'La Llorona' - the Bloodthirsty Spectre of Mexican Legend, to Stalk Halloween Horror Nights Guests on the Universal Backlot and Within Her Own 'Scare Zone' as Universal Studios Hollywood Unveils an All-New Halloween Horror Nights Experience for 2010

UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif., Aug. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- La Llorona, whose fearful story of melancholy and murder has terrified Mexican and Latin American children for generations, will cast a grim shadow upon guests at Universal Studios Hollywood(SM) this fall as her dreaded presence is unleashed upon guests at the 2010 Halloween Horror Nights® event, where the legends of horror come to life.

According to the legend, a beautiful Mexican woman fell in love and married the most handsome man in the village. She bore two beautiful children, but her husband soon fell in love with another woman. Blinded by jealousy, the woman ran with her children to a river, where her faithless husband was courting his new love. Enraged, she threw her children into the river, where the current carried them away. When she realized what she had done, she threw herself into the river as well.

But the woman did not leave this Earth. Late at night, in the deep woods, or by a small creek, children can hear her weeping, searching in vain for her lost children. La Llorona, ("the crying woman") they call her, for she frequently wails "My children, where are my children?" Her frail, drenched body is a chilling sight; any child wandering alone is sure to be snatched as her newest victim.

At the 2010 Halloween Horror Nights event, La Llorona will stalk guests as they make their way through the Universal back lot as part of the all-new "Terror Tram" experience and she'll also terrorize her own "scare zone," hiding within the shadows of a gauntlet haunted by the ghosts of her dead victims.  

The 2010 "Halloween Horror Nights" event at Universal Studios Hollywood will offer spine-chilling new mazes based upon the horror genre's most compelling characters. Rob Zombie and other top artists are collaborating with Universal Studios Hollywood in the creation of new mazes, "scare zones" and backlot experiences. Additional new content for the 2010 Halloween Horror Nights mazes and attractions will be announced shortly.

Updates on "Halloween Horror Nights" will be available at HalloweenHorrorNights.com and also on Twitter and Facebook, as Creative Director John Murdy reveals a running chronicle of exclusive information.  Fans are invited to follow John Murdy on Twitter at: Twitter.com/HorrorNights or via Facebook at: "Halloween Horror Nights - Hollywood (Official)."

Universal Studios Hollywood, The Entertainment Capital of L.A., is a unit of Universal Parks & Resorts, a division of Universal Studios, a part of NBC Universal.  NBC Universal is one of the world's leading media and entertainment companies in the development, production, marketing of entertainment, news, and information to a global audience.  Formed in May of 2004 through the combining of NBC and Vivendi Universal Entertainment, NBC Universal owns and operates a valuable portfolio of news and entertainment networks, a premier motion picture company, significant television production operations, a leading television stations group, and world-renowned theme parks.  NBC Universal is 80% owned by General Electric, with 20% controlled by Vivendi.

SOURCE Universal Studios Hollywood