Halloween Horror Nights 29 General Discussion

[BoSoxFan1022]

I actually found H4 to be the scariest house last year. Then again, it was the first house we did, and MY first ever hhn house

 

[RevFreako]

I actually found H4 to be the scariest house last year. Then again, it was the first house we did, and MY first ever hhn house

It was a good house, but not a stitch on the first two.

 

[Darko]

I don't personally care if it's the same scare over and over. If you really wanna put it that way, 99.99% of HHN scares is flashing lights, loud noise, someone popping out at you. I don't care if it's the same monster throughout the maze. I just care if it's good, well designed, detailed, and constructed. I personally have loved the Halloween mazes.

 

[NuteGunrayWasFramed]

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.

Nah man, Midsommar is this year’s Hereditary.

 

[Allison]

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.

I definitely get your point and I do agree that it would nullify that uniqueness, however I don’t know if you’ve seen the movie

Spoiler: BUT

not all the doppelgängers kill (or attack) their own doppelgänger...thus turning it, at times, into another generic murder spree. They even discuss their “kill counts” when they’re arguing to drive the Tyler’s car.

I also agree on the twins thing and think that’d be close to impossible to accomplish. But then, if they want it to happen, they could wind up just going back to the concept of a house, where you’re generally not seeing people’s faces long enough to really take note. Or it could circle back to just having the main characters and attempting to cast look alikes (which I’m sure is much easier said than done, too).

My point from the beginning has been that if Universal wants to figure out how to make something they distributed work at HHN sooner or later, imo, they’ll try to find a way to do it. Regardless of whether or not we think it’ll translate well.

 

[Legacy]

I definitely get your point and I do agree that it would nullify that uniqueness, however I don’t know if you’ve seen the movie

Spoiler: BUT

not all the doppelgängers kill (or attack) their own doppelgänger...thus turning it, at times, into another generic murder spree. They even discuss their “kill counts” when they’re arguing to drive the Tyler’s car.

I also agree on the twins thing and think that’d be close to impossible to accomplish. But then, if they want it to happen, they could wind up just going back to the concept of a house, where you’re generally not seeing people’s faces long enough to really take note. Or it could circle back to just having the main characters and attempting to cast look alikes (which I’m sure is much easier said than done, too).

My point from the beginning has been that if Universal wants to figure out how to make something they distributed work at HHN sooner or later, imo, they’ll try to find a way to do it. Regardless of whether or not we think it’ll translate well.

I’ve seen it.

Spoiler

All of the friends are killed by their doppelgängers, who only attack the family because the family showed up at their door. The random victim of the daughter’s doppelgänger similarly is killed because he interferes. The doppelgängers are focused on killing their twin. All other kills are collateral.

And we don’t actually see many kills in the first place.

Regardless, the POINT of this story is doppelgängers. If we don’t have lookalikes, you don’t have “Us.” Scares where you don’t see the face diminishes the story. Scareactors that don’t look like YOU, diminishes why the story exists.

And I’ll say this... Universal has a really hard time casting a lot of black people for HHN. They just don’t audition in as high a number as non-black people. Heck, they struggled to get one black barker a couple years ago. Now you want them to cast a house (so at least 6 per set) of people who look like Lupita Nyong’o and Winston Duke?

Won’t happen.

 

[Allison]

I’ve seen it.

Spoiler

All of the friends are killed by their doppelgängers, who only attack the family because the family showed up at their door. The random victim of the daughter’s doppelgänger similarly is killed because he interferes. The doppelgängers are focused on killing their twin. All other kills are collateral.

And we don’t actually see many kills in the first place.

Regardless, the POINT of this story is doppelgängers. If we don’t have lookalikes, you don’t have “Us.” Scares where you don’t see the face diminishes the story. Scareactors that don’t look like YOU, diminishes why the story exists.

And I’ll say this... Universal has a really hard time casting a lot of black people for HHN. They just don’t audition in as high a number as non-black people. Heck, they struggled to get one black barker a couple years ago. Now you want them to cast a house (so at least 6 per set) of people who look like Lupita Nyong’o and Winston Duke?

Won’t happen.

