How The Weeknd’s haunted house at Universal Studios Hollywood was turned into a “surreal nightmare”

You can finally check out The Weeknd‘s haunted house at Universal Studios, and now we know how much thought and care was put into making the horrifying display.

The Weeknd: After Hours Nightmare opened last month and pays homage to his After Hours album. It’s part of Universal Studios’ Halloween Horror Nights.

Halloween Horror Nights executive producer John Murdy chatted with Entertainment Tonight about the new attraction, which is billed as a “surreal living nightmare filled with grotesque characters and themes.”

He said The Weeknd — born Abel Tesfaye — had “a very specific idea. He wanted to focus on what he would refer to as ‘the universe of After Hours.’ … He wanted to take that album and turn it into a haunted house experience.”

Murdy loved the direction the haunted house was going because The Weeknd’s visuals do have nightmarish elements to them. “There’s something really dark going on [in Abel’s music videos]. In some ways, darker than a lot of other things we do,” he said.

Murdy said the partnership worked because The Weeknd “thinks very cinematically.”

The single-house experience transports thrill-seekers into the After Hours fantasy world and is soundtracked to the songs “After Hours,” “In Your Eyes,” “Heartless,” “Blinding Lights,” “Save Your Tears” and “Too Late.”

“I always wanted my own Halloween Horror Nights haunted house, as Halloween has always been significant to my music, so this is a total dream come to life,” The Weeknd said in a statement when announcing his new venture. “I feel like my music videos have served as a launching pad for a collaboration like this, and I cannot wait for people to experience this madness!”