HHN 31: Horrors of Blumhouse

[HandsomePete]

Possibly the shortest exit in recent memory. You're right back in the park.

It definitely helps offset some of the pointless excursions they send you on in the back half of the park.

 

[rageofthegods]

Spoiler: Spoiler

Having now seen walkthroughs of both, I'm kinda surprised that neither version really used the ghost kids in The Black Phone outside of audio. Orlando used them once, Hollywood not at all.

 

[Spookies n' Stuff]

Gonna go against the grain from a lot of people here on something incredibly insignificant and say this really didn't feel like a Hollywood house to me, weak hollywood houses tend to have what I'd call a "boxy" feel, where almost every scene is just a square, and all the hallways are straight, whereas this maze was actually kinda dynamically layed out all things considered. Tbh it felt kinda more like 2 somewhat high budget home haunts of these movies that just happened that just happened to not fill out their whole cast. stapled together.
That said, didn't hate it, imo its the perfect definition of a C+

 

[Tobias]

For me, I enjoyed this one quite a bit. I think it's a notable improvement over 2018's. (For that one, I did enjoy the Happy Death Day segment, but felt The First Purge was a weak finish.)

Here, it's inverted as The Black Phone is a solid finish while Freaky is a not as strong beginning. I do feel there was missed opportunity with Freaky design wise, would've liked to have seen a mini golf section. That said, the timing of Freaky got better for me over the weekend and it ended pretty solidly on my last run. The Black Phone segment was solid for me the whole weekend, it's very unsettling and can hit you pretty good. My final run late Sunday night was downright brutal as I got hit by every single scare that was there, and I think it was only missing one which gave me just a smidge of mercy.

All in all, not a bad debut house for the Supercharged location. Speaking of that location, I don't recall any light leakage in either section. Only when you're truly outside. And as for that hard transition between the two films, I was totally fine with it. As @SeventyOne said, it works with the Double-Feature kind of presentation, and I saw some honestly great reactions by the G.P. when they first think it's over, only to turn the corner and see The Black Phone's entrance. It's giving everyone the right kind of swerve to catch them off-guard.

 

[Clive]

Not gonna lie, this house vastly surpassed my expectations and acted like a dark horse throughout the weekend. Thoroughly enjoyed every single walk-through. Its weakest moments are sadly the Millies, as they just aren't intense enough to sell any real scares. (This isn't always for lack of effort - the scares are designed for them to boo and skiddoo, which makes sense given their outfit/unruly guests, but their appearance just isn't intimidating enough on its own to make the punch effective.) The Butchers, however, are mostly made up of clearly skilled and committed scare actors. And The Black Phone, when fully staffed, is relentless. A very intense, LONG maze.

 

[Tobias]

The Butchers, however, are mostly made up of clearly skilled and committed scare actors. And The Black Phone, when fully staffed, is relentless. A very intense, LONG maze.

Adding to the comment on the Butchers, I totally forgot to mention. My first runthrough on Saturday was very amusing since me and the couple in front of me didn't have sunglasses so our eyes weren't adjusted. When we approached the mascot Millie peppers ghost/mirror gag the couple just walked straight forward and into the safety wire across the doorway which surprised the heck out of them, and the moment they turned and walked in the correct direction, the Butcher for that scare (who had amazing patience for that moment) WHIPPED around and got me good.

And speaking of this being a long maze, I'm really looking forward to future houses in this location since they can cram a LOT in this space. Far more than I thought they could!

 

[HHN Maddux]

Guess that answers what the alternative was.

Wonder why it got scrapped this time?

 

[UNIrd]

Also, the shirt for this house was one of my favorite designs for this year:

 

[Legacy]

Guess that answers what the alternative was.

Wonder why it got scrapped this time?

Can’t scrap something that wasn’t secured.

Universal wanted it. Went for it. Couldn’t get it.

