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A "Second Chance" for a House?

Feb 25, 2014
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Throughout the years, HHN has given us a variety of houses. Great ones, good ones...as well as so-so ones and downright duds. When it comes to the ones that didn't work, a lot of them had good ideas and great potential. But for one reason or another it faultered, becoming forgettable or straight-up landing in a top ten list of the worst houses. On the flipside, there have also been houses that have been good, but due to something like budget cuts it wasn't as good or great as it could've been.

So I wanna' know this, if you could give a house (or houses) a second chance and a opportunity to be better then what it was, which ones would you pick and why?

I've got a feeling a particular video game IP or two will dominate this thread, so I'm going to stick with a couple originals. (Admittedly something like Reflections of Fear is perfect for this topic, but personally for me I'm choosing houses which don't have copyright issues for characters which Bloody Mary unfortunately does.)

The Orfanage: Ashes to Ashes - This seems to be a very polarizing house, I noticed a good chunk of people who hated it/thought it was so-so, but I've also seen a good chunk of people who really liked it. It's generally reguarded it did have a great bleak atmosphere, as well as some good effects like the falling ash and a peppers ghost effect. It did have real fire as well, though I think it can also be unanimously agreed this suffered by quite the overhype for that. Either way, I'd love for this to have a second chance since it's a solid story and if things were on all full cilinders it could be a killer house a la' Hollywood's La Lorona (A house which thrived on a bleak atmostphere.)

Legendary Truth: The Wyandot Estate - While this was generally reguarded as a good house with some great effects, however it had a LOT of hype behind it, and a good chunk of people felt it didn't live up to it. The story is just fine, a Paranormal Team using a device which causes all hell to break loose? Sign me up! I think the house can improve on the ghosts, since while the glowing faces is a neat idea, it was the same mask/face for everyone and it just wasn't scary for some. Also, this is the kind of house where some wirework/bungees/flyers would be perfect. (Knott's Berry Farms Paranormal Inc is a great example.) I know they were supposed to have a flying banshee in a hallway but it never was put in/worked, but I feel they can totally make it work now.

Creatures! - I'll admit I love the idea of a good creature house, even if it is on the campy side. They just have to make sure everyone is on the same page with the dimentions of the set doors and costumes.
 
Throughout the years, HHN has given us a variety of houses. Great ones, good ones...as well as so-so ones and downright duds. When it comes to the ones that didn't work, a lot of them had good ideas and great potential. But for one reason or another it faultered, becoming forgettable or straight-up landing in a top ten list of the worst houses. On the flipside, there have also been houses that have been good, but due to something like budget cuts it wasn't as good or great as it could've been.

So I wanna' know this, if you could give a house (or houses) a second chance and a opportunity to be better then what it was, which ones would you pick and why?

I've got a feeling a particular video game IP or two will dominate this thread, so I'm going to stick with a couple originals. (Admittedly something like Reflections of Fear is perfect for this topic, but personally for me I'm choosing houses which don't have copyright issues for characters which Bloody Mary unfortunately does.)

The Orfanage: Ashes to Ashes - This seems to be a very polarizing house, I noticed a good chunk of people who hated it/thought it was so-so, but I've also seen a good chunk of people who really liked it. It's generally reguarded it did have a great bleak atmosphere, as well as some good effects like the falling ash and a peppers ghost effect. It did have real fire as well, though I think it can also be unanimously agreed this suffered by quite the overhype for that. Either way, I'd love for this to have a second chance since it's a solid story and if things were on all full cilinders it could be a killer house a la' Hollywood's La Lorona (A house which thrived on a bleak atmostphere.)

Legendary Truth: The Wyandot Estate - While this was generally reguarded as a good house with some great effects, however it had a LOT of hype behind it, and a good chunk of people felt it didn't live up to it. The story is just fine, a Paranormal Team using a device which causes all hell to break loose? Sign me up! I think the house can improve on the ghosts, since while the glowing faces is a neat idea, it was the same mask/face for everyone and it just wasn't scary for some. Also, this is the kind of house where some wirework/bungees/flyers would be perfect. (Knott's Berry Farms Paranormal Inc is a great example.) I know they were supposed to have a flying banshee in a hallway but it never was put in/worked, but I feel they can totally make it work now.

Creatures! - I'll admit I love the idea of a good creature house, even if it is on the campy side. They just have to make sure everyone is on the same page with the dimentions of the set doors and costumes.
Good tread. If anyone liked Orfanage is was probably their first house or they were happy to just see a Cindy house. I went through it 4x and literally saw actors standing around.

