HHN 31: Fiesta de Chupacabras

[Lucky Planet]

Okay cool things.
Very beautiful entrance. Feels like the entrance to a ride. Like an actual ride. The fireworks are really cool.
This is more like a Day of the dead house. Feels much more like the Coco movie for example.
The town stuff and the people felt like day of the dead. Really colorful. Really cool lights. Very detailed rooms. Really nice use of shadows.
I noticed one goat hanging, but it feels like it was killed and hanged by the villagers. It has chains so a human hanged it.
The masks people have are really cool. They feel like sculptures and not masks. Feel like tribal masks kind of.

I think what I love about the design the most, is that it is their Chupacabra. As in it will be very recognizable if they ever do future houses. I mean if they went with the more classic design, it would just look like they lazily painted the tooth fairy costumes and added some spikes to their back.

Loving the villager masks I'm seeing too. How many Chupas are in the house?

I counted like 3 or 4 chupas near the end. I'm sure there are 5 or 6. But I only saw 4. They hide too quickly.
They are really big. Feel the same size as American werewolf in London. Kinda.

 

[FaceBagman]

I think what I love about the design the most, is that it is their Chupacabra. As in it will be very recognizable if they ever do future houses.

I don’t think there’s much precedent for creature design continuity after what happened with Nightingales… :whistle:

(I know, there was a loose “story” behind the design change there, and I liked the new costumes just as much as the old ones. Likewise, I like the ChupaCatBra too, even if it is a pair of fangs slapped on the AWiL wolves. It’s good enough!)

 

[Darko]

I mean I think another reason they changed the design to the cat like design we have now is cause they probably figured they might as well do their own design since the lore is changed as well. The Chupacabra of legend is a goat sucker not a people sucker. And obviously there is nothing in the legend about villagers feeding tourist to them to appease them. So they already changed the legend to suit a haunted house setting.

I mean seriously this house would not be good at all if it just wanted goat blood. Where's the threat in that?

 

[Lucky Planet]

I mean I think another reason they changed the design to the cat like design we have now is cause they probably figured they might as well do their own design since the lore is changed as well. The Chupacabra of legend is a goat sucker not a people sucker. And obviously there is nothing in the legend about villagers feeding tourist to them to appease them. So they already changed the legend to suit a haunted house setting.

I mean seriously this house would not be good at all if it just wanted goat blood. Where's the threat in that?

Yeah you made me think yesterday. It's universals own original design so they can be unique with it. It's their own take. You made a good point.
I kinda wish it showed more near the beginning.

 

[Tbad556]

Don't think this was ever posted, but Universal dropped a podcast episode on this one a few days ago:

PODCAST | Halloween Horror Nights Haunted Tales - Fiesta de Chupacabras

Hear the tale of Fiesta de Chupacabras, an original haunted house at Universal Orlando’s Halloween Horror Nights 2022.

blog.discoveruniversal.com

 

[PenguinCowboy]

Loving the villager masks I'm seeing too. How many Chupas are in the house?

There are 5 in the house, all from the same litter (thus the milky eye defect). A Chupacabra appears in each scene in some capacity, regardless of whether they are a puppet, projection, or other effect. They range from full bodied puppets to muppet style ones (furry glove and a head manipulated by one hand).
Their names (according to the puppet designer) are:
Princess Coco
Dusty Bottoms
Dante
Rocco
Skittles

Source: Unmasking Tour, lol

 

[Tobias]

Before I went through this house, I knew a little gist of the backstory on why we're there (and thus why we're in danger), and that apparently most of the action was from the townsfolk. The moment I turned around to see the reveal of the facade, and then seeing the mask-maker, this house pretty much had me. There are so many good details both big and small, from the shards of glass embedded on top of the walls of the town to make sure no one escapes, to the little buckets of blood at the doorways to protect the locals from the Chupacabra's, to the sheer fact everything including the dialogue is in Spanish and the scare actors are all bilingual, there was a lot of great care put into everything to make it authentic.

As for the design of the Chupacabra's, I was totally fine with the design they ultimately went with. It feels more grounded in reality than something that honestly looks more alien. Or shall we say, Bug-like. Which makes me feel Bugs: Eaten Alive might have been a slight factor on the design, since the Chupa designs on the merch made me do a double take thinking it was like one of the big bugs. Even if that wasn't the case, they obviously went with their eventual design for a reason, and it worked for me!

Had a lot of fun run throughs here, over in the review thread I mentioned the run I had with the Puerto Rician Grandmother who grew up with the legend and downright loved the house. That was a really awesome moment to have, and it did help cement this house as my personal favorite this year. Like with Case Files last year, there's just so much I enjoy about this house. And yeah, for me this was certainly worth the ten year wait to finally happen!

Finally, there is something I'm curious if anyone has seen yet...have to put it in spoilers since I didn't know about this until the UTH tour and it will be a surprise to anyone that see's it.

