Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood, like all major theme park haunt events, hopes to scare its guests. But Universal’s key architect this year wanted to raise a different question: Is it possible to create a haunted maze that’s a tragedy?
It’s a challenge, but John Murdy has approached the haunted house as a work of complex theater since 2006, when he began overseeing the event that would eventually turn into the annual staple that is Halloween Horror Nights. For one of this year’s offerings themed to Universal Monsters, Murdy not only wanted to freshen up the brand — the scare walk centers solely on female characters, refocusing a franchise that had long been male-centric — but to do so with a tale he hopes will leave attendees a little sullen.
“I always think of our Universal Monsters films as Shakespearean tragedies,” Murdy says. “So I was like, ‘I kinda want to do that this time.’”
The resulting maze — “Universal Monsters: Eternal Bloodlines” — is one that focuses on characters who have received little, or sometimes zero, screen time in Universal’s films. Instead, it aims to liven up the Universal Monsters narratives by highlighting villains and heroines such as Saskia Van Helsing, daughter of Dracula hunter Abraham Van Helsing; the Bride of Frankenstein; and Dracula’s own vampire daughter, Countess Marya Zaleska. Just don’t get too attached to some of them.
The reimagining of Universal Monsters arrives amid a cultural climate that in recent years has sought to reexamine popular narratives, specifically when it comes to topics of diversity and inclusion. See recent attempts by Disney to broaden the scope of its Marvel and Star Wars franchises, or Nintendo this month transforming its popular damsel in distress Princess Zelda into a hero.
Murdy believes the Universal Monsters are ripe for such a reimagining. And it’s happening across the company, especially when it comes to Universal’s theme parks. Opening next year in Florida is the expansive Epic Universe, which contains a monsters-focused section with a thrill ride built around the experiments of Dr. Victoria Frankenstein.
“When you look at at the Universal Monsters and you just look at the hierarchy of the characters, it’s Dracula, Wolf Man, Mummy, Frankenstein, Phantom of the Opera — all guys,” Murdy says. “And then there’s the Bride of Frankenstein. The Bride of Frankenstein is in ‘Bride of Frankenstein’ for about five minutes. You never see her until the very end of the film, and then Frankenstein’s Monster throws the switch and blows up the castle and she’s gone from film history.”
“Universal Monsters: Eternal Bloodlines” aims to give such lesser-known film characters their due. Murdy was buoyed by the fan popularity of a haunted maze in 2021 that served as a sequel to “Bride of Frankenstein.” It not only gave him and his team the confidence to dig deeper into Universal Monsters lore but made apparent that the world of horror could use a bit more representation.
“I want to create powerful female characters,” Murdy says. “When horror started, it was pretty male-centric. Even into the ’80s — it was Freddy, Jason, Leatherface, Michael Myers. That’s what we started doing. It was that genre of horror. But as time has gone on, and the event has grown and evolved, we’ve kept an open mind about embracing all horror.”
This year’s Halloween Horror Nights contains mazes centered around franchises such as “A Quiet Place” and “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire,” the former an alien-invasion tale that saw the park investing in multiple animatronic figures and the latter one that leans a bit more comedic. Also represented once again is a maze inspired by the music of the Weeknd, a surreal journey into Hollywood nightlife.
But when it came to “Universal Monsters: Eternal Bloodlines,” Murdy, who is something of a horror historian — he’s eager to discuss how the maze is housed in the same soundstage in which 1931’s “Dracula” was filmed — had some personal objectives.
“I really love the female-centric take,” Murdy says. “I have two daughters, and honestly I have probably one of the world’s largest collections of Universal Monsters paraphernalia. It’s in my house here in L.A., so since the time they were babies, they were in the monster room. I have pictures of them kissing the busts of Frankenstein, so they knew this as normal as kids. Like me, they have a weird emotional attachment to them, and I want to create powerful female characters for my kids.”
But Murdy also doesn’t treat the characters as precious. The challenge of a haunted maze is throughput, meaning thousands of people need to be able to witness it in an evening. While the rooms are meticulously detailed — carved rockwork, projections, trick weapons and filmed moments all intermingle with live actors — each participant only has about 10 seconds to take in the scene. Murdy admits the subtle narratives he’s after could go over the heads of those simply walking through a haunted house looking for thrills and jump scares.
And “Universal Monsters: Eternal Bloodlines” is relatively ambitious. Scenes shift locations quickly, and illustrated portraits are used as shorthand for transitions. The images also detail the allegiance between the Bride of Frankenstein and vampire hunter Saskia Van Helsing, who is featured in the maze as something of an action hero. Not every character meets a happy ending. Murdy decided Van Helsing would fail in her mission as Dracula’s daughter takes her life in the maze’s climatic moment.
When it came to killing the story’s protagonist, Murdy admits he sought the opinion of his female co-workers. They expressed surprise, he says, but he ultimately decided to go through with it.
“That’s what these movies are to me — they’re tragedies,” Murdy says. He then recalls the closing lines of Universal’s 1941 film “The Wolf Man,” a final moment in which a character offers a poem-like recitation about the end of suffering, a climax he describes as “one of the saddest scenes ever.”
“It’s sad,” he says. “So I just wanted to inject that emotion into the story, which I don’t know that we had totally done yet. That was the impetus. That emotion is inherent in all our Universal Monsters films, so I wanted to see if we could get it here. I’ve never seen anyone try to do that in a haunted house.”
Having gone through the maze, I didn’t notice anyone leaving it in tears. But that’s OK too, as Murdy notes that horror fans know an ending isn’t really an ending, rattling off numerous instances when characters seemingly came back from the dead, including the original “Frankenstein.” Staying true to the horror canon was just as important as elevating lesser-known characters, even if they all don’t make it out alive.
“My 11-year-old is coming for the first time,” Murdy says. “Up until now, she’s never asked, but she said, ‘I think I’m ready.’ And I want her to see female representation.”
It’s time, perhaps, for the era of Dracula’s daughter.
