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Halloween Horror Nights 30 (UOR) - News & Info (2021)

Let them know exactly how our family felt about this year's experience....good and bad.

As someone who has spent a good amount of time reviewing comments and reports, let me tell you, this is the key.

If you're upset about one particular aspect of something, don't go in and just decide to just trash every little thing.

Being honest, and allowing some adulation along with your criticism allows the people reviewing the data to focus on what might actually be an issue. Otherwise, it just ends up in a cacophony of bad data, and they'll move along to someone with more centered comments.
 
Last night was pretty rough, lots of missing scare actors and very very weird pacing in the houses. Talked to some random folks and we all agree this year just isn't that scary. I wouldn't say it's due to the vinyl but a whole variety of factors.



After opening weekend and last night this is where I'd rank it too. I'm hoping this weekend is better.

Scary, unfortunately, is incredibly difficult for them to even achieve at this point. Their best option going forward to have a truly scary house (vinyl aside) is to just start going the HOS route and bringing back houses.
 
Scary, unfortunately, is incredibly difficult for them to even achieve at this point. Their best option going forward to have a truly scary house (vinyl aside) is to just start going the HOS route and bringing back houses.
It's very strange to me that you keep insisting that HHN has to remain stagnant. Scarecrow is considered by quite a few to be an all-time great HHN house in terms of scares and it only happened technically 3 event years ago. I thought Graveyard Games was horrifying and innovative and that was literally one event year ago.
 
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FYI some may get surveys from Uni regarding your HHN experience (just got mine).

Not sure how much stock they really put into regarding responses, but feel free to express your feelings on the event good or bad.
they pay very close attention to those.
 
Even though Wicked Growth is my favorite house this year, I had probably one of the worst run-throughs in a house ever since I started going to HHN. Just a handful of actors at their places 25 minutes after it first opened for the night.
 
Even though Wicked Growth is my favorite house this year, I had probably one of the worst run-throughs in a house ever since I started going to HHN. Just a handful of actors at their places 25 minutes after it first opened for the night.

This was last night as well? Yikes
 
It's very strange to me that you keep insisting that HHN has to remain stagnant. Scarecrow is considered by quite a few to be an all-time great HHN house in terms of scares and it only happened technically 3 event years ago. I thought Graveyard Games was horrifying and innovative and that was literally one event year ago.

You may be right. I just remember hearing non-stop how not scary HHN 28 and 29 were. For a variety of reasons I was higher on 29 than most.

I hope Mike leaving doesn't keep them from coming up with at least one house a year people find truly scary (even if I didn't find Graveyard Games to be all that scary--it was a quality house I just enjoyed the other three originals more, yes really I thought both tent houses were scary lol).

Anyways, a lot of my frustration comes from me trying to think of a house that I think would scare the dickens out of some people, one that could feasibly get made. I've always dreamed of a house of spider monsters where you get breathed, drooled and crawled on.
 
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I hope Mike leaving doesn't keep them from coming up with at least one house a year people find truly scary (even if I didn't find Graveyard Games to be all that scary--it was a quality house I just enjoyed the other three originals more, yes really I thought both tent houses were scary lol).
Charles created Scarecrow and Graveyard games. Mike wasn’t the primary creator of the event, and hadn’t been for years. He just oversaw the process.

And the effects you mention are all things they’ve played with before.
 
Charles created Scarecrow and Graveyard games. Mike wasn’t the primary creator of the event, and hadn’t been for years. He just oversaw the process.

And the effects you mention are all things they’ve played with before.

Played with maybe but to the best of my knowledge not taken to that level to create an AE-sort of experience. But if it's been done before, then well, I rest my case about everything having been done already.

I know Charles did Depths, Yeti and Klownz, all of which I really liked.
 
Do we know what nights are TM nights?

I know there was a Thursday last week that was very busy and that was a TM evening.
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I could be wrong but it seems like the rain tonight kept a lot of multi night express people away. Lines are really moving l. I heard last night was pretty packed so maybe it was in part due to the forecast.

8 houses without using the express so far. They don't do refunds right?
 
Played with maybe but to the best of my knowledge not taken to that level to create an AE-sort of experience. But if it's been done before, then well, I rest my case about everything having been done already.

I know Charles did Depths, Yeti and Klownz, all of which I really liked.
You’re asking for an intensity that runs counter to what HHN provides (and really never did). An “AE-sort of experience” is nearly impossible because of the constant movement required in a haunted house.

HHN practices a philosophy called “scaring forward.” Basically, they want the majority of scares in a house to drive the congo line ahead. The occasional scare “backward” (where the guests stops the line) is used for variety, but the preference is set those sorts of scares to the side. They do this because it’s the only way to push the thousands of guests through a night. (It’s also why it’s so easy to miss scares and why ops is so aggressive in the Icons finale; that set pieces is positioned in a way that it slows the line.)

Now, for a lot of effects, there’s an incredibly fine line between scaring forward and backwards. It’s actually easy to make something “too scary,” and kill all forward movement. A pitch black room where the exit on the other side is not visible will stop guests dead in their tracks.

They’ve used water effects for drool, pool noodles and reachers for “hands,” and, of course, fishing line for spiderwebs. But combining all that stuff to “AE level” as never been what Universal is about.
 
You’re asking for an intensity that runs counter to what HHN provides (and really never did). An “AE-sort of experience” is nearly impossible because of the constant movement required in a haunted house.

HHN practices a philosophy called “scaring forward.” Basically, they want the majority of scares in a house to drive the congo line ahead. The occasional scare “backward” (where the guests stops the line) is used for variety, but the preference is set those sorts of scares to the side. They do this because it’s the only way to push the thousands of guests through a night. (It’s also why it’s so easy to miss scares and why ops is so aggressive in the Icons finale; that set pieces is positioned in a way that it slows the line.)

Now, for a lot of effects, there’s an incredibly fine line between scaring forward and backwards. It’s actually easy to make something “too scary,” and kill all forward movement. A pitch black room where the exit on the other side is not visible will stop guests dead in their tracks.

They’ve used water effects for drool, pool noodles and reachers for “hands,” and, of course, fishing line for spiderwebs. But combining all that stuff to “AE level” as never been what Universal is about.

Proves my point that everything that can be done, has. Just not sure if they can really be scary anymore.
 
Consider that what many of us find “scary” may fade with time as well.

At a younger age, The Exorcist gave me night terrors from the amount of terror the Pazuzu face scene brought me (among many other parts of that film). Now? It’s casual theater viewing.

If I wanted legitimate fear I’d do one of those trendy extreme haunts or deal with the anxiety of an escape room, neither of which I’m personally into.
 
Proves my point that everything that can be done, has. Just not sure if they can really be scary anymore.
Except they haven’t done everything? And “scary” is subjective. HHN fans have a nasty tendency of forgetting that the event has always been a PG-13 rated “party.” It never promised to be Nyctophobia. Even the scariest HHN houses are unlikely to rank for hard core haunt travelers.

Take it from a long-time HHN cynic and nihilist; if you get to the point where HHN isn’t giving you what you want, it’s time to take a break. You’ve either “outgrown it” or realized it was never what you thought it was. HHN has continued to innovate and progress, but it has never changed its “party-first” nature.
 
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