Photo Courtesy of Universal Studios 

Every October horror fans flock to Universal Studios for Halloween Horror Nights. HHN which is considered one of the world's largest Halloween events has been awarded “Best Halloween event in the world” and “Best Halloween event” from “Hot World”. As you can imagine it takes a huge team to create, and produce a yearly event like this. Senior Show Director and creative manager for Universal Studios in Florida, J Michael Roddy , agreed to share some of what it takes to put on the worlds biggest Halloween event.

Roddy who calls himself a ‘lucky geek” began his career in show biz during his school days. Later he found himself working at Universal Studios as what they call a “Scare-actor” playing Norman Bates of Psycho for the first production of HHN. He must have impressed the management because soon after he found himself quickly climbing the ladder of success, writing and directing for various projects. Roddy is now the Senior Show Director for the Universal Studios, Orlando. He has also has written and directed over 50 live productions for Universal, as well as numerous video projects. His work can be seen in shows like “Grinchmas”, “Beetlejuice's Graveyard Review”, “The Revenge of The Mummy”.

Roddy: “The thing about HHN is it’s always evolving....even right into opening throughout the event we’re always taking a look at things you know making sure you know that it’s the best it can be. And you know its not over until it closes."

"We’re always looking for especially for Halloween is somebody that is passionate about the horror genre. We look for talent obviously but we also like people that are into it because that only brings that much more dedication to it and you know it’s the attention to detail from everyone from set design all the way to performer that really makes Halloween Horror Nights in our opinion the best it can be.”

“We just won for the second year running “The best Halloween event in the world”, and "Best Halloween event" from “Hot World”. And we take those awards very seriously, and we are very pleased to present people with that kind of dedication and a good time.”

Laughing Roddy say’s “And also scare he hell out of them."

The theme for this years HHN is called “Ripped from the Silver Screen” and features many classic horror favorites. The plan is to put the guest into the movie instead of just being a spectator on the sidelines. Roddy says the biggest challenge he faces every year is “not to be jaded” . He says he and his team have been pretty successful at” placing ourselves as the guest. Get back to the simplest thing which is , Ok, how do you scare somebody?.... What’s scary? What would terrify someone? And you know thats always a challenge.”

Roddy: “We work pretty closely on a small team in our show development area and we’re always looking at the next best thing and what’s current in popular culture, what are the trends and things like that. And every year we start looking at Halloween, we actually started working on a “ three year plan”, 3 years ago of strategically what would be he schematic of each event you know starting off with the newline characters we’re actually starting off with Horror comes home and bringing this event back to Universal studios where it began and then we have the integration of the newline characters then we have the idea of urban legends. “

“We knew we wanted an event based totally on the Films coming to life. We work with Lionsgate and Twisted Pictures which they are responsible for one of the biggest Horror franchises in history with Saw. They were great, and we knew that in the history of Halloween at Universal, there’s never been an overall schematic of characters coming from the screen are an overall movie come to life. So that just started the ball rolling and we also had an opportunity for Universal pictures to promote the up coming “Wolfman” film.. And work closely them to bring that experience to light. We also went back to our own characters like Chucky, and the original Frankenstein, and Dracula and looking at a new way to present them for 2009 audience. I think we were pretty successful.”
 

Roddy:  “You will come face to face with “Cirque de Freak” which is a scare zone based on another Universal picture which is Circus led by a Vampire. We have characters from “My Bloody Valentine”, “Drag me to Hell”, every horror film you can think of..If it was a Universal film we try to merchant it in some kind of capacity, and then we also have these great opportunities where there are styles of Horror films . There’s the “B grade” horror films thing like “Living in the sewer” and we try to reference that... and we have “Spawn” or a “Chainsaw family”. Something that references that is “Leave it to Cleaver”, which is like the “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” meets Pleasantville”. Everything is based on some type of Horror Film.

Directors who have influenced Roddys work over the years include Steven Speilberg, Alfred Hitchcock, and John Carpenter. Says Roddy “Speilberg with his overall visual style, Hitchcock from a sense of humor,John Carpenter is just somebody who I think in his earlier career is somebody I look to. As.. ok this is how you build up a sense of dread and scare someone.”

