Boo by Charles L. Mason | Writing Resources

Boo by Charles L. Mason--Professional/Final Draft

The room is blacker than the night sky on a new moon. Clutching to the warm, reassuring, non-psychotic body in front of you, you lower your head, cowering from the utter terror converging on you from all possible angles. You move like a bat out of the hell that you are now in towards what you desperately hope is an escape. Suddenly in the hustle, you hear a scream, which is instantly drowned out by the bloody lunatic slamming into the chain link fence mere inches to your right. Turning back to what you figure is forward you find that the person in front of you is gone! You’re all alone, without your trusty guide. It’s impossible to see where to go, and a multitude of eerily loud noises make you feel a level of discomfort unequaled by even that antiseptic hospital smell in the doctor’s office. Wait! There’s a light up ahead, and that looks like that lost soul formerly in front of you! Making a mad dash to rejoin a comrade lost in the confusion of this hell you feel like you just might get out of here. But then just as quickly as your elation hit, all hope is lost. Your leader’s jeans and t-shirt have now become torn rags, and that purse she was carrying is now a twelve inch machete! This is not another horror film, it’s not a bad night in a busy, crime ridden city, nor are you just having a bad day at a shopping spree filled with thousands of bloodthirsty people looking for the best deal. It’s the experience millions of Americans flock to every year. But is it really worth it? And what does this really say about us as a people?

Upon observation of the facts, Halloween Horror Nights just doesn’t seem like a worthwhile venture. Not only is it expensive, but the park is also densely crowded. It’s plagued by bad parking, continuous walls of crowds, and lines longer than those found at the DMV, and once again, it’s expensive. It just doesn’t seem to be something that would attract the average American. I don’t know too many people who like spending money, just to wait around in different spots all night, especially when most of us can find jobs that actually pay us to do exactly the same thing.

The whole experience can be very aggravating. It’s actually a wonder why so many migrate to Universal Studio’s Halloween Horror Nights. First of all tickets start off at around $59. Deals for Florida residents notwithstanding, that’s a lot of money, especially to the younger age group more likely to go. To someone aged about fourteen to about twenty-five, the age group that seems to be most widely present, sixty dollars can be a major dent in one’s wallet. And that’s just the price of admission. Keeping with the theme of most theme parks, sports events, insurance companies, and religious institutions, Universal Studios squeezes you for every penny your worth. The park makes sure that no one brings in their own merchandise. They actually physically search you, and your belongings. Granted the reason for that is to stop the flow of drugs, alcohol, and weapons into the park, but if they catch you bringing in a picnic basket of sandwiches, or any outside food, they’ll make you get rid of it before you’re allowed entry into the attraction. After they strip you of your dignity and your carefully hand-crafted, 30 cent sandwiches, they make sure to clean you out by overcharging every single product inside. I remember one slice of pizza and a small drink fell somewhere in the neighborhood of ten to fifteen dollars. Needless to say, other than a bottle of water, that was the only purchase I made. This would logically seem like enough to drive most people away from the attraction. As an American myself, I can tell you the overwhelming joy we take in spending our money. So much in fact that I think they should double the entrance fee. That’s right, and Star Wars was based on a true story a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. But because thinning our wallets is not enough to keep seemingly anybody from attending, Horror Nights tries to scare us away again.

After dropping sixty dollars on a ticket, thirty or so on the trip, and another small fortune inside, you are met with one of the most crowded locations on earth, only beaten by the one billion plus population of China, and that’s debatable. The lines are notoriously famous for their length. They’re almost better known than the attractions themselves. Every time the event is the subject of conversation, the long lines come up as an issue. The wait times are so well known in fact, that when someone tells about hour long waits, people show surprise, and remark about how they must be getting shorter. The average time I’ve had to wait in the past has been no less than two hours. I’ve never gotten into an attraction faster than forty five minutes, and that was on a blue moon, during a planetary alignment, at the stroke of midnight. With these wait times, you can only expect to experience a fraction of the attractions you paid to see. In fact, when you go, you pay full well knowing that you’ll only be seeing about two or three of the haunted houses offered. Even though you’re carrying that lucky rabbit’s foot, you woke up on the right side of the bed, and a part of you is hoping that somehow, someway, through the intervention of a higher power, you will just happen to be the only person in the world going on your night, but you know better. But because the lines keep returning along with the event year after year, this is obviously not enough to turn people away. But long lines and empty bank accounts aren’t the end of the horror that is Halloween Horror Nights.

