‘Stranger Things’ Star Priah Ferguson Takes Us Inside Halloween Horror Nights’ Massive New Maze

It’s one thing to be a part of one of the biggest television shows on the planet, like Stranger Things; and another to walk through a haunted house (called a maze) based on it and come face to face with your own character. That’s what Priah Ferguson, a.k.a. Hawkins’ resident sass-monster Erica Sinclair, discovered when she visited Universal Orlando for the opening of their annual Halloween Horror Nights event.

“I’m still shook!” said Ferguson, laughing, when she spoke to a select group of journalists including Decider mere minutes after walking through this year’s maze.

Where last year’s stellar experience focused squarely on Season 1 of the Netflix hit, this year you begin at Eleven’s (Millie Bobby Brown) showdown with The Demogorgon in the Season 1 finale, walk through Season 2, and then Season 3 all the way through the Starcourt Mall and a “Neverending Story” number. It’s one of the largest mazes the Halloween Horror Nights team has ever created, and as Patrick Braillard, show director for Entertainment Creative Development who was also on hand to chat noted, it would have been impossible to tackle without Netflix’s complete cooperation.

“They were so amazing in giving us assets to be able to work from,” Braillard noted. He added that while on the show costume elements may help establish monsters like The Demogorgon on set, everything from them to the Demodogs in Season 2, to Season 3’s massive Mind Flayer are all computer generated.

“We don’t have that luxury,” Braillard continued. “But, what we did get, we have the luxury of getting the visual effects files from Netflix, so we were able to create 3-D models of all of those… and build out sized replicas so that when you go into certain scenes, you’re going to see exact replicas of those monsters in full physical form.”

And yes, you do get to see the enormous Mind Flayer as it crashes through the Byers’ cabin to attack the kids in Season 3 — and you, as you walk through the Season 3 section of the maze. For Ferguson, it was, of course, a very different experience walking through the maze versus filming the show; and not just because the maze is inside a warehouse in Florida instead of the show’s usual Atlanta filming location.

“While you’re filming the show, you kind of get to rehearse it,” Ferguson said. “You get to rehearse the scene… and you’re only doing your scene and the scenes that you’re doing. In Season 3, while I was shooting my scenes with the Scoops Troop, and Millie and Caleb [McLaughlin] and Sadie [Sink], they were all shooting their scenes, I didn’t see what they were doing. So, it was cool to really experience how that was put together. But also, since it was broken up into shots while filming, it’s less scary because, okay, I’ve got this. But, when you go in the maze, you’ve got to watch your back a little bit because you don’t know who’s coming… It’s just scary. Things in the maze are unexpected, because the Demogorgons are going to pop out at any minute, and it’s really scary.”

We’ll concur with Ferguson that the maze is scary — but mostly, like Season 3 of the show itself, it’s a blast to walk through. Unlike, say, this year’s US maze that chillingly pulls you down into the psychological depths of Jordan Peele’s latest nightmare, the Stranger Things maze is more like walking through a live museum of the show. Yes, things are popping out at you, and the Mind Flayer in particular (as well as the ball of rats and guts version that attacks the kids in the hospital in Season 3) are gross to look at; but mostly Eleven is there to protect you, so no biggie.

It is gross, though. There are lots of guts and monsters, and exploding things. But one potentially disgusting aspect of Season 3 that didn’t make it to the maze? Erica’s deal for unlimited ice cream, in exchange for helping the Scoops Troop break into a Russian military base in Season 3. With that in mind, we naturally asked if Ferguson had to eat a gross amount of ice cream on set.

“I mean… I wouldn’t say I ate a lot, and I wouldn’t say I ate a little bit,” Ferguson said laughing. “It was right in the middle, but I didn’t mind it. It was pretty cool to me.”

One other moment that doesn’t show up in the maze? Ferguson’s iconic Season 3 line, “You can’t spell America without Erica.” Not that you’d expect the quip to pop out from behind a corner or anything (though now that I think about it, Halloween Comedy Mazes is a stellar idea), but where almost every other Season 3 moment gets hit, that particular line was passed by. As for what Ferguson was thinking on set when they recorded that line, and whether she knew it would have the impact it would? Nah.

“I knew that people would love the writing because the writers are, like, amazing,” Ferguson recalled. “When I first heard the ‘you can’t spell America without Erica’ line, I thought to myself, ‘that is kind of true!’ I didn’t notice that until they wrote it in the script. It was really fun to film it, the Scoops Troop, I really enjoy it a lot.”

Though Ferguson was cagey about anything having to do with Erica in Season 4 — which, mind you, has not been officially picked up by Netflix, but come on — you can check out her doppelgänger at Halloween Horror Nights until November 2.

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