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Halloween Horror Nights 29 General Discussion

Easiest way to keep scareactors from being on their phones in the house is to cut out the pockets on costumes. Characters with pocketed clothing were the worst offenders.



I have a lot of great memories scare acting. I’ll list a few, and I apologize if these are off topic.

I had two booholes: one at the front of the room, and one at the back. One night I popped out of the first spot, got right in a girl’s face and thought, “Do I know her?” Went to my second spot, popped out and it was Ariana Grande with Mac Miller.

Another big one for me was straight up dropping one of the Orlando Magic players. Dude was 6’ 6” and I scared him so bad he fell backwards into his team mates and took them down with him.

One night these girls came through like five times in a row with a Teddy Bear. The third round, I started petting the Teddy Bear. The fourth, I held it like a baby. On the last go around, I snatched it from them and when they walked to my second spot, I made the bear pop out and do a dance before giving it back.
:thumbsup::lol: Good stories.....More....Encore:clap:
 
:thumbsup::lol: Good stories.....More....Encore:clap:

Thanks. I’ll share one more...

On the final night, I popped out of my second spot and scared the hell out of a little old lady. She jumped back grabbing her chest and for a second I thought “Crap! I might have to grab a medic.” Right when I was about to go for help, she winds back her arm and slaps me hard in the face. I ended up laughing so hard at that that the make up around my eyes got ruined from my tears.
 
HHN Nightmares is a joke at the moment,
HHN Nightmares has been a joke for years.

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...
I've felt this exact way for some time now. One of the reasons I don't frequent HHN Forums as much if at all anymore is the hierarchy of various mods/users. I remember when it would be keen speculation time in June-August, I would post what I think they could be doing this year or what IP's would be showing up. Someone who's "IN THE KNOW BUT CAN'T SAY ANYTHING" shoots down whatever you said as that wont be happening this year. Absolutely killing they good-old-vault-days when everyone would be figuring out, like a giant puzzle, what that years event would be. When I started getting my speculation posts deleted at Nightmares I bailed. Some people have definitively taken the fun out of it. They know who they are.
 
I’m going to say something “in defense” of phones / earbuds on scareactors... I did it for 10 years before I moved to more behind the scenes work. What I’m about to say is exclusively for when I had roles in houses, though I’ve done literally pretty much every type of role.

Out of those 10 years, I wore headphones once. And it was only about halfway through the run, and it’s vecause I was in a spot where I was called derogatory names and I LOVE working the event. I know the only way I could get through the run and keep my mental health in tact was not to listen to it.

I’ve also kept my phone on me in hidden pockets purely to set alarms so I can pace myself throughout the night... I’ve never gone back stage to take it out and text or whatever. I just wanted to give my own perspective on it. There is a lot of reasons to not be getting scares in a house, I don’t think it’s fair to say it’s because everyone is on their phones lol. I have caught someone snap chatting backstage, and she did end up leaving the event.

Now related to all of this, it has been AWFUL this year with scareactors talking to friends on set in the streets and also obviously having phones / Apple watches etc on. My theory on why people are getting away with this so much is because hhn is having a hard time staying staffed, so they’re turning a blind eye to keep bodies in the streets. I don’t agree with it, nor do I know if that’s really what’s going on, but I do see that as an “understandable” reason.

Sorry for the long post, I just wanted to give my two cents with my experiences
 
Seeing all this accounts of scareactors slacking is soooo disappointing because I auditioned for both Orlando and Hollywood this year and got the reject. I would have KILLED to be a scareactor, and was heartbroken when it didn’t work out, so seeing ungrateful people who DID get cast is :x::curse:
 
I guess it depends on the zone. Or the area.
Rob zombie zone is giving their all. Best energy in the park. Really great atmosphere.
The viking zone is been creepy and has good atmosphere.

For some reason the area in front of The Mummy is always the worst at this, and Vanity ball has been a disappointment on all fronts but that area is also prone to the problems.
I dont think ive ever seen actors standing by or talking where vikings is.
 
I guess it depends on the zone. Or the area.
Rob zombie zone is giving their all. Best energy in the park. Really great atmosphere.
The viking zone is been creepy and has good atmosphere.

