers to tempt fate, just as a cataclysmic earthquake erupts, shaking the shop and swinging open the ornate box to awaken a demonic voice whispering in a foreign tongue to “come inside.”
Once Pandora’s Box has been opened and evil unleashed, it can never be closed again.
Killer Klowns from Outer Space
If you’re a fan the classic film that this film is based on you are looking for a WTF experience, this is the maze for you. It wasn’t the greatest maze that they had this year, but it’s still entertaining!
Based on the cult 1980s film favorite, the “Killer Klowns from Outer Space” mazes will transport guests to the sleepy small town of Crescent Cove, taken over by a pack of murderous clown-like creatures. Guests will be lured by the sweet smell of cotton candy and ice-cream and find themselves in an otherworldly circus tent where they’ll come face-to-face with the crazed klowns and their sinister, side-splitting antics. As they make their way through the Big Top Space Ship, guests will witness diabolical klowns making cotton candy cocoons from unsuspecting victims and will realize the joke’s on them as they are next to become the gooey snack. From one shrieking klown to the next, the mazes will lead guests through the doomed community of Crescent Cove to an eerie amusement park closed for the season. Trapped in a terrifying funhouse full of killer klowns, guests will be left screaming as there’s no stopping this twisted three-ring circus.
House of 1000 Corpses
I was never a fan of Rob Zombie’s House of 1000 Corpses, but it sure does make for a crazy maze! I mean, the movie is basically a hellish Halloween maze experience, and it works so much better when you actually get to walk through the House of 1000 Corpses in real life.
The terrifying “House of 1000 Corpses” mazes bring to life the movie’s offbeat roadside tourist attraction, Captain Spaulding’s Museum of Monsters and Madmen, and introduces guests to some of the country’s most infamous serial killers, including Dr. Satan, a demented surgeon who has gone mad.
Without a moment to catch their breath, guests will venture to the chaotic home of the Firefly family, a sadistic clan of psychotic killers, where the psychosis deepens and the depraved thrive. It is a chilling journey into the netherworld of terror that weaves its way through a cavernous network of dark tunnels within the bowels of the house. Populated by the degenerate victims of Dr. Satan’s debauched operations, legions of tortured creatures shuffle about as Dr. Satan continues his twisted medical practice, eagerly awaiting a new installment of victims.
Stranger Things
With as popular and Stranger Things is, you’d think that it would get a maze worthy of the show. This was the first maze that I walked through and it ended up being a disappointment. It lacked the punch that we all love about the series. I hate to say it, but I was kinda board walking through it. But, if you’re a fan of Stranger Things, of course you’re going to want to check it out!
This year’s chilling mazes pick up where last year’s mazes left off, continuing the suspenseful storyline where a predatory entity terrorizes the small town of Hawkins, Indiana, and delving even further into the parallel universe, referred to as the Upside Down.
The mazes on both coasts will also parallel the hit show as it leaps forward to 1985, taking guests on a terrifying excursion through portions of “Stranger Things 3,” which begins streaming July 4 on Netflix.
As with the previous mazes, Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal Orlando Resort are partnering with Netflix and the creators and executive producers of “Stranger Things” to create authentic representations of the blockbuster series.
The Walking Dead
This is actually a year-around attraction. It's great! But since it's year around you really don't need to rush out and see it.
Enter the post-apocalyptic world of AMC’s “The Walking Dead”. Prepare to fight for survival in a fully immersive journey as you navigate through a world overrun by walkers with an insatiable appetite for the living. Follow in the footsteps of the human survivors as you battle your way through nightmarish iconic landscapes that bring the most popular cable TV show in history to life!
Us
I don’t know what happened with this one. While I loved the movie, this maze is a major bummer. If you’ve seen the film, you know exactly what you’re going to get, only it feels like they just didn’t really put any effort into it. It could’ve been good, but if you miss out on this one, don’t worry, you didn’t miss much.
Featuring the unnerving labyrinth of underground tunnels that stretch from coast to coast below America, to the disorienting and the ominous uprising of “The Tethered”— doppelgängers of every living man, woman and child in the country—the “Us” maze will place guests at the heart of this living nightmare where they quickly realize they are their own worst enemy.
The journey begins circa 1986 as guests follow in the footsteps of the young girl they first meet as Adelaide Wilson as she innocently ventures through a mirror funhouse at the Santa Cruz boardwalk and has a fateful and traumatic encounter with her tethered doppelgänger, an event that will forever alter both of their lives. The harrowing experience will then transition to present day, thrusting guests into the chaos of “The Tethered” uprising as they emerge from their tunnels to murder their privileged doubles in a nationwide coordinated act of rebellion.
