HHN Hollywood General Discussion - 2017

[horrornights789]

If, God forbid, they bring another Blumhouse mashup next year, they should kill off the mini gauntlet before the movie house, since that caused the largest maze back-up I've seen in all my years of going.

Ikr. Everyone was taking pictures of the Purge Sets; the maze took 10 minutes to get through solely because of the stand still.

 

[ush.hacker]

Not even, I got held in HDD

 

[Clive]

For what it's worth - Blumhouse gets crazy high GSATs. Purge & Sinister are really popular.

Back-ups seem to stem from a variety of factors. Not sure there's one single issue, but they've gotten pretty bad across all mazes this week.

Volume II is apparently a real possibility. Hopefully they'd rotate out the current property crop, but who knows. I enjoy the Gauntlet - makes the maze 33% longer, more bang for your buck.

 

[horrornights789]

For what it's worth - Blumhouse gets crazy high GSATs. Purge & Sinister are really popular.

Back-ups seem to stem from a variety of factors. Not sure there's one single issue, but they've gotten pretty bad across all mazes this week.

Volume II is apparently a real possibility. Hopefully they'd rotate out the current property crop, but who knows. I enjoy the Gauntlet - makes the maze 33% longer, more bang for your buck.

If they do Volume 2 I’m expecting The Visit, Split, Ouija, and maybe Green Inferno as the gauntlet?

 

[Clive]

If they do Volume 2 I’m expecting The Visit, Split, Ouija, and maybe Green Inferno as the gauntlet?

Don't expect Ouija. Maybe on all the others. I'm still pretty surprised they didn't bother with Get Out. Split may be complicated legally.

 

[DTH]

In other news, KSF sold out this weekend for the first time in what seems like a decade. Their numbers and crowds really seem to be rising due to word of mouth when in comparison to HHN this year (although I personally thought it was just a decent year, look for my mini-review in the respective thread). Could we have now seen the rise and fall of HHN and popularity heading back to KSF? I guess we'll find out in the next year or two if the black walls of death stick around.

 

[Timberfellingrobot]

I don't think one bad year can do THAT much damage to it's popularity, we've seen HHN at it's full potential. This year had HHN be a victim of circumstances from every corner it turned. If they decide to have another fan dedicated year (which is highly possible) then it could get back on it's feet.

 

[foodstampsFTW]

Is anyone else going tonight, I can’t remeber if there was a Wednesday last year so I figured I’d see what it’s like.

 

[Clive]

Is anyone else going tonight, I can’t remeber if there was a Wednesday last year so I figured I’d see what it’s like.

If the past few Thursdays (and even Sundays) are any indication, it's going to be dead. Have fun.

 

[Rideguy70]

In addition to the World Series, I'd imagine it'd be doubly dead. So I was thinking of going.

But no, I don't recall a Wednesday opening that wasn't Halloween in a long time.

 

[Mad Dog]

Since the general consensus of those on the HHN 27 Orlando thread also seem to indicate soft attendance this year, I would guess that there will be some re evaluation involved. If just one was off, it might not indicate anything. But both Hollywood & Orlando being soft should signal some concern in the Universal/Comcast offices.

 

[Brian G.]

 

[Clive]

Since the general consensus of those on the HHN 27 Orlando thread also seem to indicate soft attendance this year, I would guess that there will be some re evaluation involved. If just one was off, it might not indicate anything. But both Hollywood & Orlando being soft should signal some concern in the Universal/Comcast offices.

It should signal it was a stale lineup with a bad marketing campaign (on both coasts, for different reasons). Hollywood was probably also hurt by mediocre/underwhelming reception due to exceptionally poor maze build quality.

 

[ush.hacker]

Whats killing the industry? Is is the Concern for public safety, Lost of interest in Halloween, or cheaper event?

If any of you watched the documentary "Haunters" in the bonus footage Knotts talked about the 9/11 effect on attendance. They were expecting an all time low but more people then ever before showed up. Going to a haunted house is an immersive get away that in this day in age we definitely need.

Also less and less people seem to be decorating for Halloween. I live in a neighborhood filled with children and every year we lose 20 houses.

People are also finding out about the less expensive haunted houses in the area which are possibly better (ROT, Backwoods, 17th, Into the Black)

Or, it could just be a BAD year. Word to mouth spread of properties that people don't know. Someone walked through TOT questioning where was the sinister part?

 

[Clive]

Whats killing the industry? Is is the Concern for public safety, Lost of interest in Halloween, or cheaper event?

If any of you watched the documentary "Haunters" in the bonus footage Knotts talked about the 9/11 effect on attendance. They were expecting an all time low but more people then ever before showed up. Going to a haunted house is an immersive get away that in this day in age we definitely need.

Also less and less people seem to be decorating for Halloween. I live in a neighborhood filled with children and every year we lose 20 houses.

People are also finding out about the less expensive haunted houses in the area which are possibly better (ROT, Backwoods, 17th, Into the Black)

Or, it could just be a BAD year. Word to mouth spread of properties that people don't know. Someone walked through TOT questioning where was the sinister part?

Knotts arguably held a better event with greater value. Toss in the other more affordable haunts you mentioned and people have their haunt appetites quenched. Why spend a premium on Horror Nights when the word on the street is the mazes aren't premium quality?

 

[ush.hacker]

Knotts arguably held a better event with greater value. Toss in the other more affordable haunts you mentioned and people have their haunt appetites quenched. Why spend a premium on Horror Nights when the word on the street is the mazes aren't premium quality?

Why spend upwards of 100 for a night of HHN when you can do a SoCal Haunt tour for the price of gas.

 

[ush.hacker]

Don't get me wrong HHN is absolutely incredible but looking at the quality of this year compared to other haunts.

HHN also lost a big cut of their teenage fans to Fright Fest I believe

 

[MacMillian Crew]

Or, it could just be a BAD year. Word to mouth spread of properties that people don't know. Someone walked through TOT questioning where was the sinister part?

Maybe this is the wake-up call for the creative team to try more original concept mazes and not rely on "fan favorites", as Murdy said on Twitter. (I really feel like that phrase was proven this year to be such a lazy term, given that I heard people at the event not happy with seeing returning IPs over and over again). This year kinda showed the science experiment didn't work for HoB and even though Titans of Terror was necessary to replace The Conjuring, maybe it's best to let the Titans take a long break before their reputations get ruined by multiple appearances, kind of like what some of their unnecessary sequels did to their scare quality.

 

[Clive]

Maybe this is the wake-up call for the creative team to try more original concept mazes and not rely on "fan favorites", as Murdy said on Twitter. (I really feel like that phrase was proven this year to be such a lazy term, given that I heard people at the event not happy with seeing returning IPs over and over again). This year kinda showed the science experiment didn't work for HoB and even though Titans of Terror was necessary to replace The Conjuring, maybe it's best to let the Titans take a long break before their reputations get ruined by multiple appearances, kind of like what some of their unnecessary sequels did to their scare quality.

Again, like it or not, Blumhouse is popular, garners long weights (some of which is contingent on location), and gets strong GSATs.

 

[tjaguar95]

For anyone out there who is a fan of theme park channel Tim Tracker, their opinions from an Orlando POV were unique and touched on the use of black hallways this year and didn't hold back on criticism