Halloween Horror Nights 29 General Discussion

[ThemeParks4Life]

When I went, I could've bailed the front of the park after doing GB/Us x2/Stranger Things with Express, but I was waiting for Yeti to open so I could repeat it later in the night with Express. Whenever I go back sometime in October, I'll probably just ignore Stranger Things and Yeti until later in the night and focus on getting everything else done before 8:30-9 because I more than likely won't be getting Express again (unless it's after 10).

 

[BigHouseFootball]

I guess I’m in the minority’s here...I didn’t love Monsters. I REALLY wanted too. It was the house I was most excited for but it didn’t deliver for me and we did it twice.

I think my problem with it was that they tried to do too much, too many monsters. I think it would of been stronger if they just stuck to 3 monsters instead of trying to jam every one in a single house.

It just felt disjointed to me. Frankenstein has like one room? I would of liked to have spent more time in each monsters’ story.

 

[Legacy]

I guess I’m in the minority’s here...I didn’t love Monsters. I REALLY wanted too. It was the house I was most excited for but it didn’t deliver for me and we did it twice.

I think my problem with it was that they tried to do too much, too many monsters. I think it would of been stronger if they just stuck to 3 monsters instead of trying to jam every one in a single house.

It just felt disjointed to me. Frankenstein has like one room? I would of liked to have spent more time in each monsters’ story.

They all have one room. That’s the nature of anthology houses.

 

[Clive]

They all have one room. That’s the nature of anthology houses.

It just felt like House of Horrors, again. I know you commented on this in the earlier thread, but it just feels like a regurgitation of earlier Monster executions. Hollywood at least got a little risky with the deep cuts and reimaginings (Renfield! Frankenstein mourning a corpse of Maria! Invisible Man as a UV effect!) and at least attempted to tie it all together (yeah, the Vault vs the Castle was a bit hairy, but there was an effort made).

 

[IOA Explorer]

Ok, so I’ve done both HHN Orlando and HHN Hollywood within two weeks.


Orlando Pros:

- Elaborate Set Design of houses

- Beautiful, well designed scarezones

- No horror-less deadzones

- Blinky Cups

- Nice 80s theme (besides the houses)

- Dark and spooky lighting

- Lagoon show


Orlando Cons:

- Party Atmosphere/Music

- Not scary

- Very generic and repetitive costumes

- Crappy dancing show


Hollywood Pros:

- Much scarier than Orlando (more startling noises)

- Agressive scarezones scareactors

- Costume Design

- Creepy Atmosphere/Music

- Generic Crypt TV Que Videos


Hollywood Cons:

- Crappy facades

- A lot of black walls and hallways in the houses

- No “real” scarzones. They’re all very basic with not much design. Toxic Tunnel? Just a bunch of lights.

- Horrorless Deadzones. It really takes you out of the atmosphere of the event. Too much light as well. The whole event needs to be darker like Orlando.

- No overall theme. Just the merch is 80’s

- Crappy dancing show


Overall, Hollywood is lightyears behind Orlando but Orlando could take some notes from Hollywood on their scare factor and “Horror” atmosphere. Hollywood’s event doesn’t really scream HHN. It’s a completely different vibe.

 

[OhHaiInternet95]

Holistic favorite. Performance counts. But so do designer expectations. For all of Monsters’ quality, it’s also fairly routine. It doesn’t really present anything new. The scares are things we’ve seen before, in almost a cookie-cutter fashion. I have a theory about why, but basically I don’t think it will have a strong advocate for HotY.

Ghostbusters, for better or worse, attempts a lot more. It’s design is more creative the cast has higher expectations on them—which they generally meet. I also think there’s outside incentive for GB to win.

It’s an unusual year, though. Based on response and what I’ve seen of the houses, there’s four houses that all could have “legitimate” claims (at least, as legitimate as this can be) to HotY: Ghostbusters, Monsters, Yeti, and Graveyard Games. Three of them display that extra umph of passion from the designers though, and Monsters isn’t one of them. Monsters is on the list because the fans are excited about the Monsters. In this scenario, the IP gets the nod.

Interesting info in regards to this year. But it really doesn't seem like ST would've been A&D's favorite last year, so why it won HoTY is what I'm curious about.

I'm very glad people are enjoying Monsters so much and that there's at least one house this year being in long-timer's top 15s. But I have to agree a bit more with @BigHouseFootball and @Fallow here.

 

[Legacy]

Interesting info in regards to this year. But it really doesn't seem like ST would've been A&D's favorite last year, so why it won HoTY is what I'm curious about.

It won because of how many extra sets the performers had to work.

Like I said: performance and expectations both matter. But it’s about more than just the performance “in the house.” Forsaken split HotY with In-Between in 2011 specifically because of how much their performance improved from beginning to end (while In-Between was the front-runner from day one).

