Monstruos: The Monsters of Latin America (HHN 33)

[Disneyson1]

Things (Clues?) From The Podcast:

Spoiler: Potential House Spoilers

- I instantly thought of Graveyard Games, Scarecrow, and Yeti when hearing this podcast. I have a strong suspicion that this house will deal with the illusion of the outdoors with glimpses into future scenes/a “hub” forest. I’m imagining corn stalks or trees in the place of chainlink fences. Especially reminded with the idea of “escondite” (hide and seek) with each of the kids being raptured in turn. It would also allow for scares that don’t rely on high-budget costumes.

- The promise of a “cabin” sequence for Tlahuelpuchi is reminding me of the sequences in Carnival Graveyard, Winter’s Night, and Winter’s Wake, in which you are pulled out of the “outdoor” area of the house and suddenly in an enclosed space. I think this is going to be a show stopping sequence. I also am reminded of the Jaws boat house and how effective it is to have those dramatic changes of scenery.

- Really excited for the “La Lechuza” section, too, as the thought of a bungee-style attack is thrilling, and makes a lot of sense when you consider why they put this into a soundstage.

- The concept of putting La Lechuza in a barn is great - love the visual pun of a “barn owl”. The description of her crashing through the barn ceiling really has me wondering if we’ll have an optical illusion like in Scarecrow where the building you’re in appears to have a broken floor and you feel as though you’re descending into a cellar or silo.

- The old radio and flickering lights mentioned in the “El Silbon” section remind me of the finale of “The Shining”… and that’s exciting.

- Even if the POV characters don’t actually make an appearance, I think the story gives a good idea of what victim kills may look like. It seems that this house promises a fair amount of gore and reliance on victims.

- The possibility that Muerte could played by a female-presenting person and the shape-shifting aspect has great potential, but I’m doubtful they’ll use that in the house. If so, I picture a Snow White’s Scary Adventures reveal about 3/4 through the house.

- I wonder if they’ll borrow the conceit of Muerte from Hollywood as the storyteller/monster-explainer, and if so, if it will take form as a beggar woman or the grim reaper from the beginning.

- Feels like the finale will be day-glow calaveras.

- The visual of a Grim Reaper beckoning us to our grave feels very “Phantom Manor”, which is a little silly but I totally dig it.

- VERY interesting that they explicitly mentioned Bugs at the end, crawling out of the grave. Maybe we get a bug “underground” hallway with a surprise cameo?

- Overall, I think that this house has jumped to my most anticipated as of yet, especially as I imagine the way that they can utilize “greatest hit” sequences into a unique premise that will undoubtedly be received super-well with local audiences.

EDIT: Forgot to clock that they count to “33” when playing escondite - great Easter egg!

 

[saint.piss]

 

[SeventyOne]

I straight up love that design.

 

[AlexanderMBush]

The La Lechuza animatronic/prop seemingly will be shipped for Orlando!

 

[Sledge]

The La Lechuza animatronic/prop seemingly will be shipped for Orlando!

Had to look it up. This looks insanely huge....

Spoiler: La Lechuza

La Lechuza

 

[Tobias]

The La Lechuza animatronic/prop seemingly will be shipped for Orlando!

That is honestly a pleasant surprise! That prop looked pretty damn sweet, so it's great hearing it'll be coming here.

And now I'm suddenly reminded of the flipside where there's been a couple times where folks thought Orlando was going to ship assets over to Hollywood...but clearly never did. Best example is American Werewolf in London, some people thought/hoped they'd get Orlando's puppets, but they sure as heck didn't. Going further back, I remember when some people hoped Orlando would ship over the giant LED screen that was used for the arch in 2008 and 2009. Not only it didn't happen, but I have zero idea why people thought they should.

 

[Lucky Planet]

That is honestly a pleasant surprise! That prop looked pretty damn sweet, so it's great hearing it'll be coming here.

And now I'm suddenly reminded of the flipside where there's been a couple times where folks thought Orlando was going to ship assets over to Hollywood...but clearly never did. Best example is American Werewolf in London, some people thought/hoped they'd get Orlando's puppets, but they sure as heck didn't. Going further back, I remember when some people hoped Orlando would ship over the giant LED screen that was used for the arch in 2008 and 2009. Not only it didn't happen, but I have zero idea why people thought they should.

I wish we got the giant llorona puppets before.
I wish we could have gotten a second alien vs predator with Hollywood's alien queen lol

 

[Lucky Planet]

Gonna add my two cents with this on Monstruos: I think this one unironically suffers the identity crisis the most due to core decisions on structure and pacing. Be if from how Muerte is depicted; to the costumes of La Lechuza and Tlahuelpuchi--something feels really off here with how the house is done compared to Hollywood.

Really kind of wish from an external glancing, that you guys opted for different legends (or to hold off on this for a year when the options of adapting more legends like El Charro and El Cucuy could've been viable).

This reminds me of when Orlando got LA Llorona in 2013 (sponsored by Telemundo). I remember all the hype for Hollywood's version & finally getting to experience it on the east coast that year, left something to be desired.

It was one of the UTH tour houses too! I had to bite my tongue when the guide made a comment about "being better than Hollywood". I hadn't experienced the west coast yet, but damn, those were fighting words lol

In my opinion part of the issue is the nuance between adaptation of folklore vs adaptation of an adaptation of folklore. When Orlando adapts Hollywood's mazes based on latin american folklore, they typically seem to be adapting the Hollywood house itself, while sprinkling their own spins on certain scenes periodically, when what they likely should be doing is taking the base concept of the house and folklore involved, and creating their own story from the ground up using that idea. People wanna see an orlando house adapting these stories, not an orlando house adapting a hollywood house.
Idk if theres some legal or budgetary issues requiring them to more or less stick to the treatment fairly closely, or if theres simply a cultural disconnect where the design team feels less directly familiar and comfortable adapting these stories from square one, but I feel like when you're adapting a house rather than the stories, it kinda feels like it loses a bit of its creative identity with each layer of disconnect, and in turn makes it fall short.

I would just say that as a Latino I never really liked the creatures they picked for this house ( here or Hollywood) and it feels like these creatures were picked because it would be easy to make them into costumes. the guy with the hat for example. the silbon, I've never really liked that one. Tlahuelpuchi is another one that feels like it was chosen because it's easy to dress for.
they are interesting creatures , but I don't know if they translated that well.

maybe these were chosen by popularity. but I never heard that many people know about them. maybe they are big in California, which is another problem for Orlando.

I feel like we have had better myths or better creatures to pull from ( mother earth "madre monte" I would have preferred)

and Orlando adapting a Hollywood house instead of doing their own thing is why the llorona kind of failed too. the llorona house wasn't as good as Hollywood either.

but as far as sets and costumes and designs, chupacabra in Orlando was excellent, it was very beautiful. orlando doing its own thing, and it worked perfectly. ( I had personal issues with the creature itself) but the full house was amazing.