Over the course of the past several decades, Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights has become a staple of the spooky season across both coasts of the United States. The event brings many of the most popular horror films and TV shows, from the past, present, and even future, to life in a tangible fashion for guests to step into for themselves. As such, it should come as no surprise that the year’s biggest breakout horror hit, Obsession, is something that many fans have been hoping to see brought to the event.
However, the timing wasn’t exactly perfect. Though the event doesn’t start until late August or early September depending on the year, creative director John Murdy and his team work on Halloween Horror Nights practically year-round, locking in IPs for the various haunted houses well in advance so that they can begin work in earnest on their planning and construction months ahead of time. But given that literally no one seemed to have any idea just what a phenomenon Obsession would turn out to be when it released in April of this year, the film wasn’t exactly on Halloween Horror Nights’ radar. But now, it’s been revealed that Obsession will be coming to Halloween Horror Nights in a distinctly unique fashion and that it is being accomplished through the creative team’s explicit collaboration with none other than the film’s writer-director, Curry Barker.
Given the shortage of time, the Halloween Horror Nights team took a different approach to bringing Obsession to the event, instead opting to base a whole new experience around the character of Nikki (as played by the now-iconic Inde Navarrette) roaming the park. As Murdy detailed, it all came around “very late in the game for us in terms of our development,” but that didn’t stop the team from running full-speed ahead into the opportunity, especially once it became clear that both Navarrette and Barker were so passionate about making it happen.
Describing how Nikki will interact with fans at the event, Murdy said, “We created this thing to activate areas of the theme park you would never expect to see a performer in. That includes our retail stores. We’ve identified a number of different locations where she can appear. You never know when you might encounter her.”
Murdy also goes on to explain that in order to really sell Nikki’s presence as a character, the scare actors performing the role will be the first in the history of the event to use dialogue. “Normally, our scare actors don’t speak, but it seemed really important to give Nikki the authentic voice Curry gave her in the film. So I took all of the dialogue from the film and put together a creative treatment that I sent to Curry.”
Beyond this, fans will also be able to use mobile devices to further interact with the character and theming, as they can call the One Wish Willow phone number from the film and receive a personalized, exclusive message from Barker himself, who also voiced the character on the other end of the phone in the film itself.
All in all, this is awesome stuff and demonstrates a real passion from all parties involved, which will undoubtedly make for a thrilling evening at the parks.
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