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Halloween Horror Nights 29 General Discussion

House locations don't consider entrances/exits or locations within the park. They're selected based on requirements for the design. SS25 was used for Stranger Things because it had to be--it uses nearly every inch of the bigger "one house" soundstage. That left Ghostbusters to SS22 and ONLY SS22. The building was on complete lockdown during construction to attempt keeping it secret.

Klowns was put into Shrek because it didn't need soundstage-level verticality, but DID need enough space to install (and rig) Klownzilla. It wouldn't have fit in a tent because they don't have the same flexibility to hang stuff in them.

So, while I understand your criticisms, there are practical reasons those criticisms aren't considered.

That's not uncommon, actually. They'll plan for/design scares that -

1) They decide just don't work (due to pacing, direction, or design), or

2) They don't fill because they run out of costumes (more common with their custom monster houses).

There are some wrinkles, though. Some of those "booholes" also aren't actual booholes, but rather access doors for Ops. There's also some areas designed to give one performer two (or more) booholes, which obviously means one is empty while the other is occupied. Depending on your timing, it's possible to get bit by neither.

Yep. I figured it was the logistical needs of the house designs that determined the locations. It would have only enhanced the experience for me.

In my experience, I was given an extra boohole when they decided to cut an actor from our room. That’s always best case scenario to double up a performer’s scares rather than decide to leave the spot empty.

Edit: Meant to say this earlier...the theme this year really should have been Polybius.
 
To play Devil's Advocate, Universal has had no real competition in Orlando for a scary event. Even Howl-O-Scream is two hours away, and most Orlando residents won't travel that far for a haunt. Universal's "lightning in a bottle" exists because it's the only bottle in a Faraday cage. Especially across the first 15 years of the event.

Any other haunt that tries to come into Orlando is now attempting to go against a giant that drops three times more money on a single house than the competitors have for their whole event.

The WB event can't compare to Orlando, because Orlando can't compare to SoCal. LA has a wealth of quality Halloween events. Hollywood's HHN is large-ish fish in a large-ish pond. Knott's has been going for 40+ years now. WB had far more competition and a far more discerning audience.

The failures of Howl-O-Scream are really more representative of the failures of the Busch/SeaWorld brand as a whole.

I dont even know who could compete with hhn in orlando. Disney will never ever attempt anything like hhn and sea world couldnt compete either.
There was talks of a haunt featuring leatherface, jason and freddy in the woods somewhere near orlando, but i think those people got into legal trouble.

I remember reading about some people thinking about bringing a big haunt to the Artegon/ cinemark area but nothing ever came from that.
I guess hhn will remain the only big halloween event in Orlando because i cant think of anything else bringing competition
 
Has anyone mentioned the universal employee working right by the entrance to Depths? He’s been there every night this week so far. He is high fiving guests, dancing and getting everyone pumped up and excited as you walk in. I’ve never seen any employee in the park more enthusiastic than him.
This guy, yeah?

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This tweet actually really annoys me...


It’s certainly cringey but I’ve seen worse. HHN Orlando must definitely have a younger person on their social media because their use of memes aren’t hackneyed and weird (i’m a 19 year old studying media in college so i can tell lol) but the statement itself is kinda wack. Although HHN had nothing to do with the ending of other Orlando haunts, it’s still pretty ignorant. It’s nothing to be extremely offended about though imo
 
Less crowded tonight compared to yesterday, which is great. Just did Ghostbusters after 30 minutes. Everyone was singing the theme towards the entrance. Such a fun freaking house
 
Has anyone mentioned the universal employee working right by the entrance to Depths? He’s been there every night this week so far. He is high fiving guests, dancing and getting everyone pumped up and excited as you walk in. I’ve never seen any employee in the park more enthusiastic than him.
I LOVE HIM

In all seriousness, I’ve done Depths multiple times back-to-back and he recognizes and talks to me while he does his double high-five. He’s fantastic.
 
There are some wrinkles, though. Some of those "booholes" also aren't actual booholes, but rather access doors for Ops. There's also some areas designed to give one performer two (or more) booholes, which obviously means one is empty while the other is occupied. Depending on your timing, it's possible to get bit by neither.
Do you know if that’s the case for the room directly following the mirror maze in Us? Before you enter the home, I believe, there’s a fence with what I think may be hanging laundry on a line? I can’t recall it very specifically, but it looks like a wide, empty space for someone to scare from. Am I just looking too hard for boo holes?
 
