Halloween Horror Nights: 20 Years of Fear

As many of you know I am a huge haunted attraction nerd. Last week I went to Universal Studios in Orlando, FL. I was in FL for a horror convention called Spooky Empire (Formally Screamfest). I hadn't been to Halloween Horror Nights in FL since I had worked as a costume dresser in 2007. I was super stoked to go because this year was the big 20 year anniversary.

The theme this year for HHN was 20 years of fear. The icon for this years haunt is supposed to be fear himself. Who is pictured below.

The night started off with my friend Katy, her friends, and I all getting in the park. The line outside the gates were huge but to keep you from not going crazy was a huge screen showing a preview of what awaited us inside. It showed icons of years past all talking about fear. As we made our way inside we went through the first scare zone called Esqueleto Muerto. This scare zone was packed with glowing skeletons and was basically just dio de los muertos themed.

Next on our adventure was the PsychoScareapy: Echoes of Shadybrooks house. This house basically was all the previous years of the PsychoScareapy houses thrown into one. Which kinda worked to it's disadvantage in my opinion and was my least favorite house.

Next up was another house called the Legendary Truth: The Wyandot Estate. It was set up kind of like a Ghost Hunter type crew setting up for an investigation at a haunted bed and breakfast. The description of the house says: Using a machine that gathers ghosts, the spirit seekers are about to get more than they bargained for. Which pretty much sums up the house. What I really loved about this house were the new  technology advances. They had two sections in the house where the halls seemed solid but were in fact slightly transparent. Scare actors dressed up as ghosts went by on a conveyor belt like device on the sides of you and under the floor. They also had a bunch of crazy sheet tricks.

After the Legendary Truth we made it over to the Fear Revealed scare zone. It was basically the new icon this year, Fear and some of his lantern minions around him. After this scare zone was another called The Coven. The Coven's description says beware the Cult of the Raven. Enter this witches realm at your peril, as unbelievers will be condemned to death. Walking through all that surrounded the path was pumpkins. Tons of them. That was it.

Next was Catacombs: Black Death Rising. To be honest this was the scariest house that we went to that night. I won't lie I covered my eyes for a lot of it. The set design for this house was amazing you actually believed you were underground. It went along perfectly with the old dirty smell. The room that freaked me out the most was when it felt like the creatures down there were coughing on me from every direction.  Really nasty stuff.

The last thing I went to was the Bill and Ted's Excellent Halloween Adventure show. Sure I could have gone to another house but this show brings back memories for me. I used to work in back of it in a trailer while doing costuming.If you aren't familiar with the show I'll explain it to you. The show pokes fun at the year's recent entertainment and pop culture icons.  I thought this year's show was great. It poked fun at Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, Jersey Shore, Toy Story 3, The Last Airbender, and Twilight to just name a few. The best part of the show was the intro where they showed a bunch of clips from previous year's shows.

After the show I made my way to leave the park. I walked through one more scare zone as I exited called Zombie Gras which was my favorite in my opinion. It was surrounded by mardi gras floats and had a ton of zombies dressed in mardi gras attire.

Overall I would say this year was pretty good. Not too amazing though. The houses I didn't get to go to were Horror Nights: The Hallow'd Past which I probably would have loved. It included everything from past Halloween Horror Night events. Hovoc: Dogs of War which looked kinda lame. It was supposed to be a soldier program gone wrong. Zombiegeddon  was the more humor based house this year. Orfanage: Ashes to Ashes which was supposed to be about an orphange containing souls of lost children that screamed the name Cindy who if I'm not mistaken was the Caretaker's daughter from a past HHN.  The last house I missed was Hades: The Gates of Ruin and was  all myth and legend underworld themed.

I would have loved to have gone the year Bloody Mary was the icon. I thought they did an amazing job with all the art direction and costuming that year.

Dead Rising 2 Party

What:  Greene’s Hardware Super Sale (Dead Rising 2 Community Event) 
Where:  2147 W Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90026              
When:   8PM – 12 Midnight on Friday September 10th 2010


Yesterday I ventured down to Sunset Blvd and went to the Dead Rising party or as they were calling it a community event. The store it was held in was set up to be a fake hardware store with tons of flyers covering the walls. They had most of the weapons from the game on shelves inside the store. I tried to take pictures but a bunch of them came out blurry. Next time I will remember to bring a better camera than my Droid. 

As I walked farther I entered a larger warehouse looking room where there were a ton of PS3s and Xbox 360s set up so you could test out the new Dead Rising 2 game. They also had more weapons available to take pictures with including a rocket launcher, a freedom bear, a sticky bomb, a shotgun, a beer helmet and a few more weapons that I can't remember. I was a little sad they didn't have a fake chainsaw lying around but what are you going to do.

Aside from the game testing they had free pizza and soda. They also gave out some badass shirts just for being there. If you tested your skills out at the Tape it or Die table you received a free poster. 


Here's some pictures from the event:

You can order Dead Rising 2 here: 

Contest Time: Take 2

Alright here's a new contest. It's for a 1313FX Fright Zone mask.

If a girl wins than they get a Swine Flu mask and if a guy wins it than they win a Doll Face mask.

How do you win?

By sending a picture or telling me what your favorite Halloween costume was.

Send your answers to mschultz.fx@gmail.com



The winner will be picked on September 15th, 2010

Please support 1313FX Fright Zone by ordering a mask at our web site

Also check out Tom Devlin's site here

Here's worked on the following films:
Lo , Creek , Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead , Joshua

The Walking Dead Contest Winner

And the winner of The Walking Dead Contest is.....

