HHN 2021: Employee Preview Night

[Freak]

I keep hearing from those who attended that Texas was the best house and Tram was shockingly good. That’s completely the opposite of my expectations.

Now I’m getting a little more excited for tomorrow!

 

[chris.g]

I'll be in the minority to say I didn't think Tram was that great, fun, but nothing special. Also, TCM is very very immersive but house of the night easily went to Halloween 4. That thing is INTENSE and I did not expect it to be, there's a double sided scare that got me really good.

 

[MikePat]

I'll be in the minority to say I didn't think Tram was that great, fun, but nothing special. Also, TCM is very very immersive but house of the night easily went to Halloween 4. That thing is INTENSE and I did not expect it to be, there's a double sided scare that got me really good.

Sense you went last night, I want to ask, are you like others and disappointed by the truly new mazes (Bride and Hill House)?

 

[Spookies n' Stuff]

No idea if anyone will be able to answer this, but how were wait times last night? I know the lack of early entry probably skews things a little, but a good frame of reference would be useful for an early game plan.

 

[HHNManics]

I'll be in the minority to say I didn't think Tram was that great, fun, but nothing special. Also, TCM is very very immersive but house of the night easily went to Halloween 4. That thing is INTENSE and I did not expect it to be, there's a double sided scare that got me really good.

Ranking of the Mazes from last night?

 

[chris.g]

Sense you went last night, I want to ask, are you like others and disappointed by the truly new mazes (Bride and Hill House)?

Bride was fun, but I will say Hill House was weak scarewize and most of its scenery was disappointing in it being oversaturated stretches of nothing happening. Pretty too look at, but it felt more like an attraction than anything else.

Ranking of the Mazes from last night?

- H4
- TCM
- Bride
- Exorcist
- Pandora's Box
- Hill House

Also, none of the houses had the bodega curtains anymore! Any reason for this? I'm a fan but they did spoil some scares if there was a group ahead of me.

 

[Guygas]

Bride was fun, but I will say Hill House was weak scarewize and most of its scenery was disappointing in it being oversaturated stretches of nothing happening. Pretty too look at, but it felt more like an attraction than anything else.

SO they pulled another stranger things with another netflix property, im seeing a pattern here :whistle:

 

[MikePat]

Also, none of the houses had the bodega curtains anymore! Any reason for this? I'm a fan but they did spoil some scares if there was a group ahead of me.

I think that is a COVID-19 safety thing...

 

[Freak]

Bride was fun, but I will say Hill House was weak scarewize and most of its scenery was disappointing in it being oversaturated stretches of nothing happening. Pretty too look at, but it felt more like an attraction than anything else.


- H4
- TCM
- Bride
- Exorcist
- Pandora's Box
- Hill House

Also, none of the houses had the bodega curtains anymore! Any reason for this? I'm a fan but they did spoil some scares if there was a group ahead of me.

I would bet dollars to donuts the lack of curtains/SIF was due to covid concerns.

Also, I'm pleasantly surprised to hear Hill House hardly had any black walls, but kinda disappointed to hear that it's so far down everyone's rankings! Even Exorcist and Pandora, the two straight-up repeats, ranked higher than HoHH?

 

[chris.g]

Definitely. HoHH feels like wasted potential and definitely needs more scare actors. It's weak in that department. Pandora's and Exorcist (which benefits largely from its soundstage so its pitch blackness was really hard to see boo holes) had better energy than Hill House.

 

[HHNManics]

Definitely. HoHH feels like wasted potential and definitely needs more scare actors. It's weak in that department. Pandora's and Exorcist (which benefits largely from its soundstage so its pitch blackness was really hard to see boo holes) had better energy than Hill House.

Would you say Pandora and Exorcist are better than their previous versions from 2016/2019?

 

[Spookies n' Stuff]

Definitely. HoHH feels like wasted potential and definitely needs more scare actors. It's weak in that department. Pandora's and Exorcist (which benefits largely from its soundstage so its pitch blackness was really hard to see boo holes) had better energy than Hill House.

Oddly I feel like Hill House not being as intense as some of the other mazes might actually raise its ranking for me. The series was fairly slow burn so having a maze where theres constantly 40 things happening at once and its loud as heck wouldn't feel right, it's honestly one of my main issues with Orlando's version, just feels like they tried to fit too much in there to a point of compromising atmosphere.

