Note: Han told me she didn't want to reveal her face on social media, so I replaced it with a Pikachu. Hope I pretty nailed it :D
Hey guys! It's been a while since I last posted in my blog. Feel so ashamed now for abandoning this blog for too long. The thing is, I have now transferred to an art school, after finishing my GE and major prep in De Anza College. Many things have occurred for these past few months since I first settled here, in Southern California. I will cover about what's been going on in my daily life later.
Anyway, for now, I'd like to share a little experience slipped in the middle of my ever-so-busy-and-monotone art student's life. My new roommate, Han, whose craziness reminds me of Elda's at some points, happens to like horror/thriller genre. She first told me about this event in Universal Studios Hollywood called Halloween Horror Night. Sounds big, doesn't it? Basically this event has run from September 7 until Halloween itself, which is going to be on October 31.
Thing is, Han had always wanted to go to this event but she had no one to accompany her last year (and even worse, last year's maze featured her most favorite horror series, Saw). Well, I guess she's lucky this year because I said yes to her invitation to this Halloween Horror Night! Yeah, I got to say I'm not a big fan of horror/thriller, but they're somehow exciting and just...different. I believe being in a sort of creepy situation will offer a new atmosphere.
We initially invited more people but they couldn't go with us due to having tons of homework (dude I feel bad for abandoning parts of my homework while everybody else was just working on them at home). So yeah, then just the two of us going!!
I made myself busy prior to going to the event, starting from taking my other roommate to school since she has a class on Saturday morning to doing grocery shopping. I even managed to finish one homework in the afternoon.
Well, we took off at 4 o'clock. I know it's early for us since the horror night wouldn't start until 7 pm, but we needed to go to Blick Art Materials to get some stuff. Afterwards, we were ready to take off from that art supply store all the way to Universal City, but it seems Han's Apple maps - the one she normally uses for GPS - wasn't working since it got automatically upgraded. So we needed to go back home and take my GPS from my car before we left.
It didn't take long for us to reach Universal Studios and finding a parking wasn't so hard too, and in fact, by the time we got into the parking lot, we got a parking spot right across the entrance (it was actually a reserved area but due to the increasing amount of visitors for Halloween Horror night, they allowed people to park there).
Before we reached the entrance to the theme park, we strolled around in Universal City Walk. We had around an hour before the Horror night opened. I gotta say I love this place and probably it stays as onte of my most favorite hang-out place due to its ambience. We looked around and dropped by at a store where Han bought a bee doll for her friend's birthday. Later on, we reserved a spot at Johnny Rockets for dinner. The wait wasn't so long despite it was weekend and so many people were lining up.
I treated myself with Route 66, which is a burger composed of grilled mushroom and onion (my favorites!) with cheese fries!
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| Nom nom |
I didn't know I was so hungry until I devoured almost all burger, but the portion was too overwhelming that I had to ask for a box so that I could save the leftover for tomorrow.
By the time we finished eating, it was 7.30 pm. We were late half and hour from the gate's opening, but well, on the bright side, we also intended to avoid the long line. We quickly moved to the entrance of Universal Studios, where the familiar rotating globe awaited there. The line was unbearably long and we could hardly see the end of it. I had to ask some people where the end of the line is but they seemed clueless as well.
We managed to get through the line somehow despite the crowd. After getting our bags checked, here we are, in Universal Studios' Halloween Horror Night!!
I was so surprised with the completely different atmosphere that the theme park offers during this event. I have been here for three times now and I didn't expected a different and eerie ambience it gives! I only went here before during the day when there was no particular event.
Well, right in the entrance, we were greeted by two dancing masked ladies. Hm they remind me of some sort of a freakshow performers.
Since we were rushing to get in, we even forgot to take the map. But luckily I remember the layout of this theme park. It's not hard to remember the places and layout of Universal Studios since it's relatively small compared to other gigantic theme park that makes you get lost. Basically this theme park is comprised of two lots: upper lot and lower lot. More rides and thrilling attractions are located in the lower lot while in the upper lot, they offer more like stage shows and walkthroughs.
