It’s that time of year again, when the theme parks go all out for Halloween events, and nobody does Halloween fright quite like Universal Studios, with their history of making horror films for over 80 years. The hugely popular Halloween Horror Nights features the most authentic scares from some of the biggest horror properties in film and TV, and this year it’s trying something new with “The Horrors of Blumhouse” maze, combining the four films from The Purge franchise with the two Sinister films and the upcoming Happy Death Day (in theaters on October 13^th).

Collider was recently invited to preview the extensive new maze to find out from maze creator John Murdy what went into bringing all of the little details to life, and also chat with Jason Blum about why these three properties were chosen and what he’s most excited about with this live experience. We’ve included the highlights of the interview, along with a list of 10 things to know about the maze and some preview photos. All images are via Christina Radish.

Collider: What made you want to do a maze that combines different Blumhouse properties?

JASON BLUM: It was actually our idea and we pitched it to John [Murdy]. We’ve done our own live events, in the past. We did Blumhouse of Horrors. We did a Purge live event ourselves, separate from Horror Nights. John and I have known each other a long time, and I said, “It would be so fun to do this with you guys!” They do it better than we do. We’ve been talking about it for a couple of years, so I’m psyched to finally have this.

Was there much thought put into which properties you’d include in this maze?

BLUM: Sure, there was a lot of thought. Not every scary movie fits. You have to have big set pieces. The Purge is perfect because conceptually it’s so perfect for a live event. Sinister is one I’ve always wanted to do and never done. So, we chose the movies that we thought would make the best live experiences.

Were you looking for similar themes, at all?

BLUM: No, we weren’t looking for similarities in the storytelling. We were looking for characters or set pieces that would be conducive to a live scare. That’s what we wanted.

What do you personally enjoy about these three properties?

BLUM: Every movie lives in your brain in a very different way. First of all, my role on every movie is different. My role on Sinister 1 was very different from my role on Sinister 2. And Sinister 1 was the first movie I did with Ethan [Hawke], so that was the beginning of working with him on a bunch of different things. And then, we did The Purge together, so I think about that. On the first Sinister, we had a production disaster, so I think about that. It’s very personal to me, the experiences that happen over about 12-month period of making the movies.

People aren’t going to know what to expect from Happy Death Day, since it doesn’t open in theaters until October 13^th. What should they know about it, coming into the maze?

BLUM: The cool thing about Happy Death Day is that we’ve never done a maze based on a movie that hasn’t come out yet. Usually, people have already seen the movie by the time they come to the maze. I think there’s something fun about going through the maze, and then a week or two later, seeing the movie. What’s different about Happy Death Day is that you get the live event before you get the movie, if you do it at a particular time. We’ve never done that before, and I think that’s really cool. The other thing is that Happy Death Day is a collaboration between Blumhouse and Chris Landon, who’s a very talented guy that I’ve done five movies with. We did four of the six Paranormal Activity movies with Chris Landon, so we have a long relationship. He’s as good as anyone at making scary stuff fun, and what people can expect from Happy Death Day is not only a great Friday the 13^th scary movie, but it’s also a fun movie.

Do you think about spoilers, at all?

BLUM: We do. We think about spoilers and we try to stick to stuff that’s either been seen in the trailer or that’s not going to give anything away. If you go through the Happy Death Day experience, there are no spoilers for the movie.

Do you think that people will experience the maze differently, before and after they get to see the film? If they’re coming to Halloween Horror Nights before the movie opens, do you recommend they return to walk through it again, after they’ve seen the film?

BLUM: That’s up to them, if they want to come back, but it’s always different after you’ve seen the movie. The live experience brings back an image of the movie, so if you liked the movie, then for sure, come back because you’ll experience it in a different way.

At this point, are you desensitized to horror and scares, or is it still as fun and exciting for you?

BLUM: It’s definitely still as fun and exciting. We’re always trying to top ourselves and to do it better. I’ve never done a movie where I haven’t learned at least one thing, so I like to thing the longer we do it, the better we get at it. That doesn’t mean our movies are always better. Sometimes we miss the mark, for sure. I am desensitized to the scares in our movies because I’ve seen them so many times, but scares in other movies still get me very scared. When I go through the mazes for our movies, even if I’ve been through the maze before, I jump very far.

Are you somebody who loves Halloween?

BLUM: Yeah, I am. I love Halloween. It was my favorite holiday, as a kid. My mother and I used to start making my costume in early August. By this point, we’d have a lot of it together. At our company, we have no Christmas party. Our annual party is a Halloween party. I love Halloween. I love dressing up. I dress up, all year round, in various outfits, and I get really dressed up at our Halloween party. Now, I have a little kid, so hopefully our daughter will like Halloween as much as I do.