Legenary Truth started strong in the beginning of event but lost its wonder/Mojo. It was heavily reliant on resets which killed a majority of the runs. Plus this house did have a lot of dead space (no pun intended).

Creatures was great. That and Hr BloodnGuts are my favorite comedy houses.

My house redemption list is as follows..
- Silent Hill: Aiello said himself he would like to do this one again. It was such a waste of potential. The games are very creppy and my hype levels for this house were high. Each run I left very disappointed.

- Hades the Gates of Ruin: Had an epic entrance and a lot of potential. It was a good house but could have been stellar. Weak scares and inconsistency killed this one.

- Nightingales Blood Prey: I might get poop for this one but I honestly was disappointed. The set design was AMAZING. Some of the effects (if you could catch them) were unique and cool. The scareactors looked scary but didn't do much. After 5 runs I still didnt see this house find it's flow. I would even slow my group down just so we could actually catch some scares and effects. We would still pass sections and hear nothing but gun fire audio and killing but saw nothing.

I would throw in The Skool but when they made it a scarezone it redeemed itself. The original house was a not scary mess.
 
Great thread, and great call on Hades, @RogueAntilles. Didn't hate it, but felt it should've been a home run, not a single.

I'd say Havoc 2, if they could find a way to make the train and crash effects work. You could see where they were going with it, but it just didn't work.

Going way back, I'd say the Mummy. Seems like an IP that done right (without so many outdoor sections) could be an all-time classic.
 
Jungle of Doom - Conceptually it's a fantastic idea, and it had a lot of scenes that clicked. And the preview version, with potted plants in the path that you had to push out of the way was tense, dark and immersive. Once they cleared the path, the house fell apart. An indoor version, with copious vines as SIF, could take the lessons learned from Catacombs about hiding scareactors and an instant classic.
 
I really like it when they go out and try something new, so I would love a retry on the house where one person in your party had the miner's cap with the light (I want to say it was Terror Mines). Something that makes it a unique experience for your party. Of course who knows if this kind of stuff could actually still be done with the crowd levels.

Silent Hill obviously should have been a much much better house than it was. They even had Konami backing them on costumes and stuff, so I'm surprised it was such a dud. Jungle of Doom was another that was great on paper that just fell short.
 
Terror Mines! One of the most divisive houses in HHN history. I personally loved how unique the overall experience was. The use of Poseidons Fury was perfect. Loved the "mine cars" team members rushing the helmets back and forth. While it definitely didn't have the best scares, it provided a mysterious element to the whole house. I remember my first run the guy they gave the helmet to ran off into the house. My brother and I had to literally navigate through pitch black caves pushing ropes/vines out of the way. The second run I had the helmet and that's when I found the experience to be a necessary change of pace. I could go on. Not one of the best houses of all time but a testament to when A&D/Universal had some balls. Or just had a better hold over the entire event.
 
Reflections of Fear - There was a lot that could have been done with this house instead of just retreading the story from the online reveals. Going in, I expected a room full of mirrors for misdirection, and a lot more blood. Instead of just seeing Dr. Mary Agana's victims, I think it would have been awesome to see her go through various mirrors in different settings and see the attack or aftermath (a college party that she went to town on, guy in a hotel, bathroom, etc..) Obviously Bloody Mary IP rights kinda hinder that, but still feel it was worth mentioning.

The Spawning - I thought it was a good premise, just didn't work out. Maybe less time in the sewers? Could be a good op to include some water effects to make the house feel more unique.

Legendary Truth: The Wyandot Estate - Gonna echo everyone else's thoughts on this. It was fine, but it didn't live up to my expectations. I really hope they go back to the LT team in future houses (and the Urban Legend series too).

Project Evolution - Another good concept, just came off cheesy. If it got a 2nd chance, it doesn't have to be strictly dinos, but think it lends itself to some interesting possibilities.
 
For me it's creatures because it just wasn't fair what happened with the puppets at the doorways. I loved the house as it was but it would've been a billion times better with all the monsters running out and attacking others, just felt incomplete as it was
 
I had a hard time coming up with flops that I'd actually want to see make a return to the event. Most of the flops deserve to fade away and to never get rehashed. Here are 3 that I wouldn't mind getting a second chance:
  • Vampyr: Blood Bath (2007)
  • Reflections of Fear (2008) - agree that the IP rights would be a large deterrent with this one.
  • Hades (2010)

Houses that I did enjoy but felt could have been better:
  • The Hallow (2008)
  • Frankenstein (2009)
  • Forsaken (2011)
  • Dead End (2012)
  • AvP (2014)
 
In 2016, when Ghost Town: The Curse of Lightning Gulch was announced, the creative team called it a "re-quel." Not quite a sequel to the original, nor a reboot; but a reimagining of an older haunt for a new generation. Which other houses would you like to see get this treatment as well? My personal picks would be Afterlife: Death's Vengeance, which had a great premise but faltered because it was a chromadepth blacklight house, or 2008's Creatures! which also had a great premise that could be pulled off very well with puppetry and large scale costumes. What are your picks?
 
