Halloween Horror Nights 2020 Old Speculation Thread

[HHNManics]

The problem with GB was honestly just like layout and the way certain scenes were executed. The Facade was fantastic and the first 2 scenes are great but then you just go into black walls and scenes with effects that don't look that great/was already pulled off better in Orlando.

It felt extremely similar to TrT actually with the scene then black walls and then scene and more black walls. It was obnoxious more than anything and the attempts at humor didn't work. They really only attempted it with the Elevator scene and that's it.

Beetlejuice has a much more interesting style to me for a maze than GB but I could see it going the exact same way of just not good maze design like GB.

 

[Guygas]

honestly i get that invisible man is hard to translate but im sure they can make it work out; if they can make viable scenes for unfriended and truth or dare in a maze im sure they can make something good with the content in invisible man, the sets and soundtrack in the movie have me hyped to see it in a maze off the bat. Is it the most hype property to come to the event, no; but is it worth being depressed over that it could potentially be coming? absolutely not. I have hope that if they chose that property they had a clever idea of how the maze could work, i get that universal wants to push their successful properties but i dont think even they would fully commit to it if it wouldnt work in any way possible, idk maybe im too optimistic and biased cause i love the movie but in my mind theres no way that they fully commit to this maze without having a clever way of executing it.

Edit: also theres way more content to work with in an invisible man maze than the lighthouse :bolt:

 

[Spookies n' Stuff]

honestly i get that invisible man is hard to translate but im sure they can make it work out; if they can make viable scenes for unfriended and truth or dare in a maze im sure they can make something good with the content in invisible man, the sets and soundtrack in the movie have me hyped to see it in a maze off the bat. Is it the most hype property to come to the event, no; but is it worth being depressed over that it could potentially be coming? absolutely not. I have hope that if they chose that property they had a clever idea of how the maze could work, i get that universal wants to push their successful properties but i dont think even they would fully commit to it if it wouldnt work in any way possible, idk maybe im too optimistic and biased cause i love the movie but in my mind theres no way that they fully commit to this maze without having a clever way of executing it.

Edit: also theres way more content to work with in an invisible man maze than the lighthouse :bolt:

I mean at least Unfriended and Truth or Dare had some way to actually visualize the threat, they were only able to do Unfriended at all by having Laura show up physically, which wasn't even seen in the movie. The only thing that really interests me is that it could be a chance to force the design team to get creative, but I think its more likely that we'll just see a bunch of non-invisible invisible men jumping out at us and a lot of scenes of people being scared at nothing, throw in a few blackout hallways with feather ninjas or something and call it a day.
On the topic of the Lighthouse, I honestly think theres a lot more to be done for a maze there than the invisible man in terms of what can realistically go in a live environment, but I don't think a lighthouse maze would be particularly scary.

 

[marip123]

Invisible man has potential if they really push for creative ideas, but realistically the house is gonna be filled with black walls and people in black spandex suits jumping out

 

[OhHaiInternet95]

Invisible man has potential if they really push for creative ideas, but realistically the house is gonna be filled with black walls and people in black spandex suits jumping out

Yeah, people do seem to sell the idea short in terms of the creative possibilities.

However, I COMPLETELY understand people being, shall we say, put off by the subject matter.

 

[DTH]

Might as well rank 'em in terms of anticipation:

1) Bride of Frankenstein - While UCM wasn't my favorite, Wolf vs. Frank was definitely a major step up in terms of what I enjoy. Bride of Frankenstein is one of my favorite of the classic monster films, so mixed with the possible sets and scare pieces, OG gothic horror is definitely at the height of my list. It'll be a delight to see this trilogy come to fruition.
2) Beetlejuice - I've always wanted a Tim Burton maze and this has the recipe to deliver, but also fall incredibly hard. I absolutely loathed Ghostbusters, but this has a bit more demonic imagery and creepy sets to work with. Also Beetlejuice is a much better mouth piece for comedy.
3) Hill House - Never got more than an episode into this show, thought it was incredibly boring, but the possibilities are endless for this property. I can see this definitely being very spooky, in the vein of Insidious.
4) Invisible Man - I totally understand their stance for this. How do we mitigate the Covid-19 crisis and still deliver a maze while scaring people? Got it -- what if there weren't any scare actors, and just puppetry, dark rooms, and feathers?! The creativity will have to be through the roof to make this work. It'll be a dud or it'll be them doing their best. Can't wait to see either way. Plus I loved the movie.
5) Texas Chainsaw - I'd be excited if I never went through Blood Brothers, but that maze just felt pointless to me. Good, but still pointless. This leaves me with the thought, "what else can you do?" Now if they went back to the remake, COUNT ME IN. If they're going back to the original, a well that seems to have been dried, my enthusiasm drops. If they source from one of the crappy sequels or recent ones, drop this to the bottom. Anyway, it'll be good to see Leatherface again.
6) Billie Eilish - I have no idea what this maze could be and not in the exciting way. Her music videos often feel weird for the sake of being weird, and while her music may vibe with a lot of people, I have no idea whether or not her artistry (either being more or less in control of the design) is a good thing or not. I am NOT a fan of the musician mazes, ALL of them have been AWFUL to me outside of Welcome to My Nightmare and even that I was "ehhh it was cool I guess" on. If this is another Slash Clowns, Black Sabbath, or Goes to Hell, then any other year I'd see this as a chore -- but on a Covid-19 year, I generally don't care as long as I can go in a maze. But either way, there's so much they could pick from that we ask for every year, including musicians, and it's mildly disappointing this is the best they could come up with. Kudos for something new, original, and different, but also BOO for picking THIS of all things. Just screams pandering to Gen Z.

 

[HHNManics]

Don't know if I really feel Hollywood much this year if I'm being honest.

Realistically I think all of these mazes could suck. I hope I'm wrong. Eilish could honestly be a bunch of black walls and cheap UV Sets/heavy reusing (Unless Billie works with Murdy). TCM will probably be like Saw and HOTC where it's significantly not as good as the previous version and has lots of cheap elements to it.

Invisible Man could have lots of screens and effects that don't work that well and like people have said, black walls. Hill House is like ST has a huge scale to it Hollywood will not be able to replicate. Most likely black wall facade with lots of black walls and overusing of the Bent Neck Lady over other Ghost characters.

Beetlejuice could be GB 2.0 with lots of black walls and overusing of UV stuff. It could be a frustrating design wise maze. With black walls and effects that don't work as well as Orlando's/Orlando did them better.

So yeah UCM The Bride is probably my most anticipated even with the fact that we have already seen Frankenstein a lot in the last 2 mazes and is gonna see him a 3rd time over other Monsters that haven't gotten very big spotlights yet. Since it's supposed to be the Bride(s) (According to the Spec map) I expect to see Dracula and his Brides. Which probably means reusing the AWIL Wolf Puppets for Dracula.

 

[Wishmaster]

Don't know if I really feel Hollywood much this year if I'm being honest.

Realistically I think all of these mazes could suck. I hope I'm wrong. Eilish could honestly be a bunch of black walls and cheap UV Sets/heavy reusing (Unless Billie works with Murdy). TCM will probably be like Saw and HOTC where it's significantly not as good as the previous version and has lots of cheap elements to it.

Invisible Man could have lots of screens and effects that don't work that well and like people have said, black walls. Hill House is like ST has a huge scale to it Hollywood will not be able to replicate. Most likely black wall facade with lots of black walls and overusing of the Bent Neck Lady over other Ghost characters.

Beetlejuice could be GB 2.0 with lots of black walls and overusing of UV stuff. It could be a frustrating design wise maze. With black walls and effects that don't work as well as Orlando's/Orlando did them better.

So yeah UCM The Bride is probably my most anticipated even with the fact that we have already seen Frankenstein a lot in the last 2 mazes and is gonna see him a 3rd time over other Monsters that haven't gotten very big spotlights yet. Since it's supposed to be the Bride(s) (According to the Spec map) I expect to see Dracula and his Brides. Which probably means reusing the AWIL Wolf Puppets for Dracula.