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| Live performing clowns |
We then moved to the lower lot since we couldn't find any scary mazes to go in in the upper lot, or at least we haven't spotted any yet. On the high elevator that led us down, we spotted a giant text on Jurassic Park building: WELCOME TO SILENT HILL and the infamous, creepy siren that echoed in the lower lot. Woot! Now we know what maze we would like to go in first.
WELCOME TO SILENT HILL
It's not hard to find the line to this maze. At first I almost mistook the line to the maze as the line to the Revenge of the Mummy because the entrance to Silent Hill was right next to The Mummy. Han and I were so excited seeing that we were fans of Silent Hill. Han knows more about the franchise including the game and such, while I only like the movie. I can't wait to experience Silent Hill (I know it's a creepy experience with all the fog and monsters and all that stuff, but really if you watch the movie or play the games, you wouldn't want to miss this experience).
While lining up, we could hear the Silent Hill game theme song. At the same time, we saw the familiar rusted blue sign and an abandoned old car which reminds me of the car that Rose Da Silva and Sharon left in the first movie. All of a sudden, some people in the line got approached by a man in a postman outfit that interacted with the visitors with an eerie, dead-looking expression and plain tone. That was when I was convinced that it was a cast-member, playing the role of a Silent Hill resident. Hm, nice "appetizer" for a scary maze. I was glad it wasn't at least a shocking "appetizer" like in typical scary maze entrances.
Well, we went in. For the first time, I didn't completely close my eyes and ears while entering a scary maze. I have more guts this time yay!
The maze started out with wired fences that remind me of that first Otherworld scene in Silent Hill movie. No monsters/shockers so far, just some familiar places used as settings in the movie. We got a glimpse of the city of Silent Hill, the stores, Midwich Elementary School, Alessa Gillespie's school, and the restroom where we could see the ghost of Alessa avenged her death by hanging the school's janitor against the toilet. The siren didn't stop so we've been hearing it for many times now continuously.
I forgot which part of the maze it was but monsters started appearing. From normal grosteque-looking residents of Silent Hill that seek refuge, to finally the one and only icon of Silent Hill, the pyramid head.
He initially appeared in one spot of the maze, and briefly too. I noticed he went inside a room covered in curtain after he finished scaring us off. But when we moved to another room, he appeared out of another curtained room, this time, he surprised us even longer than he did before. I was freaking out for sure, probably because of his overwhelmingly HUGE pyramid head that literally, no kidding, towered over my little figure (God this guy is ENORMOUS!) with his executioner's blade, but Han just laughed it off. He later appeared again in a narrow hallway where this time, he swung his hand towards the visitor. Again, it was another "you freak me out" moment.
We passed through a hall full of hanging bodies, as if they were butchered. An again, I freaked out. It was nothing and the bodies didn't move or anything but they had the real feel to an actual human body, another reason why I literally screamed at that part. We also saw an audio animatronic of the so-called Alessa and lastly, the iconic distorted nurses at the end of the attraction. Man, I thought meeting them would be exciting but I ended up freaking myself out again. They were swarming from everywhere around the corner and even one of them went over to me and observed me real close. I caught a glimpse of them closely this time.
Also at the end of the attraction was three big bunny dolls sitting and I had a feeling they'd move, but they didn't when it comes to our turn while passing by.
When we thought the maze was over, the nurses appeared again in the exit. They'd never get bored, wouldn't they?
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By the way, we passed Jurassic Park: The Ride on the way to the Texas Chainsaw Massacre maze.
Phiew, glad it was over. At least we were free from all the monsters once we were out of the maze. I had a brief stomacache afterwards that I had to go to the bathroom. At the same time, the siren kept on going that you could even hear it from the bathroom. Eerie, isn't it?
TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE
After Silent Hill We were initially planning to go to Terror Tram Invaded by the Walking Dead, but we figured out that it was located in the upper lot and going through several high escalators without finishing all the attractions here would be a pain. Right across Silent Hill was the line to Texas Chainsaw Massacre maze so we thought we'd just take a look at Texas Chainsaw Massacre first.