Not only are the lines insanely long, the park itself is crowded beyond belief. Just walking up to the front gates can sometimes be an act of pure agility, speed, strength, and satellite imagery, in order to find a path through. But once inside, nothing will help you navigate through the masses, unless of course, you happen to be one of the few mystical humans that can fly. There is a literal swarm of people, everywhere you look. The park’s 7 p.m. opening is like a dinner bell to a starved wolf pack, and the place is packed tight no more than fifteen minutes after the hoards of excited patrons are unleashed. You and your friends find yourselves back in kindergarten, holding hands as you travel from place to place, so as not to get lost. If the attractions aren’t enough for you, just going from point A to point B, is an event in itself. Just walking around, you will repeatedly find yourself in intimate contact with complete strangers. Journeying from place to place can sometimes be an experience of personal violation by half of the people you come across. But even the combined issues of the price, the wait, and the can of sardines effect created by the park’s popularity aren’t enough to turn people away.

The overpopulated nature of the park actually starts before you even arrive at the entrance. The first hints that you will be herding like buffalo appear in the vast parking garage. The parking situation is, needless to say, very, very bad. If you don’t happen to arrive early, like say hours before the park opens, you will probably need some additional belongings, like plane tickets, a passport, three days of rations, and a native guide to get back from your parking space. The parking fills up just as quickly as the park does, and the parking garage is a good walk from the entrance of the park. They do offer valet parking for those willing to pay, but then again, that costs money, and if you’re like me (cheap, because I’m broke after that $60 ticket) then you’re going to park your own car. Now for people like me, there are amenities such as moving sidewalks to aid guests in their speedy arrival to the gates, but a long walk, is still a long walk. Plus at the end of the night you still have to walk back, remember your parking section, and find your lost automobile, after spending all night walking and standing around. I’ve personally had the experience of automotive location via remote activated security system in that massive parking garage. It’s about as fun as, well it’s as fun as stumbling around a huge building looking for a car you can’t see, after you’ve been standing for a good five hours. But even with all of these factors combined, it is just not enough to stop people from going.

So why do people keep going? What reasons would a person have to willingly submit themselves to the torture I have just described? Why in the world would someone spend money to be herded like cattle all night? Not surprisingly, as it turns out, there are a number of reasons, starting with the attractions offered. The haunted houses themselves are enough to invoke the undeniable urge to return year after year.

The haunted houses throw each patron into their own live action horror movie. It’s as simple as that. It’s all about the thrill and the feeling of “don’t go in there” we all get when watching our spooky favorites, recreated in front of our eyes. It’s no longer imagination, it’s not drug induced hallucination, the monsters are there, right in front of you. You can see them, hear them, touch them (and sue them because physical contact is not allowed), and even smell them, though I wouldn’t recommend it, cause they’re probably pretty sweaty in those costumes. They are right there jumping out at you with the pretend intent to kill from all angles, including above and below. Just imagine walking down a dimly lit hall and suddenly some freakish looking guy on rollerblades smashes a trash can into the chain link fence right next to you. Or maybe you take a turn and another guy in a bloody jumpsuit literally jumps down from the roof and springs back up. If this doesn’t make you flinch, the houses are flooded with other atrocities with nothing better to do than get you to scream for mommy. It’s the thrill of being in your own movie, the thrill of being scared, the thrill of almost messing yourself in a near death experience that seems to be the leading factor in the massive amounts of returns Universal receives.

