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.