The summer is winding down and all the kids are going back to school. It’s still a little bit hot out there, but you know what’s just around the corner? Halloween. Okay so we’re still in late August, but there’s nothing wrong with getting excited about that time of the year, especially when you’re talking about Universal Studios’ Halloween Horror Nights. Ever since it’s debut in 1997 we’ve seen the family friendly park transform practically overnight into an amusement park of absolute terror, turning some of our favorite movies from yesteryear and now into some truly frightening attractions. In recent years we’ve also seen our fair share of unique horror mazes based off of scary children’s tales or creations by some other like-minded horror minds in the entertainment industry. So in a way it has a wide collection of many things set to scare the living crap out of us each year, especially Chucky. That damn doll can burn in hell.

Halloween Horror Nights Creative Director John Murdy begins off the most terrifying time of the year with the annual showcase of some crazy creatures we should expect to see running around the park in less than a month’s time. There are a couple of familiar creatures with the zombies of “The Walking Dead: No Safe Haven,” some terrifying women from “Evil Dead: Book of the Dead” and a cool re-imagined Bride of Frankenstein for “Universal Monsters Remix: Resurrection.” There was a surplus of masks sprinkled throughout this hall with some artists hard at work putting on the makeup for these ghoulish creatures, which was great to see. One minute there’s just a regular girl sitting there with a little piece of something on her face, the next it looks like half of her mouth has been cut open and it looks real. If a pedestrian came across her with never watching a lick of the “Evil Dead” remake, he/she would probably call 911 in seconds.

The makeup artists are busy at work showing off their talent while a couple of hair, mask and costume artists are in the corners hard at work making sure that their final product is 100% perfect. Even the resident concept artist Lucas Culshaw is busy drawing up a cool design of a bloody zombie. We got the chance to speak with him a little bit about being one of the few to help create the look of each monster that we’ve seen in the Halloween Horror Nights mazes, singing the praises of John Murdy and Universal. When we asked him the difficulties in creating a cool outfit that will be worn by actual people one day, he said “We take into account what we can do with each character and we make it the best. It’s usually pretty crazy what we can do. The sky’s the limit.”

Now I can’t end this article without giving you a little peek into what creatures we’ll be seeing from the mazes next month. Check out the gallery below that shows off creatures from “Insidious: Into The Further,” “The Walking Dead: No Safe Haven,” “Evil Dead: Book of the Dead,” “Black Sabbath 13 3D,” “Universal Monsters Remix: Resurrection,” “Curse of Chucky” and “El Cucuy: The Boogeyman.”