The other most likely main cause of people willingly emptying their pockets to enter the park is the experience of the park itself. Walking through the park, as anyone who has gone can tell you, is its own attraction. Universal really goes out of its way to scare you whenever the opportunity presents itself. They brilliantly made us of an opportunity to do this to the roaming hoards of people traversing their sacred ground. So with a formula that includes, some completely psychotic costumed employees, a dark night, smoke, light, and sound effects, a few inebriated individuals, and mass confusion, they succeed in recreating horrors only surpassed by the real thing. And since most of us don’t get run down by monsters with chainsaws, knives, and glowing red eyes, this is about as good as it gets. They’ve effectively set things up, so that you never know just when the next ghoulish creation is going to appear with a chainsaw just inches from your face. The “monsters” themselves are so good at what they do, that unless you have either eyes in the back of your head, or high tech surveillance equipment, you really never know where they are. In some instances you’ll turn to talk to a companion only to find a six and a half foot tall zombie casually strolling along side of you. Meanwhile your gracious friend, who felt you didn’t need warning, is running for their life in the opposite direction. Everyone who leaves the park at some time or the other gets attacked, and leaves with stories upon stories of how that monster jumped them in that place, and each memory wreaks a smile upon their face.

So finally I should ask just what does all of this say about American’s? Just how does this portray us as a people who are willing to put up the bucks for something like this? It says two different things about us thrill seekers. The first is that we’re fulfilling a void. Human emotion is like a lot of things, it requires fulfillment. One of those emotions is pure and utter fear. By traveling to Halloween Horror Nights and creating one void in our pockets, we are effectively filling another inside of us. Along with our thirty minutes of exercise a day quota, we’re also meeting our fear quota, in one of the most exciting ways imaginable. It’s a lot easier, not to mention more fun to play a game and be scared by pretenders, than to go walking blind into the darkest alley of the worst neighborhood. We’re here, because we have a desire, almost a need that we want to satisfy. And when it’s offered in a way much more fun then say walking in on your parents in a state of undress, we have every reason to take it. So the first thing all of this scary stuff says about us American’s is that we’re filling in that pot hole in our lives. But this isn’t the only thing we can say about us. We’re also a population all about our most revered art form, the movies, and this attraction is our way of being part of that.

Universal Studios is a name synonymous with movies, and they’re traditionally known for allowing us to experience them first hand with all of their attractions. This event of massive fear filling proportions is no exception. Horror films are an American classic, and we all want to be in the movies sometime in our lives anyways. So why not use a slasher film? Its seems a lot better than doing a documentary on the buffalo of the wild, or a cheesy B romance movie, and the horror aspect just seems like our chance to be a star, because while not everyone can pull off a Shakespearean monologue, anyone can scream. Finally we get the opportunity to be that group of stupid teenagers that enters the broken down mansion, even though it should be obvious that we should run away. No longer do we have to watch others do what we want to do. We get to be in front of the camera, we get to be movie victims, and we get to experience our dreams. It just proves how Hollywood we all are.

So that’s it, there it is, plain and simple. We have needs that need to be fulfilled. Somewhere in almost everyone’s inner child is a movie star, unless of course, you’re already a movie star. But the rest of us hold within us a movie star that wants to feel some form of excitement. And here is a place that offers that chance. It’s enough that we’re willing to endure never ending lines, bankruptcy, virtual sexual harassment, and walks equaling those taken by the ancient nomadic tribes migrating with the mammoths. It’s an experience of a lifetime packed into a stressful short night. Halloween Horror Nights may be a prick when it comes to convenience, but when it comes to something we want, it’s an inconvenience we’re willing to put up with. All of this just goes to show what we American’s will do to get what we want.

Boo by Charles L. Mason--Draft 1

The room is blacker than the night sky on a new moon. Clutching to the warm, reassuring person in front of you, and with your head lowered, you move like a bat out of the hell that you are now in towards what you hope is an escape. Suddenly, you hear a scream. The person in front of you is gone! You’re all alone, it’s impossible to see where to go, and a multitude of eerily loud noises make you feel more uncomfortable than you were in the doctor’s waiting room with that antiseptic hospital smell. Wait! There’s a light up ahead, and that looks like that lost body in front of you! Speeding up to rejoin a comrade lost in the confusion you feel like you just might get out of here. But then all hope is lost. Your friend wasn’t a bloody monster wielding a twelve inch machete! This is not another horror film, it’s not a bad night in a busy, crime ridden city. It’s the experience millions of Americans flock to every year. But is it really worth it? And what does this say about us?