Do you know if that’s the case for the room directly following the mirror maze in Us? Before you enter the home, I believe, there’s a fence with what I think may be hanging laundry on a line? I can’t recall it very specifically, but it looks like a wide, empty space for someone to scare from. Am I just looking too hard for boo holes?
I haven't seen the Us layout, so I can't say.
 
Just checked up on a forum I used to frequent and they had an entire thread dedicated to essentially bashing younger fans for making the event too "PG". I don't know, I feel like this year is a low peak for the HHN fandom and the first time I felt unwelcome in many spaces I used to be comfortable in. It's gotten so bad that I'm considering not even going this year just because my excitement has started to drain. What do you guys think? Sorry for the downer post, I'm just thinking a lot today I guess...
 
Just checked up on a forum I used to frequent and they had an entire thread dedicated to essentially bashing younger fans for making the event too "PG". I don't know, I feel like this year is a low peak for the HHN fandom and the first time I felt unwelcome in many spaces I used to be comfortable in. It's gotten so bad that I'm considering not even going this year just because my excitement has started to drain. What do you guys think? Sorry for the downer post, I'm just thinking a lot today I guess...

Curious...which forum? Nightmares is essentially dead.

As far as the FB page goes, I kinda assumed it's negative every year. :p

Thus far, it seems like this thread (general discussion) has been at least somewhat more positive than it was last year.
 
Funny enough, it was Nightmares. It was a thread posted in late August but it caught my eye. I never really got along with people there anyways. Felt like a bunch of people just, to quote your icon, yelling at clouds.

"Death of HHN Fandom?" Yeah, it seems like Critical Analysis has returned. I admit I can be a bit like my avatar myself from time to time, but I try to stay kinda positive lol.
 
Just checked up on a forum I used to frequent and they had an entire thread dedicated to essentially bashing younger fans for making the event too "PG". I don't know, I feel like this year is a low peak for the HHN fandom and the first time I felt unwelcome in many spaces I used to be comfortable in. It's gotten so bad that I'm considering not even going this year just because my excitement has started to drain. What do you guys think? Sorry for the downer post, I'm just thinking a lot today I guess...
Hey, I saw your post about being 19 and knowing how memes work referring to the Twitter page. I just wanted to say that, as a 20-year-old, I relate! I’ve said many times that I think that if the event is fun and makes you think you spent your time well, it did its job, and this year definitely does that, at least for me.

Stranger Things is whatever, but everything else is really extraordinary in their own ways. There’s nothing as cheaply-produced as Blumhouse; everything is quality! A few houses, like Universal Monsters and Graveyard Games, are almost purely horror, with the latter invoking this sense of real dread and fear that I’ve never had anywhere else in this one particular scene. I think that, to an extent, maybe people are looking for things to point fingers at about the event. This isn’t directed at everybody that feels that this year’s lineup isn’t ideal, but I have a sneaking suspicion that some of the most outspoken haters are upset that the event is more popular and thus the lines are longer; people are trying to gatekeep to make sure the “normies” stay far away.

I sort of get it, as I felt that ST was simply a tool for marketing and pulling people in and that that was a bad thing for a time. But really, is it all that awful that new visitors are coming and becoming exposed to what HHN is as an event? How many people are coming back because of their interest in last year? How many guests are unsure how to take horror events and found ST to be accessible to them? It’s kind of like getting into rollercoasters, where you work your way up from something more tame. The houses are still beautiful and the actors still do an incredible job, so I think that the whole event doesn’t deserve to be put down because of some people’s annoyance about the audience. (Also, not gonna go far into this little rant, but people have some opinions on Gen Z in general that probably influence the idea that they don’t belong.)

All of that being said, I do think you should try to go! If you want to hang around with a young person that does genuinely love this year, I’m going every Friday-Sunday night of the season! Let me know!
 
This discussion kinda reminds me of a thing that happens to smaller Youtubers when they finally start to make it big. Most of their original fan base starts to leave or cry foul because the creator has “changed” or has started pandering when really they’re just upset that their favorite small YouTube channel is no longer for them specifically.

Let’s not say that this hasn’t been brewing for quite a while now, but this year’s definitely a turning point.

Man, what would’ve happened if Game of Thrones had actually come? That would’ve been fun to see play out.
 
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