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Halloween Horror Nights Hollywood -Preview!

Published

4 years ago

September 7, 2022

So, it’s that time of year again when we can expect cooler temperatures, colorful leaves, and a lot of seasonal treats! The nights begin to start sooner, and I feel happiness and calmness when I walk outdoors; the spooky season is upon us, which means Universal Studios Hollywood’s Halloween Horror Nights is just around the corner.

We had the privilege of taking a behind the scene look at two of this year’s mazes that were still under construction for the event – ‘Universal Monsters Legends Collide’ and ‘The Horrors of Blumhouse.’ We met with Creative Director John Murdy, who spoke humbly and excitedly about this year’s Halloween Horror Nights.

First up was ‘The Horrors of Blumhouse,’ which I was super excited about after watching The Black Phone (which is what part of this maze is inspired by). Murdy explains how this particular maze came about:

“Working with Blumhouse goes back to 2013; with Insidious, we’ve had a long relationship working with them. In the past, there were a couple of things different with these Horrors of Blumhouse from the mashups we did the previous two times. One, they were in a different location; we always used the movie theatre facade to set it up as if you were going to a Blumhouse horror film. Two, we always used three properties. We changed things this year twofold; one, when I saw Freaky, I thought I could have done the whole house on Freaky, actually. The first time I sat down to design this, I got to the end of my conceptual design and realized I had used up the entire house. It was always understood that we would use Freaky and The Black Phone. There was just so much content in mind that we didn’t need three films; we felt it would be better to expand on the two we had. Second, we are in the Waterworld queue, and there is this big overhead shade structure that is not so easy to take down; it is incredibly difficult to take down, and so we are limited on the height that we can go with this location, so that necessitated the different concept for the facade.”
-John Murdy, creative director. universal studios hollywood – halloween horror nights.

Creative Director John Murdy Speaks About “The Horrors of Blumhouse.”

We made our way through the theme park to check out the second maze on the agenda, ‘Universal Monsters Legends Collide.’ If you’re a Universal Monster fanatic, you will think this house is off the chain. I can already tell that this original house will be a fan favorite! Murdy goes on to explain how the concept of this house was brought to reality:

“This is the fourth in a string of houses we’ve done to reinvent the Universal Monster brand for Halloween Horror Nights. This goes back to the house we did in 2018, Universal Monsters and 2019 Frankenstein meets the Wolfman, and last year we did the Bride of Frankenstein Lives, and now we are doing Legends Collide. Similar to Bride of Frankenstein Lives, this is an original story that we created and brings together three monster characters that all the classic Universal Horror Movie Monsters from the 20s, 30s, 40s, & ’50s never actually shared screen time, and that is The Mummy, The Wolfman, and Dracula which is amazing that never happened.”
“We co-developed this with our sister park in Orlando and the creative team over there, Charles Gray, who is the creative director of this particular house, and Michael Aiello, who has been associated with Horror Nights for a very long time; he is a different role right now, he focuses on the front end development with me on setting the slate and conceptualizes things, my art director Chris Williams, and myself. Coming out of Bride [of Frankenstein] last year, when we started talking about what we wanted to do in March last year, I had an idea of what I wanted to do while we were building Bride. Dracula, The Mummy, and The Wolfman is an original story I wanted to set up. Orlando had a different idea, they tried to set there’s in Egypt, and we went back and forth. I said, ‘why don’t you do part one, and we do part two, and we will just make it one big thing.’ Suppose you took the time to go to Orlando and Hollywood. In that case, you’d see two different experiences that were part of a larger story.”
-John Murdy, creative director. universal studios hollywood – halloween horror nights.

Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights begin Thursday, September 8th. Purchase tickets by clicking here. Be sure to check back to read up on our 2022 review!

