Halloween Horror Nights 32 (UOR) - Speculation & Rumors

[Brian G.]

I hate to piss on parades but I can tell you I would not expect any Jurassic Park or Jaws haunted house any time soon.

Same with Scooby-Doo. Just take a look at the new Velma TV show, which is more adult-oriented. Scooby won't even be a part of it... which shows how protective they are of the property. They don't want Scooby a part of anything that isn't aimed at children.

FNAF... *sigh*

I hate to say it, but the Blumhouse film opens that door. That said, I think they'd stay away from anything that hasn't been released in theaters; and without an official release date, it's not something that I would expect this year.

 

[Fear2010]

Same with Scooby-Doo. Just take a look at the new Velma TV show, which is more adult-oriented. Scooby won't even be a part of it... which shows how protective they are of the property. They don't want Scooby a part of anything that isn't aimed at children.

Ironically enough, the Hanna-Barbera franchise had adult-oriented treatments long before Velma like Space Ghost, Sealab, and Birdman as parodies and spinoffs.

 

[TheCodeMan95]

As much hate as FNAF gets, I think it could translate pretty well to a house.

 

[Killer Klown]

I don’t think we’re gonna get two puppet heavy houses in a year, and we’re getting Chucky. I really want Gremlins, but I suspect it has to wait until at least 2024.

Yeah I want Gremlins as much as anyone but I can’t see them doing two comedic (assumed?) puppet dominated houses the same year.

 

[reeseyNG]

I never caught wind of what the staffing issues this year were. Was it just they literally didn’t have enough people hired to staff all the houses?

FNAF... *sigh*

I hate to say it, but the Blumhouse film opens that door. That said, I think they'd stay away from anything that hasn't been released in theaters; and without an official release date, it's not something that I would expect this year.

Yeah, took a peek at what info has been released and it’s not even starting filming ‘till Spring 2023, unless they rush that thing out for a fall release it may not be on the tables for 32.

 

[Crypt Keeper]

I never caught wind of what the staffing issues this year were. Was it just they literally didn’t have enough people hired to staff all the houses?



Yeah, took a peek at what info has been released and it’s not even starting filming ‘till Spring 2023, unless they rush that thing out for a fall release it may not be on the tables for 32.

Jason Blum did say it could be a 2023 movie, but I think an early 2024 release makes more sense.

Insidious Chapter 5 and The Exorcist are set to release next year, so I think those two Blumhouse films have a much higher chance of coming. Horrors of Blumhouse V4 could feature Insidious Chapter 5 and The Exorcist, but if I'm gonna be honest, those films deserve individual houses.

 

[Brian G.]

Jason Blum did say it could be a 2023 movie, but I think an early 2024 release makes more sense.

Insidious Chapter 5 and The Exorcist are set to release next year, so I think those two Blumhouse films have a much higher chance of coming. Horrors of Blumhouse V4 could feature Insidious Chapter 5 and The Exorcist, but if I'm gonna be honest, those films deserve individual houses.

Just my personal opinion, but if Insidious comes back, I would like it to be an anthology house featuring all the films' ghosts & demons.

 

[Imperius]

Yeah I want Gremlins as much as anyone but I can’t see them doing two comedic (assumed?) puppet dominated houses the same year.

Wouldn’t assume Chucky is a puppet house as it wasn’t last time. Guess they have grown since then so they might improve it. Just feel after Bugs, Gremlins is perfect.

 

[Brian G.]

Wouldn’t assume Chucky is a puppet house as it wasn’t last time. Guess they have grown since then so they might improve it. Just feel after Bugs, Gremlins is perfect.

Yeah, 15 years ago - in a time before puppets. I would be shocked if Chucky isn't puppetry.

 

[Fear2010]

Been wondering how they could pull off an Invisible Man house in case the next Universal Monster isn’t what I’m expecting the most.

They could do it entirely in black lights to have him to do jump scares be guys in black clothes with only one pair of clothing on that is visible like a hat or shirt (Universal/HHN merchandise would make a perfect fourth wall break for this), and holding a knife to make it seem like it’s floating in a threatening matter with some Slasher elements as an update, but you know it’s the Invisible Man.

You also got some camouflaged scares and pitch black areas with some things touching you in the dark, and course some scares with him fully clothed with the bandages. It’s sounds like a very experimental approach.

This would also require black walls for the black light scares to work, so the actors could be behind them, which would be very hard to pull off without making the scares so obvious or making the sets small. You can’t really have a house that is entirely pitch black or have anyone touch in you dark for safety reasons.

