An article concerning Halloween Horror Nights: Reflections of Fear written by a currently unknown author:
Transcription[]
In a child’s world every ending to a story is happy; Dorothy returns to Kansas, Sleeping Beauty awakes, and that nasty little frog becomes “Prince Charming”. What happens however, when those beloved characters lose and the wicked reign? The answer is Halloween Horror Nights 18 (HHN), at Universal Studios in Orlando, Fla. Some remember the childhood game of looking into a mirror and chanting “Bloody Mary”. What happened after the name was repeated differs among people, but it is assumed that only bad was to be expected.
The team at HHN understood and agreed that Mary was one scary lady, so much so that they centered the theme around her. “Bloody Mary is one of the most-widely recognized urban legends of all time,” Jim Timon, senior vice-president of entertainment for Universal Orlando Resort, said. “If you stand in front of a mirror and chant her name three times you will bring her forth. You will conjure her. She’s a spirit bringing darkness and evil upon you so every guest at HHN 18 is stepping through Mary’s mirror and is going to live that nightmare.”
HHN 18 has an action packed horrifying event in store with three mazes, three live shows, six scare zones and eight houses. From the houses to the scare zones everything is based off of myths, urban legends, fairy tales and folklore. They all have one thing in common. They reside behind Mary’s mirror. “We knew we wanted to do something supernatural,” said Michael Roddy, manager of show development. “We wanted it to be scarier than ever before and so we started doing research about urban legends and Bloody Mary was the number two most recognized across the board.” According to Roddy, Amityville Horror was the number one most known, but after he and his team discussed they realized there was not a lot to do with that theme. “Bloody Mary is this vocal bringer of tales,” Roddy said. “So we said alright everything in the park, everything on the property lets tie into an urban legend, story, fable and so what happens is when you say Bloody Mary and she breaks that mirror she brings you into her world which is the opposite of everything you know. So all of those fairy tales you grew up watching everything from “Cinderella”, to “Alice in Wonderland” to the “Wizard of Oz” is a mirrored reflection of that.”
One of the examples Roddy uses is a scare zone entitled “the Path of the Wicked”. While walking through this particular street guests will see the aftermath of the Wicked Witch if she had won. There is no more Dorothy, the Scare-Crow has gone insane, and the Tin Man, with an ax replaced for a hand, looks for a heart through murder while flying monkeys come from flying from above. Show Director, Michael Aiello, helped create the back story behind “Bloody Mary”. “We placed her back story in 1958 which was cool because everything from that year coincides exactly with this year,” Aiello said. “This character is named Dr. Mary Agana, Agana meaning blood. Her back story is in 1958 and she was a psychotherapist whose study was fear. She believed if you truly feared something and were expose to that enough times you would get over it.” Mary’s clients were not the only ones who had a nightmare. She had her own fear in the form of death. “In her own sick and twisted mind she can’t help anyone until she helps herself,” Aiello said. “So in order to experience death she needs to see it and so she started luring people into her clinic under the guidelines that she is going to help them with their fears but at the same time overcome hers by taking them out in various ways that played off their fears.”
If Mary is not enough to “scare the pants” off an individual maybe Jack “the Ripper” and Sweeny Todd could in “Body Collectors” or perhaps “Asylum in Wonderland” which is a scare zone where everything is nonsense. HHN does not only offer scary adventures but entertainment too for those of the fair hearted. “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Halloween Adventure” spoofs on the biggest movies of this year like “Hancock”, “Sex in the City”, “Hell Boy”, “the Dark Knight” and “Sweeny Todd”. The show even cracks jokes at John McCain, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. As soon as one enters the park and the mirror breaks they are immersed into the world of Halloween. There is no escape until the guests leave the park. No one place is safe except for the bathrooms and who knows what may be lurking in there.
Article Link[]
article (link inactive)