 

[SeventyOne]

Everyone seems to like to dog on Blumhouse haunts in general, but there's something to be said for the seemingly permanent partnership -- you have a pipeline to new horror content each year that keeps HHN relevant to younger new potential fans, and at this point, I'm sure every Blumhouse contract includes a clause stating "we may use this IP for haunted houses in Orlando and LA." I have to assume several wish list IPs haven't been used because back in the 80s no one ever even conceived of this sort of thing, so the rights are a mess. The Blumhouse relationship guarantees at least one somewhat relevant synergy house every year -- and given the number of films they release, Law of Big Numbers says one of these years HHN will have first dibs on and easy access to a hit movie that crosses into the mainstream.

 

[Lucky Planet]

Everyone seems to like to dog on Blumhouse haunts in general, but there's something to be said for the seemingly permanent partnership -- you have a pipeline to new horror content each year that keeps HHN relevant to younger new potential fans, and at this point, I'm sure every Blumhouse contract includes a clause stating "we may use this IP for haunted houses in Orlando and LA." I have to assume several wish list IPs haven't been used because back in the 80s no one ever even conceived of this sort of thing, so the rights are a mess. The Blumhouse relationship guarantees at least one somewhat relevant synergy house every year -- and given the number of films they release, Law of Big Numbers says one of these years HHN will have first dibs on and easy access to a hit movie that crosses into the mainstream.

I just wish the movies were better lol.
These two movies were great obviously. But most of the blumhouse catalog is not the greatest

 

[ghostsarejerks]

I wish they would form a partnership like this with A24 and bring some of their horror movies in a similar format. Like I don't think something like Hereditary or Bodies Bodies Bodies or the Lighthouse could work as standalone attractions but would definitely benefit from a concentrated version.

 

[TheCodeMan95]

I wish they would form a partnership like this with A24 and bring some of their horror movies in a similar format. Like I don't think something like Hereditary or Bodies Bodies Bodies or the Lighthouse could work as standalone attractions but would definitely benefit from a concentrated version.

I would love to see X as a house

 

[ghostsarejerks]

I would love to see X as a house

The whole trilogy would be phenomenal honestly

 

[Lucky Planet]

I wish they would form a partnership like this with A24 and bring some of their horror movies in a similar format. Like I don't think something like Hereditary or Bodies Bodies Bodies or the Lighthouse could work as standalone attractions but would definitely benefit from a concentrated version.

Well Netflix was supposed to be the golden ticket no? Speculation ran big on the many Netflix properties. ( Number of Properties to last universal a decade or more ) we all thought there would have been a Netflix house this year or something. So many to choose from,
( I know someone will say that the negotiations with Netflix are still open for future ips) but I fully expected something this year,
( My point being that with Netflix I thought universal had the golden goose of IPs) I thought they had secured more properties or that they didn't need to worry about getting more IPs

I understand that next year stranger things can return. But I kind of cannot believe we didn't get a Netflix house

I would love to see X as a house

 

[Sledge]

This house surprised me. I'm a big fan of both these movies and thought they nailed it. Black Phone was especially unsettling and an awesome experience.

There's something about "The phone DOESN'T work." that was chilling all four times I went through.

 

[HHN Maddux]

Something kind of funny to me is how you can tell that with the Freaky section, they've never used the F&F queue as a house location (doesn't really feel fully utilized and short (IMO)), but with the Black Phone section, it feels a lot more like a proper house, as they've done multiple houses in that sort of tent before.

 

[Darko]

This house was definitely the surprise this year for me. Didn’t care much for the Freaky portion but The Black Phone was great.

I actually was genuinely shocked by the outdoor part of the house that split the two sections in half. I miss when houses would sometimes just have an outside portion for a bit.

Don’t know if they’ll keep using this space or not but if they do, I kind of hope they utilize that outdoor split in future houses. Kind of like how lately they’ve had the outside portions of the Sprung Tent facades. The only issue might be rain.

I’m thinking how TCM (26) had the end of the house take place outside. They did this with Flesh Wounds back in (17) as well.

Except this time you could do it in the middle of the house instead of at the end.

 

[johnathanm]

Anyone know the track that seems to play constantly in the queue? It may very well just be the main theme of one of the movies and I’m remembering incorrectly