"Scream Squad" is a term that Universal Studios has half-heartedly try to get people to use organically to describe the friends they attend Halloween Horror Nights with. They also frequently use the tagline "Never go alone." I get that it's playing into horror movie tropes but it also feels so desperate to me. It reminds me of this ad campaign for this scary/ridiculous movie I won't be seeing called Whalefall, which implores its audience to see it "on the biggest screen possible."
Anyway I am hard-pressed to pass up ironic use of a tortured marketing phrase, and on Friday I met up with my #ScreamSquad for Halloween Horror Nights™ at Universal Studios® Hollywood. We had a great time! This was my third or fourth time going and it was my favorite edition yet. I've learned how to not get too anxious walking into a maze, and to use the extremely dense traffic to my advantage to avoid being too close to any of the jumpscares, so I can focus on the set design. It makes the times when they really get me all the more satisfying. The highlight this year was their adaption of Sinners, which did some interesting stuff with LED light eyeballs that I haven't seen before and I'm still not sure how they pulled it off. There were also a couple original-IP houses whose designs were as excited as their names were cringey: Dead Deader Deadest and Killcenañera. Big puppets! Cool sound design! Intricate sets you can touch if you're slick about it! I love this stuff!
Two members of my #screamsquad are getting married in a couple weeks which makes it more complicated for us to visit other haunts, but I'm planning to try to make time for Knott's Scary Farm and maybe also maybe the LA Haunted Hayride and also FrightFest at Six Flags Magic Mountain. One of those is in Griffith Park and I could basically walk to it, but the other two are an hour's drive away, but I gotta do it! Even if I gotta go alone! #NeverGoAlone! Whalefall!
The rest of this week has been eaten alive by the same project that devoured last week, but I did finally get started on my spooky colorful trees for the yard. They look like shit so far but I think I might be able to salvage them. No photos yet because they look like shit.
Per my Southern California Haunt List listing, my haunt premieres ten days from today. I am so nervous about it lol I have so much to do lol smh