What’s Murdy’s reason for black walls?

 

[Legacy]

What’s Murdy’s reason for black walls?

It’s cheap and easy.

 

[Spookies n' Stuff]

What’s Murdy’s reason for black walls?

Most years its a budgetary thing, where a scene that cost too much was supposed to go, black walls go in its place, other times its just to pad out the space and add an easy scare to transition.
I honestly don't expect it to be that bad this year unless covid really really hit the HHN budget hard, since most of the years with 6 mazes didn't have much trouble with black walls.

 

[rageofthegods]

Most years its a budgetary thing, where a scene that cost too much was supposed to go, black walls go in its place, other times its just to pad out the space and add an easy scare to transition.
I honestly don't expect it to be that bad this year unless covid really really hit the HHN budget hard, since most of the years with 6 mazes didn't have much trouble with black walls.

The thing that makes me hesitant is we really don't know if the budget's been cut down or not. It could be that cutting down the maze count is gonna seriously up the game, but it could also be that it's a compromise to a reduced budget.

 

[Spookies n' Stuff]

The thing that makes me hesitant is we really don't know if the budget's been cut down or not. It could be that cutting down the maze count is gonna seriously up the game, but it could also be that it's a compromise to a reduced budget.

It's hard to say, since they don't tell the public that kind of info, but I'm optimistic unless the current situation halved their budget or something like that. It'll be easier to say once we actually know whats coming, since I feel like 6 mazes without tram and scaled back zones sounds pretty managable even on a reduced budget, but we don't really know to what degree the budget was reduced. Not to mention that if we were to see covid related cuts I would assume live entertainment and rides would be the first thing to be cut rather than maze count, since they both require more sanitization and aren't the primary advertising vehicles for the event as a whole.

 

[DTH]

I think the budget will definitely be slashed.
I mean c'mon, they went 4 months without ANY income whatsoever, including the film division which had to be saved by Trolls of all things. There was no filming on the lot to get money, very little merchandise, no new TV to run commercials on -- NOTHIN.
Even if Universal planned out a promised budget earlier in the year, I guarantee this is a situation that calls for some restructuring, and theme park division will simply just have to understand since everyone is hanging on for dear life right now.
However, the even numbered year theory may surprise us, after all...

 

[HHNManics]

However, the even numbered year theory may surprise us, after all...

Isn't the whole idea of the even/odd theory that each Odd year gets progressively worse and each even year gets progressively better?

I don't know if that theory works anymore with 2018 being far away from 2016 in terms of good quality. And 2019 also being far away from 2017 in terms of bad quality.

 

[JawsVictim]

The budget for this year’s event was likely approved before COVID. If anything, the amount of performers will be cut.

 

[Spookies n' Stuff]

The budget for this year’s event was likely approved before COVID. If anything, the amount of performers will be cut.

Considering the high possibility of scaled back zones and the necessity of distancing in break and prep areas, that seems like a given whether the budget was cut or not.

 

[KD482]

Im a longtime lurker but just thought I should say (possibly prepare), Im hearing very bad news right now... Hoping it isn't true or something changes.

 

[snayberry]

Im a longtime lurker but just thought I should say (possibly prepare), Im hearing very bad news right now... Hoping it isn't true or something changes.

Thats pretty vague. Can you elaborate more on the “bad news” ?

 

[AlexanderMBush]

Thats pretty vague. Can you elaborate more on the “bad news” ?

He may be referring to the company-wide layoffs affecting all assets of Universal. And fearing that it could potentially cause more effect to the budget of this year's event.

 

[KD482]

He may be referring to the company-wide layoffs affecting all assets of Universal. And fearing that it could potentially cause more effect to the budget of this year's event.

Yes. Hearing it could potentially include much of the HHN team and that its potentially on life support but Still not clear however. Hoping for the best