On paper, it sounds good as a camouflage house, but I don’t think it would really come off as the Invisible Man by execution cause it wouldn’t be easy to build all the sets for the scareactors to blend in with it other than making them with just walls patterned and painted or covered with black sheets and curtains.

That’s why I considered the Invisible Man to be the toughest character to do for a house, even with some interesting ideas together, you have to build the sets uniquely different to fit in some of the scares.

 

[Casper Gutman]

My baseless general speculation for the event:

• No icon for the year. 31 was like Sweet 16, "a non-anniversary anniversary year." Save the Icons for the 5's and 0's years.
• No 11th house (they had trouble staffing what they have already).
• More food booths, each with only a few options and no alcoholic drinks to speed things up. They have to be making a killing off of food, but the 30min+ lines are unacceptable both for the attendees and for operations.
• No music houses, but possibly a music zone. Maybe start a pattern of every other year there's a music zone, then the other years there's a music house. The Weeknd was catching lightening in a bottle, I feel like if you do Dawn FM the very next year it will be a case of diminishing returns like the lagoon show, Stranger Things 2, American Horror Story 2, etc.
• At least one IP scare zone.
• The Orlando event will only be called 2023 and there will not be a 32 to be found in any promotional materials or merch.

Very likely houses:

• Evil Dead Rise - since it was in the cards and then pulled from the streaming schedule to get a theatrical release due to test audiences loving it, it's an obvious choice.
• Blumhouse v4. I loved the house this year and with Five Nights at Freddy's allegedly coming out and everybody asking for it for years, I think it's a good option. Maybe be a single IP for Blumhouse this time?
• Universal Classic Monsters of course.

Realistic houses:

• The return of a 3D house - with all the turnover in creative, maybe the fresh talent have a new idea to try to make it work and want to give it a shot. Definitely wishful thinking on my part as I love 3D houses, but it's a legitimate possibility.
• FIRST TIME White Whale house - I feel that they need to get away from the re-tellings after TCM (which I loved and thought it was better than the first time) and Halloween (which was underwhelming). I hope for The Thing, know a lot of people want Hellraiser, but it has to be something new (yes, I know we had The Thing Assimilation, but that doesn't count). A Nightmare on Elm Street would definitely fit the bill too...it's "kinda" been here before, but a faithful adaptation of the original movie has never been done.

It's my list so I can say whatever I want:

• The Monsters house is a single monster, not a mashup. Maybe move it to the present time. Like Creature from the Black Lagoon where some Developer bought the property and is draining the lagoon and cutting down all the trees to build a bunch of condos. Part of the house could be in the drained lagoon (like the underground part of Poltergeist), part in an outdoor area with a bunch of tree stumps and felled trees. A fully unique take on the monsters to make it feel different. The houses have been great, but starting to feel stale and repetitive. Shake it up.
• Slaughter Sinema Presents Carnevil - I know that's a trademark for a videogame, but something like that. The house starts with a barker at a crappy carnival haunted house inviting you and telling you to hold on tight to your man/girl because it's going to be the most terrifying house ever. First 3 rooms are crappy carny tropes like silly looking animatronic dummies, broken scares, etc. A comedy portion of the house. Maybe the Vomit Vortex with a scaractor bent over pretending to throwup after it. Then like the Jurassic Water Ride, there's a "fake" track continuing through the house, but it's blocked off or whatever and you're redirected to an emergency exit. Then the rest of the house is like "back of house", alleys between attractions, etc with crazed carnies coming after you. Maybe a room with stacked bodies that look like realistic HHN attendees. Light up devil horn things, a little boo necklace, HHN shirts, cargo shorts, etc on the bodies and broken blinky cups and whatever on the ground. Facade is a couple booths (games, food, whatever) and the barker in front of a cheesy looking moveable (to go town to town) haunted house.
• A volcano house - we always have winter houses, but what about a hot house? Obviously not the entire thing as scareactors would be passing out, but a room or two where there's lava and directed heatlamps just to give you a blast of hot air in your face as you enter the room. Lots of burn victims. Instead of falling snow, falling ash. Rumbling floors and walls. Lots of red and orange lights. Lightening.
• With staffing issues, I have to wonder if there was thought about how to do a house with minimal scareactors through animatronics, projection mapping, and other new tricks. Something like Bugs would have been great to implement this way, but I just feel they might try something new and different just to see if it works. Not as radical as The Repository/VR upcharge, but something we've never seen them do before to see what they can do. Possibly Gremlins? Of course puppets, but then rear projected walls, shadow gags, etc. Given when they're usually starting to develop treatments for houses is when the event was going on and having a lot of staffing challenges, I feel like they have to be considering something.