 

[chris.g]

Would you say Pandora and Exorcist are better than their previous versions from 2016/2019?

Pandora by a hair, Exorcist, eh, not really. It felt a little less animated this time around.

 

[HorrorGal2000]

Also, none of the houses had the bodega curtains anymore! Any reason for this? I'm a fan but they did spoil some scares if there was a group ahead of me.

Hey- the curtains are a huge covid breach so we can’t have them- our constant need to sanitize them would make the lines ridiculously long.

Reactions from Employee Preview Night at HHN Hollywood 2021:


Positive Reactions:

• TCM steals the show
• Halloween 4 is good and the best repeat house ever in HHN Hollywood’s history
• The Terror Tram has more energy than ever before
• Silver Screem Queenz is one of the best scare zones at HHN Hollywood in the past few years
• Great Year Overall

Mixed Reactions:

• The Opening Ceremony’s return is great, but the actors run out from the side
• Bride has some beautiful rooms but the maze’s story gets a little bit jumbled and ruined by no SIF
• Hill House has almost no Black Walls but the maze has some bad effects, mainly with The Bent-Neck Lady

Negative Reactions:

• The Walking Dead Attraction is The Walking Dead Attraction
• No SIF

They can’t have SIF (stuff in face, right?) bc of COVID.

 

[rageofthegods]

Pleasantly surprised by the reactions here. Even the disappointment house at least has barely any black walls.

Pretty nice to see a relatively decent year after we were all prepping ourselves for disappointment.

 

[Spookies n' Stuff]

Pleasantly surprised by the reactions here. Even the disappointment house at least has barely any black walls.

Pretty nice to see a relatively decent year after we were all prepping ourselves for disappointment.

It's a pretty good sign that aside from nitpicks and some stuff about sight lines the worst I've really seen anyone say is that returning things are too similar to how they already were, which was basically already expected.

 

[HorrorGal2000]

Thoughts on the Bride of Frankenstein maze? Ratings out of 10 for it? I’m intrigued by it so leave your best reviews here.

 

[MikePat]

Hey- the curtains are a huge covid breach so we can’t have them- our constant need to sanitize them would make the lines ridiculously long.


They can’t have SIF (stuff in face, right?) bc of COVID.

SIF is stuff in face. You are right.

I think the criticism of no SIF is not about it's COVID-19 safety but more about poor scenic design choices. Basically, these complaints are shining light into Hollywood's problem of bad transitions from scene to scene. Like, I am hearing complaints of the Bride maze having beautiful scenes but then you see a Black Wallz hallway up ahead, which would have been usually covered by SIF.

It's important to know that SIF's removal is not the only change this year. There are glass dividers in some scenes protecting the actors from the guests. Halloween 4 looks to have glass dividers that are also used as Pepper's Ghost Effect. The actors in Halloween 4 also look to be aggressive behind the glass dividers.

 

[HorrorGal2000]

SIF is stuff in face. You are right.

I think the criticism of no SIF is not about it's COVID-19 safety but more about poor scenic design choices. Basically, these complaints are shining light into Hollywood's problem of bad transitions from scene to scene. Like, I am hearing complaints of the Bride maze having beautiful scenes but then you see a Black Wallz hallway up ahead, which would have been usually covered by SIF.

It's important to know that SIF's removal is not the only change this year. There are glass dividers in some scenes protecting the actors from the guests. Halloween 4 looks to have ones that are used as Pepper's Ghost Effect (which is a added bonus). The actors in Halloween 4 also look to be aggressive behind the glass dividers.

What I’m trying to say is that they did the best with what the CDC gave them… with bride they literally can’t allow any dividers between the scenes. Yeah, it’s a bummer but let’s at least cut them some slack. It’s not “poor design choices” but rather an inability to put anything that blocks guests and makes something that they have to touch.

 

[Mr_Sparkle]

Bride was fun, but I will say Hill House was weak scarewize and most of its scenery was disappointing in it being oversaturated stretches of nothing happening. Pretty too look at, but it felt more like an attraction than anything else.

Coming from a purely east coaster here, but I think its fitting that Murdy compared Hill House to Crimson Peak. If I remember correctly that house also looked pretty, but was weak in the scares.