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The Exorcist

It's tricky to do stuff like that because people can get their feet under things and have it come down on them. People also love to grab things and try to break them. I'm interested to see what's possible, but with as popular as HHN is and as rowdy as some attendees get, they have some limitations.

I imagine they could have the bed already raised up/ just built to look 6 inches off the ground (it's not like we'll be getting on the ground to look how they do it) when we enter that scene, if they do it.

It makes sense that they don't utilize many mechanical scares, they'd have to re-skin them or buy new ones every year. Just not practical and nowhere near as effective as actors.
 
I imagine they could have the bed already raised up/ just built to look 6 inches off the ground (it's not like we'll be getting on the ground to look how they do it) when we enter that scene, if they do it.

It makes sense that they don't utilize many mechanical scares, they'd have to re-skin them or buy new ones every year. Just not practical and nowhere near as effective as actors.
I completely beg to differ on mechanical scares. Netherworld has probably just as many mechanical scares as we have actors and consistently rated Top 10
Attractions in the World.

Terror on Church Street had an elevating bed - it's not a hard effect to pull off at all and it's not a danger to guests toes.
 
I completely beg to differ on mechanical scares. Netherworld has probably just as many mechanical scares as we have actors and consistently rated Top 10
Attractions in the World.

Terror on Church Street had an elevating bed - it's not a hard effect to pull off at all and it's not a danger to guests toes.

I think animatronics definitely have a place in haunted houses, especially filling out regional seasonal haunts with more permanent shows. Obviously a show like Netherworld is on a different level.

I don't think they lend themselves to universals set up because theyre really expensive and pretty specific as to what scares they can perform. In a 5 minute attraction it just doesn't seem practical to have to discard old, reskin, or buy new animatronic every year to fit the theme of HHN

Edit* but yeah I would think the bed is something that could be done relatively easily. And if they were willing to spend 40,000 per werewolf puppet, then 1 shaking bed probably isn't much skin off there backs
 
I'm really curious on how they'll pull off the little girl with actors. They've never really fooled me with adults acting as kids in the past and since Regan is the main driving force, they're really gonna have to pull some strings to make it work
 
I'm really curious on how they'll pull off the little girl with actors. They've never really fooled me with adults acting as kids in the past and since Regan is the main driving force, they're really gonna have to pull some strings to make it work
Seriously? They've done well with Orfanage, Leave it to Cleaver and Scary Tales in my book.

She'll be coated with Makeup or suffocated w a Mask so I doubt it'll matter. Just find short ladies.
 
I'm really curious on how they'll pull off the little girl with actors. They've never really fooled me with adults acting as kids in the past and since Regan is the main driving force, they're really gonna have to pull some strings to make it work

Cindy was well portrayed in Monsters and Mayhem.
 
The only time it really fooled me for a second was the two little girls in FVJ last year, they were really good. Idk they always feel like short adults to me, not to say there bad actors (love all my traditionals), I just never saw them as kids. As you said though, with make up I'm sure it'll look good, especially the bed scene. On the topic of make up, Im so excited to see Regan with more detailed make up than in years past. Bound to be really frightening
 
Super excited for this house. I'm in Orlando now and was talking to an employee...he didn't have any real knowledge about it, but he was saying he thinks it's going to go from being kinda innocent with the room to more and more sinister. This movie creeps me out :)
 
Super excited for this house. I'm in Orlando now and was talking to an employee...he didn't have any real knowledge about it, but he was saying he thinks it's going to go from being kinda innocent with the room to more and more sinister. This movie creeps me out :)

Welcome to the forums, Amanda!
 
Well anyone with a 12 year old or who works around the youth know that Linda Blair did not resemble much of a typical 12 year old either.
Universal casting does a fine job for the event if not often great.

I re-watched The Exorcist again last night and am so excited. It is one of the few horror movies that honestly disturbs me. This is not from the typical kid being possessed theme although it is tragic to think about. For me it is the other disturbing nature. The movie has everything. Before the possession becomes intense we have mystery, suspense, Dr. Experiments, Psychiatric Wards, hospital enviornment etc. Then of course you have the Captain Howdy Imagery that they will definitely play with like they did(and actually used Captain Howdy) from 2010's Wyandot estate.
 
I would love the captain howdy effect used in estate to return. it didn't work for anybody besides me in my group but it was truly eerie. Just having that face flash everytime you blinked was really something amazing. Wish they'd play with that more
 
So after seeing videos of Orlando's Exorcist and Hollywood's, even though I don't think I've seen all of Orlando's in it's entirety...what I've seen so far from Orlando's version I personally like a lot more then the entirety of Hollywood's version. The creative choices on how to attack this IP really made Orlando's for me, and broke Hollywood's for me.

Case in point a great direct comparison is the head turning Regan. Both coasts understandably used a animatronic for this, but Orlando chose to keep it simple which in turn looked neat and creepy. Hollywood's came off hokey because it also spits water at you, making it come off like a typical haunt prop.

Another good thing to compare, the Pazuzu statue! Not gonna' give away what Orlando does, but I love it! Hollywood tries something similar in their maze, but it's on a much smaller scale so it doesn't have the same impact. They also try using the statue itself near the end, but man is it a rough scare when you're the only focal point in the room.

There's other things to directly compare, but something that really hurt's Hollywood's version for me is the transitions. I fully understand what they were going for with being inspired by the banned trailer, but when you have the same black hallways with the same scare after every Regan room, it get's really repetitive. (Sometimes they introduce a new thing in the hallway, and then they repeat that.) It may work for other people, but personally it's not my cup of tea. An' on one more note, the Fathers Merrins are mask roles and not make up...it's not pretty.
 
I've only seen one short video of Orlando and multiple full-lengths of Hollywood. Can anyone fill me on the extent of the differences between the two?

From what I've seen Orlando is looking quite a bit better. This maze overall is disappointing though imo, even though it's a film whose most important scenes take place in one room, there are so many other locations from the film (Iraq, the church with the desecrated Mary, etc.) that they could've used....

I also think there's too many statues. I get the head-turning Reagan and the dead priest, but there's several scenes with static mannequins that absolutely could've been actors. I also think the levitating Reagan should've been a human, unless there's some OSHA law prohibiting that.

Lastly, I'm not sure if having actors pantomime along to the film dialogue is a great idea. I get what they're going for, because the sound design and acting in The Exorcist is amazing, but it makes the scenes come off as pretty fake, especially when the Merrin actors are wearing masks....
 
I've only seen one short video of Orlando and multiple full-lengths of Hollywood. Can anyone fill me on the extent of the differences between the two?

From what I've seen Orlando is looking quite a bit better. This maze overall is disappointing though imo, even though it's a film whose most important scenes take place in one room, there are so many other locations from the film (Iraq, the church with the desecrated Mary, etc.) that they could've used....

I also think there's too many statues. I get the head-turning Reagan and the dead priest, but there's several scenes with static mannequins that absolutely could've been actors. I also think the levitating Reagan should've been a human, unless there's some OSHA law prohibiting that.

Lastly, I'm not sure if having actors pantomime along to the film dialogue is a great idea. I get what they're going for, because the sound design and acting in The Exorcist is amazing, but it makes the scenes come off as pretty fake, especially when the Merrin actors are wearing masks....

I think shift changes would have been a beast for the levitating
 
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