Q&A: Halloween Horror Nights creative director talks inspirations, fears

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As the terrors of Halloween and midterms slowly creep closer, several attractions across the city are kicking off the festivities early. Among them is the Halloween Horror Nights, Universal Studios Hollywood’s annual horror event dedicated to terrifying attendees with mazes and live entertainment.

This year, the park, featuring “The Walking Dead,” will feature seven mazes, including “Clowns 3D: Music by Slash,” which will feature an original score by guitar legend Slash. It will also feature the annual Terror Tram, as well as the usual park rides, and will offer discounted tickets to UCLA students. The Daily Bruin’s Aalhad Patankar spoke with John Murdy, creative director for Halloween Horror Nights, about his inspirations, fears and history as a preteen maze designer.

Daily Bruin: How did you get into designing mazes and scaring people for a living?

John Murdy: I started doing this when I was 10 in my parents house. Then one day, my parents said, “We can’t do this anymore,” because there were hundreds of people lined up outside.

My education is in theater, and this is a very strange, demented form of theater. But I have been with Universal Studios Hollywood since 1989. I started off as a studio tour guide, and I’ve worked my way up.

DB: How did Slash, former lead guitarist of Guns N’ Roses, get involved with Halloween Horror Nights, and what’s it been like working with him?

JM: I met Slash last year during Halloween Horror Nights, he had never been here before. I took him through the Black Sabbath maze, and he was blown away. We talked about collaborating together right away. He called me, and I said I have an idea: Why don’t you write an original score for it?

So first thing, I sent him the treatment. I always write an elaborate treatment for every maze we create. It’s about 70-100 pages, written from a guest’s perspective: what they see, what they hear, what they smell. I sent it to him, and he really dug it. He was really inspired, and went to work on it right away … He just nailed it right out of the gate: the first demo he sent me had the demented sounds of evil clowns, but had his signature sound.

DB: The world of horror has evolved so much over the last few decades. How has Halloween Horror Nights changed with it?

JM: You can see it in our lineup: we have four TV show mazes this year. Our main job is staying ahead of the curve, because horror does evolve. Horror is very cyclical, it goes through different phases. Maybe seven years ago, there wouldn’t be a thing like “The Walking Dead” on television, but once it came along and saw tremendous success, there was room for other (horror) shows … And now, horror is in television and four of our mazes are (based on) television shows.

DB: What’s been your favorite maze?

JM: I don’t have a favorite. They’re all like my demented children. What meant the most to me was the maze I did with Alice Cooper because he was my childhood hero going up. It was a combination of rock ‘n’ roll and horror, my two loves.

DB: How has the crowd changed over the years? Is it getting harder to scare folks today, or are people just as terrified?

JM: I’ve watched them grow up. I’ve been doing this for nine years, and our fans are very dedicated and loyal. I’ve been approached by parents at the park with their kids, who are really young, probably in their first year of being able to go to Halloween Horror Nights, and I’ve seen the same kids grow up over the last nine years. People keep coming back because I think people need escape, and horror provides that.

But each year at the end, the goal is the same: scare the living “fill in the blank” out of people.

DB: Aside from film and television, where do you draw influence for your mazes? Do you ever find yourself drawing from your own life?

JM: We study psychology. We know what scares you. We’re obsessed with it. But we draw from our lives too. One of the things that scared me as a kid was watching a black and white version of “Alice in Wonderland,” and for whatever reason to a little kid – I was four – I was terrified of that world. Now I’m getting to work with a “Face Off” version of “Alice in Wonderland.”

DB: What scares you the most?

JM: I hate cotton balls, I have a weird phobia of cotton balls. I can’t stand them, I can’t touch them. I guess that’s what you would call an irrational fear. But I’m more interested in what other people are scared of.

Compiled by Aalhad Patankar, A&E senior staff.

Correction: Universal Studios Hollywood holds Halloween Horror Nights. “Clowns 3D: Music by Slash” features an original score by Slash.