Kinda surprised to see a bit of hating on the HHN 20 houses. That was my very first HHN Orlando event so there is the fact that I was so hyped to see everything. There are a couple of houses I would give another go at:

Resident Evil: This was probably the weakest IP house they've done when in my experience at the event. There were some cool scenes that was some good fan service but it really lacked scares. It felt more like a regular walk-thru experience.

Nightmare on Elm Street: I've never been through the original one from 2007, but I think it would be pretty rad if they did a house based specifically on Dream Warriors.

Havoc: Dogs of War: I'd be willing to give this another go because I literally don't remember anything in this house. All I could remember was some control panel scene and a dummy through a smashed window in a strobe light. The rest of the house is literally a blur to me so I wouldn't mind seeing a reboot of this.

Walking Dead: I think they really underutilized this IP a lot. I really wish they would bring it back just one more time so they could maximize the potential of all of the environments represented from the show.

The Walking Dead one was a joke. Don't worry. LOL
 
Since this thread has gotten a couple more posts, there's another house that comes to mind which is a perfect candidate since it's often considered one of the worst houses of the event. It's one which didn't live up to any part of it's name...Cold, Blind, Terror. I think there's some really fun potential in a house that plays around with a darkness/blindness concept. Now for me, I would tweak the overall concept since I do feel a total "blackout" kind of house just doesn't work at HHN. It didn't work for Pitch Black in 2001, it didn't work for Fear Factor in 2002 and it didn't work for Cold, Blind, Terror in 2005. Three strikes, you're out.

But, Graveyard Games and Haunting of Hill House show you can have effective blackout sections in a house. Also, there's more than one way to blind you in a house. A whiteout via a white room and fog, and one can't forget the blacklight strobe effects of Dead Exposure, which coincidentally used that effect to represent blindness in 2018's Patient Zero! If you have regular sets with the occasional blackout or whiteout scene, and I think you've got something here. Theme it up to an arctic base or snowstorm covered town that's having power issues and creatures outside, and that could possibly work!

Kinda surprised to see a bit of hating on the HHN 20 houses. That was my very first HHN Orlando event so there is the fact that I was so hyped to see everything.

There was a good amount of hype for various houses like Legendary Truth and Hades, but they didn't live up to a lot of folks personal expectations. An I'd also say that summed up that year in general, with the exception of a couple stand outs.

or 2008's Creatures! which also had a great premise that could be pulled off very well with puppetry and large scale costumes.

...and better communication between wardrobe and those designing the sets. Since it did have big costumes, but not big enough doors. Whoops!
 
It just occurred to me that another couple of houses that really need a do-over are Reflections of Fear and Lunatic's Playground. I know Reflections is pretty much out of the question due to all the legal headaches it would take to include Mary in the event, but I think she definitely deserves a second life. I really like the original house concept, starting and ending in her practice long after her disappearance and then going to the past to see her killing spree. However, a modern version should focus more on the mirror realm aspect and less on the psychiatrist office. I'd want most of the maze to include extended mirror sequences, pepper's ghost effects, tricks to throw you off interspersed with vignettes of Mary's killing spree seen through two way mirrors that would go from clear to opaque to let the scenes reset.

As far as Lunatic's Playground, the concept of Chance's Theater of Mind is really intriguing. I also don't feel like the music box motif is really that present. So, for this one, definitely no 3D blacklight effects. I would start with Chance being subjected to extreme electroshock therapy at Shadybrook which then causes her to go into bouts of insanity that unleash her theater of the mind. I really like the idea of transitioning between the "real" world where Chance is stripped of her makeup and costume and is more grotesque and animalistic, and the "theater" world where she is in classic form and more playful. The music box would be seen at the beginning of the maze in her cell and feature a musical theme that soundtracks the new maze. As far the finale, I would want a scene in a padded cell where the "real" Chance has ripped open the throat of her orderly in a padded cell that has a scrim wall which vanishes to reveal Chance on a stage giving a bow before we exit as the inmates of Shadybrook reach a feral frenzy due to her influence.
 
In no particular order...
  • Jungle of Doom
  • The Spawning
  • Lunatic's Playground
  • Creatures
  • Reflections of Fear
  • Beetlejuice (IN A SOUNDSTAGE!)
 
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