[HHN23]/Universal Unveils Evil Dead for 2013! [UPDATED!]

In a bit of a surprise move, Universal has announced that they will be bringing the Evil Dead to life as only they can. Interestingly enough, it will be coming to not only Universal Orlando, but also Universal Hollywood for their annual haunt spectacular, Halloween Horror Nights. This is the first house to be announced for Universal Hollywood as the previous announcement for Cabin in the Woods was an exclusive for their Orlando property this year.

So yes, it's official. Welcome the long awaited Evil Dead to both Universal Orlando and Universal Hollywood!

UPDATE! There's now a video to go with this as well from Halloween Horror Nights Hollywood:


This is definitely going to get interesting...more after the jump!

Now, this may not have been such a surprise to many since imagery from the pre-order of the Evil Dead (2013) remake did include a bit about being able to win a trip to experience the haunts at this year's HHN in either Hollywood or Orlando.

Turns out that it was genuine and either Universal just didn't care since not many would see it or they just didn't care. Either way, it's going to be a very welcome addition to the line up and with Cabin in the Woods already announced for Orlando's event, could be one of the goriest years ever that I can remember.

Earlier in the day Universal had also put up a series of blurry images with the words "Condemn them to eternal darkness",  "Don't let it consume you" and "Tear them limb from limb" up on their Facebook and Twitter accounts, leading to some pretty wild speculation of just what was about to revealed.

Most folks were very quick to point out that it was going to be the Evil Dead house and many pointed to the reason that they believed such. The second and third pictures on the right are pretty telling. When I asked a a few people on Google+, one thought that it looked like ribs ( +Don Downing, I'm looking at you)...so we were going with the idea that it was the BBQ of Horror. Turns out we were wrong, eh?

Though, I can say that I'm definitely not surprised in the least here either. I did kind of call for it back during the Cabin in the Woods reveal and said that it would just make sense and be an awesome one two punch if they went ahead and did it.

Interestingly enough this does really tie in with the central theme that Universal Orlando is running with, "Evil Takes Root", and having both Cabin in the Woods and Evil Dead both support the idea extremely well. That said, some do take the more skeptical route as it seems like this year is going to be more focused on adapting movies as mazes rather than original and unique haunts. Then again, this is Universal. They kind of wrote the book when it comes to creature features and horror films (along other titans of the industry like New Line of course). So, if anyone's going to do it, it might as well be them, right?

UPDATE: Here's a picture from inside the maze for this year's event!

UPDATE 9-17-13:

More photos from the set of this year's Evil Dead maze at Universal Orlando Resort!

As always check the Universal Orlando official Halloween Horror Nights website for everything ya need or our very own HHN23 Mega Post for tons of behind the scenes and sneak peeks of everything coming to this year's event!

Of course you can follow me on Twitter @KitsuneHazard and Google+ for all the latest updates as well!