Halloween Horror Nights 2021 (USH) - News & Info

[AlexanderMBush]

Complete speculation here... I have the feeling HHN will be rebooted entirely at USH.

With a two-year break, including a single-coast event, I wouldn’t be surprised if the whole thing gets a complete rework at the corporate level: Better unification of marketing; More uniform design/contracting philosophies. The event could be better on both coast. Orlando could benefit from the innovation of the west coast. Hollywood could benefit from the quality of Orlando’s design.

Just... just work together, guys.

It could also help if Hollywood begins anew, as Legacy mentioned with contracting: that the event might be constructed with cheaper parties involved with the construction. It may allow them the opportunity to lower the cost of the event down for the execs to be more justifying on certain decisions.

 

[Michael S]

It could also help if Hollywood begins anew, as Legacy mentioned with contracting: that the event might be constructed with cheaper parties involved with the construction. It may allow them the opportunity to lower the cost of the event down for the execs to be more justifying on certain decisions.

I hate saying it, as I support IATSE as a union permit for two of the locals, but a huge reason construction and installation costs are so high at universal is because they all need to be union crew, and a union crew isn’t cheap. So they won’t be going with new contractors. New vendors? Hopefully, if there are good quality affordable ones at their disposal.

 

[Living Dead Dude]

Complete speculation here... I have the feeling HHN will be rebooted entirely at USH.

Im just curious as to what this would be like. Less houses? More Originals? Shared Originals on both coasts?

 

[Legacy]

Im just curious as to what this would be like. Less houses? More Originals? Shared Originals on both coasts?

In my head, it’s shared design. I mean that more as a verb than a noun. I want the two coasts to exchange ideas. If both coasts has an IP, the execution and quality *should* be equivalent regardless of coasts. Hollywood’s “Us” had some stellar ideas that Orlando could have benefited from. Hollywood’s Stranger Things 2 should have just been designed by someone else. That sort of stuff. If it results in one coast saying, “I want to do that original too,” cool. Fun times. But that wouldn’t be the why for this.

 

[chris.g]

I think USH is noticing what everyone else does in the fact that HHN has lore and never recognizes it. KSF has a large cult following because of this, not saying HHN doesnt, but its never really recognized. Orlando does this to great success and I think the heads at Hollywood have started to take notice after 2017. Legacy's implication of shared design is something I picture, but thematic years, not necessarily parallel to Orlando's, are something I can see too. Something fluid and not all over the place. Designs that revert to the depth HHN used to have is good too, and most importantly, making the event SCARY again. Atmosphere has lacked at HHN for a while IMO.

But how to go about it? Label it NEW HHN? Assert that returning IPs are being started from scratch and make them grandeur? Call it HHN 1 or HHN XX? All i can suspect is that Hollywood knows the time for a return will have to be grand and a completely new direction.

 

[HHNManics]

I think USH is noticing what everyone else does in the fact that HHN has lore and never recognizes it. KSF has a large cult following because of this, not saying HHN doesnt, but its never really recognized. Orlando does this to great success and I think the heads at Hollywood have started to take notice after 2017.

I don't think they openly really have much of lore or try to expand upon it at all. Even after 2017 it doesn't feel like something in their head when designing the event.

Aside from the expansion of Hollywood Harry for Tram in 2018 there hasn't been much of an attempt to expand Hollywood's lore or have lore. Really wanted Blumhouse 2 to be really rotten and still have some of the Purge Graffiti up and the Girl section (Original) was said to tell us "Why the Girl is there and what the demon is" but there isn't any sort of attempt at storytelling in the section.

Last year's originals are great examples. Would have been great if Holidayz had an overarching theme or something like The Screecher or Hollywood Harry (Something that would have added to the Lore of Hollywood) but they didn't. They just went with postcards as the connection. And Pandora's Box tried to tell a story but the audio design was so bad and maze design was so lazy that many people couldn't tell what the Greek mythology characters in the maze were aside from Medusa. And this could have been easily fixed by 3 options: A. Actually design the characters well B. Like HOTC have UV lettering go on when going into each characters domain (Lizzie Bordon, Ed Gein, Doctor Satan like that but for Pandora. Harpies, Medusa, Hades, Arachne). Or C. Have things outside explaining the characters before you enter the maze (Much like El Cucuy did back in 2013).