Doubt it will happen, but...

• Stranger Things Season 4 - I have no idea what's going on with Netflix properties, but so many people were upset by it not showing up so I wouldn't be shocked if they back up the Brinks truck at Netflix HQ and just go for it. An apology for the horrible second house and not having the house last year...and giving them an excuse to bump up ticket prices another 15%.
• With the Jurassic World trilogy hopefully done, a Jurassic Park house not tied to any movies. Feel like with the evolution of the puppets since they did it before, and with no movie on the horizon that they'd want to have synergy with, it's as good as time as any to do it.

Evil Dead Rise seems like a likely possibility except for the fact that it’s scheduled to come out in April. With WB, who knows if that will stick, and Freaky shows that films don’t always have to be smack dab in the zeitgeist to get the house treatment, but the rules are a bit different for Blumhouse.

Of course, they could always check off the humor and nostalgia boxes with Evil Dead 2 or Army of Darkness. I don’t think they will, but I’d love it if they did.

 

[Darko]

As a fan of FNAF (mainly the originals) they would absolutely make a fantastic house. As for everyone calling it a kid's property: Uhm, what? Have you played the games? I really don't think kids these days quite understand creepy Chuck E Cheese nightmare fuel those restaurants were. Also kids are into horror, I don't know what to tell you. Go to a Conjuring screening and you will see plenty of kids. Why do you think they get horror movies down to PG-13 in editing?

Anyway, since we have no idea how the movie will turn out (hoping for the best of course) I will reserve judgement on a house based on th movie and not the games.

 

[shiekra38]

The only ones I see saying the year felt off are the nutcases on the HHN Facebook groups lol

Definitely not.

There's discussion here about that very fact and it's rude to relegate some posters here to Facebook nutcases

As a fan of FNAF (mainly the originals) they would absolutely make a fantastic house. As for everyone calling it a kid's property: Uhm, what? Have you played the games? I really don't think kids these days quite understand creepy Chuck E Cheese nightmare fuel those restaurants were. Also kids are into horror, I don't know what to tell you. Go to a Conjuring screening and you will see plenty of kids. Why do you think they get horror movies down to PG-13 in editing?

Anyway, since we have no idea how the movie will turn out (hoping for the best of course) I will reserve judgement on a house based on th movie and not the games.

Freddy's is perfect for HHN, it's literally loud jumpscares and flashing lights...their bread and butter

If anything I see them running the risk of underdelivering

 

[Speed]

Outside of opening weekend, there was very little engagement related to PL, Boo, or the theme

Surprised this wasn't talked about more this season. For as much merch as it was on this year, I completely stopped hearing about lil boo after the first 2 weeks into the season

 

[Parkscope Joe]

My general thoughts are there isn't enough staffing to do more houses, scare zones, and shows.

Surprised this wasn't talked about more this season. For as much merch as it was on this year, I completely stopped hearing about lil boo after the first 2 weeks into the season

Because they were not part of a hit house and the scare zone was fine. Plus, for better or worse, HHN is the best when they do NEW things. Lil Boo and PL were 2021, now people want to focus on Major Sweets, the swinging guy in Dead Man Pier, and The Weeknd. It's also one of the reasons why I think HHN Orlando should avoid doing Dawn FM next year.

 

[Brian G.]

Surprised this wasn't talked about more this season. For as much merch as it was on this year, I completely stopped hearing about lil boo after the first 2 weeks into the season

There definitely was an initial rush of hype but slowly faded away. I think it was partly due to over saturating it, too.

 

[Parkscope Joe]

There definitely was an initial rush of hype but slowly faded away. I think it was partly due to over saturating it, too.

There's something to be said about organic hype versus Universal's promotion.

 

[reeseyNG]

There's something to be said about organic hype versus Universal's promotion.

You trying to say “SCREAM SQUAD” didn’t organically get hyped up by the fan base?

 

[ssirin88]

You trying to say “SCREAM SQUAD” didn’t organically get hyped up by the fan base?

Ugh I know the reasons behind it but the whole social aspect they've been pushing with HHN annoys me. "Scream squad", never go alone, etc

 

[Crypt Keeper]

Ugh I know the reasons behind it but the whole social aspect they've been pushing with HHN annoys me. "Scream squad", never go alone, etc

I really don't want the "Never Go Alone" tagline to return next year, but I have a feeling it's gonna be the standard tagline going forward.