I barely saw the movie so I didn't know what it'd be about. Han told me briefly about the main idea of Texas Chainsaw, involving a character named Tommy who killed his family. His signature weapon would be the infamous chainsaw which would create an annoying roaring engine sound. Seriously, when I said it's annoying, it really is annoying. You'd get to hear that sound simultaneously during your visit to Halloween Horror Night
The line to this maze was UTTERLY LONG. It was even much longer than the one to Silent Hill, which assured me that it'd be a hella good maze. Apparently we almost shared the same line to Jurassic Park: The Ride that we could even see bits of the beginning of Jurassic Park: The Ride (where the boats were climbing up).
We waited for approximately 2 hours, from what was once excited to gradually turning tired. I could see the tired face in Han's face aww...
Finally, at the end of the line, we saw a house model meant to be the place of the attraction. Han said it might be Tommy's house, where the event in the movie takes place. Ooookay, time to go in.
The situation was much scarier inside. When we entered, I remembered the house was finely decorated with nature-related stuff, like animal fur and other wood decoration. Each room was divided with an animal skin divider to add the creepy feeling. The room atmosphere was damp and warm with mixture of scents (I know it's artificial but somehow I find the scents quite yucky). As usual, we spotted no monsters at the beginning of the attraction. They appeared in the latter part of the maze. When we heard the roaring chainsaw coming from another room, we knew it there was going to be a monster, and it was there! I freaked myself out again and again, trying to just pass by the monster and escape to another room.
There were 2 highlights happening to us in this particular maze:
- Before we entered another room in the maze, Han said. "Hm, I smell bacon from the next room." and when we went in there, it wasn't eeexactly bacon that we smelled or so we thought. Bodies of humans lying down with blood everywhere and some madmen that seemed to enjoy carving the flesh out of the artificial bodies. In the next room, the so-called human flesh was served on the table and a family was swarming around it, but they never really went to eat the flesh.
Afterwards, I told Han, "Yeaaah right, bacon."
It was hilarious because the so-called bacon she smelled was depicted in the attraction as human flesh. Oooo I guess, Han has a thing on human flesh lol. Just kidding.
- At one point, we were separated from the other groups in front of us. They already walked far in the front and we were a little too caught up in the back. The group behind us was also nowhere to be seen, so basically, only Han and I were in that particular part of the maze. So, we ran all the way to the other rooms to catch up with the group in front of us, ignoring all the monsters that got in our way. At this time, I think my heart stopped beating for a while.
In one big, dark blue-hue-ish room, there were only two of us and I slightly tripped from running (or more like walking fast). My hand got caught up with my glasses and THEY FREAKING FELL on the floor. Heck it was DARK! And I was struggling to find my glasses on the floor. At the same time, I was panicking, afraid that at the same time a monster would come out and distract me from getting my glasses back. While I bent on the floor, a figure clothed in dark robe at the side of the room pointed out his finger towards my glasses on the floor. It was a staff/security member in that maze. Phiew, I was grateful it wasn't the monster instead, but still, why didn't the security move forward and help me retrieve my glasses in the dark????? Don't just stand there and let me look like an idiot!
But thankfully, aside from Han, the staff member, and me in the room, there were no one else. GOOD THING.
All in all, there were more monsters in Texas Chainsaw maze than Silent Hill. They have more grosteque looking faces and convincing facial make-ups, including the infamous peeled-off skin make-up that exposes artificial flesh. And of course it wouldn't have been Texas Chainsaw if you hadn't heard the earsplitting saw machine sound continuously throughout the maze. Dude, I was getting to hate that sound.
Thank goodness we were out of the maze shortly. Phiew, the maze was longer than I thought and yet it was more tense and eerie compared to Silent Hill. Both are scary though, but Silent Hill monsters are somewhat more fantasy-like with the gigantic pyramid head and stiff-moving bubble headed nurses.
Anyway glad we were out of the screaming zone. It was definitely a worthy experience despite the super long line.
TERROR TRAM INVADED BY
THE WALKING DEAD
It was 11pm when we got out of the Texas Chainsaw maze. I remember that the terror tram would close at 11.45, which means we have 45 minutes left to get there and not to miss the experience. I quickly led Han to the upper lot as I remember that the entrance to the Studio Tour (which was all redefined for the event as Terror Tram itself) is located in the upper lot. The journey going up the escalator really tested our patience.
