The Positively Positive

This year I went to Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights 2010 no less than five times. How, you ask? By taking advantage of their “9 Killer Night Deal Pass” back in September. The pass was for nine different nights – including the first two weekends, some Fridays, Thursdays and Sundays – except Halloween of course). For me it was the best deal ever. One would think that going to the same park over and over like that would get boring but it didn’t, not even in the slightest.

My friend and I discovered that we got burned out pretty early, so we usually never stayed past midnight, sometimes we were gone by eleven. The lines get longer and longer as the night goes on so we would usually run and do as many things as we could while they were lighter, then eat dinner, watch the Bill and Ted show (yes, every time) then maybe one more maze and we were done. So we didn’t get to every attraction until we’d been there a few times and by then we’d picked out our favorites.

The Mazes

By far our favorite was Friday the 13th maze because it’s just a good old fashioned scary maze and classic scares are the best in my opinion. Just give me a big guy in a creepy mask with a machete or a chainsaw and I’m a very happy girl.

Second up was Nightmare on Elm Street. Another classic with tons of Freddy Krueger clones running around to make you scream like a little girl….which we did gleefully.

Third favorite was definitely the Terror Tram. I love this maze because they drive you out to the Universal backlot and drop you off in the middle of a bunch of great sets like the Bates Motel, the Psycho House and the plane crash from War of the Worlds. But it’s not just the background that makes this maze work – it’s the monsters in it. All of them always seem to be having a great time and up there they found ways to not only make us scream but usually laugh, too (like the one who held up a severed foot and said “Smell my feet.”).

My next favorite was the Saw maze and not because I’m a fan of the Saw movies. Actually I’ve never seen one as I’m not into the torture type horror stuff. But even without seeing the flicks, I will say they do put on one heck of a scary good maze.

After that was the Vampyre maze, which was probably the spookiest of all the mazes. It has the advantage of being set in the “House of Horrors” building which is there all year as part of the regular Universal Studios theme park. So it’s got some awesome sets and basically they just fill it up with even more ghouls come Halloween time.

Now I know this will come as a shock but my least favorite maze was House of 1,000 Corpses maze This is even a shock to me as I love Rob Zombie. I listen to his music and have even been to one of his concerts, but his movies are too gory for me and boy oh boy, so was his maze. Gore doesn’t scare me, it just grosses me out and makes me close my eyes and run. I really only got one good scare in that maze, the rest of the time I was just trying to keep my stomach contents where they belonged.

I realize I’m in the minority on the gore stuff and I’m sure that most people will vote the Rob Zombie maze as their favorite. I just hope that Universal doesn’t turn all their mazes into gore-fests, but keep a good mix with both types – gory scary and spooky scary.

The Scare Zones

Nightmarez – Never usually a scary one as it’s a little too well lit and people are usually packed tightly in it, due to it being by the entrance.

Klownz – Clowns don’t really scare me that much but I did like all the effects in this one, with the flames and the crazy circus theme.

La Lloronoa – Wailing women and little kids don’t scare me either so I didn’t really ever get spooked in this one.

Freakz – LOVED this one. Lots of freaky monsters willing to chase you for as long as it took to get the most screams out of you. They all have fog but this one added strobe lights and the effect was pretty dramatic as you end up so blind you can’t see the monsters coming at you or (as in my case) you see them everywhere because the lights are playing tricks on your eyes.

Pigz – Another good one, not quite as good as freaks but way more fun than the rest.

The Rides

Well I only rode the Simpson’s Ride, but they also had Jurassic Park “In The Dark” open, as well as Mummy The Ride. I had friends who went on the others so I’ll just say that they enjoyed them a lot. I don’t do roller coasters, but I will ride motion simulators and The Simpson’s Ride is tons of fun. On our last night we got on the top deck and both of us agreed that you feel everything way more from up there. All the flips and spins and turns felt very, very real.

Bill & Ted’s Excellent Halloween Adventure

I love this show so much and I’ve discovered that trying to explain it to someone who’s never seen it is pretty hard. They always look at me like I’m nuts the moment I mention Bill and Ted. But let me tell you, if you’ve never seen it you MUST treat yourself. Full of pop-culture spoofs, wacky characters (all played with spot-on perfection by an amazing cast), musical and dance numbers to make your eyes pop, plus near nudity and lots of cursing. Seriously, what is there not to like about that?

And now some of my favorite scares…

Me jokingly calling out “mother!” in front of the Bates Motel and Psycho House and a man dressed like “mother” (who had completely blended himself into the crowd) turning around in front of me and coming right up to my face and saying “yes?”. I screamed so loud I’m surprised I didn’t lost control of some bodily functions.

Screaming and giggling with my friend after a monster popped out in front of us at the Bates Motel. We were joking about how much we hated it (which of course meant we loved it), when a monster came up behind us, popped his head between our and growled out “hate what?”. It sent us howling and running off in two different directions.

Whatever that thing was in the House of a 1,000 Corpses maze that came crawling at me from the floor and sent me streaking as fast as I could go through at least the next two rooms of the maze.

The headless body that came at me from the floor and sent me tearing out of the Saw maze.

All of the Jasons in Friday the 13th maze, especially the one that followed me through two rooms, yelling the whole way (me, not him).

The Freddy in the Nightmare Before Elm Street maze that came out from behind the window where we saw him, only to discover he was on stilts and stood about 12 feet tall. My friend gave the best version of a “blood-curdling” scream I’ve ever heard in real life.

The Jason who hid outside the Friday the 13th maze and scared the crap out of us when we thought it was all over.

The monster who blew a raspberry in my ear in the Freakz scare zone on the way to House of 1,0000 Corpses. Not only scared me but sent shivers down my back and once again sent me running off in terror.

All of the monsters who blew on my neck, sniffed my hair and growled ferociously in my ears when I wasn’t looking. No matter how many times it happened I jumped every single freaking time.

Overall a fantastic effort from the folks at Universal Halloween Horror Nights 2010, so get there before it’s gone for another whole year. Passes are still on sale for this weekend.

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