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Past the bloody cupcakes with sugary glass shards in them. Past an iron gate and a red carpet we entered a foggy town. Oh, cr*p, was that Chucky?! I'll get the teddy bear man later.Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights
September 20- Nov 2
7pm-2am
Starting off a series of reports for the major haunts happening in LA for the Halloween season is one of the most well known. The ever undead Halloween Horror Nights of Universal Studios. I'll be grading the mazes to go through, the scare zones to scare you and telling you if it's worth it to get sour apple Fanta Icees in the park, I can't find them outside! Get the drink!Past the Eyegore Awards with Ozzy Osbourne on stage to host the awards or at least show up to celebrate Halloween. we entered the night.
Oh, the screams of the ladies, like pure bliss for haunt fans. They couldn't avoid The Purge.Purge: Survive the Night is hard to miss with fire bursting up in the air as you enter Universal. The park recreated a wonderful reminder of how America could easily enforce... ? Not enforce the law for 12 hours, therefore letting murder be legal in that time frame. Kudos, to the Harvard blond boy spouting Purge propaganda at the center of the event. He'll take the time to talk to you, just watch out for the psychos in mask who might not think you fit in.
Best scare zone costumes goes to the Cirque du Klownz, bloody teddy bears and creepy klowns always leave you feeling grossed out and not needing a hug.
Scarecrowz scare zone is in there too and The Walking Dead: Dead on Arrival, well I'll get to that later.The Mazes
The best was Evil Dead: Book of the Dead and the worst Universal Monsters Remix: Resurrection.
Evil Dead: Book of the Dead
Hey Knott's, maybe you should have waited until the movie came out to do a ride on it. Knott's knows what I'm talking about with it's log ride. Hmmmphh, last year Knotts.
Evil Head, this maze is all about different evil heads coming at you... Wait, I'm being told from my colleague it's about a remake of a horror film from this year.
Evil Dead brought me back to scenes from the film and managed to capture most of the major events. They couldn't put in the car scene though, darn. As you walk through an evil force taking over a bunch of kids who decided going to a cabin the woods was a good idea you''ll be "gently" surprised by people hurting themselves with a wide variety of tools. I remember saying aloud, "That's not right, that's not right" , as someone cut into their arm in front of me. One of many unsettling sights, take that out of your eye guy.
If you remember the ending scene from the fill you'll be happy with your chainsaw memories. What really had me however was a quick turn of someone's head as that same person lost their lunch on me or something.Standing out as a great accompany piece for anyone who loved the film and my favorite maze for setting the mood of being in a horror movie.
The Walking Dead Sections
The Walking Dead nearly took over the park with the tram tour, their own scare zone and maze this year. All manage to remind you of scenes from the series and for fans a must.
The Terror Tram
This Halloween season the Terror Tram ha The Walking Dead behind, not really. The ride on the tram would be more fun if the dead did chase after us on it.You may be greeted by a former living inmate or guard on your way to the "zombie free" Woodbury, the supposed safe town in the series.
Walking along and getting pass the guards with chainsaws you'll go on a path taking you into a Deer Lodge and right passed the pit where the Governor was keeping his favorite zombie army, seems there's been an accident and it was set on fire, wonder who did it?
The people of Woodbury aren't that friendly, maybe because the zombies are escaping and you better high-tail it out of there.
This is a big open area maze, more of a jog or walk. Hell, I don't know why it's even called the Terror Tram, nothing happens until you get off of it. Call it the Terror walk or this year fittingly The Walk of The Dead, Walking Dead Trail. Honestly, it has little to do with the tram. Learn from the Haunted Hayride if you want some wheels and scares Universal.
That night there would be more trams to go on. This year to get to The Walking Dead: No Safe Haven, The Walking Dead Scare Zone: Dead On Arrival, and Black Sabbath: 13 3D you had to be shuttled by tram to the backlot and it was worth it.
The Walking Dead Scare Zone: Dead On Arrival scare zone has you walking through a city swarming backlot and being surrounded by zombies was like a nightmare come real. This scare zone really should have been combined or made part of The Terror Tram tour. It's like your walking through the first season of The Walking Dead in a semi-destroyed Atlanta with zombies and army forces losing to them. Passing a tank and a huge building with windows full of horrors you'll be able to see you'll enter the lines for the two mazes. Getting into the 
The Walking Dead: No Safe Haven
My first choice to keep up with the Walking Dead vibe, you can go for Black Sabbath and might as well as you'll have to take the tram back to get to other mazes and rides. This maze captures moments of the third season and had me shouting them out to my colleague, also a fan of the series.
Will someone answer that phone? Dammit, it just keeps ringing. Wait, how is a phone working? You'll get nods to the series all over the place as you walk through the prison Rick and his crew were in all the way to Woodbury.
Get close with Michonne's personal luggage carriers in the woods.
It wouldn't be complete without a trip to the Governor's Office. Someone should feed those "fish" and he has the cutest little girl.
For a fan it's a fond reminder of the event of the last season of the show.
Black Sabbath: 13 3D
Wow, bro the colors! One of my favorites for how weird it looks when you put on the 3D glasses, that are free, again Knotts, get with it. As you walk through different 3D fields you be horrified by weird army men. Some of the best costumes filled this maze.
Wearing the 3D glasses does put it in its own field. The world is so vibrant and instead of trying to scare you with darkness, it's freaking you out with the 3D visuals of a nuclear bomb going off, war men pigs and some occult tortures.
These are the top mazes this year. If you have to choose for time sake, go for these.Now we get to some of the weaker ones.
El Cucuy: The Boogeyman
Promising idea, a re-telling of a classic boogey man story with Danny Trejo narrating through the maze. Problem was I think I only heard him once in my walk through. The maze hear doesn't pick up until half-way through when you reach a cave entrance of baby dolls.
Most of it was walking through houses where a homicide could have occurred, not that flashy.
Insidious: Into the Further
I did not see the films, but got the gist of them from the commercials and other media. Ghosts are bad and creepy, got it.
The seance room should have had real people perfoming the seance, having dummies do it just made it silly.
There were some excellent dark moments and a weird sort of fat saggy faced man costume that looked so gross up close. Ghost objects, like children toys move on their own and something that looks like a Krampus keeps showing up.
For a fan of the series you might be more taken by the maze.Universal Monsters Remix: Resurrection
You get some classic scare in here. The remix of this ride makes me want to part more than get scared. It should be turned into a party room or expand out to just be a show with remixed monster music and monsters dancing around.
Always going to love the Bride of Frankenstein dancing to phat beats.
Here, I only noticed Frankenstein remixed to look more modern, the wolf-men and mummies looked the same. Frankenstein less modern and more like a giant tumor was growing in his head and for some reason had neon coming from his body.
The maze is always the fastest to get into, so maybe save it for the end.
The new life breathed into it, was wasted air. Resources from it should be diverted to a modern outside stage show for park goers to just dance to.
All the rides are still open, except for the usual tram tour, so you also can try any of those in the night you're there.
Universal is placing itself as contender for Halloween Haunt winner this year until next week when even more haunts open. Seven mazes, four scare zones and lots of undying love for The Walking Dead.
See if they make it to top haunt after I report back to you on all major Haunts in LA.