Even Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman doesn't make much sense in the lore aspect as we see Wolfman turning into Wolfman at the Gyspy camp when we see him inside the Crypt with Frankenstein in last year's maze.

It's not that they don't have lore, they just don't attempt it.

 

[AlexanderMBush]

It's not that they don't have lore, they just don't attempt it.

This begs a particular question, one that...would albeit be interesting to point out.

What, could, happen--if the Hollywood team responds to Orlando more? Could we see Hollywood's original mazes being more like how Orlando's mazes have been, perhaps inter-connecting them to have things differ in some shape from one version to another? Would this extend to the thematic elements in marketing. They tried doing things with the Icons on both coasts, albeit more on a grander scale in 2006 for Hollywood with The Director. Perhaps this might be a chance to centralize the themes more than ever.

 

[HHNManics]

They tried doing things with the Icons on both coasts, albeit more on a grander scale in 2006 for Hollywood with The Director. Perhaps this might be a chance to centralize the themes more than ever.

It's funny you bring that up because it brings up another issue and reminded me of this tweet...

(2 Years ago we literally did a section on a film about a Pagan Demon that makes Kids murder their whole families and film it).

What really has scared me about Hollywood is how since 2013 Hollywood has just given into people complaining and controversy.

Sometimes I don't mind because it's something that is actual valid criticism (Red's Masks for US) other times like the Damnation Army for Dark Christmas, lack of Comedy for Ash Vs Evil Dead, lack of the hard-core sense for HOTC, removal of the human turkey for Holidayz, no Go Go Dancers, etc.

Hollywood feels super watered down now. Whenever they decide to do a hard-core horror property like HOTC I become very worried about how it will turn out as Hollywood doesn't feel like a horror event anymore.

My complaints with child friendly properties is not something that bothers me for Orlando. Orlando will still do hard-core horror properties and not water them down. And will execute those mazes and the mazes that are slightly more light hearted fairly well. My issue is Hollywood and how they'll water down the hard-core stuff that makes the event feel A. Mature and B. Hard-core to some extent.

 

[Legacy]

But how to go about it? Label it NEW HHN? Assert that returning IPs are being started from scratch and make them grandeur? Call it HHN 1 or HHN XX? All i can suspect is that Hollywood knows the time for a return will have to be grand and a completely new direction.

I think a graphical refresh is all you need. The original “logo” was the drippy blood font. In 2002, with the shift to Islands of Adventure, the logo changed to the plain gothic font. For Orlando, it signified the shift to unified themes with a simple graphic change.

I think, with the return, you do 3 things to signal “reboot” without rebooting. These have to occur for both coasts.

• New graphical logo/font for the event. Either reverting to modern “blood” font or doing something different (sans serif block?). That visually says the event is changing,
• Unify how the events are categorized. Orlando uses numbers. Hollywood uses years. Either shift both to years, or do what every other haunt in the country does and just call the event “HHN” each year.
• Specify the coast in branding. Change the official names to “Halloween Horror Nights Orlando” and “Halloween Horror Nights Hollywood.

There. You’re doing a whole lot of cuing to say “under new management” without doing a whole lot of actual work.

EDIT - Look. New look. New philosophy.

 

[AlexanderMBush]

It's funny you bring that up because it brings up another issue and reminded me of this tweet...

(2 Years ago we literally did a section on a film about a Pagan Demon that makes Kids murder their whole families and film it).

What really has scared me about Hollywood is how since 2013 Hollywood has just given into people complaining and controversy.

Sometimes I don't mind because it's something that is actual valid criticism (Red's Masks for US) other times like the Damnation Army for Dark Christmas, lack of Comedy for Ash Vs Evil Dead, lack of the hard-core sense for HOTC, removal of the human turkey for Holidayz, no Go Go Dancers, etc.

