Universal Studios Hollywood celebrated the highly-anticipated opening of “Halloween Horror Nights” on Friday, September 20^th with the annual presentation of the Eyegore Awards, honoring the horror genre’s top stars, filmmakers and musicians.

This year’s Eyegore Awards paid homage to AMC’s critically-acclaimed, Golden Globe-nominated, Emmy Award-winning TV series, The Walking Dead, with the statuette accepted by cast member Melissa McBride.  The multi-platinum rock band that pioneered the Heavy Metal genre, Black Sabbath was also honored with Ozzy Osbourne and Geezer Butler accepting the award presented by Sharon Osbourne. Star of USA Network’s Burn Notice, Bruce Campbell was recognized for his extensive horror film career, including the latest installment in the twisted Evil Dead film franchise, directed by Fede Alvarez.

Producer Jason Blum and writer/actor Leigh Whannell each accepted an Eyegore Award for their respective horror film careers, including the recent “Insidious” film franchise and its latest installment, Insidious:  Chapter 2, which opened #1 at the box office this past weekend.  Prolific actor and producer Danny Trejo accepted the award on behalf of his impressive horror film career that accounts for more than 36 scary movies, including the upcoming film, Machete Kills.

For a second consecutive year, McKenzie Westmore, host of Syfy’s FaceOff helmed the event as the Eyegore Awards host.

Joining in the celebration was Jack and Kelly Osbourne, Fede Alvarez, director of the recent “Evil Dead” film franchise, Lin Shaye, star of “Insidous: Chapter 2,” "Rock of Ages” star Diego Boneta, “Machette Kills” Alexa Vega and “PSYCH” star Corbin Bernsen as well as past Eyegore Award recipients, “Scream” star Jamie Kennedy, Anthrax’s Scot Ian and Bitsie Tulloch from NBC’s “GRIMM.”  Other stars included former Eyegore Award recipient, “Chucky” film franchise screenwriter Don Mancini who was joined by Fiona Dourif, Danielle Bisutti, Brennan Elliot and A Martinez, stars of Universal Studios Home Entertainment’s upcoming Blu-ray release of “Curse of Chucky.”  “Chucky,” himself also made a special appearance on the red carpet as did “Halloween Horror Nights” Creative Director, John Murdy.

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“Halloween Horror Nights” kicked off on Friday, September 20, 2013 and continues on 21 select nights through Saturday, November 2, 2013.