Universal Theme Park Announces "FEMA Camp" Attraction For Halloween Fest

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Universal Studios’ theme parks are among the most popular in the world. Every year, Universal Studios Theme Park Hollywood and Orlando hold a 4-6 week long nightly festival called “Halloween Horror Nights”. This year, however, Universal Studios Hollywood has decided to add a new “attraction” for Halloween time – a FEMA Camp. Seriously.

Halloween Horror Nights Hollywood has been called “the scariest Halloween celebration in the world”. Having been there myself, I can attest to how realistically they transform the park for the separately-ticketed event.

I myself attended the Hollywood “celebration” in 2007. Upon entering the park, I could not see literally anything in front of me. Men with the most realistic “fake” chainsaws chased after me almost immediately and even the “strongest” guy in our group who “isn’t afraid of anything” was freaked out ten minutes in.

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The entire sprawling theme park resort is transformed into a hellish, scary place. The event takes place in Hollywood – and mostly actors who are well-trained and trying to make it play the hundreds of characters, beings, and entities made famous from Universal films and TV that chase you around.

With one of the most famous movie studios on the planet literally connected to the park – with it’s carpenters, set designers, and movie makers helping with the event every year – the Hollywood Halloween Horror Nights is like no “scary Halloween maze” you’ve ever been through.

In fact, the whole park is transformed into a giant maze of horror – with seven or eight (depending on the year) other huge mazes inside the park. Usually these horror mazes, where you must enter into closed cramped corners and walk around while dozens of people wielding “knives”, “chainsaws”, etc chase you around until you almost have a heart attack (in my case).

Today, The Los Angeles Times released an article on the official announcement about Universal Studios’ 2015 Halloween Horror Nights.

Along with the “usual” horror mazes based on famous film franchises – “Halloween”, “Alien vs. Predator”, “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”, “Friday the 13th”, and “Nightmare On Elm Street” – Universal has announced that it will be bringing back an “updated” maze based on the Emmy-award winning television blockbuster smash hit “The Walking Dead” for the fourth year in a row.

Only, this year “The Walking Dead” maze announcement came with some disturbing information about it’s update. I had to read it twice myself.

The FEMA Camp Attraction – What Fun!

The LA Times reported: For an unprecedented fourth straight year, “The Walking Dead” will once again be the face of Horror Nights. It’s becoming pretty clear that Universal will stick with the Emmy winner as long as the hit AMC zombie apocalypse program remains a ratings juggernaut.

Here’s a look at what’s on tap for Halloween Horror Nights 2015 at Universal Studios Hollywood:

Walking Dead: Wolves Not Far

Featuring twice as many zombie walkers as last year, the latest installment of the “Walking Dead” maze will be inspired by the fifth season of the television series in what’s being billed as the longest maze in Horror Nights history.

“You’ll follow in the footsteps of the human survivors on the show as you try to escape the horrors of cannibalism in Terminus, a lonely backwoods church cursed by the sins of its pastor, a FEMA camp where the government has lost all control and a sprawling warehouse facility where a mysterious new threat that call themselves ‘The Wolves’ are ready to spring the ultimate trap,” wrote Horror Nights creative director John Murdy on Twitter, where 67,000 fans follow his frequent updates.

Universal will dial back the “Walking Dead” presence considerably at this year’s Horror Nights after featuring the theme in a maze and scare zone as well as on the Terror Tram last season.

Oh, good, so they won’t have a “Scare Zone”, just the longest maze in the world featuring a FEMA camp. I personally thought this was a fascinating addition to the Halloween Horror Nights lineup – especially considering that, though FEMA is referenced in the series – there has never been a FEMA camp in the show.

I looked into this, and came upon the Walking Dead Wiki on “FEMA” – which lays out every time that FEMA has been mentioned in the series. I looked through the whole thing and not once was a “FEMA camp” mentioned in the series. In fact, the Wiki itself discusses how FEMA is barely a player in the show.

The Walking Dead Wiki says in the opening for it’s FEMA entry, which you can read for yourself by clicking here, states: The Federal Emergency Management Agency (also known as the F.E.M.A.) is a U.S. government organization in The Walking Dead (TV Series) as well as the real world. It has protected millions of Americans from terrifying consequences of natural and man-made disasters and is responsible for responding to disasters and assisting in the recovery. The most recent disaster they are attempting to assist in, known as the “zombie”/walker epidemic, has appeared to overwhelm them, as no non-infected officials from the organization can be found. Only abandoned evacuation centers, advertisement over the radio, and some supplies, as well as some Infected FEMA operatives can be seen and heard throughout the series.

OK, so they have “evacuation centers” – but a simple search of the whole wiki never mentions a “FEMA camp”. Why would Universal so blatantly put a (what I’m sure will be very, very realistic) FEMA camp as part of it’s Horror Nights?

Do you think that Universal is just preying on conspiracy theorists and their fears? Is this, as some believe, just another example of Hollywood “showing the public what is coming ahead of time”, as some believe?

Or, is it simply a ploy to get some press – like this very article? Whatever the reason, I think it might be … interesting… to venture out to Universal Studios Hollywood this year for the annual Halloween Horror Nights to see what the movie wizards at one of the biggest movie studios on Earth think a FEMA camp would look like. Or maybe I should say it would be interesting to see what the movie wizards know a FEMA camp looks like?

Let us know what you think or if you end up visiting the park for this years event below – send us pictures and videos!