Halloween Horror Nights is less than a week away at Universal Studios Hollywood and we were lucky enough to get a preview of the “Chucky: Ultimate Kill Count” maze. John Murdy, the man behind the monsters at Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood, clued us in to some of the details of this nightmarish experience.
Murdy explained the plot of this maze, which centers on the fact that Chucky is not happy with Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood. Every other slasher has had their own maze, but not Chucky. So, now he’s hijacked his own HHN maze so he can rack up the “Ultimate Kill Count.”
“You are not going to survive. You are going to die if you go into this house,” Murdy said. “Then he will have the ultimate kill count because this is the perfect setup for a serial killer. Thousands of people, patiently waiting in line in order to enter the slaughterhouse and be killed. And he’s telling you that, straight up.”
With such a meta premise, there is a lot of room for comedy in this maze. For example, Chucky becomes more and more irritated with the fact that his foul language is being censored as guests make their way through the maze.
“And he particularly wants to kill the people that paid extra,” Murdy laughed. “So the first person he’s going to kill is an Express person.”
In regards to the maze being based on any of the Chucky films or the recent Syfy series, Murdy shed some light.
“We’re not literally going ‘okay here’s the scene from this show and this movie.’ It’s you guys who are being killed.”
Guests will encounter countless Chucky dolls throughout the house, in addition to seeing a number of his victims dressed in Halloween Horror Nights merchandise.
There are however, some scenes from the hit Syfy series and films like Bride of Chucky included throughout the maze as well.
Murdy pointed out that Chucky also specifically wants to target influencers and those who create HHN content.
“It’s kind of fun to bring our fans into it and like ‘hey, now you’re in on the joke,’” Murdy said. “Ou guys make all these speculation videos and you’re always trying to leak stuff so now we’re going to punish you.”
Murdy then introduced an original character called “Lord Spookula: HHN Updater,” who is live streaming as he makes his way through the maze and bragging about how he broke the news that Chucky was coming to HHN. Of course, he quickly becomes another one of Chucky’s victims.
And Chucky is going to be so much more than a doll in this maze. Murdy explained that there are 18 animated figures throughout the entire experience, so guests will actually see Chucky executing these kills himself.
At one point in the maze, “Good Chucky” will take over the maze and invite guests to celebrate Christmas. Of course, that doesn’t last long and it quickly becomes a holiday nightmare.
The finale of the maze will feature a series of homages to the series and the films, with dozens of Chucky dolls representing the many ways he has been killed in the various projects. And of course there will be a few big surprises in the end.
Guests will get to experience “Chucky: Ultimate Kill Count” and so much more when Halloween Horror Nights 2023 kicks off at Universal Studios Hollywood on Thursday, September 7. Check out the full lineup here.