Coverage Links:

Michael Myers Returns

The Horrors of Blumhouse

The Weekend Joins Forces With Halloween Horror Nights

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This Week in Horror: DC Goes Full Body Horror, A24 Has Its Chainsaw Man, and The Bone Temple Is Finally Yours

Published

59 minutes ago

April 24, 2026

Luna Gray

Good week. The Clayface trailer dropped and made DC relevant to this website for the first time in a while, A24 put a director on the Texas Chainsaw Massacre reimagining, and we got some interviews worth reading. Here is all of it.

Clayface Has a Trailer, and It Is Exactly What You Want

The Clayface trailer landed Wednesday, and it is DC’s first real horror film. Not horror adjacent. Not dark. Horror. Tom Rhys Harries plays Matt Hagen, an actor whose face gets disfigured by a gangster. He turns to a scientist, played by Naomi Ackie, who transforms his body into clay. Then the body horror starts.

James Watkins directed, which is the right choice. He made Speak No Evil and before that The Woman in Black, and he understands how to make dread feel physical. The screenplay is by Mike Flanagan and Hossein Amini. That combination should tell you everything about the tone they are going for.

A24 Has a Director for Texas Chainsaw Massacre and His Last Film Cost Under a Million Dollars

Deadline confirmed that Curry Barker is writing and directing A24’s reimagining of the 1974 original. Barker made Obsession for under a million dollars. Focus Features paid north of fifteen million to distribute it. It sits at 96% on Rotten Tomatoes. A24 hired him before it even opens, which opens May 15.

Kim Henkel, who co-created the original with Tobe Hooper, is executive producing his own creation’s reimagining. That is either a blessing or a haunting. Probably both.

Astrolatry Is Going to Cannes and We Talked to the Actor Who Faced the Creature

Astrolatry is heading to the Frontières Buyers Showcase on May 16-17. The film has a sentient severed penis that grows into a ten-foot practical creature with spiky teeth. We interviewed star Ethan Daniel Corbett about what it was actually like to act against it. Short answer: genuinely terrifying. Long answer is on the site.

The Bone Temple Is Home

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple hit 4K UHD, Blu-ray, and DVD on Tuesday. If you held out from the digital release in February, now is the time. The 4K presentation is supposed to be great. Extras include audio commentary and a deleted scene. If your gonna watch The Bone Temple, why not watch it where the snacks are better.

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Astrolatry Built a Ten-Foot Practical Penis Scorpion

Published

7 hours ago

April 24, 2026

Luna Gray

A sentient severed penis grows into a ten-foot creature with spiky teeth. Genre cinema is doing fine.

Astrolatry follows Elliot, played by Ethan Daniel Corbett, who is every ingredient for quiet catastrophe assembled in one man. Socially isolated. Physically isolated. Craving dopamine and finding it in the wrong places. The romance guru pipeline, followed to its logical conclusion. Elliot does not just spiral. He loses a piece of himself, literally, and that piece does not cooperate.

Corbett described it as “a horror satire, a trippy mind-fuck roller coaster” and “a modern retelling of Maniac,” both of which are accurate and neither of which adequately prepares you. Director David Gordon is making his feature debut after shooting 14 films as a cinematographer and he is swinging for the fences.

The Creature

The effects company behind the creature has festival circuit work Corbett had already seen before signing on. He knew what they could do but he was not ready. “When I saw it in person it was kind of mind-blowing,” he said. “Everything that you see in this movie is practical. Very, very little else. It was genuinely terrifying to have a ten-foot creature coming at you with a big mouth and spiky teeth.”

A CG creature asks an actor to imagine something. A ten-foot physical creature on a set asks nothing. It just arrives. The fear on Corbett’s face in those scenes is not a performance. It is the normal reaction to a scorpion dick with sharp teeth.

Elliot

Corbett went into the character through the body. “I mainly focus on the physicality of it. Who this character is and who he is wholly. I strive in those kinds of moments as an actor.”