Hollywood feels super watered down now. Whenever they decide to do a hard-core horror property like HOTC I become very worried about how it will turn out as Hollywood doesn't feel like a horror event anymore.

My complaints with child friendly properties is not something that bothers me for Orlando. Orlando will still do hard-core horror properties and not water them down. And will execute those mazes and the mazes that are slightly more light hearted fairly well. My issue is Hollywood and how they'll water down the hard-core stuff that makes the event feel A. Mature and B. Hard-core to some extent.

Wasn't the human turkey more of a technical issue? I'd say that it matters to how they approach certain situations and measures. Perhaps with a unified group, that may be more properly organized and put in place to ensure that situations like the watering down, doesn't occur again.

 

[hhnlover]

It's funny you bring that up because it brings up another issue and reminded me of this tweet...

(2 Years ago we literally did a section on a film about a Pagan Demon that makes Kids murder their whole families and film it).

What really has scared me about Hollywood is how since 2013 Hollywood has just given into people complaining and controversy.

Sometimes I don't mind because it's something that is actual valid criticism (Red's Masks for US) other times like the Damnation Army for Dark Christmas, lack of Comedy for Ash Vs Evil Dead, lack of the hard-core sense for HOTC, removal of the human turkey for Holidayz, no Go Go Dancers, etc.

Hollywood feels super watered down now. Whenever they decide to do a hard-core horror property like HOTC I become very worried about how it will turn out as Hollywood doesn't feel like a horror event anymore.

My complaints with child friendly properties is not something that bothers me for Orlando. Orlando will still do hard-core horror properties and not water them down. And will execute those mazes and the mazes that are slightly more light hearted fairly well. My issue is Hollywood and how they'll water down the hard-core stuff that makes the event feel A. Mature and B. Hard-core to some extent.

Can't find the tweet right now, but he said he had to remove a gun scare in Krampus for 2016 because of gun violence...but still had 2 gun scares in the Halloween maze the exact same year. From based on the original idea, the gun scare in Krampus was gonna be from a victim scare, and in Halloween, these can kinda count as the same. So why remove one, but leave two in?

 

[AlexanderMBush]

Can't find the tweet right now, but he said he had to remove a gun scare in Krampus for 2016 because of gun violence...but still had 2 gun scares in the Halloween maze the exact same year. From based on the original idea, the gun scare in Krampus was gonna be from a victim scare, and in Halloween, these can kinda count as the same. So why remove one, but leave two in?

I wonder who'd be more incharge of administering the chances directly? Would it be the executives, or the CD?

 

[Wishmaster]

These issues y’all are speaking about are very valid but I’m not surprised because it’s “Hollywood” lol

This is why I’ve championed an event like Dark Harbor and I do believe USH could display that level with a well-needed reboot. Enough with the PC and let’s get back to this essence of having a horror event

 

[Clive]

I will say there are pros and cons to going with less expensive vendors and streamlining operations.

Hollywood openly uses an effects and makeup house called Magee FX that produces absolutely stellar work for their masks and prosthetic makeups. I will be honest and say that some of Orlando's masks and makeup effects leave... something to be desired. If we see combined operations, I would not be surprised if vendors like Magee are no longer brought on, and masks (for example) could be mass produced for both coasts to save costs. This could easily go the other way, too - maybe the event can justify the high price and value of Magee's work if they can find cost efficiencies by ordering twice the amount of custom stock for both coasts.

I do wonder why Hollywood eventually lost some of its edge. There was a time where it was the more daring, provocative event - they were willing to deploy religious iconography to great effect throughout many mazes at a time where Orlando scrubbed harmless references in Purge and Walking Dead mazes. It's still pretty wild that the La Llorona maze happened at all given the amount of taboos in that legend. Hostel mostly lived up to the IP, and the early Hollywood Saw mazes were far more profane than the Orlando counterpart.

