We’re going to close out the week with a look back at “Universal Monsters: Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man” from 2019. I always envisioned The Universal Monsters maze from 2018 as being like “The Avengers” movie that we would spin-off if it worked. This was the first spin off...
This maze was loosely based on the 1943 Universal film “Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man.” We also combined elements from 1939’s Son of Frankenstein and 1944’s House of Frankenstein. I’ll show examples of that inspiration as we go along
The facade statement for the maze was the gypsy camp which was something we designed but didn’t use for the 2018 maze. Slash created an original score for the maze including a gypsy theme for this section.
The concept was Larry Talbot, the man who bares the curse of the Wolf Man returns to the camp at night to see about his fate...on a night with a full moon! The gypsy’s music lures the Frankenstein monster to the camp...and from that point it’s game on!
Stepping inside the tent, we discover the fortune teller is dead, killed in the middle of reading tarot cards which are spread out on the table. The huge gashes in his back tell you that this was the work of The Wolf Man. The fortune teller was inspired by Bela from Wolf Man.
Inside the fortune teller’s tent, we discover Larry Talbot, midway into his Wolf Man transformation. This scene involved prosthetic make up that took longer than any other make up in the event to apply every night! But it looked great!
Stepping outside, we discover chaos as the Wolf Man is rampaging through the camp, killing everything in sight. Frankenstein’s Monster who was drawn in by the music also flies into a rage inside an adjacent tent via shadow projection. I made a cameo as The Monster for this scene
We duck into the blacksmith’s tent, who has been badly injured and partially blinded by The Wolf Man...but he keeps shooting at him...and The Frankenstein Monster as they enter the scene. We hid tiny strobes in the bullet holes to create the effect of his blunderbuss firing.
Leaving the gypsy camp we wander into a graveyard where we hear & see Ygor playing his horn...drawing The Monster towards family crypts for the Talbot and Frankenstein families. This scene was inspired by the opening scene from the 43 film, adding in Ygor from Son of Frankenstein
Inside the crypt, we get attacked by The Wolf Man and Frankenstein’s Monster. We escape via a secret tunnel/catacomb that leads back to the ruins of Frankenstein’s castle...this grave marker was an “Easter Egg”/homage to the year Mary Shelly wrote the novel Frankenstein...1918.
But there’s something else inside these catacombs, Dr. Frankenstein’s failed experiments. Early attempts at creating life that were abandoned and left to rot...yet are still alive...slowly decomposing in the dark.
And that’s where we’ll have to leave it for today...more to come. Stay tuned Boils and Ghouls!
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