Upon observation of the facts, Halloween Horror Nights just doesn’t seem like a worthwhile venture. Not only is it expensive, but the park is also densely crowded. It’s plagued by bad parking, continuous walls of crowds, and lines longer than those found at the DMV. It just doesn’t seem to be something that would attract the average American. I don’t know too many people who like spending money, just to wait around in different spots all night.

The whole experience can be very aggravating. It’s actually a wonder why so many migrate to Universal Studio’s Halloween Horror Nights. First of all tickets start off at around fifty nine dollars$59. Deals for Florida residents not with -standing, that’s a lot of money, especially to the younger age group more likely to go. To someone aged about fourteen to about twenty-five, sixty dollars can be a major dent in one’s wallet. And that’s just the price of admission. Keeping with the theme of all theme parks, Universal Studios makes sure that no one brings in there own merchandise. They actually physically search you, and your belongings.

Granted the reason for that is to stop the flow of drugs, alcohol, and weapons into the park, but if they catch you bringing in a picnic basket of sandwiches, or any outside food, they’ll take make you get rid of it before you’re allowed entry into the attraction. After they strip you of your dignity and your thirty cent30 cent sandwiches, they make sure to clean you out by overcharging every single product inside. I remember one slice of pizza and a small drink fell somewhere in the neighborhood of ten to fifteen dollars. Needless to say, other than a bottle of water, that was the only purchase I made. This would logically seem like enough to drive most people away from the attraction, but because it’s not enough to keepfor seemingly everybody from attending,, Horror Nights tries to scare us away again.

After dropping sixty dollars on a ticket, thirty or so on the trip, and another small fortune inside, you are met with one of the most crowded locations on earth, only beaten by the hundreds of thousands who attend the mass given by the Pope every week. The lines are notoriously famous for their length. Every time the event is the subject of conversation, the long lines show up as an issue. The wait times are so well known in fact, that when someone tells about hour long waits, people show surprise, and remark about how they must be getting shorter. The average time I’ve had to wait in the past has been no less then two hours. I’ve never gotten into an attraction faster than forty five minutes, and that was on a blue moon, during a planetary alignment, at the stroke of midnight. With these wait times, you can only expect to experience a fraction of the attractions you paid to see. In fact, when you go, you pay full well knowing that you’ll only be seeing about two or three of the haunted houses offered. Even though a part of you is hoping that somehow, someway, you will just happen to be the only person in the world going on your night, but you know better. But because the lines keep returning along with the event year after year, this is obviously not enough to turn people away. But long lines and empty bank accounts aren’t the end of the madness

Not only are the lines insanely long, the park itself is crowded beyond belief. Just walking up to the front gates can sometimes be an act of pure agility, speed, and strength. But once inside, nothing will help you navigate through the masses. There is a literal swarm of people, everywhere you look. Even at the parks 7 p.m. opening, the park place gets packed in about fifteen minutes. You and your friends find yourselves back in kindergarten, holding hands as you travel from place to place, so as not to get lost. If the attractions aren’t enough for you, just going from point A to point B, is an event in itself. You repeatedly find yourself in intimate contact with complete strangers. Journeying from place to place can sometimes be an experience of personal violation by half of the people you come across. But even so far this isn’t enough either to turn people away, because if it were enough, there logically would be no crowds.

So why do people keep going? What reasons would a person have to willingly submit themselves to the torture I have just described? Actually, as it turns out, there are a number of reasons, starting with the attractions offered. The haunted houses themselves are enough to invoke the urge to return year after year.

The haunted houses throw each patron into there own live action horror movie. It’s all about the thrill and the feeling of “don’t go in there” we all get when watching our scary favorites, recreated in front of our eyes. It’s no longer imagination, the monsters are there, right in front of you. You can see them, hear them, touch them (and sue them because physical contact is not allowed), and even smell them. They are right there jumping out at you with the intent to kill from all angles, including above and below. It’s the thrill of being in your own movie, the thrill of being scared thate seems to be the leading factor in the massive amounts of returns Universal receives.