What’s coming up next for Blumhouse?

BLUM: We’re doing the fourth Purge movie, which comes out next summer. We have Happy Death Day on Friday the 13^th (in October). We have Insidious: The Last Key in January. And then, next year, we have a couple other movies with The Purge, that we haven’t announced yet. There’s a couple other original scary movies that I’m also excited about. I can tell you that there are at least two, but I can’t tell you what they are yet. And we have Halloween in October, a year from this coming October, which I’m very psyched about. I’m excited about that.

When are you shooting Halloween?

BLUM: That’s top secret. But I can tell you that we will be opening a movie, next October, called Halloween.

And you have Glass.

BLUM: Glass is the following year. Glass comes out in January 2019, a year from Insidious.

What can you tease fans about Glass? Would you describe it as a superhero movie?

BLUM: Of course, it’s a kind of superhero movie, for sure. I do consider it that, yeah. It’s very different. I would say it’s not a Marvel movie, but a superhero movie.

How will Spawn compare to current superhero films?

BLUM: This Spawn movie is a kind of superhero movie, but a very different kind of feeling superhero movie. I like the idea of low-budget superhero movies. It’s cool.

Are you drawing from any specific story arcs from the comics?

BLUM: Yeah, for sure. Todd [McFarlane] is doing it. He’s directing it, which is very cool, so we definitely will.

Do you know when HBO plans to release Sharp Objects?

BLUM: We just finished shooting that. It was a long shoot, but I think that series is going to be really good. I’ve very excited about it. That will come out next year, too. Sometime next year, on our TV side. Our TV business is very active. We’re doing a lot of things, but that’s, for sure, one of the biggest.

10 Things to Know About “The Horrors of Blumhouse” Maze:

• “The Horrors of Blumhouse” maze has an unusual layout because they’re using multiple properties. With the three movies in The Purge franchise, Happy Death Day, and the two Sinister movies, they needed more space. It starts in the Plaza, and then continues next to Mel’s Dinner, in the middle of the Parisian courtyard. It’s also the biggest maze, in terms of characters.
• The Purge has been a part of HHN for a number of years, as a scare zone, with the Terror Tram and as a scare gauntlet, before finally becoming part of a maze. The maze starts in a secret Purge compound, set outdoors. At the end of the third Purge movie, the Purge got banned, so it’s now gone underground with radical elements that are still purging.
• In the Purge portion of the maze, you’ll come across “the candy girls” from Purge: Election Year, the Statue of Liberty stilt walker, and the Faceless Purgers. The van is actually a prop from Land of the Lost with Will Ferrell, repurposed for the maze. At the end of the Purge portion of the maze, you have to get through a gauntlet of all the bodies that have been purged.
• Once you exit the Plaza, you’ll enter a movie theater that has a “Horrors of Blumhouse” film festival going on. The motorcycle gang from the second Purge movie will direct you into the movie theater, where you’ll go through the portions of the maze for Happy Death Day and Sinister. There will be dimensional representations of the posters for each of the movies to separate the different portions of the maze.
• Because Happy Death Day doesn’t open until mid-October, they have to clearly communicate what the property is about. After going through the script and the dialogue, they communicate the plot points to make sure it will make sense without having to stop and give exposition. It’s like a living trailer for the film.
• The Happy Death Day portion begins in the dorm room for the main character, who gets killed by a serial killer who wears a baby-faced mask. As soon as she gets killed, it’s morning again and she has to relive the day, Groundhog Day style, until she figures out what happened and who killed her.

• 

  Theatrical endings don’t always lend themselves to a maze. For the end of the Happy Death Day portion, he combined a couple of ideas in the film that includes a scare with six guys in the baby-faced mask, only two of which are actual performers.
• In the Sinister portion of the maze, you’ll see the kill films being projected, like they were seen in the films. You will also see the barn/church that was featured, and Bughuul will make an appearance. The end of the maze features the “Sunday Service” kill film from Sinister 2, which is based on a real medieval torture that they used to do with people.
• On the way out, there is one final Purge scare, where you’ll be attacked by a couple of Purge mercenaries.
• Don’t feel bad if you get too scared to finish a maze, scare zone or the Terror Tram. There are staff in black robes with flashlights to help you, if you want to get out, and it happens on a nightly basis.

Halloween Horror Nights is at Universal Studios Hollywood on select nights from September 15^th through November 4^th, and tickets and special offers are available here. And be sure to learn more about HHN's maze here.