1930's "Monsters" Halloween Horror Nights Open Brainstorming (Uniting Universal Round Two)

TheOriginalTiki

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
With Universal's "Dark Universe" falling flat on its face with The Mummy reboot, the creative team at Universal Australia has tasked you to come up with the inaugural, very first Halloween Horror Nights for the resort. This will take place inside the studio park and must feature at least SIX mazes themed entirely around the classic line-up of Universal Monsters. This is very much tied into our "Uniting Universal" theme and shining a new light on these beloved classic characters.

Here's some ideas to jump-start things...
-Dracula's Castle
-The Mummy's Tomb
-The Black Lagoon
-Nosferatu
-Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein
-Bride of Frankenstein
-Phantom of the Opera
 

TheOriginalTiki

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I'll leave these here as reference photos. It's a "boardwalk" attraction at Gator World in Florida. I think this type of approach could be really cool and fit in well with Creature and the rainforest setting.

boardwalk.jpg

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I can do the write up for Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein. I'm sure Dragon will have some ideas for that one. I think Frankenstein's Monster should be the mascot for the event as we would have both Abbot and Costello and Bride of Frankenstein in the lineup. Speaking of which, can we get this finalized?

Headlining "Comedy" Maze: Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein
Headlining "Horror" Maze: Creature from the Black Lagoon
-Bride of Frankenstein
-Dracula

I think those four are concrete. Here's some others that we can play around with.

-The Wolfman
-Phantom of the Opera
-Nosferatu
-The Mummy
-The Man Who Laughs
-1930's "Van Helsing" crossover
-The Black Cat
-The Old Dark House

Out of those, the ones I'd be personally interested in would be Nosferatu, Phantom, and The Man Who Laughs. With Nosferatu there's SO much that could be done with a German expressionist maze and the imagery of that film is still terrifying. The Man Who Laughs we could play with the whole "lost media" element of that film and craft a modern day mythology around the maze. Phantom would be cool just because it's an iconic story and performance that gets overshadowed both in terms of the Monster line-up and how big the musical is. I think a 1930's Van Helsing would be a cool "What if" we could explore as well.
 

JokersWild

Well-Known Member
Creature from the Black Lagoon could be incredibly cool. Perhaps run with the boardwalk theme. Have the entrance and queue be themed to a roadside attraction, or carnival sideshow, presenting the "Legendary Creature from the Black Lagoon." Of course, all hell would break loose inside. Perhaps the creature escapes and follows guests through the maze.

I'm trying to think of a way to believably (in the story of the maze at least) transition guests from a super fake cardboard and plywood jungle to an actual jungle environment. Were this in Florida, I'd say theme it in the everglades and have the maze leave the "exhibit", but that doesn't quite work for Australia....
 

spacemt354

Chili's
Creature from the Black Lagoon could be incredibly cool. Perhaps run with the boardwalk theme. Have the entrance and queue be themed to a roadside attraction, or carnival sideshow, presenting the "Legendary Creature from the Black Lagoon." Of course, all hell would break loose inside. Perhaps the creature escapes and follows guests through the maze.

I'm trying to think of a way to believably (in the story of the maze at least) transition guests from a super fake cardboard and plywood jungle to an actual jungle environment. Were this in Florida, I'd say theme it in the everglades and have the maze leave the "exhibit", but that doesn't quite work for Australia....
Australia does have the Noosa Everglades so the theme could still fit I think.
river-29029.jpg

noosa-s.gif
 

TheOriginalTiki

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I really don't understand the Abott and Costello thing in this challenge. A comedy feature on a horror night just doesn't seem like it would fit at all.o_O

Comedy-based mazes actually have a bit of a history in being some of the more popular in the Horror Nights lineup. An American Werewolf in London, Krampus, Bill and Ted, This Is The End etc. It's become a tradition to do one maze based on a horror comedy each year and Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein is the definitive "horror comedy" of the Universal Monsters era.
 

FigmentPigments

Well-Known Member
Comedy-based mazes actually have a bit of a history in being some of the more popular in the Horror Nights lineup. An American Werewolf in London, Krampus, Bill and Ted, This Is The End etc. It's become a tradition to do one maze based on a horror comedy each year and Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein is the definitive "horror comedy" of the Universal Monsters era.
lol. I guess have to trust you on that. I honestly can't see it. I see how American Werewolf and Krampus works as they can be black comedys but the others seem a little too out there. I'll leave that to you since you're interested in it. :cautious: ;)
 

TheOriginalTiki

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
lol. I guess have to trust you on that. I honestly can't see it. I see how American Werewolf and Krampus works as they can be black comedys but the others seem a little too out there. I'll leave that to you since you're interested in it. :cautious: ;)

Oh, it'll definitely be my niche "pet project" of the round, haha. ;)

Any ideas of what we could do for Scare Zones? I'm actually thinking that'd be a cool way to work Nosferatu in. A whole German Expressionist atmosphere that you can walk around in. It would be stretching it a bit but I could also see a Skull Island scare zone in the style of the original film.
 

D Hulk

Well-Known Member
Popping in with a quickie idea!

For all the maze talk, I picture Abbott & Costello working better into the show format, somewhat like those Horror Nights Bill & Ted shows they did in Hollywood. (Dunno if Orlando's had anything like that.). Do plenty of fun variations on A&B's classic schticks, monster chases with the audience calling out, and some degree of timely topical humor like the B&T shows (but with less potential for vulgarity and offense, which did those shows in).

And some off-the-cuff maze notions:

Mummy in a tomb and then the British Museum
An outdoor haunted Wolfman trail, with gypsy camp
Into Notre Dame facing Quasimodo and monstrous gargoyles
Do the Nosferatu/Caligari expressionism maze in 3D (yes, 3D mazes are a thing)
Transylvanian village scarezone full of superstitious villagers
Etc.
 

MANEATINGWREATH

Well-Known Member
Just going to poke in real quick to talk about classic horror silent films, my favorite thing.

You can't leave out The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari or The Golem if you're going to do a collaboration of all the silent films. They are too perfect to not include.
 

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