| Halloween Horror Nights Hollywood attraction | |
|---|---|
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| Universal Monsters: Unmasked | |
| Attraction type | Haunted House |
| Event | Halloween Horror Nights 2023 |
| Park | Universal Studios Hollywood |
| Area | Upper Lot |
| Year | 2023 |
| Housed in | Curious George Tent 2 |
| Based on | Universal Classic Monsters |
| Preceded By | Universal Monsters: Legends Collide (2022) |
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Universal Monsters: Unmasked was one of the eight haunted houses that were featured during Halloween Horror Nights 2023. It was located in Curious George Tent 2.
History[]
On July 28th, 2023, Universal Studios Hollywood announced that Universal Monsters: Unmasked would be featured as a haunted house during Halloween Horror Nights 2023 (Hollywood).
Description[]
Four Universal Monsters. One New Nightmare.[]
Descend into the Paris Catacombs, where you and your squad will face a new horde of Monsters: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the Phantom of the Opera, the Hunchback of Notre Dame and the Invisible Man.
Lurking sixty feet beneath the bustling streets of the City of Lights, the dank Catacombs of Paris house a much darker secret. . . The all-new haunted house “Universal Monsters: Unmasked” takes guests down into the infamous burial grounds where every corner and crevice overflows with millions of skeletal remains and even more sinister secrets. Deep within the Catacombs, Universal’s most notorious creatures – The Phantom of the Opera, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Dr. Jack Griffin, aka The Invisible Man – also lie in wait as they bide their time and seek vengeance against guests after the opening of the Catacombs to public visitation.
Once again, Slash is creating an original score for the west coast version of the “Universal Monsters: Unmasked” haunted house.
Backstory[]
Once upon a time in Paris...sixty feet beneath the streets of Paris , there is an empire of the dead. The bones of six million prisoners are buried there in an underground catacomb but something else is down there too. The Phantom of The Opera, The Palais Grande better known as The Paris Opera House, in his underground, The Phantom is down there but he's not alone, there's someone else down there too. Quasimodo, The Hunchback of Notre Dame is literally underground. Meanwhile in London...the local authorities are searching for two doctors who are involved with unethical, illegal experiments. The first doctor is Dr. Jack Griffin better known as The Invisible Man, the second doctor is Dr. Henry Jekyll whose experiments have led him to embrace the darker side of his nature known as Mr. Edward Hyde.
Settings[]
- Paris
- Catacombs of Paris
- The Phantom's Lair
- Medieval Torture Chamber
- Jekyll's Laboratory
- Cabaret De La Mort
- Cloakroom
Scareactors[]
- The Phantom of the Opera x Various
- Quasimodo x 3
- Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde x Various
- Invisible Man x1
- Madame Squelette x 2
- Frollo
- Cabaret Show Victim
- Red Death x 2
Experience[]
Queue and Facade[]
Guests enter through a facade modeled from an English-language French newspaper La Bella De Paris, informing us that the infamous Paris Catacombs are now open for visitors. However, the locals are skeptical; the workers who’ve gone into the catacombs to prepare it for opening have all mysteriously vanished.
Haunted House[]
Guests enter a dark hallway and come upon to the first cue card that reads "Paris! City of Lights! But under her streets darkness reigns!" as guests walk pass the card a stone sign can be seen above the that reads "Stop! THIS IS THE EMPIRE OF THE DEAD" as guests move forward on their left rats can be seen crawling and eating into carriage as they proceed through the curtain.
Guests enter the next room where on their left the Phantom attacks as they go right they pass walls of skulls on either side as they make another right where they see the silhouette of The Phantom laughing near another sign on their right. The sign reads “THIS IS THE EMPIRE OF THE DEAD, THE CITADEL OF SHADOWS, THE DOMINION OF THE DEPARTED, HERE SILENCE IS KING AND DARKNESS REIGNS.” As they make a left into the next room where the Phantom reaches out holding a hangman's room as guests make a right exiting out of the room.
