Posted in: Movies, TV | Tagged: horror, universal, walking dead

Walking Dead Walkthrough At Universal Horror Nights

Frazer Brown writes for Bleeding Cool;

Orlando, Florida. September 21^st 2012, opening night of the 22^nd Universal Horror Nights. Wow. What-an-amazing-night.

POTENTIAL SPOILERS AHEAD

I've tried to keep this review vague for those of you that want to be surprised by the attraction, and detailed enough for those of you who can't make it. Hopefully you will be able to grasp an idea of what you would see, or be missing.

If you are a horror fan on any level you should work out a way to get there, this year or next.

I arrived at the newly re-decorated (read: barbed wired) Universal Studios Gateway with a massive grin on my face. I'd seen the annual event advertised on TV and when I was at Universal Studios the week before as a tourist I saw set pieces going up slowly, (including the "Sophia car" from walking dead season 2.

With my media pass tightly in my fist I was lucky enough to be able to skip the frankly massive line to enter.

The atmosphere was dampened somewhat – literally – by the heavens opening throughout the first hour. Universal asking 100-odd media types to fit under a 10ft x 10ft marquee seemed a bit misjudged, so,  drenched to the bone and with our free ponchos much appreciated, we moved on to the Horror Make-up Theatre where the R.I.P launch party was taking place.

The foyer was decked out with horror themed party treats and a liberal amount of booze. I love this foyer on a normal day, when it's filled with various bits of paraphernalia and props from classic monster movies, even face casts of The Munsters.

I was part of the "British" media group, which turned out to be the national press and Bleeding Cool, as well as the first British accents and humour I have been privy to for while after 3 months in the US. We were continuously hounded by catcalls of "Pip Pip" Tally Ho" and "the British are coming" by the US journalists as we made our way round the park.

We dried off, again, with the assistance of  SpongeBob Squarepants towels – redubbed by moi as SpongeBob ScarePants. Thank you I'll be here all week.

Then we shoved a few jalapeno poppers into our mouths and were off to the first funhouse guided by our scary scrubs-wearing hosts, Bonnie and Samantha.

I took an instant shine to Bonnie as she clearly knew her stuff, especially when it came to Silent Hill and Walking dead. She even edited her speeches to avoid Walking Dead season two spoilers for the slowpokes who hadn't watched it yet. Bonnie certainly made the evening even more fun with her trivia tidbits.

The Theme Park had been cleared of the day's punters and not yet opened to the night customers. It was still daylight, but nonetheless very disconcerting, walking through a fog-filled, empty theme park with horror music being pumped out of speakers.

The Horror Nights have always boasted celebrity endorsements as well as licensed properties. The first celebrity House we visited was the Penn and Teller "Vegas" maze. The premise was simple: Penn and Teller have attempted a nuclear bomb version of their famous bullet trick and it has gone very wrong.  The result of the failed trick is a radioactive Vegas wasteland.

We were given 3D glasses, which created a bizarre double vision effect, particularly effective in making the casino machines and the neon painted maze jump out at us.

Our tour took us through a wrecked Vegas casino, where live performers as a troop of melted and scarred showgirls, lounge lizards and patrons jumped out at us from every corner. This appeared to be an experience the rest of the party found much more terrifying than I did  – though not through any misguided machismo, I just don't jump at loud noises or people jumping out and never have.

Cameras are a no-no for paying punters, and to be honest you would miss out if you tried to film everything as it's all over in a minute or so. Seeing as we media types had no filming restrictions, I did start to shoot away but I swiftly gave up, not wanting to do a disservice to the atmosphere. I opted to shoot exteriors only.

We had been told up from that the "scare-actors" working in the shows could not, under any circumstances, touch us at any point. This kind of killed the tension a little.

The park pulls out all the stops to transform itself each evening with elaborate graveyard set pieces, all signage being replaced and inventive use of the show spaces. The experience was broken down in to "houses" "shows" and "mazes" as well as "roaming areas." One of the new ideas this year was to abolish previous years' "safe zones" which gave visitors a clear refuge from the chaos. Now somebody, or something, can jump out at you at any point, anywhere in the park. That was an unnerving feeling.

Spirits were high – pun intended – and alcohol was a readily available novelty, with sexy undead nurses selling "blood bag" shots. It definitely helped rile up the punters when they started to swarm in en masse –  and I mean en masse. The place was packed.

I wondered aloud if the event may have already sold out. The lines formed for the houses pretty swiftly, everyone working with a clear idea of where they wanted to head. Lines averaged about 45 mins; if you were quick you could make it round everything in one evening as well as catch some of the street scaractors and the shows.

The media had no such concerns as we jumped through the R.I.P entrance for every set piece, avoiding the scowling looks of the people that were waiting in line.

Next up on our tour was Alice Cooper's maze, Welcome to my Nightmare. I'm sure it would mean more to an Alice Cooper fan. Each room was based on a particular song of his. Once again, there were some great set pieces and costumes but it relied heavily on people jumping out at you from obvious corners. In fairness, everyone I was with was screaming so maybe I have no soul.

Next were the houses I'd been waiting for all night: Silent Hill and Walking Dead.

Silent Hill was everything you could hope it would be, from the smell of sulphur to ash falling from the sky. And theharacter appearances were a good mix of film and game characters.