The other main cause of people willingly emptying their pockets is the park itself. Walking through the park is its own attraction. Universal really goes out of its way to scare you when it can. They brilliantly saw an opportunity to do this to the roaming hoards of people traversing their ground. So with a formula that includes, costumed employees, a dark night, smoke effects, and mass confusion, they succeed in making sure all of their guests are smiling from thrill all the time. They’ve effectively set things up, so that you never know just when the next ghoulish creation is going to appear with a chain saw just inches from your face. Everyone who leaves the park, leaves with stories upon stories of how that monster jumped them in that place, and each memory wreaks a smile upon their face.

So what does all of this say about American’s? It says two different things about us thrill seekers. The first is that we’re fulfilling a void. Human emotion is like a lot of things, it requires fulfillment. One of those emotions is pure and utter fear. By traveling to Halloween Horror Nights we are effectively filling that hole. We are meeting our fear quota, in one of the most exciting ways imaginable. This, and we’re also a population all about our most revered art form, the movies, and this attraction is our way of being part of that.

Universal Studios is a name synonymous with movies, and they allow us to experience them, with all of their attractions. This one is no exception. Horror films are an American classic, and we all want to be in the movies sometime in our lives anyways. This just seems like our chance, and it just proves how Hollywood we all are.

So that’s it, there it is, plain and simple. We have needs that need to be fulfilled. Somewhere in almost everyone’s inner child is a movie star, a movie star that want to feel fear. And here is a place that offers that chance. It’s enough that we’re willing to endure never ending lines, bankruptcy, virtual sexual harassment, and walks equaling those taken by ancient nomadic tribes. All of this, just goes to show what we American’s will do to get what we want.

Boo by Charles L. Mason--Draft 2

Upon observation of the facts, Halloween Horror Nights just doesn’t seem like a worthwhile venture. Not only is it expensive, but the park is also densely crowded. It’s plagued by bad parking, continuous walls of crowds, and lines longer than those found at the DMV. It just doesn’t seem to be something that would attract the average American. I don’t know too many people who like spending money, just to wait around in different spots all night.

The whole experience can be very aggravating. It’s actually a wonder why so many migrate to Universal Studio’s Halloween Horror Nights. First of all tickets start off at around $59. Deals for Florida residents not with standing, that’s a lot of money, especially to the younger age group more likely to go. To someone aged about fourteen to about twenty-five, sixty dollars can be a major dent in one’s wallet. And that’s just the price of admission. Keeping with the theme of all theme parks, Universal Studios makes sure that no one brings in there own merchandise. They actually physically search you, and your belongings. Granted the reason for that is to stop the flow of drugs, alcohol, and weapons into the park, but if they catch you bringing in a picnic basket of sandwiches, or any outside food, they’ll take make you get rid of it before you’re allowed entry into the attraction. After they strip you of your dignity and your 30 cent sandwiches, they make sure to clean you out by overcharging every single product inside. I remember one slice of pizza and a small drink fell somewhere in the neighborhood of ten to fifteen dollars. Needless to say, other than a bottle of water, that was the only purchase I made. This would logically seem like enough to drive most people away from the attraction, but because it’s not enough to keep seemingly everybody from attending, Horror Nights tries to scare us away again.

Not only are the lines insanely long, the park itself is crowded beyond belief. Just walking up to the front gates can sometimes be an act of pure agility, speed, and strength. But once inside, nothing will help you navigate through the masses. There is a literal swarm of people, everywhere you look. Even at the parks 7 p.m. opening, the place gets packed in about fifteen minutes. You and your friends find yourselves back in kindergarten, holding hands as you travel from place to place, so as not to get lost. If the attractions aren’t enough for you, just going from point A to point B, is an event in itself. You repeatedly find yourself in intimate contact with complete strangers. Journeying from place to place can sometimes be an experience of personal violation by half of the people you come across. But even so far this isn’t enough either to turn people away, because if it were enough, there logically would be no crowds.

The haunted houses throw each patron into there own live action horror movie. It’s all about the thrill and the feeling of “don’t go in there” we all get when watching our scary favorites, recreated in front of our eyes. It’s no longer imagination, the monsters are there, right in front of you. You can see them, hear them, touch them (and sue them because physical contact is not allowed), and even smell them. They are right there jumping out at you with the intent to kill from all angles, including above and below. It’s the thrill of being in your own movie, the thrill of being scared that seems to be the leading factor in the massive amounts of returns Universal receives.

