It is that time of year again! Halloween Horror Nights speculation season! According to this blog, it is never too early to celebrate Halloween! Our friends at Horror Night Nightmares have dropped their first speculation map of the season. We will cover what Halloween Horror Nights is and offer our thoughts on potential mazes for Halloween Horror Nights 32. Their speculation maps are just that speculation, but if you have followed them for the past couple years they are close on some of these and even 100% correct on others, so it is fun to speculate along with them.
Halloween Horror Nights is a hard-ticket event held at Universal Studios on both coasts. This is one of our favorite events of the year and also one we have visited religiously yearly. This post will explore the speculation of which mazes will be included for the event this year. None of this is official and could turn out to be way off up but enjoy the ride.
First off, what type of event is Halloween Horror Nights you ask? It is an event aimed at teens and up. I wouldn’t suggest young ones to visit this event as the crowd can be a bit rough. There is plenty of alcohol being served and also graphic scenes from horror movies being played out in the park. The event happens on weekends during September and October which is the Halloween season.
If you plan on going, we would suggest you try to avoid weekends. Fridays and Saturdays create massive lines for the mazes. If you decide to go on a weekend and only have one night, we suggest grabbing an Express Pass, which allows you to skip the regular line once per maze. We aren’t saying you can’t get all the mazes done without the Express Pass, but it helps on the weekends. If you don’t grab the Express Pass, plan on getting to Halloween Horror Nights as early as possible to hit all the mazes. My gripe with that is that the sun is still out and can ruin the creepy element.
Halloween Horror Nights 32 Speculation Mazes
Let’s go ahead and get right to it. The Last of Us has shown up on the speculation map for the second year in a row. Last year in our second speculation article, we decided it made more sense for this maze to show up in 2023 as the show was due out this year. Last year while going through Descendants of Destruction, we felt like that maze could easily be redone to house The Last of Us, so we shall see if that happens! With how well-received The Last of Us on HBO has been, we could see this one come to life. Here is the list.
- The Last of Us
- Chucky
- Universal Monsters, Phantom and Dracula
- Krampus
- Anchor Symbol (No Name)
- Japanese Symbols (No Name)
- Guitar with Lightning Symbol (No Name)
- Devil Dogs
- Lair of the Banshees
- Blumhouse, Insidious & M3GAN
As with our speculation articles from last year, we bold confirmed mazes. Chucky was announced last year on Halloween. While we enjoy the show, this maze doesn’t move us too much, but it will be fun I am sure, to see Chucky running around the maze. I hope he doesn’t become the icon for the year.
Universal Monsters Phantom & Dracula is rumored to be the already expected Universal Monsters property for the season. Last year’s Legends Collide for Universal Monsters was legendary, and this one has a lot to live up to. The set design of Legends Collide was creepy in the sense you had to crawl your way through catacombs, and deal with some awful smells while being scared around every corner by Wolfman, The Mummy and Dracula themselves.
Krampus is also rumored which has appeared before, and while it was a fun maze, they rarely repeat mazes. We did enjoy all of the little gingerbread men in this maze. Also it had great holiday creepy smells to go with them! We will see if this one lasts through the speculation map season and ends up as a real maze!
Anchor Symbol (No Name). We hope this is a follow-up to Dead Man’s Pier from HHN 31. For those who went to HHN 31, you already know how wonderfully designed Dead Man’s Pier was. The entrance pictured below was a fantastic experience all in itself. As you entered the abandoned town, a crisp cool wind greeted you, accompanied by wind and rain. We would love some more of this story to unfold this season.
Japanese Symbols (No Name). When translated, means Japanese Creature according to Google Lens. Your guess is as good as ours as to what this could be. Japanese culture lends itself to many creatures throughout Japan’s history, and also, with an Anime possibility, we have no guess but can’t wait to see what they come up with.
Devil Dogs sounds like it could also be tied to the Japanese Creature maze rather than it’s own maze. Since Chupacabra was a maze last year we wouldn’t be shocked if they repurposed the animatronics for this maze or even the Japanese creature maze above. Below is a picture of a friend I made last year.
Lair of the Banshees. If this one turns out to be accurate, we guess it would be in the same spot as Spirits of the Coven. They could use a similar path through the maze. A banshee in Irish folklore is an entity that foretells the death of a family member through screams. It would be an interesting maze if you were getting screeched the whole time.
Blumhouse, Insidious & M3GAN. The newest tradition is combining two Blumhouse mazes into one. Both Insidious & M3GAN are fantastic movies, but like The Black Phone and Freaky last year, one maze could get more budget than the other. The Black Phone last year was excellent, as is the movie! M3GAN could get its own maze without the need for Insidious. If you haven’t watched M3GAN yet, you must check it out immediately!
Guitar with Lightning Symbol (No Name). This is juicy rumor. Being a massive Metallica fan, I couldn’t help but notice the lightning bolt looks like a Metallica Lighting bolt for sure. The other way this could be taken is a callback to our beloved Eddie from Stranger Things and his Master of Puppets scene from season 4, which is also a Metallica song. Either of these, as a maze, would be amazing in our book! Our guess is on Metallica since they have a new album due this year.
Final Thoughts on Halloween Horror Nights Speculation Map
There you have it. The first official speculation map of the year. In our opinion if this were to end up as the final map we would be ecstatic just for the inclusion of M3GAN, The Last of Us, and Metallica! What do you think of the lineup? Stay tuned to our blog for more announcements as they are announced. We will see you in the fog later this year!