Inside Universal Forums

Welcome to the Inside Universal Forums! Register a free account today to become a member. Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members and unlock our forums features!

  • Signing up for a Premium Membership is a donation to help Inside Universal maintain costs and offers an ad-free experience on the forum. Learn more about it here.

Halloween Horror Nights 28 General Discussion

The idea that ST is "family friendly" is hilarious to me
It depends on the family. These houses are designed to be suitable for 13 and up, and I think it's fair to say Universal is probably being a little cautious with that age just to cover themselves for complaints. Not all families have toddlers. I would say an HHN house is as family friendly as the Hulk Coaster. So for families with children in that "if I had to hug another princess I was going to hurl" age range it's perfectly fine and that's an age range Universal has always sought to appeal to. It's been pretty obvious over the past few years that they've been working to make HHN more family friendly and reduce that perception that it's an adult only event. This makes a lot of sense and they would be crazy not to be paying close attention to how this is perceived in a normal park day setting. Should make for a good test.
 
I highly doubt the alcohol scale back was a family friendly decision. Far more likely a scare actor safety decision. What shows were removed due to parents complaining? Bill and Ted? That wasn’t the reason.
The alcohol is still there, I think it was more about changing the perception of it being a drunken party. So from a scareactor safety point of view I don’t think there’s any change. They did a good job of changing that perception though. Yeah that wasn’t the reason for Bill and Ted although I’m sure it contributed some, there were definitely families that had issues with that show and did complain. RHPS had far more issues. I remember talking with some of the TM’s and they just had so much trouble controlling the language. Families were always walking out left and right and I heard they had complaints about it every night.

There’s a reason this has been a big topic of discussion this year and last amongst forums and social media and even to the point with Mike Aiello addressing it, it’s because people are noticing it. It’s not just me, it’s not just a select few lots of people are talking about it. Honestly I don’t think it’s a bad thing. HHN has to grow and evolve with the times and as Halloween becomes a more popular holiday every year they have to grow with it.
 
Maybe we shouldn't have been so quick to dogpile on @OrlandoVillian - considering they were right...

This is a fascinating development. I hope the cast was/is cool with it. VERY curious to see how intense the scares are - I know Walking Dead is performed in a much more "toned down" mode during the day versus at Horror Nights.
 
stranger Things is such an amazing and cinematic house that i truly really wish they made it into a permanent attraction and i wish it was open all year long.

it is not just because the show was good, but the house has some pretty iconic rooms that are Ride worthy. I wish they could build a ride track on it and have it as a ride.
I wish they replaced the Demogorgon actors with animatronics, just so that the actors wouldnt have to wear that for so long.

but I wish Stranger things replaced Fast and furious, I wish we could have it as a permanent attraction. sure people might say it is not scary, but the house is so well done it feels like an actual ride already. specially the second half of the house.


some of the rooms for me are the quality i expect in a ride. the forest part of the house feels like the E.T. queue. the laboratory part of the house reminds me of the ALIEN part of the movie ride at Disney.
i know HHN has made amazing houses before, but this is the first time that the house feels like walking inside a ride. i dont know why but the set up of the rooms and the set up of the props and the ligthing and the layout all feel like the are part of a full ride.

im glad it will come back next year and i so wish they made it a permanent thing
 
Last edited:
Well then you just haven't been paying attention. Scaling back alcohol, removing jello shot girls, removing shows that parents complained about, it all adds up.
The alcohol was removed to try and limit the amount of drunks stumbling around...Some scareactors were sexually harassed...And B&T needed to go for MoM, then plans changed...I don't fault them for not bringing it back

All that to say, I don't see them making HHN family friendly...But that's not to say families don't go...It will never be as "intense" as some local haunts...Even Shallow Grave is far more intense
 
Yeah it’s still a theme parks Halloween event, but it’s still not family friendly. Stranger Things wasn’t family friendly this year and no house really was. Plenty of gore in the houses and Chucky wasn’t family friendly for the streets.
 