If I had to answer my own question, I'd hypothesize death by a thousand cuts - scare actors losing the ability to talk was a big blow. A small controversy that blows up (see the Salvation Army thing) makes execs skittish, which generates requests to "reign it in" a little. Too many headlines - and Hollywood got a lot of negative ones over the years, many of which were silly - cements a risk-adverse attitude. Combine that with an expectation for more mazes with the same budget, and...

 

[darkshadow237]

So I was just watching a interesting Netflix series called Sweet Home well the first episode, and I think it would make a great maze.

 

[shiekra38]

I think a graphical refresh is all you need. The original “logo” was the drippy blood font. In 2002, with the shift to Islands of Adventure, the logo changed to the plain gothic font. For Orlando, it signified the shift to unified themes with a simple graphic change.

I think, with the return, you do 3 things to signal “reboot” without rebooting. These have to occur for both coasts.

• New graphical logo/font for the event. Either reverting to modern “blood” font or doing something different (sans serif block?). That visually says the event is changing,
• Unify how the events are categorized. Orlando uses numbers. Hollywood uses years. Either shift both to years, or do what every other haunt in the country does and just call the event “HHN” each year.
• Specify the coast in branding. Change the official names to “Halloween Horror Nights Orlando” and “Halloween Horror Nights Hollywood.

There. You’re doing a whole lot of cuing to say “under new management” without doing a whole lot of actual work.

EDIT - Look. New look. New philosophy.
View attachment 13879

Just use Chiller font....everyone loves Chiller font

Ironically, I think they just adjusted the logo right?

 

[Legacy]

Just use Chiller font....everyone loves Chiller font

Ironically, I think they just adjusted the logo right?

They extended the leg of the “R,” which hardly accounts for much.

 

[Jaden]

I think a graphical refresh is all you need. The original “logo” was the drippy blood font. In 2002, with the shift to Islands of Adventure, the logo changed to the plain gothic font. For Orlando, it signified the shift to unified themes with a simple graphic change.

I think, with the return, you do 3 things to signal “reboot” without rebooting. These have to occur for both coasts.

• New graphical logo/font for the event. Either reverting to modern “blood” font or doing something different (sans serif block?). That visually says the event is changing,
• Unify how the events are categorized. Orlando uses numbers. Hollywood uses years. Either shift both to years, or do what every other haunt in the country does and just call the event “HHN” each year.
• Specify the coast in branding. Change the official names to “Halloween Horror Nights Orlando” and “Halloween Horror Nights Hollywood.

There. You’re doing a whole lot of cuing to say “under new management” without doing a whole lot of actual work.

EDIT - Look. New look. New philosophy.
View attachment 13879

Late to the party but I just wanna say the font for the logo looks well done. It feels simple but effective and refreshing.

Anyways all I can say is I do hope HHN happens but that seems unlikely for me. Also hoping for some new talent to take over Murdy As for what I think might be coming, ehhhh idk, Beetlejuice? Hill House?

And lastly, (I feel like this was answered in the 2019 thread but I couldn’t find it), I take it they’re done with Stranger Things (S4 coming out this year) because it was enough or because of the negative reaction to the maze itself?

 

[HORRORable Commenter]

Late to the party but I just wanna say the font for the logo looks well done. It feels simple but effective and refreshing.

Anyways all I can say is I do hope HHN happens but that seems unlikely for me. Also hoping for some new talent to take over Murdy As for what I think might be coming, ehhhh idk, Beetlejuice? Hill House?

And lastly, (I feel like this was answered in the 2019 thread but I couldn’t find it), I take it they’re done with Stranger Things (S4 coming out this year) because it was enough or because of the negative reaction to the maze itself?

I heard murmurs and rumors about Netflix’s reaction, but Stranger Things was giant for HHN and, like it or not, is probably why we were able to get so much cool stuff in 2019. I’d love to see a new creative team approach ST4, and I definitely think Universal would love to bring it back, but I don’t know how realistic that would be at all.

 

[HydraGen2299]

I just found out this was up today and it’s great to see everyone back I’m just happy to be here. My day is made