Daphne White of Daph's Dark Little Corner

and the special prize goes to Jessica Chiou.


Thanks to everyone who entered!

The next contest will be announced tomorrow and you won't want to miss this one...

Live the Fear: Knotts Scary Farm Halloween Haunt

World's Oldest and Largest Halloween Theme Park Attraction
Where: Buena Park, CA in Knotts Berry Farm
When: September 24th - October 31st
How Much: Pre-Sale: $50
Day of Event: $56
Group sale prices also available.

I start my Live the Fear weekly posts with one of California's favorites, Knotts Scary Farm. It's celebrating it's 38th anniversary this year. I went to this event last year with a huge group of friends who I worked with at Disneyland. There were 13 houses, 7 shows, and 3 scare zones. The houses last year included: Lock down: The Asylum, Terror of London, Dia De Los Muertos, Uncle Bobo's Big Top of the Bizzarre, The Labyrinth, Slaughterhouse, Cornstalkers, The Doll Factory, Black Widow's Cavern, Club Blood, Quarantine, Pyromaniax, and Alien Annihilation.
While I was there I got to go into all of the houses except for Pyromaniax and Alien Annihilation. My personal favorites last year were The Doll Factory for the scare aspect. The dolls were extremely creepy. I also recommend Uncle Bob's Big Top of the Bizarre for the fact that it's just a really fun house to go into. The Black Widow's Cavern is actually a ride they transform for the Halloween season. They have character actors and huge spiders jumping out at you through-out this runaway mine car ride. It is so much fun with a big group of friends.  The new houses this year are Sleep Hollow Mountain which is a log flume ride they transformed for this season, Fallout Shelter, Virus Z. The returning houses are Lockdown: The Asylum, Cornstalkers, Terror of London, Dia De Los Muertos, Uncle Bobo's Top of the Bizarre, Slaughterhouse, Labyrinth, Black Widow's Cavern, The Doll Factory, and Club Blood. If you are at Knotts and you'd like to enjoy some alcoholic beverages there's quite a few areas to do so.

Contest Time

Time for a Spooky Brew first... A contest!

This contest is for  The Walking Dead mini poster given away at this year's Comic Con.

How do you win this contest?

Simply by requesting a movie I should review. The winner will be picked randomly. If I really dig the movie you request I will send you a special secret gift.

Send your request to: mschultz.fx@gmail.com

The contest will end August 13th.

Steve's Top 5 Post-Apocalyptic Films

With the DVD release of The Road, I figured now would be a good time to talk about my top 5 favorite post-apocalyptic films.


5. Planet of the Apes (1968)

From the opening crash landing to the twist ending, this movie plays like a two hour Twilight Zone episode. If you haven't seen this classic, (and no, not the mediocre Mark Wahlberg remake) go rent it. Charlton Heston is great and the makeup was revolutionary for the time.


4. A Boy and His Dog (1974)

The story of a young man and his telepathic dog companion searching for food and women in a post-apocalyptic world may not sound like a great premise but it's remarkably better than it sounds. The key to the films greatness is the relationship between Vic (the boy) and Blood (the dog). The writing is sharp and humorous as the two companions, who rely on each other to survive, are constantly bickering and arguing over nonsense. However, the film's dark humor truly shines with the ridiculous twist ending that will probably have you smiling.


3. Dawn of the Dead (1978)

And no, not the mediocre Zack Snyder remake. George A. Romero's classic takes the awful situation he started with Night of the Living Dead and makes it so much worse. The zombies have grown in numbers, hope is pretty much lost, and a shopping mall is the only thing standing between our new band of survivors and becoming a symbol of American consumerism. Oh, and don't forget the gore. This is probably one of the goriest horror films ever made and Romero continued the trend with the sequel, Day of the Dead (1985). Let's just not talk about the remake of "Day".


2. The Road (2009)

It doesn't get much more post-apocalyptic than this. Viggo Mortenson plays a father trying to protect his child born into a post-apocalyptic world from gangs of cannibals. The man and his boy, constantly on the verge of starvation and death, struggle to survive as the boy constantly wants to help others they encounter. The performances are extraordinary and the film is filled with many powerful moments. The duo attempt to maintain the role as the "good guys" even when cast into morally objectionable situations. I read the book before I saw the film and enjoyed the film more. The Road's author, Cormac Mccarthy, paints a picture of the Earth's new, bleak landscape. It's captured perfectly on film. Mccarthy's characters look and speak as I imagined them and many scenes from the book were simply better in motion.

1.5 28 Days Later (2002)

I can't believe I forgot this film. My favorite horror film ever is not really post-apocalyptic since Britain is the only part of the world affected by the zombie outbreak, but those opening scenes of Jim walking around London are so powerful that it deserves a spot on this list. Danny Boyle single-handedly rebooted the zombie sub-genre with this film. This was probably the first time we saw fast zombies which are now common in today's video games and cinema. Just don't listen to anyone who says the people infected with the rage virus aren't really zombies. It's the same formula.

1. Stalker (1979)

Well, it may not technically be post-apocalyptic but it certainly feels like it is. Andrei Tarkovsky's greatest, yet, lesser known science fiction film tells the story of a group of three men traveling into the heart of a mysterious area known as "the zone" that has been blocked off by the government. At the center of "the zone" a man's deepest wishes are said to come true. Stalker, the leader of the group navigates the zone which is supposedly filled with many dangers. The film is used by Tarkovsky to fully explore the many philosophical ideas first brought up by Solaris. In addition, like Solaris, the ending is used to cast everything you thought you knew about the film into doubt. This is one of the greatest science fiction movies of all time and one of my all around favorite films.

-Steve N.