You don't have to be familiar with the source material for three of this year's Halloween Horror Nights mazes at Universal Studios Nights to appreciate them -- or to have the daylights scared out of you. This year's three licensed mazes -- based on the hit Netflix show "Stranger Things," Jordan Peele's film "Us" and the classic horror-comedy "Ghostbusters" -- are all spectacular in their own right.
Before the Halloween Horror Nights event, I hadn't yet seen "Us," but that made the maze no less creepy, frightening or cohesive. The film tells the story of a family being terrorized by doppelgangers of themselves, which they find out is part of a larger uprising of body doubles across the U.S. The sets in this maze were particularly good, especially now having seen the film a few weeks later, I could easily recognize which scenes from the maze corresponded to the film.
The "Stranger Things" maze makes a comeback this year from its blockbuster status when it debuted at last year's Halloween Horror Nights. Last year's maze covered the first season of the show. This year covers both the second and third seasons. Since construction on the maze began in April, before the third season had even dropped on Netflix (it was released July 4), Universal posted a 24-hour guard outside the maze's construction site to ensure that details about the season, which are included in the maze, did not leak out. It's also this year's longest maze, with 14 scenes instead of the standard nine for the other mazes.
The maze I was most looking forward to was the one based on Ivan Reitman's "Ghostbusters" film. It did not disappoint. From start to finish, guests walking through the maze get to "meet" all their favorite characters and phantasms from the film, including the four Ghostbusters, Slimer, Jeanine, the library ghost, Zuul and her "dogs," and Louis Tully and Dana Barrett. You'll walk through replicas of the New York Public Library's basement, the firehouse HQ and the hotel where the Busters capture Slimer before ending up on the roof of the building where they overcome Zuul, the Destructor and meet the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man, who appears larger than life in the last scene of the maze. As you exit, you'll hear Bill Murray's signature verbal high-five: "We came, we saw, we kicked its ass!" It's impossible to leave the maze feeling anything but triumphant, even though you left the busting to the professionals.
Halloween Horror Nights runs select nights now through Nov. 2. It is a separately ticketed event, which means your daytime park ticket will not work for Halloween Horror Nights. Prices start fat $67.99 for a single night weekday ticket and are available on the Universal Orlando Resort website.