Every year, Universal Studios holds the ultimate spooky season event in its Los Angeles and Orlando theme parks with Halloween Horror Nights. The main event is the rotating lineup of mazes the park meticulously chooses every year based on beloved franchises like Halloween or Texas Chainsaw Massacre, or through original concepts unique to HHN. We’re still months away from the famed event, but that didn’t stop Universal Studios from dropping a tease about what to expect in this fall.
Xenomorphs! In a rare tweet from the official Halloween Horror Nights Twitter account, the theme park hinted at Alien being part of this year’s festivities with the following:
The account doesn’t just quote random classic movies, horror fans! This looks like a big nudge to Ridley Scott’s 1979 classic specifically, considering “In space no one can hear you scream” was the movie’s famous tagline. If Alien is coming to Horror Nights, it wouldn’t be the first time. Back in 2014 and 2015, Horror Nights featured an AVP: Alien vs. Predator maze.
Prior to the tweet, the account also posted the equation “a = 12(7-1) + h” on Wednesday, which fans deducted meant 72 hours until an announcement (with ‘h’ meaning hours and ‘a’ meaning announcement, and the equation coming out to 72). If these calculations are correct, that would point to something being announced this weekend about Horror Nights.
It makes more sense for Horror Nights to feature Alien this year in particular because an Alien prequel series for FX was announced last month. The network (and the Alien franchise as a whole) is technically owned by Disney, but has partnered with Universal Studios loads of times for Horror Nights, especially in regards to the famed American Horror Story mazes.
Of course, a single tweet isn’t confirmation that Halloween Horror Nights will definitely have an Alien maze, but the account is definitely aiming to create buzz around an announcement. An Alien-centered maze would be huge and a rare opportunity for Universal Studios to build an awesome attraction centered around sci-fi horror.
CinemaBlend was in attendance at last year’s California and Florida Horror Night attractions. In Orlando, the biggest highlights were the new Beetlejuice maze and an original maze called Captured. In Hollywood, there was a wild Purge terror tram experience and an awesome Halloween maze. Both locations dazzled with the Haunting of Hill House maze and original Bride of Frankenstein sequel maze.
There are typically eight mazes in Hollywood and ten mazes in Orlando, so there will be a lot of Halloween Horror Nights news to look forward to as the event gets closer. While we wait and see what Universal announces, check out what upcoming horror movies are on their way this year.