And B&T needed to go for MoM, then plans changed...I don't fault them for not bringing it back

B&T was removed because Legal was tired of fighting the writing staff over what constitutes parody. (Tho I imagine the complaints from shocked viewers at least made them feel better about the decision.) There were plans 4 or 5 years ago to move it to Terminator in the event of FFL being torn down. If they wanted the show, they'd find a new home for it.
 
B&T was removed because Legal was tired of fighting the writing staff over what constitutes parody. (Tho I imagine the complaints from shocked viewers at least made them feel better about the decision.) There were plans 4 or 5 years ago to move it to Terminator in the event of FFL being torn down. If they wanted the show, they'd find a new home for it.
Bill and Ted was removed because:

1) The rights were up, so timing worked.
2) Entertainment was told Fear Factor was getting demolished. To the extent Mike had to fight to even get the Farewell show they got.

Complaints had nothing to do with it.
 
Scantily clad performers are the only one of those three (the others being alcohol and B&T) I really enjoy anyway. And we had strippers JUST last year--I hope we see that again at 30 in particular, like I said I'd love a Demon Cantina sequel since it'll have been another 15 years.

Mainly, I just want them to be pumping out multiple houses with DE2's intensity and play on my fears--Seeds did that by being kind of an allegory for climate change.
 
I got in around 8:45pm last night(flight landed at 7:30, so we managed grab bags, uber, check in to our room and take a water taxi to HHN in less than an hour and a half.

We ended up doing Slaughter, Dead Exposure, Carnival Graveyard and Trick r Treat in that order. That took about until about 1:30. Small mummy single rider trip included, but we literally walked on, no wait. Hopefully tonight is better. Will spring for express if its not much better tonight.
 
Bill and Ted was removed because:

1) The rights were up, so timing worked.
2) Entertainment was told Fear Factor was getting demolished. To the extent Mike had to fight to even get the Farewell show they got.

Complaints had nothing to do with it.

And the reason why we don't have a parody show this year is legal's fault, my understanding.
 
And the reason why we don't have a parody show this year is legal's fault, my understanding.
That's true, but we also don't know what they were trying to do with the new show. Were they failing to meet the standard that achieves parody/satire status? Were they trying to get rights to characters legal couldn't swing (as they manage rights)? Is the legal rumor true?

The only thing I've heard about the potential replacement, without validation, is that it attempted to do pop-culture satire with Beetlejuice instead of Bill and Ted. They could have run into issues using him in a stage show because the Broadway is coming next year.

I mean, there's dozens of understandable reasons that aren't accusatory.
 
Also regarding selfies, if I was in charge I’d mess with the general public and make a zone , at the back of the park somewhere, literally called the “selfie zone.”

I’d put a bunch of left over costumes, some of the IPs, and other related scareactors in costumes who’s job is to just take selfies.

It would be signposted clearly, and anyone who takes a selfie in a scarezone would be told to go to the selfie zone by ops.
Seriously though, there’s no other option than to try hammer it into people’s brains, to change the culture.

Another random idea they should have nights in IOA where you’re allowed to dress up in costume, and it’s a massive Halloween party, where you can ride rides. No scare actors though maybe a few shows.

Thank you for saying this! I already commented on the over-hyped scare zones. I noticed it as well especially @ vamp. To the point where it felt as though you didn’t belong unless you were an employee or friend of a
scareactor. I also saw the exact same thing at the church on multiple occasions. I wasn’t going to bother mentioning it b/c we are in a time now where we like to pretend everything is perfect. Best year ever! Take selfie. Post to social media. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

I can’t help but think Universal is ok with this though. The bosses are out watching a lot. The average guest is perhaps ok with just seeing a scareactor dressed up, snapping a couple of pics and moving on. That’s the scarezone experience.

I will stick to my guns. The event was good (salvaged by a handful of amazing houses). Overal, a marked step backwards from previous years.

Perhaps the best way to try to increase scare potential is to but a couple of "Sexy" selfie scare actors (stilt walkers, etc.) mixed with more generic looking ones (the employees in Chucky?). Or just go all out, put a ton of scare actors in New York and Hollywood, and try and cater the other 3 zones to selfies?