Boo by Charles L. Mason--Draft 3

The room is blacker than the night sky on a new moon. Clutching to the warm, reassuring, non-psychotic body in front of you, you lower your head, cowering from the utter terror being inflicted on you from all possible angles. You move like a bat out of the hell that you are now in towards what you desperately hope is an escape. Suddenly in the hustle, you hear a scream, which is instantly drowned out by the bloody lunatic slamming into the chain link fence mere inches to your right. Turning back to what you figure is forward you find that the person in front of you is gone! You’re all alone, without your trusty guide. It’s impossible to see where to go, and a multitude of eerily loud noises make you feel a level of discomfort unequaled by even that antiseptic hospital smell in the doctors office.. Wait! There’s a light up ahead, and that looks like that lost soul in front of you! Making a mad dash to rejoin a comrade lost in the confusion of this hell you feel like you just might get out of here. But then just as quickly as your elation hit, all hope is lost. Your leader’s jeans and t-shirt have now become torn rags, and that purse she was carrying is now a twelve inch machete! This is not another horror film, it’s not a bad night in a busy, crime ridden city. Nor are you just having a bad day at a shopping spree filled with thousands of bloodthirsty people looking for the best deal. It’s the experience millions of Americans flock to every year. But is it really worth it? And what does this really say about us as a people?

The whole experience can be very aggravating. It’s actually a wonder why so many migrate to Universal Studio’s Halloween Horror Nights. First of all tickets start off at around $59. Deals for Florida residents not with standing, that’s a lot of money, especially to the younger age group more likely to go. To someone aged about fourteen to about twenty-five, sixty dollars can be a major dent in one’s wallet. And that’s just the price of admission. Keeping with the theme of all theme parks, Universal Studios makes sure that no one brings in there own merchandise. They actually physically search you, and your belongings. Granted the reason for that is to stop the flow of drugs, alcohol, and weapons into the park, but if they catch you bringing in a picnic basket of sandwiches, or any outside food, they’ll take make you get rid of it before you’re allowed entry into the attraction. After they strip you of your dignity and your 30 cent sandwiches, they make sure to clean you out by overcharging every single product inside. I remember one slice of pizza and a small drink fell somewhere in the neighborhood of ten to fifteen dollars. Needless to say, other than a bottle of water, that was the only purchase I made. This would logically seem like enough to drive most people away from the attraction. As an American myself, I can tell you the joy we take in spending our money. So much in fact that I think they should double the entrance fee. That’s right, and Star Wars was based on a true story a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. But because it’s not enough to keep seemingly anybody from attending, Horror Nights tries to scare us away again.

After dropping sixty dollars on a ticket, thirty or so on the trip, and another small fortune inside, you are met with one of the most crowded locations on earth, only beaten by the hundreds of thousands who attend the mass given by the Pope every week. The lines are notoriously famous for their length. They’re almost better known than the attractions themselves. Every time the event is the subject of conversation, the long lines show up as an issue. The wait times are so well known in fact, that when someone tells about hour long waits, people show surprise, and remark about how they must be getting shorter. The average time I’ve had to wait in the past has been no less then two hours. I’ve never gotten into an attraction faster than forty five minutes, and that was on a blue moon, during a planetary alignment, at the stroke of midnight. With these wait times, you can only expect to experience a fraction of the attractions you paid to see. In fact, when you go, you pay full well knowing that you’ll only be seeing about two or three of the haunted houses offered. Even though you’re carrying that lucky rabbit’s foot, and a part of you is hoping that somehow, someway, through the intervention of a higher power, you will just happen to be the only person in the world going on your night, but you know better. But because the lines keep returning along with the event year after year, this is obviously not enough to turn people away. But long lines and empty bank accounts aren’t the end of the horror that is Halloween Horror Nights.