I completely understand what you’re saying, and I still don’t disagree that it diminishes the main scares of the movie, but I have never said what I want them to do. I haven’t even said what I thought about the movie. I’ve been speaking on the side of what I would think Universal might attempt to do in this situation.

What I’ve been saying is if Universal sees more green lights then red, and it’s not just for Us but for anything, I think they’d try to find a way to get it done. If a multi billion dollar business could figure out a way to put more money in their bank account, you may think they’d hesitate and you could be right, but I don’t think they will.

If they’ve forced the hands of the people creating the event in the past, I could be wrong, but it wouldn’t surprise me to see them force their hands again.

ALSO on the topic of just kills in Us

Spoiler: ...

I counted 13, and, yes, you don’t see all of them, but you do see the neighbor’s, Red’s, Pluto’s, Zora’s doppelgänger, the Tyler’s and then (if my memory serves me right and it usually doesn’t) 3 of their doppelgängers. Both dad’s doppelgänger deaths I don’t remember seeing much of. But that’s still a lot to play with if they really wanted to figure out a way to.

 

[Darko]

Seriously though, if a Sasquatch/Yeti maze happens this year, I almost won't care if anything else is that great. I mean I do but I have been wanting a maze like it for years. Also can't wait to see what the scarezones are this year.

 

[Legacy]

I completely understand what you’re saying, and I still don’t disagree that it diminishes the main scares of the movie, but I have never said what I want them to do. I haven’t even said what I thought about the movie. I’ve been speaking on the side of what I would think Universal might attempt to do in this situation.

What I’ve been saying is if Universal sees more green lights then red, and it’s not just for Us but for anything, I think they’d try to find a way to get it done. If a multi billion dollar business could figure out a way to put more money in their bank account, you may think they’d hesitate and you could be right, but I don’t think they will.

If they’ve forced the hands of the people creating the event in the past, I could be wrong, but it wouldn’t surprise me to see them force their hands again.

ALSO on the topic of just kills in Us

Spoiler: ...

I counted 13, and, yes, you don’t see all of them, but you do see the neighbor’s, Red’s, Pluto’s, Zora’s doppelgänger, the Tyler’s and then (if my memory serves me right and it usually doesn’t) 3 of their doppelgängers. Both dad’s doppelgänger deaths I don’t remember seeing much of. But that’s still a lot to play with if they really wanted to figure out a way to.

But here’s the thing - all the houses were approved in December. Everything is designed in they’re in production mode. When management/marketing has forced specific IPs, they followed the normal approval timeline. They weren’t last minute adds.

And, sure, Universal could have predicted the film’s success. That doesn’t mean the park would want to risk a logistically hard-to-cast house on an unreleased film. And even post-release doesn’t change the difficulty in casting the house. That’s a hurdle that matters. That’s a hurdle that’s going to give pause to any decision maker who “wants to force their hand.”

Even if the make masks of Lupita and Winston (which I can’t see them authorizing), is that a house you want?

 

[Parkscope Joe]

 

[Allison]

But here’s the thing - all the houses were approved in December. Everything is designed in they’re in production mode. When management/marketing has forced specific IPs, they followed the normal approval timeline. They weren’t last minute adds.

And, sure, Universal could have predicted the film’s success. That doesn’t mean the park would want to risk a logistically hard-to-cast house on an unreleased film. And even post-release doesn’t change the difficulty in casting the house. That’s a hurdle that matters. That’s a hurdle that’s going to give pause to any decision maker who “wants to force their hand.”

Even if the make masks of Lupita and Winston (which I can’t see them authorizing), is that a house you want?

Once again, I have never said what I want. And I still haven’t said what I thought of the movie. What I want at HHN, be it IP or original-will most likely never happen. I’m not a lucky person.

And I also said sooner OR later. It made them $70 million over 3 days, maybe I’m too naive but I’d be surprised if at least 1 suit somewhere with Universal isn’t considering what can be done to get Us in some capacity to HHN eventually.

I absolutely see that there are hurdles, and, again, don’t disagree on their existence but do you genuinely believe they’re hurdles that they’ll never consider trying to jump over at any time at all even if they find a way to? If yes, then we just have to agree to disagree.

