‚Evil Dead Rise‘ is one of 2023’s biggest horror hits and now comes to life again at Universal … [+] Studios‘ Halloween Horror Nights.
Warner Bros. Pictures/New LineAll hell will break loose at Universal Studios Hollywood’s Halloween Horror Nights thanks to a haunted house inspired by this year’s box office smash hit Evil Dead Rise.
The critically acclaimed supernatural horror, and the fifth film in the iconic franchise, has grossed $146.7 million at the worldwide box office. It’s now available to stream on Max, where it was initially meant to premiere but got upgraded to a theatrical release and became a roaring success.
„I’m super excited,“ writer-director Lee Cronin confirmed exclusively. „It’s fantastic. All I can think about is how mad it was that I wrote the screenplay for Evil Dead Rise sitting on my bed in a tiny apartment in Dublin during the first wave of the pandemic, and here we are now.“
„The experience of getting this movie made, shooting through major Covid difficulties, moving from streaming to theatrical, and having the box office success was its own journey. For someone else to reinterpret Evil Dead Rise and turn it into this at such an iconic event in such an iconic place at such an iconic time of year is something else entirely.“
The immersive Evil Dead Rise experience will take ticket holders into a reimagining of the environment Cronin created in the movie, set in a Los Angeles apartment building where a family fights for survival in a nightmarish battle with demons made flesh.
„To think I made my debut feature film for £2.5 million ($3.19 million) in Ireland. The journey from that moment to meeting Sam Raimi, who created The Evil Dead, and finding a story I felt was worth telling has been incredible,“ Cronin recalled. „Even though I wanted to make an Evil Dead movie, my biggest fear was that I couldn’t find a story I wanted to tell. I can only be proud of what we’ve done and enjoy the fact that this is happening.“
Also rounding out this year’s offering of eight haunted houses are original installations, Monstruos: The Monsters of Latin America, featuring creatures from Latin American folklore, and Holidayz in Hell, which will add scares to seasonal celebrations. The fan favorite Terror Tram is back with a new theme. Subtitled The Exterminatorz, it will drop guests on Universal’s backlot in the middle of an insect uprising led by Larry Larva, a megalomaniac hell-bent on exterminating all humans.
Immersive experiences already announced for this year include The Exorcist: Believer, inspired by the upcoming horror sequel, Universal Monsters: Unmasked, a Paris-set haunted house featuring the likes of The Phantom of the Opera and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Chucky: Ultimate Kill Count. Installations inspired by the fourth season of the hit NetflixNFLX show Stranger Things and the classic PlayStation game, The Last of Us, will also be major draws for fear fans.
The screaming starts at Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood on select nights from Thursday, September 7, 2023, through Tuesday, October 31. The Halloween Horror Nights event at Universal Orlando Resort, which has a slightly different lineup, runs Friday, September 1, 2023, through Saturday, November 4, 2023. Tickets for both events are now on sale.
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