Wouldn’t doubt if the marketing trio this year is Stranger Things 2, Haunting of Hill House, & Hellraiser or Happy Death Day 1&2. Curious to see what else they put in the lineup; hopefully we’ll get an original along with UCM 2.0 and then this lineup would be pretty solid
I was thinking Haunting of Hill House, !Classic Property!, and Hellraiser/Child's Play. It feels like the marketing for these always revolves around "TV show" (so AHS, Walking Dead and Stranger Things), long-running franchise (TCM, Saw, Halloween, Insidious in 2015), and then a big classic property (Exorcist, Shining, Poltergeist). Not always, but it's a pretty reliable formula.
I don't think they'll deviate from that formula this year. Stranger Things and Hill House could both be the TV series (I'll go Hill House mostly because of novelty and the fact that it wasn't rated very well here in Hollywood), Hellraiser and Child's Play are both major slasher franchises - Probably Child's Play due to less rights entanglement and the fact that it's bigger at the Box Office - and then a classic property, which we could speculate to be anything from The Thing to Twilight Zone to Hitchcock to what-have-you.
Weird little note: Even though Pinhead is wayyyy more popular than Candyman, Candyman actually made almost double the amount Hellraiser did at the BO when adjusted for inflation. That first part is probably because of sequels - Candyman had a much higher budget than Hellraiser and was considered a flop - but it's still cool to imagine a weird, alternate timeline where Candyman was one of the semi-big slashers like Ghostface or Chucky.
As much as I'd be down for Black Christmas, preferably the original one, to come to HHN, I could easily see Murdy tweet about how it's not, in his opinion, an IP that can transfer well to an attraction because of the fact that we never see Billy, and that "it's apart of the movie's creepy atmosphere of never seeing his actual appearance" or some argument like that. Very similar to Mike Aiello's reason for not doing A Quiet Place in regards to atmosphere. Doesn't mean I'd agree, but it's just something I can see him tweet in response to someone suggesting Black Christmas.
I'm sure that'll be the response, but honestly, I think it's just a tough pitch to make.
Murdy: Hey! I'm writing a maze and I was really excited to show it to you-
Budget-master: What is it.
Murdy: It's the venerable classic
Black Christmas, made by the guy who directed
A Christmas Story! Gee, isn't that kooky? Say, did you know? This film actually went on to inspire John Carpenter's-
Budget-master: Is it popular.
Murdy: ...It's Canadian.
Budget-master: Do Freddy. Stick 'im in one of those Blumhouse mazes.
I guess it's just...how many people know Black Christmas, outside of a sect of die-hard slasher fans? Then again, how many people know Trick R Treat or Krampus...