Sorry for the double post, but I do find it interesting how at HHN it is acceptable to have such long reset times for scares...There are some elements that you wont see until your 3rd or 4th walkthrough because they take so long to reset/sound effects to finish/strobe to shut off
I also find it interesting that many of the houses suffer from a "hallway, scene, scare, hallway, scene, scare, etc" type of set up this year...quite forumlaic
I think that's why I find Seeds so fascinating and amazing and even Scarecrow last year...They didn't necessarily feel like the run of the mill HHN houses to me
I really hate that and it makes me sad. I get to go multiple times but i legitimately get sad and feel bad when a friend of family member goes and they miss all the scares.
I feel bad because they dont get to see what i have been talking about for days before going, and i feel bad because it feels like in a way i let them down by hyping the event or because they went in a house and only saw two scares.
sometimes i honestly felt embarrassed for hyping up a house so much and then people go and they are like.... "well, those sets were....nice.... and the one demon that came at us was scary..."
that happened in Krampus, made me feel so awkward i will never forget it. I dont know if it was cast change or what was going on but we only saw 3, 4 scares.
It also depresses me to see people that paid so much for express and they paid so much for one of those private tours and i see those people enter in front of me and then sometimes even they dont see the scares. Ive done house runs in front of the private tour people or express people and they see maybe, 3 or 4 scares? I personally dont care having to go back to visit the houses, but it just feels really bad. I know the amount of people make it impossible to pulse the lines. I know the actors are doing the best they can, i know they have to keep resetting and wait for the next group,
but with an event as expensive as HHN and with the amount of money it brings in, Im still baffled that they haven't found a way to be more innovative in their scares. HHN is still using a scare system that is 20 years old. I mean, think about it, have the scares changed in 20 years? I know the sets have, the sound system has changed, the lighting has changed, the special effects have definitely changed
but the boo hole system.... is it not the same it has been for decades now?
Thats one thing i love about all the halloween houses over the years, Michael Myers was rather quick, i never had a disappointing run on a halloween house, (except for a cast change) I dont know if the guys in those houses are really quick or if their set up is easy to reset, but ive never had a bad run as far as the actors go.
Thank God Poltergeist has those giant puppets and special effects, that's another house that will show people something every time.
cant say the same for trick r treat. im really really happy we got to see trick r treat as a zone first, the house is getting disappointing. I've done it 4 times and every time ive missed stuff,
Too late.
It is what it is. There’s a formula, of course, but it has the same casting, operational, marketing, and design issues that it’s had for nearly a decade.
The one thing the event needs is probably the one thing the event won’t get for a long time - outside blood. Mike and Patrick do a fine job, and they engage well with fans, but Mike has only ever worked at Universal. His team has been at Universal (various Uni parks), but mostly Orlando for a decade. And, when you realize that Mike was apprentice to Roddy, who was apprentice to Timon, who started the event, you start to understand why Universal always feels a bit behind the gun on design. All they really know is how Orlando does it.
If you compare that to how the various California haunts rotate lead designers around (Knotts to Queen Mary’s, etc), and how cutting edge a lot of regional haunts are (Netherworld), the design aspects of the event start drifting from fine and edging to disappointing.
I don't think its the blood issue.
I think its constraints placed from how early they are allowed to utilize spaces, amount of dedicated budget for design, and the temporariness of structures. The Darkness (St Louis) can afford to be cutting edge with moving platforms and motion bases in their houses because the buildings are only used for their haunted house. Netherworld can spend all year adding effects into their spaces which HHN does not have the time and ability to necessarily do. HHN can't do that because of the temporariness of the sound stages which get used for other things during the year.
Even by changing a lead designer doesn't necessarily mean a event will be better.
wasn't 2012 when we got new people from Hollywood? I recall reading about how that's when the two HHN events kind of merged and we had some new people working on our HHN, (As well as people that design the rides helping in the designing of the houses? )
Im sure Legacy knows this a lot better than what i am trying to say, im sure im butchering the story lol. but I distinctively recall a lot of the complaining (on other hhn sites) of the lack of quality of 2012 due to the new people.
a lot of people can regard 2012 as one of the worst years we have had (and maybe 2013 as well) and how a lot of people hated the houses in 2012, and how that was the same time we got new people working on the houses.
I mean, if that's wrong then sorry for bringing it up, but i remember the drama about it.
I think they need to reevaluate the feasibility of a two park event. If the zones are suffering, if the event as a whole (even if this is one of the best years in recent memory) coming up close to suffering, they need to expand the event and utilize all possible space. Spreading crowds between two parks can alieveate a lot of concerns.
Islands of fear and HHN could even be billed as two separate events, and they can use the Potter ticketing tactic to get people to pay more for the tickets.
the biggest reason to not ever use Islands is the size of that park. everyone always brings up how the HHN crowds cant fit in islands, the park cant handle that much people
As well as not being able to use Dr Seuss and Potter and marvel areas. so Islands is really really not ever going to be used for those reasons