 

[BoSoxFan1022]

But here’s the thing - all the houses were approved in December. Everything is designed in they’re in production mode. When management/marketing has forced specific IPs, they followed the normal approval timeline. They weren’t last minute adds.

And, sure, Universal could have predicted the film’s success. That doesn’t mean the park would want to risk a logistically hard-to-cast house on an unreleased film. And even post-release doesn’t change the difficulty in casting the house. That’s a hurdle that matters. That’s a hurdle that’s going to give pause to any decision maker who “wants to force their hand.”

Even if the make masks of Lupita and Winston (which I can’t see them authorizing), is that a house you want?

So they know every house that will be at the event this year? They are not still looking at any?

 

[Brian G.]

So they know every house that will be at the event this year? They are not still looking at any?

They were getting ready for 29 before 28 even started. Barring some change, either due to creative differences, contract breakdowns, etc - this year's line-up is pretty much locked.

 

[BoSoxFan1022]

Interesting

 

[Legacy]

So they know every house that will be at the event this year? They are not still looking at any?

Unless they lose something and want to replace it with another IP, yes. That’s normal. If that happens, they’ll use something they’ve secured rights for in the past and can easily overlay/design on the fly.

The timeline is brainstorming in August, develop pitches/determine ability to obtain rights Sept-December, pitch/get approval in Dec-January, build contract requirements/finalize designs in January/February, and start building in February/March.

Mike even posted on Twitter that he gave his final approval for HHN last week. They’ve been doing walkthroughs of house builds for a month now.

To go back to the “eventuality” of Us at the event, though: Universal only does “same year” releases of houses with films that are part of a franchise/known properties or produced/owned by companies they have good relationships with. Blumhouse is a great example. Netflix could be one in the future. Even those that are featured are limited to a couple of scenes. I’ve already touched on the why.

The entire list of “same year movie houses” since 2011:
The Thing (2011)
Silent Hill (2012)
Evil Dead (2013)
Dracula Untold (2014) - The only non-franchise house, and the film was released in October.
Insideous (2015)
Saw (2017)
Horrors of Blumhouse (2018)
Halloween (2018) - Which should be majorly caveated.

Now, if you look at the last 10 years. Non-franchise movies rarely get featured the year after their release. The reason is that they’re no longer “relevant IPs” more than eight months after their release. The only exceptions in that are Cabin in the Woods - a subversive, immediate cult classic that A&D desperately wanted to do - and Krampus, a unique Christmas horror movie. Apart from those exceptions, the next most current film (non-franchise) to get featured at HHN was Trick R Treat, which took 10 years.

Based on history, we have no reason to believe Us will appear this year and there’s not enough aesthetic uniqueness to warrant its appearance next year. If it appears, it would require a steady popularity for 10+ years to maybe show up then.

HHN has a formula.

 

[Darko]

So what is the potential for Blumhouse to return for yet another year? I really hope it runs its course but I fear it will be returning for quite a good number of years.

 

[BoSoxFan1022]

I could use an announcement today

 

[Allison]

I could use an announcement today

I could use a DRINK today.

 

[Legacy]

So what is the potential for Blumhouse to return for yet another year? I really hope it runs its course but I fear it will be returning for quite a good number of years.

The little I’m hearing makes me not expect it.

 

[captainryborg]

Us would even work as a SZ.

Spoiler: Mild spoilers under here but still I’m not Legacy so you’re not getting any more chances to not spoil this for yourself, if you click this then that’s THAT

In a SZ they could just do the Santa Cruz Boardwalk (where have I discussed this before?!?!!!), play the Luniz remix, NWA, “Good Vibrations” and do the Hands Across America intermittently. Simple.

And a house could even just be a book report walk through. Start with the fun house and go through the initial home invasion, all the kills at Elizabeth Moss’ house, the underground tunnels. Again, easy, imo.

It’s a Universal property, I’m sure it’s already making a killing, it’s PC (imo), and it’s an easily adaptable concept. Maybe I’m the one oversimplifying it but for me it ticks more boxes for the positive than negative.

I know it’s only been out a couple of days now but y’all really need to watch the movie. I think some opinions would change.

I NEED this.

Nah man, Midsommar is this year’s Hereditary.

So pumped.

The little I’m hearing makes me not expect it.

Expect it this year or expect it after this year?