Resident Evil comes to Universal Orlando as new haunted house brings Raccoon City to Halloween Horror Nights 2013

in Entertainment, Events, Theme Parks

Chris Redfield. Jill Valentine. Leon Kennedy. Wesker. Licker. Umbrella. The world and characters of “Resident Evil” is coming alive at Halloween Horror Nights 2013.

One of the most successful video game franchises of all time, Resident Evil: Escape from Raccoon City has been announced as the final haunted house at Universal Orlando’s annual Halloween event. Much like Universal wrapped its guests in the rusty world of Silent Hill last year, they are now creating real-life versions of the environments gamers have been dying to enter since 1996.

Known as “Biohazard” in Japan, the Resident Evil series has already been seen at Universal Studios Japan, first featured in a scare zone in 2012, then developed into an interactive attraction called Biohazard: The Real.

Now this year the evils of Raccoon City and the Umbrella Corporation will be part of Universal Orlando’s event featuring plenty of familiar settings and favorite characters, all featured in an elaborate soundstage-set haunted maze.

In Resident Evil: Escape from Raccoon City, Halloween Horror Nights guests will come face to face with places and characters from the video game series, specifically Resident Evil 2 and 3, but not the films. There will even be one room that replicates a video game battle put on pause.

For Resident Evil, Universal’s Entertainment team collaborated with the video game creators at Capcom to create a horrifyingly authentic haunted house based on some of the popular video games from the Resident Evil series.

“It’s such a great delight to work with Universal on a haunted house based on the Resident Evil games,” said Yoshiaki Hirabayashi, Producer of Resident Evil 6. “The games have become synonymous with survival horror and we look forward to delivering a new way for consumers to experience the Resident Evil world we have created in the haunted house at Halloween Horror Nights.”

Guests will become desperate survivors inside the viral catastrophe, Raccoon City. As they journey through the city, they’ll encounter vicious characters from the games such as Lickers, bloodthirsty zombies, packs of Cerberuses and even Nemesis himself. Fans will be completely transported inside the video game realm.

“We were able to create incredibly elaborate sets that plant you right in the miedst of Raccoon City’s apocalyptic nightmare, along with terrifying adversaries that will send them running,” said Michael Aiello, Creative Director for Universal Orlando’s Halloween Horror Nights.

The maze will begin in the streets of Raccoon City as seen in the first stage of Resident Evil 2, according Aiello.

To get an idea of the type of entertainment Universal may be planning, here’s a glimpse at what the Resident Evil Raccoon City scare zone looked like in Japan, complete with zombies, Jill, Leon, and even a massive Tyrant wandering the streets:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KgVjoX94NI

Resident Evil completes the list of haunted houses to be featured at Universal Orlando’s Halloween Horror Nights, along with The Walking Dead, Cabin in the Woods, Evil Dead, La Llorona, Afterlife: Death’s Vengeance, Havoc: Derailed, and An American Werewolf in London.

Halloween Horror Nights 23 kicks off on September 20, 2013.

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