Monstruos: The Monsters of Latin America, an original house, has just been announced for Halloween Horror Nights 2023 at Universal Studios Hollywood.
Creative director John Murdy announced the house during a panel at Midsummer Scream this evening.
It will feature three infamous “monsters” from myths and legends. (Editor’s note: the myths relayed in this article are as relayed by John Murdy in relation to the haunted house. This is not meant to be a fully authentic representation of the folklore).
Concept art of one of the monsters, La Lechuza, was shown. La Lechuza, also known as the Owl Witch, finds her origins in Mexican and Texan folklore as a shapeshifting witch who often appeared as an owl. The version of the story used for the house is as follows: An old woman lived in a village, and the villagers put her to death under accusations of being a witch. She comes back as an owl. Late at night, she disguises her voice as a baby crying to lure victims. A La Lechuza animated figure was built for the house.
Another is Tlahuelpuchi from the Tlaxcala region of Mexico. The myth that the team based the monster on is that anyone can be a Tlahuelpuchi, which they discover around puberty. To transform, they must conduct a specific ceremony and then transforms into one of a series of animals, most commonly a turkey vulture. They then suck the blood out of their victims’ skin.
The house will have two versions: one in a white dress with pale skin who has just transformed and started feeding. Another will be dressed in black with red skin and has been a Tlahuelpuchi for a long time. As the new Tlahuelpuchi transforms, she begins to feed on infants. Her lair was inspired by carnivorous birds’ nests, which are adorned with the bones of their victims.
The third “monster” will be El Silbón from the Los Llanos region of Colombia and Venezuela. The tale as Murdy tells it follows a boy living on a farm, fairly well off, who falls in love with a woman who his father doesn’t approve of. The father comes in and sees her and murders her. The boy then murders his father. His grandfather comes home and sees what happened. He whips the boy until the flesh falls off his back and pours alcohol on his wounds before setting dogs upon him to rip him to shreds. As the boy crawls into the woods, he gives him a bag of his father’s bones and condemns the boy to carry the bones of his father on his back.
The boy becomes El Silbón, a 12 foot tall creature with a distinctive whistle. The legend says if you hear the whistle and it sounds far away, he’s actually very close, and vice versa. He preys primarily on womanizers and drunkards. When guests enter El Silbón’s village, they will witness the scene of a pulqueria massacre. He has killed every single person inside
El Silbón has particular methods of murder. If the victim is a drunk, he sucks the alcohol out of their body through the navel. With womanizers, he rips them limb by limb, removes the bones from their bodies, and adds them to his sack.
The house’s facade, the Cemetary of the Lost, was inspired by graveyards in Guadalaja and Guanajuato, Mexico. The in-progress facade can be seen in the photo above. It’s a forsaken, condemned place that you do not go to at night. There will be a Grave Digger called “Muerte,” inspired by varieties of the Grim Reaper. Guests will meet him out front, and his mask will have an articulated jaw.
Guests will enter the crypt. The interior decorations were inspired by Oaxacan tomb paintings. The crypt then serves as a sort of portal to the stories of each creature.
When you exit the house, you will enter the El Terror de Las Momias scare zone, inspired by 1950s Mexican horror films about Aztec mummies (Momias Aztecas). The HHN crew created fictional movies to base the zone around.
Previous Latin American creatures/myths have been featured at Halloween Horror Nights, including La Llorona and El Cucuy.
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