An article concerning Halloween Horror Nights 2008 (Hollywood) written by the DailyBreeze:
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Never mind the body-bagged corpses hanging from the ceiling or the bloody stew of who-knows-what simmering on the kitchen stove. At Universal Studios’ Halloween Horror Nights, it’s the actual stench wafting from the “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” maze that says it best: “Boo!” just doesn’t cut it anymore.
“We’re trying to scare the living daylights out of you,” said John Murdy, creative director for Halloween Horror Nights, running weekends through Nov. 1. “We want to psychologically affect our guests, and we use all the tools at our disposal to do that.”
It’s the third year for the autumnal horror extravaganza, an event in which the 415-acre Hollywood theme park and movie studio is transformed into one big scare zone populated by some of Universal’s (and New Line Cinema’s) most notorious bad guys – namely Freddy from “A Nightmare on Elm Street,” Jason from “Friday the 13 th” and Leatherface from “A The Texas Chainsaw Chain Saw Massacre.”
The 13-night event takes Universal’s “Live the movies” motto a step further.
Visitors will feel splatters of blood (er, water) hit their skin as Leatherface hacks off victims’ body parts; they’ll feel temperatures drop as they walk through a freezer full of dead bodies; they’ll smell the scent of antiseptic inside a bloody hospital delivery room.
To scary-movie fans, it’s all, delightfully horrific.
Maze highlights (if you can call them that) include a scene, famous to “Friday the 13 th” fans, in which Jason impales a fornicating couple. The no-doubt-exhausted actress on the bottom screams wildly for help as visitors walk past her.
And, the “Nightmare on Elm Street” maze features a scene in which a gleeful Freddy force-feeds an anorexic girl until she finally bursts, spewing bright green vomit across the room.
“During that scene, we literally pump in the scent of vomit,” Murdy said, adding that, to do that, Universal worked with companies that specialize in what he calls “the dark side of aromatherapy.”
“We can’t have Jason physically kill our guests, so we have to find other ways of invading their personal space.”
This year, for the first time ever, the normally G-rated Universal Studios tram ride lets people off to explore the undeveloped hills on the fringes of Universal’s back lot, where empty dirt-path trails have been converted into “Camp Crystal Lake.” (For those who don’t know, it’s the location for most of “Friday the 13th’s” murderous carnage.)
Guests then weave their way past the actual set of the Bates Motel and “Psycho” house and through a set from “The War of the Worlds.”
Murdy said the nearly eight-month process of building Halloween Horror Nights is “like making four movies simultaneously.” He added that the moviemakers behind the respective films are consulted every step along the way in an effort to keep the ominous ambience authentic.
“What we’re trying to do is create a living horror movie, as if you’ve walked through the screen and you’re stuck in the movie,” Murdy said. “When you watch a movie, no matter how scary it is, it’s a passive experience.”
It turns out, fear has its rewards. Experts say horror movies and haunted houses can create an addictive sort of adrenaline rush – a high that makes paying $54 to have someone “scare the living daylights out of you” seem, well, maybe not so strange, after all.
“One of the odder aspects of human nature is our willingness to pay money to actually get scared,” Vanderbilt psychology professor and fear studies expert David Zald told The Associated Press. “Essentially, we get off on the excitement. We get a high arousal state, and we actually find that appealing.”
And there’s no shortage of screamers. According to Hauntworld.com, a Web site devoted to the haunted-house industry, haunted attractions generate between $300 million and $500 million in ticket sales each year.
In fact, a recent study of more than 8,000 Americans showed 18.1 percent of people (up 2 percent from last year) will celebrate this Halloween season with a visit to a haunted house. More than 50 percent of people surveyed said they would visit some sort of Halloween attraction, be it a haunted house, corn maze, hay maze or pumpkin patch.
See? Alfred Hitchcock knew it all along:
“Civilization has become so protective that we’re no longer able to get our goose bumps instinctively,” Hitchcock said circa 1960 in defense of the then-controversial “Psycho.” “The only way to remove the numbness and revive our moral equilibrium is to use artificial means to bring about the shock.”
Bring it on.
PREVIEW[]
HALLOWEEN HORROR NIGHTS
>Where: Universal Studios Hollywood.
>When: 7 p.m. Friday, Saturday, Oct. 17-19, 24-26, 30-31 and Nov. 1. Closing hours vary.
>Tickets: $54 (Note: Save up to $20 with any Coke can or coupon from Jack in the Box restaurants). Front-of-the-line passes are available and cost $35 to $65 extra.
>Information: www.UniversalStudiosHollywood.com.
Article Link[]
https://www.dailybreeze.com/2008/10/08/universal-cuts-to-the-chase/
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