Finally, we reached the entrance and quicky descended down to the trams drop-off, not before I got startled by this zombie of a little girl at the entrance of the line. Han remarked that it was the first zombie ever to appear in the entire series. That'd explain her appearance in the beginning of the line. The line itself was long, but it was unexpectedly MUCH shorter than Silent Hill and Texas Chainsaw. We were nervous that when it came to our turn, the attraction closed, but when I glanced at the clock, we still had plenty of time. The line quickly moved and I assumed that was because of the availability of the trams that time. Nice job Universal!
Thank goodness we found ourselves sitting on the back of seat of the tram. I miss this familiar feeling of sitting on this tram. I've been here for three times as I mentioned and yet I never get bored of Studio Tour ride, the signature attraction of Universal Studios that would bring us visitors around the studio and filming sets. But this time, of course Universal attempted to offer a completely different atmosphere and experience on the usual, bright attraction. I could totally feel that distinct vibe too when the tram started moving. This was clearly not a regular Studio Tour that I've been on, despite the same tram.
The tram traveled through the darkness as the trailers of The Walking Dead was played on the cart's screens. Han recapped the main idea of the story for me so that I got the idea what we were dealing with, and apparently, it was a good time for us and The Walking Dead fans to visit that Terror Tram, as new season would come up on TV the day after.
As the tram took off into the darkness, the tour guide remarked that the security had been missing and that we were to be dropped off to continue the rest of the journey on foot. I thought, no way, you gotta have zombies attacking the tram!! But no, it's another maze y'all!
We basically walked through several movie sets which had been retouched with artificial fog, and of course zombies started to emerge from their hideouts. Their presence were obscured by the fog and their appearance were almost undistinguished from that of normal visitors. Some movie sets really matched with the whole eerie atmosphere, for example, we passed by the Bates Motel, where Psycho movie takes place and actually something was going on inside the motel itself.
From the window, we could see a silhouette of what I assumed Marion Crane being killed by Norman Bates, or maybe that's a zombie instead? Because we were in a Walking Dead themed area? Some zombies also emerged from the motel's cabins to scare us away.
We also traveled through Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds set, with a crashed airplane and some burned down houses surrounding it taken from the movie scene. The set was also somehow perfect to interpret the devastation caused by zombie apocalypse (basically it's set of multiple functions I believe), as I saw some zombies were seen to be eating human flesh near a burned down house. Well, the so-called flesh looks like a long turkey sausage for me, or am I just starting to like human flesh as well? O_O
For the rest of the journey, we walked down a hill where the zombies escaped their cages (which were of course unlocked) and began blending with us and "attacking" us. This moment felt so real as if I was really in a zombie movie, given the fog, the effect, everything, and not to mention some zombie dudes eating convincing-looking human flesh at the side of the path. Seriously, they were almost undistinguished to visitors. There was two funny moments during this time:
- Han said she had a long and close eye contact with one of the zombies. The zombie must wonder why Han wasn't afraid of the creepy make-up and sharp glances
- Almost at the same time, one of the zombies got me and scared me off from up close. Really really close. I thought there was a restriction for performers not to get really close to the visitors, but anyway, as long as they didn't touch me, I'm fine. Anyway, the zombie towered over me (this dude is tall) and I finally got to escape...before I accidentally stepped on his shoe. This guy seriously got in my way that I didn't have much space to move, that when I even tried to get away, this guy's foot was in my way that I stepped on it accidentally. I said "sorry" briefly before moving on. Where else can you step a zombie's foot other than in Universal Studios?
....and we finally got back to the tram. It was an intense experience. I didn't know how often I screamed there, but YOLO!
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When we finished the ride, it was almost 12.30 pm. That was quite a long journey encountering many zombies. Glad it was over, but I would definitely miss the moment.
