Halloween Horror Nights 29 General Discussion | Page 568 | Inside Universal Forums

Halloween Horror Nights 29 General Discussion

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Back to Austin in a couple hours. Really enjoyed the event. I think I liked all the houses, with Ghostbusters being my favorite. Dephts was the scariest for me, so definitely not a single house that I did not enjoy.

The scare zones are so weak imho. Didn’t enjoy them at all. Found the arcade one to just be plain mediocre.
 
Opening line was insane last night--like all Sundays the past couple years--but later in the night found lines were inflated. Both Graveyard and Monsters posted 40, took 22 and 25.

After a couple years of improvement, Ops really back-sliding this year. Obnoxious placement in front of scenery or even actors, yelling at people to "keep up" even when there is no one ahead of them or the conga line is at a dead stop.

Im sorry but what family thinks a private event that goes on until 2am called “Halloween Horror Nights” is family friendly

I guess the ones who bring kids to the event? So ... a significant plurality if not the majority of guests this year?
 
For some reason it feels like Fridays and Saturdays are a bit quieter these days. What is this world?!
No one is used to the new earlier schedule lol. Everyone is probably expecting to go in october like always

Their incentives to get people to go Wed/Thur/Sun are working... It's two fold... "Look it's cheaper to go on Wednesdays... and it will be much less crowded."

What other incentives besides the cheaper price?
 
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.
Same for me. He’s great. One of the highlights for me this year. I hope he gets recognized in some fashion for his enthusiasm! I feel like my runs were better in depths because he got me excited first
 
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Seems like the majority of posters have talked about a steady decline in the Scare Zones the past few years. The Parade has been around for 7-8 years, and I recall some pretty good scarezones the two years I went since the parade has been there, limiting street usage, so I can't see the relevancy in blaming the parade for lessened scarezone quality. I'm not a hardcore horror fan, but I actually enjoyed the scarezones more than the houses. So, what's going on with scarezone lessened quality, if, what so many posters say, is true. ?

[Note to mods, moved reply here from AoV thread to keep on topic]

I don't think you can blame the parade--Anarchade and Zombieland have pretty elaborate sets. Honestly, and I hate to say it, a lot of the actors just don't feel into it. Saw three nurses just standing around chatting with one another last night. Vikings might be the one exception, but it feels understaffed. Really all but Vanity Ball feel like they need a half dozen more actors. And once the crowds rolled in this weekend, impossible to move thru a lot of them. That makes it even harder to scare. Hellbilly Deluxe is the most interesting zone, but by last night, it was basically impassable.
 
Just got back home in Washington, and I had a total blast this weekend. Met up with friends on Saturday and we did everything on Saturday with no problems, and I had a killer solo run yesterday.

While I'll get more in-depth in the review thread and respective house threads, I personally enjoyed this year more than last year. The house line-up is the most well-rounded and balanced one I've seen, and I honestly enjoyed all ten houses, moreso than 28 where Blumhouse and Halloween 4 were definitely weak links in that lineup. Compare that to this year where my "weakest" house is Depths of Fear, which had better set designs than either of those two, and gave me harder scares as well.

Speaking of scares, for the houses that were focused on them, the ones that were the most consistent over the weekend were Universal Monsters, Graveyard Games and Nightingales. (Depths of Fear was not too far behind.)

Regarding scare zones, I don't really get scared in them to begin with, so I'm more looking at atmosphere and if it's any fun to hang out and take in. An for me, Hellbilly Deluxe and Vanity Ball were right up my alley, and Anarch-ade was not too far behind either.

As for shows, Halloween Marathon of Mayhem is the best lagoon show I've seen, and AoV: Altered States was great as well, possibly the best they've done since House of Fear. Add in the overarching 80's feel which was pulled off better this year, and some killer merch, and it's no wonder I enjoyed it over a very enjoyable 28.

This guy, yeah?

m46qdMV.jpg

I don't know how this guy keeps his voice through the night, but he was always awesome to run into!
 
Seems like the majority of posters have talked about a steady decline in the Scare Zones the past few years. The Parade has been around for 7-8 years, and I recall some pretty good scarezones the two years I went since the parade has been there, limiting street usage, so I can't see the relevancy in blaming the parade for lessened scarezone quality. I'm not a hardcore horror fan, but I actually enjoyed the scarezones more than the houses. So, what's going on with scarezone lessened quality, if, what so many posters say, is true. ?

[Note to mods, moved reply here from AoV thread to keep on topic]

I don't think you can blame the parade--Anarchade and Zombieland have pretty elaborate sets. Honestly, and I hate to say it, a lot of the actors just don't feel into it. Saw three nurses just standing around chatting with one another last night. Vikings might be the one exception, but it feels understaffed. Really all but Vanity Ball feel like they need a half dozen more actors. And once the crowds rolled in this weekend, impossible to move thru a lot of them. That makes it even harder to scare. Hellbilly Deluxe is the most interesting zone, but by last night, it was basically impassable.

I wonder, who is in charge of the ideas that go into the zones? Or who greenlits what goes on in the zones? Is it all Creative?
Besides the parade ruining the zone stuff, sometimes it feels like ideas for zones were cooler or scarier before 2012 or so. Im not talking about the props or the actors, but the concepts of zones themselves. It almost feels like there have been changes in recent years when it comes to concepts.

I also wonder why they never put a zone by the side of Transformers, do they need that street to be empty? Thats a big chunk of street that could have a zone,
 
I wonder, who is in charge of the ideas that go into the zones? Or who greenlits what goes on in the zones? Is it all Creative?
Besides the parade ruining the zone stuff, sometimes it feels like ideas for zones were cooler or scarier before 2012 or so. Im not talking about the props or the actors, but the concepts of zones themselves. It almost feels like there have been changes in recent years when it comes to concepts.

I also wonder why they never put a zone by the side of Transformers, do they need that street to be empty? Thats a big chunk of street that could have a zone,
First, Creative has nothing to do with Halloween Horror Nights. The event is created by Entertainment and designed by the team known as Art and Design (A&D).

Second, the Show Director who is predominately in charge of Streets is Blake Braswell. He is the individual who oversees their development and implementation. That said, it's still produced by committee. It's not one person's ideas--it's a group of people coming up with ideas and deciding the best ones.

Now, with regards to where they put zones: They have essentially put zones all over the park at this point, except the London Waterfront. That includes the street between Transformers and Shrek (which use to be known as Shrek Alley). That street help Night Maze, War of the Dead, American Gothic, and others. I think the main reason they don't put zones there is because of guests flow. They want guests to easily navigate through the entire park and all of the zones without back-tracking.
 
First, Creative has nothing to do with Halloween Horror Nights. The event is created by Entertainment and designed by the team known as Art and Design (A&D).

Second, the Show Director who is predominately in charge of Streets is Blake Braswell. He is the individual who oversees their development and implementation. That said, it's still produced by committee. It's not one person's ideas--it's a group of people coming up with ideas and deciding the best ones.

Now, with regards to where they put zones: They have essentially put zones all over the park at this point, except the London Waterfront. That includes the street between Transformers and Shrek (which use to be known as Shrek Alley). That street help Night Maze, War of the Dead, American Gothic, and others. I think the main reason they don't put zones there is because of guests flow. They want guests to easily navigate through the entire park and all of the zones without back-tracking.

Shrek Alley also lost some of its berth with the introduction of Transformers. I don't think it's realistic to set a zone there anymore.