Ehhh I really don’t mind scare zones catered to picture taking and selfies. I go to HHN to have fun and scare zones aren’t really ever scary due to being wipe open. Let me look and take pictures of great costumes.


well HHN Instragram account encourages people to take selfies and share them. they even promote the hashtag #HHN28
for you to use.
And sometimes they will pick the best selfie to promote the event, so any fan can have their selfie posted by HHN for everyone to see.
theres always posts like "share your scares #HHN28 " or "fan of the week #HHN28"

So universal kind of relies on people posting their selfies to promote the event on instagram and on fb.
Of course I Know they use billboards and they use tv commercials and radio ads, yes, all those are still used

but they still push heavily for their social media advertising with pictures of the event and with fans sharing their pics.
so as much as everyone hates selfies, and as much as people wish the scarezones were photo free, universal itself benefits and relies on them.....


They should allow costumes on Halloween only... just no masks I guess that could create a lot of problems for Universal so I understand why they would try to limit it, but it seems like it would be fun.

While I'm firmly with you and @Brian G. -- I'd even crack down on "bounding" level costumes -- I didn't think there were that many last night. Granted I didn't roll up until close to 10, but I'd swear there were more opening night.

So it’s definitely not an unpopular opinion to be anti costumes lol

I’m clearly biased but I’d much rather take the harmless people (& children) that I encountered in costumes on Halloween then the hordes that are there nightly that act up cause can’t they hold their booze, but that’s just me!

tDPs5LT.gif

No costumes. I can’t believe this is even a discussion. There is literally no benefit to Universal. It’s a liability.


and the problem on Halloween is that they allow people with costumes to the bars and they have a costume contest,
so Universal ENCOURAGES people to go to city walk in costume. they WANT you to come in costume to their clubs and to participate.

but the problem is, if someone is in costume and at 9 PM they feel like checking out HHN, does uni turn them down? (maybe they should) but then uni gets in the dilema of turning dozens of people that are coming to City walk in costume.
Last night i saw a group of women dressed like minnie mouse that were coming from hanging at city walk according to what they were saying. there was a lady dressed in a full freddy kruger dress and she had the hat, around 9 0r 10 a bunch of people came from city walk to hang at HHN. so i dont know what Uni could do since they encourage you to come to city walk dressed up

This... do the job you’re paid to do. Stop hanging out, you’re at work.

Especially when, at any given time, you have less than 45 min of work to do before you are all in a break room together for 45 min.



The actors are doing this with Uni's full blessing, at least in Vamp 85, the coordinators see them, they are hanging out in the open.
didn't someone said on here that this was part of the show? that they were hanging out together because it was part of the zone's theme? or something? i swear i can remember someone saying that the actors getting together to talk like that was done on purpose.

but either way, everyone can see them getting together to talk in the zone. so i have to assume Uni is okay with it
 
Sorry, bud. It may be your opinion, but it I don't think it's the right one.
And that’s your opinion and we obviously don’t have to agree. I’m sure we’ll have more to discuss on this topic next year and if not and they go a more adult direction I’ll be here to say I was wrong.
Bill and Ted was removed because:

1) The rights were up, so timing worked.
2) Entertainment was told Fear Factor was getting demolished. To the extent Mike had to fight to even get the Farewell show they got.

Complaints had nothing to do with it.
I’m sorry I don’t buy this at all. This may very well have been passed around internally as an excuse, but it totally defies common sense. They’ve had multiple issues with this show for many years now with the Hollywood counterpart being abruptly canceled mid season. Universal was very obviously not comfortable with the show. They were even picky about talking about it in their FB live video last year. To your points a) the show doesn’t need a specific location and could be put on just about anywhere so the theater was irrelevant b) CLC seems to be extremely easy to work with and willing to license the characters. I have a friend who was working with them to license as an individual much less a big corporation like Universal.

Honestly it totally baffles me that people wonder why the show was cancelled when it was for so long in danger of being cancelled. I think we all knew it would happen sooner or later.
And we had strippers JUST last year--I hope we see that again
I guess it’ll be interesting to see if we ever see anything like that again.
 
Top