Gordon was explicit about the concept, the “nice guy” archetype and the overtly toxic one are the same problem, both aimed at the same object. That reading lands because Corbett does not play it as a reading. Elliot is not a symbol. He is a person.

Where It Is Going

Astrolatry is heading to the Frontières Buyers Showcase at Cannes on May 16-17. “To be able to get into that kind of room on David’s first feature is incredible,” Corbett said. “To be in front of buyers and to showcase the film and potentially get distribution through that.” Frontières is the correct room. It is full of people who understand that the most extreme premise, executed with precision, is not a punchline. It is an argument.

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ShoStak Opens the Door for Filmmakers to Build and Own Their Stories

Published

1 day ago

April 23, 2026

Anthony Pernicka

A new player is stepping into the space, but ShoStak is making one thing clear right away.

It is not trying to be the next Netflix. It is not chasing TikTok.

“Cinema does not need another platform. It needs a new model.”

That idea sits at the core of what ShoStak is building. Not just a place to watch content, but a system where creators and audiences connect in a way that feels very different from what we are used to.

The First 150 Competition Is Already Underway

ShoStak is kicking things off with its First 150 Competition, giving filmmakers a chance to present their story worlds and compete for the opportunity to move into production.

Projects are introduced as series concepts or pilots, then advance through multiple stages. Audience voting plays a role, but it is only part of the process.

Selections are ultimately shaped by a mix of audience engagement, creative execution, and overall project readiness. It is not just about popularity. It is about building something that can actually move forward.

For creators, it is a rare chance to get in front of both an audience and a structured development path at the same time.

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One Platform, Built Around a New Model

Everything now lives under ShoStak.tv, where both creators and audiences come together.

Creators can sign up, develop their projects, and begin building their audience. Viewers can discover new series, follow story worlds, and engage with projects as they evolve.

ShoStak describes this as a cinematic ecosystem. Stories are not treated as disposable content designed to spike and disappear. They are built to grow over time.

And that growth happens in public.

Ownership Without Losing Structure

One of ShoStak’s core ideas is giving creators more control over what they build.

Filmmakers are positioned to:

Retain ownership of their intellectual property
Build direct relationships with their audience
Grow projects based on real engagement

At the same time, this is not a free-for-all.

There is still structure. Projects are evaluated, developed, and refined through a process that blends audience input with creative and strategic decision-making.

Instead of removing the system entirely, ShoStak is reshaping how creators move through it.

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Development Happens in Public

This is where things start to separate from the traditional model.

Instead of developing behind closed doors, ShoStak allows projects to evolve in front of an audience.

Creators introduce their ideas, build a following, and expand their worlds over time. As engagement grows, so does the project.

It is less about waiting for approval and more about proving momentum.

Over time, that turns the platform into something larger than a development program. It becomes an open ecosystem where creators and audiences push stories forward together.

More Than Just Testing Ideas

Micro-series are a big part of ShoStak’s approach, but they are not just a testing ground.

They can be the final product.

The format allows creators to:

Tell complete stories in shorter form
Build long-term story worlds
Expand into larger projects when it makes sense

It is not about proving an idea and moving on. It is about giving that idea room to grow in whatever direction fits.

Why This Matters for Horror

Horror has always thrived outside the system.

Some of the most memorable films in the genre came from creators taking risks, working with limited resources, and finding their audience without waiting for permission.

ShoStak’s model fits naturally into that mindset.

It gives horror creators a space to:

Build original story worlds
Connect directly with fans
Grow projects without losing control

And with early content like Civilian and Liminal already rolling out, it is clear the platform is aiming for more than just quick-hit content.

A Different Path Forward

ShoStak is not trying to compete by doing the same thing better.

It is trying to change how stories are created, developed, and sustained.

By combining creator ownership, audience engagement, and a structured development path, it offers something that feels closer to a creative ecosystem than a traditional platform.

Whether it works long-term is still unknown.

But for filmmakers looking for a new way in, it is opening a door that has been closed for a long time.