Long Beach, CA — Slash wrote the music for a new Halloween Horror Nights Hollywood haunted house, and its villain sings. At Universal’s Midsummer Scream panel, creative director John Murdy revealed “Killceañera: Music by SLASH,” an original house that twists a traditional quinceañera into a revenge horror story built around a character named Lola. Murdy said Lola performing an original song inside the house is a first: “First time ever in the history of Halloween Horror Nights.”
The Inspiration
A quinceañera marks a girl’s fifteenth birthday and her passage into adulthood, and it carries a set of customs: a Court of Honor of damas and chambelanes, a formal gown, a tiara and scepter, a grand entrance, a display of fifteen candles, the presentation of a last doll, a changing of the shoes, a toast, and a cake. Murdy said he researched the tradition with colleagues, then took those pieces and, in his words, “put it into the haunt stew, stirred it around, and see what comes out.”
Lola’s Story
Murdy read the house’s executive summary from the stage. “The fiesta de quince años, more popularly known as quinceañera, is normally a time for fifteen-year-old girls to celebrate their rite of passage from childhood to adulthood,” he read, “but not for Lola.” Lola is an orphan disfigured in a fire that killed her parents at their home “during the height of the festival of Dia de los Muertos,” on November 2nd, which is also her birthday, ten years ago. Bullied and called a monster, she found refuge in her parents’ stories of “vengeful ghosts, malevolent spirits and fearsome monstruos,” which “became an all-consuming obsession.”
As her fifteenth birthday nears, Lola throws her own quinceañera with her tormentors as her “Court of Dishonor,” conjuring the monsters from those stories to be the “perfect vessels for her revenge.” Each of the house’s fifteen candles stands for a victim, and by the summary’s end “no one will get out of it alive.” One of the conjured figures is El Cucuy, the bogeyman of the lullaby Lola sings.
Slash and “15 Candles”
The music is the reveal Murdy built the house around. Slash, of Guns N’ Roses, composed the score, which builds to an original song called “15 Candles” that Lola performs.
The collaboration started at last year’s Horror Nights. Murdy was walking Slash to his car when, he recalled, “he just looked at me and he goes, ‘Next year.'” Murdy had an idea waiting. “I said, hey, there’s this thing I came up with in 2018. I’ve never done it. Maybe this is the time to do it.” He sent Slash the treatment. “A few weeks later I got this beautiful piece of music from Slash on Spanish guitar,” Murdy said. “Then I said, what if we wrote a song? So I wrote the lyrics, the vocal melody.” Stacey Conalty produced, arranged, and co-wrote, and a performer named Danny sang every part. “All of the voices you hear on this track are Danny. All of them,” Murdy said.
Here is “15 Candles”:
Murdy framed the house around the song’s message. “This house is for all the people who were ever bullied and wanted to take revenge,” he said. The Spanish lyric, he said, turns on the idea that a moment of suffering lasts a lifetime.
Building Lola
To let Lola sing, the team built her to perform. “Why am I doing her in a prosthetic? Because I need her to lip sync, but most importantly, I need her to do a song,” Murdy said. Her look combines burn scarring with Calaveras, the candy-skull makeup of Día de los Muertos, plus UV elements, created by makeup artist Patrick McGee of McGee Effects. Her character and costume were illustrated by Lucas Culshaw.
The house is going up in the Parisian Courtyard at Universal Studios Hollywood, rebuilt as the burned ruins of Lola’s home, with a purpose-built balcony where Lola stands above guests as they walk underneath her to enter. Here is the concept art shown at the panel:
Where to Find the Full 2026 Lineup
Killceañera is one of several 2026 reveals from Universal’s Midsummer Scream panel, alongside the Art the Clown Terror Tram. For dates, tickets, and the full lineup, see our Halloween Horror Nights Hollywood 2026 guide.
