Universals Halloween Horror Nights

[elly]

Thanks Elly,
What are the mazes like? My husband and I are going to come to LA just for one of these events, however, we are not sure how they work. We have looked at the sites and they dont really explain anything that well.
We will be in town on the 31 of Oct till Nov 4. So we are trying to figure out what we are going to do in a limited time frame....
Thanks Snacks

the mazes are walk thru's of (usually) very well designed sets with scare-actors in them. At HHN the talent is more of the acting variety, whereas at Knott's Haunt they are the startle/in your face types of talent.

with your time frame you could easily hit up HHN one night and Knott's Haunt the other, and i would highly recommend both as they deliver very different experiences, however, becuase it is the last weekend for the events and Halloween weekend to boot, you can most likely expect the crowds to be VERY heavy and will spend quite a bit of time waiting in line.

my best suggestion would be to get to HHN at least an hour before the gates open, then when they do head immediatly to the lower lot, as everyone else will be filing into the nearest mazes quickly making those lines very long. you hit up the TCM maze and the Terror Tram while in the lower lot, then work your way up to the mazes and shows in the upper lot, which typically get shorter lines towards the end of hte night as everyone who hit them up is now crowding the lines in the lower lot.

for knott's, call and make a reservation for the VIP Pre-scare dinner buffet. That gets you into the park usually 30mins before the general public, sometimes even as much as 45mins before. When you get into the park immediatly go to the re-themed Mine Ride, followed by the re-themed log ride, as those lines tend to be the longest in the park at night.then work your way through all the other mazes and try to fit a show or two in as well.


its a lot to do in one night, but it can be done. my husband and i got tired of trying to rush so much and have made friends with lots of other fans and people who work at Haunt so now we dedicate 6 to 7 nights of our vacation every october to Haunt, and one night to HHN. There are also multiple other haunts around so cal like The Haunted Cellar, Coffin Creek and the new Saw maze that we try to hit up as well, but we're in town for 11 days every year so that gives us a lot more leeway.


hope you get to go to at least HHN and/or Haunt, they are a completely awesome experience

[Sir Didymus]

one thing that elly kind of touched upon is the stark difference between the quality of HHN compared to Knotts.

at Knotts, you walk through sets of plywood walls usually with a black plastic tarp on top to keep any unneeded light out. the theming is basically paint and and smaller props attached to the walls along with some larger props and set pieces placed in the wider room-like sections of the maze. the monsters do their job very well, popping out of dark corners very briefly to scare the bejeezus out of you and then return to darkness.

over at Universal, you are actually walking through the house from Texas Chainsaw Massacre, through the boiler room scene in Nightmare on Elm Street, and through the woods of camp crystal lake from Friday the 13. there is nothing fake or cheesey about these places because they are real. the scaracters, as they're called, like to mess with your head, they will use distractions and decoys to extract the purest of screams from each victim who visits their realm.

both events have numerous scare zones that are loads of fun to just pass through, so nobody is truly safe anywhere.

don't get me wrong, knotts is really a fantastic halloween destination, full of fun and there's lots to do, and while HHN lacks in size, it makes up for it in amazing sets and real involvement with the guests who shelled out 50 bucks to visit them.

but the only way to truly judge them both is to visit them yourself, so happy haunting!

[Snacks]

You guys have given great explanations, thanks.
We will only have time to visit one of the haunts though sadly, I am already scared. hahaha.... it may come down to which one is easier to get transfers back and forth from..... we want to spend a couple of days at Disney too.....Thanks for all the information.... any more tips are welcomed!
Snacks

[Hobbit]

I really want to go again but I don't think I should. I went 2 years ago and my heart just couldn't take the constant surprises, I got heart palpitations and it was hard to breathe for most of the night. I love horror movies though and I loved everything I saw there, especially walking on the backlot around the Psycho house and hotel.

Are there deep AP discounts again this time around? I think I paid like $13 when I went lol.

[J9000]

im planning on going to this on the 26th of october, but i'm going solo at the moment as Im on holiday alone.
So if anyone else wants to go, but doesn't have anyone to go with, or dont mind a adding a nervous brit to their party, let me know.
John.

[Brandon]

I have been counting down the days since it ended last year, so any info gets me so excited.. here's a new youtube webisode series they are doing for 2008's Live your worst Nightmare.

YouTube - Universal Studios Hollywood's HHN Webisode #1

[Kritter]

awesome find!

[JafarFarAway...]

Can't wait to go back, I hope they chill out with all the water squirting effects in the mazes though, that got a little annoying after a while b/c the scareactors were dead on with the aim

And Chucky's Insult Emporium was a serious gut-buster! If that makes a return, they gotta put up a video screen so we can all see who he's making fun of! The spotlight wasn't enough in such a big crowd

[sumostar]

i've found it best to concentrate on the rides/attractions that are there only for the event, such as the mazes and shows. The rest of the "regular" rides will be at the park year round, but the halloween oriented ones are only there for a few days for one month out of the year.

however HHN is a much smaller event thank Knott's Haunt (4 mazes compared to 13) so you can work a couple of the rides in as well, but i would focus on the mazes/shows first.

having only 4 mazes the lines are REALLY long up to 2-3 hour wait i was there with elly and the lines were so long due to the small amount of mazes and the huge attendance for HHN where at Knotts Haunt the Lines are shorter due to the 13 mazes they have

[thrax]

whats the story behind bloody mary?

[Sir Didymus]

whats the story behind bloody mary?

bloodymarybloodymarybloodymary

I remember way back in elementary school whenever the power would go out, all the boys would have a contest to see who could stay in the dark bathroom and chant her name the longest before getting creeped out...I always lost

[Zorro825]

I agree that Universal's event was very good last year but for them to call themselves the "Premiere" Halloween Event in SoCal is a bit much. I still think Knott's is king for Halloween

[JafarFarAway...]

USH just updated the site with all the maze/show info for this years HHN! Also check out part 2 of 4 of "Behind the Screams"

Halloween Horror Nights Event in L.A. - Behind the Screams

All I gotta say is... pukey...

[Brisal73]

Went last year to both Universal and KNotts, but I think going earlier in the season would be ideal.

Example, went the to Universal on the 2nd weekend of October and had a great time. As mentioned before Universal has fewer mazes, but the quality kills Knotts. When your tired of being scared you can check out Terminator, Mummy, Jurrasic Park, and The Simpsons. Only thing I didn't like was that the Tram ride is way to short. I rememeber how much better the tram ride was when they originally started the Horror Nights in Hollywood. I hear this year its a bit longer.

Went to Knotts the following weekend and it was packed. Most of the mazes were good, but not great. The scariest thing there was the quality of guests. Very ghettoish and kids were cutting in the lines all night. Guest control was also horrible.
Suffice to say it will be a while before I even go back to Knotts.

Universal is where its at

[thrax]

while i do enjoy freddy. I wish they would have instead brought over a charcter from USO.

the caretaker sounded intresting