Ah, yes. The age-old argument of "You like it when Knott's has all repeats but not HHN?" The answer for my "inconsistent" complaining is simple. Me and many others who feel the same expect more out of HHN. A theme park that that's attached to a major movie studio with all of the assets and budget available to make a quality haunt and has the reputation of doing so (Especially with its sister in Orlando having a world-class event) is going to expect more. Yes, Knott's has been doing it for nearly fifty years, but that's a theme park that's not attached to a big studio and doesn't have the same budget that Universal has. Therefore, we understand it's not possible for them to do eight new Origins or Universal Monsters-calibur mazes. Knott's can only put their money into two really quality mazes.
^I may be wrong (and if I am, I'm sure I'll be corrected, lol), but the first time I remember a literal repeat was when they brought back Alien vs. Predator. And it was odd... it was praised across the board as amazing its first year, and pretty much became a dud when it repeated with no significant changes.
Yup. With HHNH (And especially HHNO) expected to have more new stuff every year, it doesn't help that we haven't had a literal repeat at HHN since AVP in 2015. Six years later, especially after having a year off, excluding TWD, we get two literal repeats that happen to be black-wall heavy (Pandora and Exorcist), two modified repeats (TCM and Halloween 4), the return of the mediocre Terror Tram, leaving us only two new mazes to look forward to. Even then, the best new maze of the event (Which was Bride IMO) had a lot of reused props from the last Monsters mazes. That's
really crappy for a major event that has a huge studio and the assets available to put on a quality event. Knott's could only afford to do one new maze this year and for what we expect for that event, it was really good! At least in the effects and scenic department it was. Oh, and unlike the major movie studio event, they have almost no black walls.
Look, if you enjoyed this year's event, that's great! I'm glad you had a good time! But I can't help but notice that the same people that are Murdy apologists and that defend the event's weaknesses are the same people that haven't been to Orlando's event (Or at least know of). I've had the privilege of getting to check out six different years of the event over there. The different scare tactics, the scenic, the amount of effort they put into the houses and scarezones is night and day, especially this year. I don't expect the event to be as "big" as Orlando or even be as elaborate. But when you see how much better they do everything over there, I can't help but get frustrated about what this event
could be. If they focused a lot more on reducing the quantity of the mazes (Like no more than six mazes MAX), and put a lot more money into improving the houses and scarezones and thinking of different scares, the event would be worlds better. Alas, when you have almost every night selling out for the most lazy year I've seen at HHN in a long time, you can't help but wonder if they feel any need to improve. The crowds were vast this year, but I've seen a lot of comments from the GP how poor of a value it was this year for them. I've seen comments on FB from bad lines to not "scary enough". I think the GP are catching on, they just don't know how to articulate it as well as we can on here.
Although this year was a one-and-done for me (First time since 2010 I've only gone once in a year!) I usually like going back because HHN usually has some killer set design and have the best scares. I didn't enjoy this year that much personally. Part of the reason why I liked going multiple times was knowing that the houses you saw this year were not likely to return. Bride was great, Hill House and TCM were good, everything else was either "bleh" or just okay. It also doesn't help when you see home haunts and even other major haunts (ahem, HoS at SWSD!) have a better variety and more creative scares than HHN does. I can only take so much of some guy jumping out of a black box in a black wall hallway before I just get tired of it.
So yeah. Apologies for my mega-long post, but after being able to go to Orlando's event so many times and even getting to see other local-ish haunts, it's frustrating to see the event slip into mediocrity with no real incentive to change that. I hope and pray that the highers ups realize the event was successful solely because of the pent-up demand from the lack of an event last year. I remember talking to Murdy years ago around the early 2010's and he literally said "I could bring back Freddy Kruger every year and people would still flock to the event." I really hope they focus on getting some new IPs and new ideas next year, but more importantly, a total reshaping of how the event is done. The event needs some new blood and new ideas
badly. Again, I'm not bashing anyone who enjoyed this year and went multiple times, but if you want the event to improve, demand it and speak with your wallets.