Halloween Horror Nights 29 General Discussion

[soilsigh]

I wouldn't want Us to be a haunted house. The movie is a psychological thriller with an important abstract message. Yes, it is about racism. I explain how it is about racism below, but please don't read it if you don't want to ruin the movie before you have seen it.

Spoiler: Us

The movie is about redlining. That is why the doppelgangers are dressed in red and they form a line across the country. Redlining is the denying of services to certain populations. The doppelgangers also live below the surface, implying they are treated as inferior. They are able to leave whenever they want but choose to stay there. The rabbits are also about them going insane down below. The Hands across the America was an organization to unify different populations by solving hunger and poverty and plays an important part of the movie. There is so much more to it then that.

The movie is amazing and too important to be a haunted maze.

 

[ChaseTuff]

And also, with having seen none of the movie and going off trailers and general non-spoiler description, part of the fear of the film appears to be that a hapless family is basically against these twisted doppelgangers of themselves, which I feel is an important element of the story that would be kinda lost on a maze adaption, the enemy being, well, us.

I'll be seeing it tomorrow but I don't see my opinion really changing.

 

[Legacy]

Us would work better as a scarezone than a house.

Neither would be particularly good.

"Us" is this year's "Hereditary," where the fans get really excited about the idea of "experiencing" a movie without really thinking about what it is they're experiencing.

 

[hhnlover]

I wouldn't want Us to be a haunted house. The movie is a psychological thriller with an important abstract message. Yes, it is about racism. I explain how it is about racism below, but please don't read it if you don't want to ruin the movie before you have seen it.

Spoiler: Us

The movie is about redlining. That is why the doppelgangers are dressed in red and they form a line across the country. Redlining is the denying of services to certain populations. The doppelgangers also live below the surface, implying they are treated as inferior. They are able to leave whenever they want but choose to stay there. The rabbits are also about them going insane down below. The Hands across the America was an organization to unify different populations by solving hunger and poverty and plays an important part of the movie. There is so much more to it then that.

The movie is amazing and too important to be a haunted maze.

Again, jordan literally said in a interview its not about racism.

 

[OhHaiInternet95]

Us would work better as a scarezone than a house.

Neither would be particularly good.

"Us" is this year's "Hereditary," where the fans get really excited about the idea of "experiencing" a movie without really thinking about what it is they're experiencing.

I'd rather have it than HDD2U, for sure.

 

[RevFreako]

Again, jordan literally said in a interview its not about racism.

Again, Tolkien literally said in the introduction to Fellowship that LOTR isn't about London during WWII, but the parallel exists nonetheless.

 

[DannyPowers]

Again, jordan literally said in a interview its not about racism.

Yup. Not about Racism, it’s about...

Spoiler

...classism and falling through societal cracks.

Everything said about the thethered living below the poverty line, choosing not to be upwardly mobile, etc is correct.

Where the previous poster went wrong is the assumption that it is strictly a black/white divide, while in reality those issues are ones that can (and do) stretch over all nationalities.

 

[Allison]

I wouldn't want Us to be a haunted house. The movie is a psychological thriller with an important abstract message. Yes, it is about racism. I explain how it is about racism below, but please don't read it if you don't want to ruin the movie before you have seen it.

Spoiler: Us

The movie is about redlining. That is why the doppelgangers are dressed in red and they form a line across the country. Redlining is the denying of services to certain populations. The doppelgangers also live below the surface, implying they are treated as inferior. They are able to leave whenever they want but choose to stay there. The rabbits are also about them going insane down below. The Hands across the America was an organization to unify different populations by solving hunger and poverty and plays an important part of the movie. There is so much more to it then that.

The movie is amazing and too important to be a haunted maze.

This is very eye opening to me cause I honestly never saw it that way until your post. I ended up digging around and reading some theories that are somewhat similar (not about racism, though) and I’m kinda shocked. I disagree on it being classified as a thriller, simply because Peele himself calls Us a horror movie, but I absolutely see what you’re saying though.

On the topic of the films importance though, does having it turned into an attraction automatically make it’s message less important?

I know he’s spoken about wanting his own ride someday but I really do wonder now how he’d feel about any of his work being translated at a Halloween event, and whether he thinks it’d dull the cultural impact of his messages.