For some reason the area in front of The Mummy is always the worst at this, and Vanity ball has been a disappointment on all fronts but that area is also prone to the problems.
I dont think ive ever seen actors standing by or talking where vikings is.

I agree with this. In my walkthroughs I’ve only noticed this issue in vanity ball, Zombieland, and the chainsaws in Simpson’s

Rob zombie, anarchade, Vikings are really trying hard and I really appreciate that
 
I agree with this. In my walkthroughs I’ve only noticed this issue in vanity ball, Zombieland, and the chainsaws in Simpson’s

Rob zombie, anarchade, Vikings are really trying hard and I really appreciate that
i forgot about anarchade being best, yes
i guess the big open space of simpsons, zombieland area and vanity ball leads itself to this. and the crowd hides it more
 
Seeing all this accounts of scareactors slacking is soooo disappointing because I auditioned for both Orlando and Hollywood this year and got the reject. I would have KILLED to be a scareactor, and was heartbroken when it didn’t work out, so seeing ungrateful people who DID get cast is :x::curse:

So scareactors are slacking in the streets and you'd kill to get in? I think you can make yourself an opportunity for employment. :chainsaw:
 
Great to hear* some scareactor stories!

Is there an established 'hell week' for this year?

I'm sure it's been covered in the 500+ pages but....
 
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I'm sure we have all seen That video from Hollywood, and I think this is something we should reiterate here: please do not bring your young children to this event. Older children (around 10 or so) are completely fine because they know this event isn't real. They know that the monsters are just actors, the blood is just makeup, the corpses are just props. Babies and toddlers do not know that. They don't know the difference yet between fiction and reality. They are going to get traumatized if they're forced into HHN or any haunted house that isn't kid friendly. I implore you all to take this into consideration if you have a small child.

Sorry for the rant. I just don't find that video nearly as funny as so many people seem to think it is.
 
I didn't have any issues in the houses (that I noticed) but I did see more than one scareactor speaking to friends in the streets. In particular, one scareactor with a mask had the mask pulled up and was just chatting as if they had run into a friend at the grocery store. I had never seen anything like it at HHN. Even my husband pointed it out to me.
 
Just a few notes:
  • Can confirm from someone personally there that the Ariana Grande appearance actually wasn’t great. Security shuts down the houses for her to go in, so my source from Ash vs. Evil Dead was able to land a solid scare on her. I understand why the shutdown has to happen, as celebrities + civilians + confined spaces doesn’t turn out well, and that would all be okay if she didn’t reportedly choose to go through AHS multiple times in a row, closing the house for waiting guests for quite some time...
  • As mentioned, headphones under masks can be good for keeping track of the time. Lorde’s Melodrama is 41 minutes long, so my source listened to that every single night to know where he was in his set. Still kept his pattern up, and actually won Scareactor of the week once in that run! He earned the most Boo Bucks (“congrats you scared me” cards from management, essentially) in his cast even without hearing his audio cue because he got so used to it.
  • If you saw a Chainsaw Drill Team member lift up their mask, it may be because their masks are currently, uh, garbage? The original set keeps breaking, with the lights just dying, and the replacement masks, for some reason, have some of their LED components facing the INSIDE as well, blinding the actors. That’s what’s up with the skull makeup; temporary replacement, even though I really want it to last. Also, a CDT guy accidentally scared a kid the other day while trying to scare his parents and made him cry, so he leaned down and lifted his mask to let the kid know that he wasn’t dangerous and that the chainsaw wasn’t real. He got him to laugh and even fist bump him. I got his name and gave it to a coordinator. I think they’re pretty chill with the mask-lifting.
  • What’s the Hollywood video...? I missed it.
 
Re: kids at HHN

If your kid is scared and cries at the chain saw guys, you are a horrible parent for bringing the kid. You pretty much know if your kid is going to cry at the chainsaw guys or not before you buy the ticket.

On the other side, I saw a girl that couldn’t have been older than 6 skipping and laughing her way out of a house 6-7 years ago. Just holding hands and skipping along. No fear whatsoever.

Moral of these stories: Know your kids and don’t be a moron.
 
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