Then we thought which attraction we should get in next. The next ride would be determined by the shortest wait time since that attraction would be our last one for the night before we took off back to Pasadena. Through looking at park directory that gives us the wait times, we thought of going to the Alice Cooper, which was located on the way to the park's exit. Also, that's because Alice Cooper's wait time is the shortest, about 30 minutes (yea that's pretty short compared to others, which would be like up to 120 minutes).
Speaking of Alice Cooper, Han and I had no idea who he was and I thought he was sort of an evil character from a franchise, and that the attraction would be based on his theme. Apparently he was a rock icon who's famous with his horror themed music.
However, we just reached the beginning of the line, a staff came in and closed the line. We couldn't even make it to the line itself. To tell you the truth, I was quite saddened especially to know that the maze would be different than any other in the park, as it would be in 3D :(
We also tried to get in to other rides, like The Walking Dead maze. it was a separate maze from the Terror Tram, which would only be composed of maze with similar theme, minus the tram. We thought to get in but the line was utterly long, besides, we already got TWD experience just now in the Terror Tram. Lastly, we bumped into Universal Monsters Remix at Studio 13. Last time I remember that this is not Universal Monsters Remix, but it used to be House of Horror. The name change was probably due to the Halloween Horror Night event.
UNIVERSAL MONSTERS REMIX
I had quite a bad memory yet interesting experience last time I entered this attraction, which was two years ago. Monsters were, of course, swarming all over but I remember this one particular huge monster following me to another room. I just hoped history wouldn't repeat itself that day.
The line was probably the shortest out of all mazes we'd been on. As for the monsters, they were composed of overall classic monsters and ghosts from Universal movies. Oh, not to mention, the music inside this maze was so FREAKING LOUD and it wasn't just any spooky music, but it was earsplitting loud electro music that I started to think I was going to some sort of a nightclub, not a scary maze. Well, after all, that's where the "remix" in Universal Monsters Remix word came from.
In one part of the maze, the room takes the theme of Child's Play. Out of all monsters I'd seen on movies, Chucky was one out of a few that I was less scared. So in this particular part of the maze, I dared myself to not cover my eyes and walked a little slower to observe the Chucky-themed room for a little while. It was full of dolls, creepy ones, but I'm not afraid of creepy dolls strangely. But then I remember Han called my name and when I looked back, a performer dressed as Chucky emerged from one corner of the room.
Dude, I literally jumped back and moved to another room.
Well, so many rooms we passed through, and the one that I hated the most would be the mummy-themed one. Basically, this room had mummies standing on each side of the room. One or two of them would be performers that would reach their hands out to us and startled us. Good thing Han and I tried to squeeze in with the visitors right in front of us before we lost them.
Lastly, the climax of the maze would be a large circular room with some ladies dancing exotically showered in bright blue lights with not to mention, the earsplitting club music. I seriously thought we were at some sort of a freaky night club right now. I thought this part of the maze wouldn't have monsters in it, as it was so bright, however, out of a black curtained room, a tall Frankenstein performer came out and scared us off.
The attraction ended with another monster with a large and loud chainsaw chasing us off the exit. Phiew, but glad the exit was right before our eyes!
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Universal Monsters Remix officially closed our attractions tonight. Now we were heading back to the exit, but without dropping by at the Universal Studios gift shop on the way out. I wanted to buy a rubber Dinosaur doll, since I always have this strange fascination towards dinosaurs since I was little, but it was too pricey. I decided to buy something simpler that can be used for everyday life, which are a keychain and a pen!
After a little shopping in the gift shop, we headed out to the exit. It was still 1.00 am, an hour before the park closes but we were so spent and Han still needed to drive home.
I surely wouldn't forget that night. It was after all one out of many ordinary nights in my art student life that I'd ever spend in a theme park, and that's in an unordinary event too. So, thank you Universal Studios Hollywood, for allowing me to finally scream not out of stress due to homework, but because of the spooky, unforgettable Halloween experience you guys offer! See you next year!
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
Nice jacket! (Kinda like mine back in Indo)
ReplyDeleteI was about to say "It seems that's nothing scary" until I started seeing "Silent Hill" and "Chain Saw". I was like "hell no, I'm not going there!" and "Thank gosh I wasn't there" :P
Anyway, it's good to know you're having fun, girl!