 

[Legacy]

What the movie is “about” is irrelevant to HHN. It’s not a movie so obviously about racism it features a scene with a bunch of white people participating in an auction to buy a black man.

What matters is “would the movie work in the event?” The answer to that, aesthetically, is an easy yes. Regardless of the format (zone or house) it would be fine. The *problem* with translating it is that - because you can’t do doppelgängers of guests, anything you do is just randos in red jumpsuits attacking you with scissors. That’s fine. But there isn’t any difference, experience-wise, between that and The Purge or Halloween.

 

[DannyPowers]

But there isn’t any difference, experience-wise, between that and The Purge or Halloween.

Except Michael Meyers wears a blue jumpsuit.

 

[Legacy]

Except Michael Meyers wears a blue jumpsuit.

And a mask, so it at least feels like one person is after you.

 

[dxwwf3]

It would be awesome going through a house with Pas de Deux blaring though. That would be incredibly creepy.

 

[Allison]

What the movie is “about” is irrelevant to HHN. It’s not a movie so obviously about racism it features a scene with a bunch of white people participating in an auction to buy a black man.

What matters is “would the movie work in the event?” The answer to that, aesthetically, is an easy yes. Regardless of the format (zone or house) it would be fine. The *problem* with translating it is that - because you can’t do doppelgängers of guests, anything you do is just randos in red jumpsuits attacking you with scissors. That’s fine. But there isn’t any difference, experience-wise, between that and The Purge or Halloween.

Killers killing is the tale as old as time Beauty & the Beast of HHN. If it’s not Halloween it’s TCM, if not TCM it’s The Purge, if not The Purge it’s HDD, then The Strangers or Friday the 13th, etc. If not Us then I know you know better than all of us that something else with that premise would take it’s place.

 

[Legacy]

Killers killing is the tale as old as time Beauty & the Beast of HHN. If it’s not Halloween it’s TCM, if not TCM it’s The Purge, if not The Purge it’s HDD, then The Strangers or Friday the 13th, etc. If not Us then I know you know better than all of us that something else with that premise would take it’s place.

That’s true, but Us isn’t just “killers killing.” It’s you killing you. That’s a huge thematic, situational, and conceptual difference from masked/nameless killers. That’s my point. Bringing it to HHN requires it basically become another generic murder-spree. It nullifies what makes Us uniquely scary.

I’m not saying it wouldn’t work. I’m saying it wouldn’t be good. Not the way people think it would be.

I’ll play devil’s advocate for myself though. I know how to make a scare zone (the better option) work: Twins. One is a victim. One is their Tethered. I mean, you would need 30 sets of twins (15 per set) so actually casting it becomes logically complicated, but there.

It won’t happen that way though.

 

[shiekra38]

Not every popular horror movie needs to be a HHN house

 

[SukaVayne73]

Not every popular horror movie needs to be a HHN house

You beat me to it. Took the words right out of my mouth. I don't see why everyone thinks a new horror movie at the movies on not in theaters yet that are popular have to be used at HHN. To be honest I enjoy the Original house/mazes more than the IP's, except when they did AHS, then I was very excited about that than the others.

 

[Darko]

I myself have always prefered the originals as well. I don't get wanting every new popular horror movie to be an HHN maze.

 

[IHateJumpScares]

The *problem* with translating it is that - because you can’t do doppelgängers of guests, anything you do is just randos in red jumpsuits attacking you with scissors.

Exactly my problem with every Halloween house (or any slasher based house). No matter how you do it it's just a dude dressed in a Kirk mask with a knife, popping out. Again and again. I'm really surprised to hear people saying they want Halloween again at 2019 HHN.

 

[hhnlover]

i agree with legacy. while us would make a amazing maze, you gotta think about this. universal has to cast actors who not just look like their movie counterparts, but also have to find another actor who''ll look like the previous actor to. that'll be very challenging to do realistically.

 

[shiekra38]

Exactly my problem with every Halloween house (or any slasher based house). No matter how you do it it's just a dude dressed in a Kirk mask with a knife, popping out. Again and again. I'm really surprised to hear people saying they want Halloween again at 2019 HHN.

Halloween is a classic...The original house will always be the best

I dare them to take on 'Season of the Witch'