Not only are the lines insanely long, the park itself is crowded beyond belief. Just walking up to the front gates can sometimes be an act of pure agility, speed, and strength. But once inside, nothing will help you navigate through the masses, unless of course, you happen to be one of the few mystical humans that can fly. There is a literal swarm of people, everywhere you look. The parks 7 p.m. opening is like a dinner bell to a starved wolf pack, and the place is packed tight within fifteen minutes of opening. You and your friends find yourselves back in kindergarten, holding hands as you travel from place to place, so as not to get lost. If the attractions aren’t enough for you, just going from point A to point B, is an event in itself. You repeatedly find yourself in intimate contact with complete strangers. Journeying from place to place can sometimes be an experience of personal violation by half of the people you come across. But even so far this isn’t enough either to turn people away, because if it were enough, there logically would be no crowds.

If a loss of funds, long waits, and invasion of personal space by thousands isn’t enough to turn folks away, than there is still the parking situation. The parking situation is, though expected, very, very bad. If you don’t happen to arrive early, like say hours before the park opens, you will probably need some additional belongings, like plane tickets, a passport, three days of rations, and a native guide to get back from your parking space. The parking fills up just as quickly as the park does, and the parking garage is a good walk from the entrance of the park. They do offer valet parking for those willing to pay, but than again, that costs money, and if you’re like me (cheap, because I’m broke) then you’re going to park your own car. Now for people like me, there are amenities such as moving sidewalks to aid guests in their speedy arrival to the gates, but a long walk, is still a long walk. Plus you still have to walk back, remember your parking section, and find your lost automobile, after spending all night walking and standing around. I’ve personally had the experience of automotive location via remote activated security system in that massive parking garage. It’s about as fun as, well it’s as fun as stumbling around a huge building looking for a car you can’t see, after you’ve been standing for a good five hours. But even with all of these factors combined, it is just not enough to stop people from going.

The other main cause of people willingly emptying their pockets is the park itself. Walking through the park, as anyone who has gone can tell you, is its own attraction. Universal really goes out of its way to scare you whenever the opportunity presents itself. They brilliantly saw an opportunity to do this to the roaming hoards of people traversing their sacred ground. So with a formula that includes, costumed employees, a dark night, smoke effects, a few inebriated individuals, and mass confusion, they succeed in making sure all of their guests are smiling from thrill all the time. They’ve effectively set things up, so that you never know just when the next ghoulish creation is going to appear with a chain saw just inches from your face. Everyone who leaves the park, leaves with stories upon stories of how that monster jumped them in that place, and each memory wreaks a smile upon their face.

So finally I should ask just what does all of this say about American’s? It says two different things about us thrill seekers. The first is that we’re fulfilling a void. Human emotion is like a lot of things, it requires fulfillment. One of those emotions is pure and utter fear. By traveling to Halloween Horror Nights and creating one void in our pockets, we are effectively filling that hole. Along with our thirty minutes of exercise a day quota, we’re also meeting our fear quota, in one of the most exciting ways imaginable. This, and we’re also a population all about our most revered art form, the movies, and this attraction is our way of being part of that.

Universal Studios is a name synonymous with movies, and they’re traditionally known for allowing us to experience them first hand, with all of their attractions. This one is no exception. Horror films are an American classic, and we all want to be in the movies sometime in our lives anyways. So why use not a slasher film? Its seems a lot better than doing a documentary on the buffalo of the wild, and the horror aspect just seems like our chance to be a star, and it just proves how Hollywood we all are.

Boo by Charles L. Mason--Process Memo

Writing this final paper was an experience in discovery for me. Truly revolutionary is about the best words I have to describe the personal revelations I found while proceeding through the process of producing this assignment. The way we outlined everything before actually jumping into the first draft writing was to me a cluster that I could actually do. By “do” I mean one that I would actually bother to write down. By looking at the topics in a list such as this, I was able to not only let the ideas flow, but felt compelled to complete the list. Unbelievably I found myself writing my paper with no down time, blank staring, 3 hour coffee breaks, or anything else I do to be as unproductive as possible. Things just flowed out of me almost faster than the speed of my pen, and within 30 minutes I had the skeleton of what at first glance was a fairly decent paper. From there I continued on to write one of the best feeling papers I have ever personally written.