But the highlight for sure was the Walking Dead Maze, with makeup consultation from Greg Nicotero and props and set pieces on loan from AMC, this was the closest you could come to "living" the walking dead TV series for yourself.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYJuXA6FHHQ[/youtube]

***SPOILERS***

Before I go on, here's the official blurb for context:

Universal Studios' Halloween creative teams are working with AMC and "The Walking Dead," to create an authentic experience that is true to the Emmy Award-winning hit series. The haunted mazes on both coasts feature eerily authentic, elaborately designed, movie-quality sets that include some of the most iconic locations and scenes from the show. Mobs of undead walkers bring to "life" the vicious, hungry, zombies from the show.

"We want people to experience the same terror of the walker-filled reality our characters faced in seasons one and two – and will continue to face in our third season," said Greg Nicotero, Co-Executive Producer and Special Effects Make-up Artist for the series. "Our collaboration with Universal Studios' creative teams is exciting as we work to truly capture the essence of the show."

"The collaboration with Universal Studios' creative teams is a fantastic cross-promotional opportunity and a great way to capture the spirit of the series, which makes its season three debut on AMC this October," said Linda Schupack, AMC's Executive Vice President of Marketing.

"'The Walking Dead' puts real people in incredibly horrific situations where they experience true, raw fear, and guests at Halloween Horror Nights experience the same thing," said Jim Timon, Senior Vice President of Entertainment at Universal Orlando Resort. "We can't wait to merge the two powerful concepts together."

"With 'The Walking Dead,' we want to make fans of the series feel like they are literally walking in the footsteps of the show's characters, experiencing all of the horrific events from the series just as they experienced them," said John Murdy, Creative Director at Universal Studios Hollywood. "The goal is to make guests of Halloween Horror Nights feel like they are trapped in the world of 'The Walking Dead,' using all of the attention to detail and movie-quality production values that Halloween Horror Nights has become famous for. You're no longer sitting on a couch, watching a show…you're living it!"

There was talk of the Walking Dead scaracters being unable to perform due to the rain, but thankfully this wasn't the case.

Outside of the venue the walkers were mingling with the crowd, snapping at passers by and eliciting screams from the more nervous. The make up and look of the walkers was through direct collaboration with Walking Dead make-up guru and Co-Executive Producer Greg Nicotero and it all looked pretty convincing in the low light of a burning school bus.

We moved past that bus and prop car with supplies on its bonnet, straight in to the first room, Much of the fun was spotting props from the series scattered about the place.

The first room replicated the hospital where Rick awakens in the first issue and pilot, complete with the "Dead Inside" door straining under the weight of walker hands trying to push though.

As we rounded the first corner a walker-fied doctor tried to grab us, not quite able to reach us as he was trapped behind a morgue trolley complete with a moving body bag. We moved swiftly on to a department store"with crawling cashiers.  The bunny slipper props from the series' first scene were hanging up behind the counter.

Then it was onto the rooftop we caught a glimpse of a bleeding Merle with two walkers trying to reach him, his cut off hand taking pride and place in the middle of the roof.

After a few turns and corners, with walkers snapping at us from all kinds of places, even including the floor, we arrived in the Barn set. The first stage of this toom involved us walking though waving linen cloths with walkers jumping out from behind them, eliciting my first full on scream of the night.

We were then funneled in to a 30ft alleyway with wooden fences and barbed wire, with walkers grabbing out from any gap in the fence that presented itself – my second scare of the night.

As we rounded the last corner we were treated to the sight of a corpse split in half, twitching away, and finally came the reveal of Dales' Winnebago. This was the actual Winnebago from the show, and was being rocked by walkers inside as its interior is lit up by gunshots.

And then… freedom.

This was great maze with some more out of the ordinary scares than the other, more predictable houses.

One of my travelling party suggested a maze should be built where nothing happens throughout, based on the idea that the anticipation is stronger than the scare.

At this point our esteemed National Press colleagues flaked on us to retire to the safety of their hotel. So we jumped back to the R.I.P bar, which was now pretty much empty, and had a chat with Michael Aiello, the mastermind behind the evening's events. Our mutual fascination with Hammer Horror and Universal Horror assured we geeked out for half an hour or so.

Michael also developed the 100-year anniversary waterfall show, which plays every night at Universal. He assembled the clips and directed Morgan Freeman's performance.

Later, I went to watch the laser-waterfall horror show that Aiello had created, bypassing the female prisoners scaractors with chainsaws – they had no blades but were real chainsaws nonetheless. The show was great, showing lots of nostalgic clips. 40-foot red water blasts were choreographed to the shower scene from Pyscho.

When I asked Aiello why there were so many clips from Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead he simply stated "I love Simon Pegg". Kudos.

Michael started his career at Universal working on the rides and his wife performs in the Horror make up show daily. Aiello has long been in charge of direction at Universal Halloween Horror Nights, and they couldn't have found a better guy for the job. He is already planning next years event as the run up, planning and co-ordination takes a full year.

We finished our evening with two live shows from The 20 Penny circus, and a satiric look at the year with the annual Bill and Ted Halloween show. This left just enough time to jump on the Mummy Returns coaster before hitting the pillow.

I can highly recommend going to the Universal Horror Nights if you can make it. I had a blast. You will too.

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