Noted.
Some behind the scenes info on the Usher’s creation (Credit to HalloweenHorrorNightsNerd; speaking of the rest of which is found
here):
Inspiration for The Usher’s Backstory: His death (accidently hanging himself backstage) was inspired by actual IRL tragic accidents that happened at old theaters back in the day, Universal’s HHN Team just turned up the ghost lore aspects of it by alluding to an evil force inside the theater caused the accidents. Also some of the creative directors have noted that inspiration for Julian’s strict enforcement of the rules stemmed from their own bosses at movie theaters they worked during their own teen years.
Inspiration for The Usher’s Personality: The actor who plays him the most in commercials and interviews has stated he took inspiration from the character Riff Raff from The Rocky Horror Picture Show and decidedly creepy old people when deciding how best to personify the undead usher. Many other actors who have played the character often point to inspiration from the original actor himself as well as a “chill version” of The CryptKeeper from the TV show Tales from the Crypt.
Inspiration for The Usher’s Appearance: Surprisingly enough Universal’s HHN Artists designed Julian’s costume to be unique, not realizing until after having made countless duplicates for the event that the costume bares a striking resemblence to Disney’s Tower of Terror bellhop uniforms. They literally shrugged and just went with what they had already designed. The flashlight was inspired by the actual flashlights used in movie theater ushers back during the 1940s.
Julian’s makeup was designed around the idea that he was dead, you’ll note that Julian has a more yellow tint* to his skin during 2009 that turns to a more regular pale shade as the years progress. This is because the makeup director wanted Julian to look like a real corpse who’s skin had yellowed, cheeks had puffed while cheekbones had sunken in, and eyes had sunken in and darkened as well as lips had darkened. They actually researched actual images of dead people for reference when designing his makeup. The scar on his neck from his death seems to have become a sort of after thought after the 2009 event because occasionally you’ll find images of actors playing the Usher where he’s missing his most noteworthy wound and when it does appear anymore it’s usually just a mark across the neck and not an actual prosthetic.
For reference regarding the slight change in Usher’s makeup; this was the more yellow looking Usher in 2009
and the pale Usher since then
I couldn’t find anything in 2009 regarding the neck wound but yeah from below it does seemed to have softened quite a bit (though I’m not quite sure this was the finished makeup from 2015 though, and I remember this Usher had long hair).