La Llorona Returning to Halloween Horror Nights

The "announcement" was not a surprise by several HHN fans, but Universal has apparently made a major leak on their website saying that the final maze is "La Llorona: Villa de Almas Perdidas" (That's translated, "Village of Lost Souls" in case you didn't pay attention in Spanish class). The maze will take place in the Shrek queue and will feature probably the tallest facade that HHN has done.

I am a tad surprised that they decided to bring La Llorona back but in maze form. When her scarezone was featured last year, it received quite a bit of negative feedback on the internet from how "un-scary" it was. The scarezone had a nice, creepy tone to it, but it just wasn't executed properly.  Since her scarezone will most likely come back because of the maze, I hope they make some improvements like put in hiding places or "boo holes" for La Llorona and her children to hide to scare the guests. It'll be interesting to see what they do with that Western area that it was  in last year (If they do bring the scarezone back) knowing that the left half of the street is completely gone.

Despite the negative feedback, I think Universal made a wise choice overall to bring back La Llorona and do a maze based off of her. She's a perfect marketing icon to use since she was a legend that has haunted many generations of Hispanics, who happen to occupy the majority of LA's population.

Personally, I am very excited to see how this maze will be done. This maze will have a lot of great environment involved in it, making it stand out among the maze variety in the event. We know that the maze will start off in a church (Probably holding La Llorona's funeral) and then go on through a forest, a tomb, and possibly other places. Being that this is one of the first true original mazes since the Asylum in 2006, this will give John Murdy the ability to flex his creative muscles, do what he creatively wants in the maze, and not be restrained by what scenes or kills are in a movie.

For those of you worried that it will suck who are judging this by the inferior scarezone last year, I don't think you all need to worry. It's not going to be just a bunch of La Lloronas jumping out at you and babies vomiting in our faces. It will most likely feature her children and other lost souls that have died in the village; hence why the subtitle is, "Village of Lost Souls" in Spanish translation. I think this maze will be a pleasant surprise for those who have low expectations. 

I look forward to see what John and his creative team have in store for us in the Village of Lost Souls. I'm positive the maze will be so detailed and so scary that guests will weep in terror when they hear the sorrowful weeping of La Llorona fade away as they exit the maze.

The Wolfman tears his way into Halloween Horror Nights this year!

As some of you have known, I have been chomping at the bit (No pun intended) for a Wolfman maze ever since 2009's event. Finally, after two years, my wish has been fulfilled to bring one of the legends of classic horror to Halloween Horror Nights in Hollywood.

The Wolfman: The Curse of Talbot Hall will be the overlay for the year-round House of Horrors attraction. Though I would have preferred that the fuzzy fellow get his own maze in a legit venue (i.e. the Shrek queue or the Wild West arena), I think it will fit very well in the House of Horrors if Murdy and his team play their cards right.

Making the theme work for House of Horrors is going to be a bit of a challenge for Murdy and his team. They won't have to worry about the graveyard and tomb scenes since they can be easily replicated from the Wolfman movie with some minor additions; however, the second floor of the attraction is going to be a bit of a challenge to make it fit. I'm curious what they're going to do with the Mummy's tomb, Chucky's doll room, the Psycho mirrors, body bag room, Frankenstein's Lab, and the slaughterhouse room.

For those of you that are worried that this maze will suck just because it's the House of Horrors overlay don't need to be afraid. It doesn't sound like they're going to pull another Vampyre here (Meaning replace the daytime cast with the overlay actors, change the name and call it a new maze without changing anything). John Murdy has said from his Twitter that some additions will be made for the House of Horrors to make the theme work. He even said that he has plans for the empty room.

I don't think I've ever been this excited for the House of Horrors overlay at any HHN event for the past two years that I have been going. I'm very much looking forward to seeing my long-awaited Wolfman maze and how they're going to pull this off in the House of Horrors and see what the costumes/make-up will look like. I anticipate this being our best overlay for House of Horrors yet!

Three thugs mug a Bible from a man.

Courtesy of CBS News

According to the article, a trio of African-American teenage thugs have mugged a guy of his wallet, cell phone, and his Bible. Yes, that's right, his Bible. They were even rude and inconsiderate enough to tear the guy's pants pocket pretty good to get the possesions out for themselves.

It's quite odd that this had happened since I have been wondering lately if someone would actually be so hell-bent on just "taking things" that they would actually steal the Word of God from someone. The article I just linked to had answered my question.

This definitely shows the true depravity of mankind. These guys were so determined to take what they could for themselves, they didn't even care what it was that they would steal. To quote Genesis 8:21: "...the intent of man's heart is evil from his youth...".

Thoughts on Scream coming to this year's HHN for the Terror Tram

As you probably heard, Universal has officially announced that the Terror Tram will feature the infamous Ghostface Killer in the haunted attraction "Terror Tram: Scream 4 for Your Life!". As you can infer from the title, the Terror Tram will be solely based off the most recent film "Scream 4."

Being a big fan of the Scream movies, I was overjoyed when I first saw the announcement go live on the Facebook page despite the fact that most of the hard-core fans (like me) saw this coming all the way back before 2010's event even started. It was pretty obvious that Ghostface was going to show up at this year's HHN for the fact that Universal loves to "strike the iron when it's hot" with film properties. With the fourth installment of the Scream movies coming out earlier this year, Scream being the most requested property in the HHN surveys, the fact that Scream is the second highest-grossing horror franchise of all-time (Saw being first), it should have been no surprise that Ghostface would come this year.

According to the press release, the Terror Tram will transport guests to the Universal backlot where "Stab 8", the fictional franchise from the Scream movies, is being filmed. While the guests are prowling around the backlot, they will be stalked by the infamous Ghostface Killer.

Let me share my thoughts by saying that John Murdy (Creative director of HHN) made a perfect choice of doing Scream on the Terror Tram. There's just so much creative opportunity for the tram video unleashing Ghostface onto the backlot. According to Murdy, not only will guests walk through film sites of Stab 8, but also "Four (other) fake films".  This makes sense knowing that one film can never be filmed in different locations at once. I can see it working out as having one movie where the Whoville set is, another at the Bates Motel, another in the forest, Stab 8 close to the Psycho house, and another in the WotW sets, which is a really cool idea and it works.

I think this will be our best Terror Tram theme yet knowing that this will have the largest cast ever hired for the Terror Tram (Over 100!), according to John Murdy in an interview with MiceChat. There will also be a scene on the tram monitors where a video blogger, who will apparently be a big "fan" of HHN, will make criticisms on the event, only to be killed off by Ghostface. That should be fun to watch! ;-)

Hopefully, John and his team will put their all into this since this is now my most-anticipated attraction at Halloween Horror Nights this year. I'm sure they will since the studio that does Scream will make sure it'll be a screaming good time and represents the series in a way the fans and the studio would want.

My First Post on My First Blog.

Hello, I'm Raleigh. After almost two years of posting on discussion forums on random sites on the web, I have decided to start my own blog.  Mainly, this blog will cover crazy things going on in this world, things that are on my heart, and of course things that I'm interested in that I post on the forums about: The SoCal parks and Halloween events.

I know you have many choices for Blog-looking. Thank you for choosing AppleAreGood's blog.