Guests then enter a hallway of hanging dead bodies that they must maneuver through as they are about to make a right into the next room Phantom lunges out on their left with his hangman rope.
Guests enter a black room with another cue card on their right that reads "Far beneath the Paris Opera house lies the Phantom's lair!" as they make a left to the next room.
Guests enter into The Phantom's Lair where Erik can be seen playing on his organ on their right as guests continue forward the body of Christine can be seen on the steps a few feet from him as guests continue move forward around the corner the Phantom attacks on their right causing them to go left into a stone hallway and exit through a curtain.
Guests enter another black room where another cue card can be seen on their left reading "notre dame, its holy spires rise over scenes of depredation, and death!" as guests enter the next room on their left the body of Esmeralda can be seen hanging next to her another victim as guests continue forward on their left Quasimodo can be seen torturing Frollo by ripping his legs off in a torture device as Frollo pleaded as guests exit the room through another curtain.
Guests were in a stone hallway and elevated above was Quasimodo as he called out to guests as he dropped his cauldron as smoke bellowed out and filled the room as guests made a left into the next room.
Guests entered another dark room where another cue card on their right that read "Far from prying eyes of police. Dr. Jekyll continues his forbidden experiments." guests continued to their left and enter to the next room.
Guests enter the next room and find themselves in Dr. Jekyll's laboratory where he can be seen staring in the mirror as the lights go out and he begins to glow from black-light as he transforms into Mr. Hyde as guests exit the room.
Guests enter the next room which is dark they continue forward as they hear growls and flesh being ripped along with screams as they exit through the curtain.
Guests enter another dark room where another cue card can be seen on their left that reads "Death! Life's Ultimate Entertainment as they walk pass they enter the next room where they are in front of the facade of the Cabaret De Lamort as the room flickered between lighting and black-light, a sign can be seen on the left of guests as they enter through the mouth of the Cabaret.
Guests enter through a black hallway a sign up ahead reads "Cloakroom" as guests make a left into the next room where The Invisible Man could be seen on the right of guests taunting them and telling to move along that the show is going to be begin as guests exit the room.
Guests enter the Cabaret where guests make a left and on their right rows of corpses sit in chairs as on the left of guests is a stage as flesh can be heard being ripped and a woman screaming follow by the growling of Mr. Hyde as guests continue forward to the next room.
Guests enter a stone wall hallway where Madame Squelette can be seen in a motion portrait on the walk talking to guests as they make a right into the next room.
Guests enter a dark hallway where on their left they're attacked by the Red Death and on their right a spinning projection of a ball circle of skulls as they continue forward The Phantom attacks them on their left as on their right nearing the exit The Red Death stiltwalker lungs at guests as they exit the house.
Quotes[]
- "Paris! City of Lights! But underneath her streets darkness reigns!" - Madame Squelette
- "Paris, the city of light but underneath her bustling boulevards and noisy cafes silence is key and darkness reigns!" - Madame Squelette
- "We dead welcome you to our world of shadow knowing soon you will be one of us!" - Madame Squelette
- "... will run red with your blood. And 60 feet below the surface, your screams will be as silent as the grave. Bon voyage! Tell them Madame Squelette sent you." - Madame Squelette
- "Notre Dame, its holy spires rise over scenes of depredation, and death!" - Madame Squelette
- "You killed her!" - Quasimodo
- No! No! Please, AHHHHHHHH - Frollo
- Come, be baptized, by fire! - Quasimodo
- "Close the door! You're letting in a draft!" - The Invisible Man
- "Far from prying eyes of police. Dr. Jekyll continues his forbidden experiments." - Madame Squelette
- "I'm Dr. Henry Jekyll, I'm Dr. Henry Jekyll, I'm Dr. Henry Jekyll, I'm Dr. Henry Jekyll!" - Dr. Henry Jekyll
- "I'm Mr. Edward Hyde!" - Hyde
- "Hyde... Hyde." - Hyde
- "Death! Death! Death!" -Hyde
- "Death! Life's Ultimate Entertainment!" - Madame Squelette
- "Enter and be damned!"
