La Llorona Revealed as Fourth Haunted House for Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights 23

As promised, Universal Orlando Resort’s “reveal week” began last night at midnight when the official Halloween Horror Nights twitter account (@HorrorNightsORL) announced that La Llorona will be joining Evil Dead, Cabin in the Woods, and The Walking Dead as a haunted house experience at HHN 23.

Universal Studios Hollywood has been using the urban legend of La Lorona as a scare zone and maze as part of its Halloween Horror Nights event, but this year the concept is moving over to Orlando, and Universal Creative Director Mike Aiello has said,

This will not be a carbon copy but an expansion on the legend itself. You will enter La Llorona’s realm. The maze literally lives in two worlds. Our reality and La Llorona’s murky hell. This maze will involve water effects, video projection, and aesthetically it’s just gorgeous to look at.

The story of La Llorona is well known across Mexico and South America, and it revolves around Maria, a beautiful woman who falls in love with a man but is rejected because she has children. Maria drowns her children only to find out that she is rejected by the same man for her horrific crime. Maria then drowns herself in sorrow, but finds she is also rejected in the afterlife because of what she has done. Maria will not be allowed into Heaven until she has found her children, so she spends eternity between the living world and the spirit world hopelessly searching for her drowned children. Maria’s constant woe and crying during her vain search give her the name La Llorona, which translates to “the weeping woman.”