How Spooky Synergy Made NBCUniversal the King of Halloween Season
variety.comMatt Donnelly Senior Film Writer For three decades, Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios has been offering live terror experiences in Southern California and Florida — primarily via a series of mazes where the undead chase crowds with chain saws and scary movies come to life.
Over decades, licensed characters like Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees have haunted the studio backlot. But on a recent Wednesday in October, the annual attraction was hosed down not with fake blood but a slew of corporate owner NBCUniversal’s intellectual property.
An entire house was erected to celebrate the catalog of Blum- house, the studio’s low-budget horror partner. A troupe of M3GAN robots busted out creepy dance moves every 10 minutes starting at 8 p.m.
on the dot. Chucky dolls and the possessed children of “The Exorcist: Believer” spooked fans — as well as NBCU talent like Al Roker, who braved the attraction for a “Today” segment — on sound- stages rife with custom smells and fog.
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