Week in Review #40: Scream Squad

"Scream Squad" is a term that Universal Studios has half-heartedly try to get people to use organically to describe the friends they attend Halloween Horror Nights with. They also frequently use the tagline "Never go alone." I get that it's playing into horror movie tropes but it also feels so desperate to me. It reminds me of this ad campaign for this scary/ridiculous movie I won't be seeing called Whalefall, which implores its audience to see it "on the biggest screen possible." Anyway I am hard-pressed to pass up ironic use of a tortured marketing phrase, and on Friday I met up with my #ScreamSquad for Halloween Horror Nights™ at Universal Studios® Hollywood. We had a great time! This was my third or fourth time going and it was my favorite edition yet. I've learned how to not get too anxious walking into a maze, and to use the extremely dense traffic to my advantage to avoid being too close to any of the jumpscares, so I can focus on the set design. It makes the times when they…