- "Hurry up you fools the shows about to start! I hear its to die for! - The Invisible Man
Pictures[]
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Videos[]
Trivia[]
- This house is tribute to the 100th anniversary of the Hunchback and and monsters.
- John Murdy on the Jekyll/Hyde Monster debate stated that he is a “Universal Monster” and “predates the move out west when it was a silent film. Jekyll/Hyde is now a part of the family”.
- The haunted house will feature designs created by Crash McCreary and Lucas Culshaw who have worked on past Monster houses with Hollywood dating back to the first haunted house in 2019.
- The facade of the haunted house will make use of infamous talking skeletons The Bonesy Brothers and using projections to animate a news paper to explain the story of the house.
- Crash McReary created the Key art for this haunted house and designed Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde for the haunted house.
- According to John Murdy, the house all takes place underground in the catacombs, guests would see The Phantoms Lair among other things.
- According to Murdy, he had said the Hyde costume, the performer would have look out the mouth because the costume is a bit oversized.
- According to Murdy, Phantom and Hyde will appear the most in the house.
- Silent movie-inspired title cards transition the house into each character’s domain.
- In the Phantom’s lair guests will find themselves inside a recreation of the iconic unmasking scene from the 1925 silent classic.
- According to Murdy in this: Scenic costs came in too high so they had to cut two elements, the last scene was supposed to be all mirrors (even on the ceiling).
- According to this: the working title for the house was “Silent Screams.” since 2023 was the 100th anniversary of the silent classic “Hunchback of Notre Dame,” the film that started it all.
- According to this: Murdy wrote all the copy for the newspaper facade. It’s all taken from events that were happening in Paris at the time thatw story takes place, including the 1st performance of “Danse Macabre” and 1st exhibition of The Impressionist painters (the critics hated both at the time).
- According to this: Since there were literally hundreds of newspapers in Paris during the 19th century, Murdy needed to create a fictional one with a name he was sure none of them used. “Berla” sounds French but it’s actually the Irish word for English.
- According to this: The idea for the title cards that set up the various scenes/monsters came from our own silent films, which often featured little illustrations. In this case the text is all stuff Murdy wrote, artwork was by their resident artist Lucas Culshaw.
- According to this: The plaques inside the catacombs ossuary really exist (in the real one in Paris) but Murdy had to rewrite them because the ones in Paris are Latin translations of real poems.
- According to this: The Rat Lady (AKA Madame Squelette) is not from the Universal films. She was an original character based on Madame DeFarge (Dicken’s Tale of Two Cities) and pictures of small pox victims Murdy researched. Her make up took roughly 90 minutes to apply.
- According to this: The chosen design for Mr. Hyde was a collaboration between the Hollywood and Orlando team and creature creator Crash McCreery. Both coasts wanted to create something oversized that had some primordial qualities.
- According to this: The torture chamber scene was pulled from both the film & novel. Esmeralda was hanging in the scene because she dies in the novel but murdy and co. took it a step further and killed her dancing goat too.
| Halloween Horror Nights Hollywood 2023 |
|---|
| Characters: Chucky • Ellie Williams • Joel Miller • Clickers • Vecna • Eleven • Angela • Katherine • The Phantom of the Opera • Quasimodo • Invisible Man • Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde • La Lechuza • El Silbón • Muerte • Tlahuelpuchi • Deadite Ellie |
| Haunted Houses: Chucky: Ultimate Kill Count • The Last of Us • Stranger Things 4 • The Exorcist: Believer • Universal Monsters: Unmasked • Monstruos: The Monsters of Latin America • Evil Dead Rise • Holidayz in Hell (Haunted Maze) |
| Terror Tram: Terror Tram: The Exterminatorz |
| Scarezones: Ghostz • Toyz • El Terror de las Momias |
| Shows: The Purge: Dangerous Waters • Blumhouse: Behind the Screams |