Spoiler

So, per the UTH tour, this house has a Plant/Victim scare! It's to really hammer home the idea that we as tourists are truly in danger, as someone wearing a specific HHN shirt will join the line and end up getting carried away by one of the townsfolk early on in the house.

 

[GA-MBIT]

Yeah a lot of the critiques here feel a little nitpicky to me. This house is great. The facades and look of the town is really great. The way it builds up to the reveal of the Chup, teasing him through Shadows or the knocking over of boxes. Until the reveal of some honestly really cool puppets! They have some great forward motion and can really send guests flying. I love the couple wide open Town scenes, the house set is really nicely set-up (Lets go Toilet Chup!) and I think the look of the locals themselves are great! I also wanna give some recognition to the slaughterhouse which is clearly goat-themed to everyone saying "But goatsucker??????". Really fun and well designed house, honestly one of my favorites this year!

 

[ultimateforce]

Went through with two native Puerto Ricans again last night, neither felt like there was a single Chupacabra.

 

[Lucky Planet]

The way it builds up to the reveal of the Chup, teasing him through Shadows or the knocking over of boxes. Until the reveal of some honestly really cool puppets! They have some great forward motion and can really send guests flying.

i kinda hate when they do that ( i think they did that with pyramid head)
if they are going to use a character then dont hide it like if this was a ride

 

[Spookies n' Stuff]

i kinda hate when they do that ( i think they did that with pyramid head)
if they are going to use a character then dont hide it like if this was a ride

Tbh I feel like it would work better if there was more sustained suspense in general, but since we've got townsfolk jumping out every couple seconds, that tension is constantly diffused and instead of building up to a chupacabra reveal, it just feels like they couldn't afford enough puppets.

 

[Brian G.]

i kinda hate when they do that ( i think they did that with pyramid head)
if they are going to use a character then dont hide it like if this was a ride

That's because the Chupacabra isn't the main antagonist... It's the villagers. You're trying to escape them while also minding the threat of the Chupy.

With that said, this house is definitely reliant on timing - especially the puppets. My first few runs, the timing was on point - which made me love the house. In the last few runs, I've missed a lot - so I can see where people start to sour on it.

 

[Lucky Planet]

That's because the Chupacabra isn't the main antagonist... It's the villagers. You're trying to escape them while also minding the threat of the Chupy.

With that said, this house is definitely reliant on timing - especially the puppets. My first few runs, the timing was on point - which made me love the house. In the last few runs, I've missed a lot - so I can see where people start to sour on it.

Why are the villagers evil?

 

[Brian G.]

Why are the villagers evil?

They're luring you in to feed Chupy to save themselves and their village.

This is why there are limited goats. This Chupy isn't a goatsucker, he's a humansucker.

 

[PenguinCowboy]

Why are the villagers evil?

I wouldn't say "evil" as much as they are the present danger posed to you. They don't necessarily take pleasure in killing tourists, but they view it as the only way to protect their own village. At the end of the day it is them trying to protect themselves, and this way (or the way tradition has dictated) they have found to do so; leaving blood sacrifices from total strangers to keep the beasts at bay, rather than have to choose who amongst themselves they will sacrifice.

 

[Lucky Planet]

They're luring you in to feed Chupy to save themselves and their village.

This is why there are limited goats. This Chupy isn't a goatsucker, he's a humansucker.

I wouldn't say "evil" as much as they are the present danger posed to you. They don't necessarily take pleasure in killing tourists, but they view it as the only way to protect their own village. At the end of the day it is them trying to protect themselves, and this way (or the way tradition has dictated) they have found to do so; leaving blood sacrifices from total strangers to keep the beasts at bay, rather than have to choose who amongst themselves they will sacrifice.

Okay that sounds pretty cool. That's really clever.
Why do they wear them masks?

 

[Legacy]

Okay that sounds pretty cool. That's really clever.
Why do they wear them masks?

Merchandising!

(It elevates the “festival” vibe to attract more tourists.)

 

[4hartthreat]

I will second everything Brian said about this one. If you hit everything, most especially the puppets, this house is fantastic. I've been through this house about 8 times. I'd say 5 of them were good runs. And because I've gotten good runs, this is currently my second favorite house of the year.

I will say too though, it is hard to even get good runs with the implied chupa spots. The bloody body being dragged away. The cage being pushed over. The dumpster shaking. I don't think there is a more timing dependent house this year than this one.

 

[Darko]

Definitely agree on this house being timing dependent. It sucks that it’s like that but it is what it is. I got both great runs of this house and it’s easily one of my favorites this year. Looks pretty but feels nasty.

Also love the Chupacabras design as well as the villager masks.

But that body took forever to reset after being pulled away. Such a great and gruesome effect but so timing dependent. Just like that minecart in Coven.

At least the villagers were consistently aggressive though at least to me.