While Poltergeist was the classic IP last year, it didn’t bear the expectations Stranger Things did. The cast, and the house, exceeded those expectations—so it won. Havoc in 2010 was, literally, a repainted Spawning with barely costumed scareactors where the performance blew everything out of the water (plus, Patrick Braillard was pissed about the Cats and Combs game), so it won.

It’s Ghostbusters to lose this year. The house doesn’t have to be scary to win. It just has to meet expectations. And it is.

 

[IOA Explorer]

It won because of how many extra sets the performers had to work.

Like I said: performance and expectations both matter. But it’s about more than just the performance “in the house.” Forsaken split HotY with In-Between in 2011 specifically because of how much their performance improved from beginning to end (while In-Between was the front-runner from day one).

While Poltergeist was the classic IP last year, it didn’t bear the expectations Stranger Things did. The cast, and the house, exceeded those expectations—so it won. Havoc in 2010 was, literally, a repainted Spawning with barely costumed scareactors where the performance blew everything out of the water (plus, Patrick Braillard was pissed about the Cats and Combs game), so it won.

It’s Ghostbusters to lose this year. The house doesn’t have to be scary to win. It just has to meet expectations. And it is.

What was the Cats and Combs game you speak of?

 

[OhHaiInternet95]

It won because of how many extra sets the performers had to work.

Thanks for the info. That’s pretty much what I thought. So only twice since the honors started being given out (2001) has A&D’s favorite not at least split HoTY.

 

[uso345]

As most of you already know, Stranger Things 4 was announced today. Interested to see how this plays out when it comes to HHN, like if they are bringing the property back or, depending on the season's release date, will it be at 30 or 31? Lots of questions.

 

[rhino4evr]

This was such a fantastic event...I’ll post more thoughts later, but universal should really be celebrated by how well run this event has become.

 

[Legacy]

What was the Cats and Combs game you speak of?

A bunch of fans started bringing stuffed cats (and combs) through the house, and plague doctors would pet, steal, and otherwise play instead of scaring whenever they saw one.

 

[JealousKenny]

Could someone give me an estimate on how long it would take to get into the park if we arrived at 4:30 pm and did not do the 25 dollar early entry? Are we looking at an hour to clear the mass of people at the turnstiles?

 

[gabe3235]

Could someone give me an estimate on how long it would take to get into the park if we arrived at 4:30 pm and did not do the 25 dollar early entry? Are we looking at an hour to clear the mass of people at the turnstiles?

I haven't gotten to the gates exactly at opening yet this year, but so far crowds at the gate seem to be much more manageable than last year.

 

[Chumpieboy]

Has your buddy talked about the issues they’ve had with actually running the chainsaws? Not sure if it has to do with the fuel, but one of the scareactors came up to our coord and asked for the time. She said she really needed the set to be over so she could get a new chainsaw/get hers looked at as hers wasn’t starting. She, and at least one other scareactor, spent part of the night chasing people while yelling, “CHAINSAW!” because they couldn’t revv them up. It was actually a little bit funny. I’m pretty sure that’s from Cast B, at least, since I saw the coord around 7.

I saw that guy! I yelled back "frightened scream response!" He high fived me.

 

[RogueAntilles]

Monsters should honestly win HOTY because of their cast. Those guys are truly outstanding and make that house rip.

Absolutely, the energy of the cast is relentless. I never had a bad run of Monsters, consistency is everything in an HHN house. I took my Mom to Horror Nights on 9/22 for the first time in 10 years. She still goes, "Mike, I loved that Universal Monster one!" I usually go with several people in my group and I gauge all of their reactions, UM was the runaway hit. Two of my buddies were clapping out.

 

[DestinationDoug]

Heading back for round 5 tomorrow night. Grabbing a hotel as well. Which has a shorter walk to the HHN entrance, the Doubletree, Cabana Bay, or Sapphire Falls?

 

[Kichkinet85]

Heading back for round 5 tomorrow night. Grabbing a hotel as well. Which has a shorter walk to the HHN entrance, the Doubletree, Cabana Bay, or Sapphire Falls?

Sapphire since you can take the boat over and it drop off in closes to the park.

 

[OhHaiInternet95]

On a slightly different note, Braillard has been running things more the last few years than Aiello has, right? I've been seeing some concerns...elsewhere...that with Aiello gone there won't be any original houses. But I was under the impression that Patrick and Charles had been the main show runners since at least 27.

 

[Legacy]

On a slightly different note, Braillard has been running things more the last few years than Aiello has, right? I've been seeing some concerns...elsewhere...that with Aiello gone there won't be any original houses. But I was under the impression that Patrick and Charles had been the main show runners since at least 27.

That’s correct. Charles designed Scarecrow, Sinema, and Yeti. Patrick did Forsaken (at least, I’m fairly certain he did), and co-designed Catacombs with Mike.

Originals will continue.