Halloween Horror Nights returns to Universal Studios Hollywood with a host of new mazes, scare zones
and a fully re-imagined “Terror Tram” experience. CR: Universal Studios Hollywood

Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood brings together the sickest minds in horror to immerse guests in a living, breathing, three-dimensional world of terror. This year’s event features a new slate of eight unrivaled film and television production quality mazes, frightful scare zones and a fully re-imagined “Terror Tram” experience—all uniquely themed to today’s most definitive horror properties.

This highly anticipated Southern California annual event runs on designated days from Sept. 14 through Nov. 1 from 7 p.m. to 2 a.m., and is designed to taunt, terrorize and torment guests as they navigate the darkness from one frightening maze to another. Tickets can be purchased at Hollywood.Halloweenhorrornights.com. There are various ticket options including two-day passes and more. Visitors are urged to purchase early as this popular event tends to sell out.

For the first time ever, the theme park is partnering with Netflix to bring “Stranger Things” to life as fans of the series get a chance to brave the Upside Down and confront the supernatural in the all-new maze inspired by season one of the critically-acclaimed series. The parallel universe, referred to as the Upside Down that terrorizes the small town of Hawkins, Ind., brings the chittering, predatory Demogorgon to “Halloween Horror Nights” to stalk unwitting guests as they encounter iconic scenes, characters and environments from the mesmerizing series. From the menacing Hawkins National Laboratory, under the U.S. Department of Energy, to the Byers home adorned with an erratic display of flashing Christmas lights and the eerie Upside Down woods oozing a shower of floating orb-like spores, the chilling new maze offers surprising twists and unexpected turns around every corner.

Guests also will be encouraged to go “into the light” in the terrifying new maze inspired by Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures’ iconic supernatural horror film “Poltergeist.” Considered one of the scariest films of all time, this groundbreaking movie paved the way for a new era of supernatural ghost stories. The maze lures guests to the Freeling family house built atop a cemetery where malicious ghosts threaten the lives within. From the underground graveyard to ghostly apparitions, guests come face-to-face with infamous scenes from the film, including the iconic flickering TV screen, menacing Beast from beyond and pool filled with floating corpses.

Additionally, inspired by Universal’s original cinematic monsters and the studio that invented the horror film, Universal Studios unearths an all-new “Halloween Horror Nights” maze based on the original “Universal Monsters,” with a terrifying contemporary twist on these classic horror icons. The maze also features an original score produced and composed by celebrated Grammy Award-winning musician Slash. Guests brave enough to enter will encounter such Universal Monsters as The Wolf Man, The Invisible Man, The Phantom of the Opera, Dracula, Dracula’s Bride, Frankenstein’s Monster, The Bride of Frankenstein, The Mummy and others.

Fans of “The Purge” films may want to venture into “The First Purge” with a new maze based on Universal Pictures’ thriller that unleashed the country’s inaugural government-sanctioned lawlessness, making all crime legal once a year for 12 hours. The maze, inspired by The First Purge, reimagines the movie’s premise, greeting guests with pure unadulterated fear as it brings to life the turmoil spawned by vigilantes. It places guests at the heart of a controversial sociological experiment empowered by the New Founding Fathers of America’s desire to purge the nation of all hatred and crime by, ironically, permitting crime to take place as a means of ridding society of all ills.

Jason Blum, one of today’s most prolific producers of contemporary horror films, brings more of his signature movies to life with “The Horrors of Blumhouse: Chapter Two” maze where legions of terrified guests come face-to-face with the most iconic and unnerving moments from Blumhouse’s “Truth or Dare” and “Unfriended” movies. In Truth or Dare, guests succumb to an ancient curse that has been unleashed by a group of unsuspecting college students, forcing them to play a game where the stakes are life and death. In Unfriended, guests become pawns to a supernatural entity that has invaded a chat room. Drawing inspiration from Blumhouse Productions’ infamous opening title sequence, the final feature lures guests into a creepy old house to answer desperate cries of help, only to discover that they have actually entered a paranormal world where real-life nightmares threaten to trap them forever in misery.

There’s plenty more on tap during this hallowed Halloween season, including “Walking Dead” themed attraction, The Jabbawockeez Special Effects Show, an all-new maze inspired by the “Halloween” films and more.