He says some of his favorite horror flicks include Halloween, The Exorcist, and the Shining. He also loved this years hit Drag me to Hell which he refers to as “ amazing , a good old fashioned just fun romp”. He is also quick to mention the upcoming Universal picture Wolfman which is set to be released in theaters February 2010.

Roddy: “We’ve seen some footage from Wolfman...I can’t wait until it is released in theaters, cause I know that’s just gonna reinvent the genre again.”

Dawnn: HHN is also famous for it’s annual presentation of the Bill and Ted show which features satire on the headlines of the past year. The show has definitely become a fan favorite for HHN attendees. Can you give me the scoop on Bill and Ted show this year, or do I have to come and see for ourselves?

Roddy: “ All I can really say about Bill and Ted is that in my opinion I’ve seen all of them
and this one is one of the funniest we’ve ever produced. It just really is entertaining and everybody thats’ seen it has never seen the show get a standing ovation every night and this one has. So it’s been good.

Dawnn: There sure has been some great stuff in the news to spoof this year.

Roddy: “Absolutely this has been a great year. The event is perfect for the fact that it comes at a time where people a good escape.”

Roddy:
“Everyone likes to have fun at someone else's mistakes, and expenses especially it seems if those people are rich and powerful beyond compare . The more wealthy, and the more powerful seem to screw up more than anybody else. At least we just pay attention to it because they’re in the media. But yeah.. those shows are very popular I think as other events grow around the country you start seeing them stepping into the water doing live shows cause those are kind of a treat. You know you have the
mazes which are the trick, and these are the moments where you can just have fun, and
have a good time.”

With all these shows under his belt I figured odds were that there have been some mishaps so I asked him.

Dawnn: What would you say is the funniest thing ( that you can tell us ) that has ever happened during one of your productions.

Roddy: “The thing about HHN is it’s always evolving....even right into opening throughout the event we’re always taking a look at things you know making sure you know that it’s the best it can be. And you know its not over until it closes. I remember a few years ago during the Bill and Ted show right before we opened the “ Monica ,Bill Clinton” thing hit...you know the scandal. And it was it probably about 2 days before we were supposed to open. The nature of Bill and Ted is very much a parody show and something that big politically it would have seemed odd if we hadn’t mentioned it.”
So put it in the show but the actor that we had in mind to play Bill Clinton was not available for the first two weekends so I ended up jumping in and playing Bill Clinton.”

Roddy: “We love the fact that people trust us to come and have their party with us and have us scare the heck out of them. People are looking for a good excuse to get away from reality, and what going on in the world and thats what we do..thats what we’re proud of doing. We let people escape from the ordinary and if you come now you will be right in the middle of a Horror movie.”

“So if you like Horror movies, you’re gonna love this, if you’re scared of Horror movies than we’re gonna scare ya!”

“Ripped from the Silver Screen” offers eight haunted houses, six scarezones and two live shows. They are also offering what’s called a “Frequent Fear Pass” which allows you multiple entries into HHN. As Roddy explains “takes a little bit of the stress of trying to see everything in one night away because then you can come several nights and just take your time and really soak in the atmosphere.”

Tickets for Universal Orlando's Halloween Horror Nights start as low as $39.99 plus tax. Tickets can be purchased at www.HalloweenHorrorNights.com or by calling 1-888-467-7677 (HORROR-7). Due to the event's popularity, tickets for weekend nights are expected to sell out and should be purchased well in advance. For special deals and vacation offers, visit www.HalloweenHorrorNights.com.  

For a detailed listing of each haunted house, scarezone and show featured at this year's event, see below. For more information and images, visit http://media.universalorlando.com/halloween

Daily updates and exclusive details on Universal Orlando's Halloween Horror Nights are available on the event's official Facebook fan page: www.facebook.com/halloweenhorrornightsorlando or search on Facebook for "Universal's Halloween Horror Nights - Orlando OFFICIAL."