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HHN 29: Ghostbusters

All I can say is oof if I’m talking about my run yesterday.
  • The librarian scare wasn’t there (not close to a cast change, just a hole).
  • The first physical Slimer (after seeing the Pepper’s Ghost version) wasn’t there.
  • Ray was in that hallway, but very sparse on his scaring. I actually said out loud, “oh, he’s gone, too?” and he stepped out of his boo hole just a little to stamp his foot at me as a startle tactic and went back in. Yikes.
  • The hand-on-the-wall effect has been off for quite some time, but usually I’ve seen it in the setting where the hand is fully extended but stationary. There was no hand there last night, as if the effect were just abandoned.
  • No Winston, at least in Cast B.
  • Forgive me for drawing a blank, but the white ghost scare that’s a large pop-up puppet right after the stilt scare either wasn’t working or was very few and far between with its scares. I didn’t see it go off or even be in the process of resetting.
  • The final Slimer wasn’t present for me at all, though the guest behind me did see him for a split second.
If I were to say anything about that run, it felt like the cast lost its steam entirely. Cast B Venkman did wave, stop for a second, and point at me again, so I think he recognized me, while Janine directed her dialogue to me and asked if I was picking up or dropping off, so that was nice. The rest of the cast, though, felt like they weren’t that interested in setting off their scare, if it even worked. It’s something. Still love the house, but yikes.


Can’t say what that was referring to, but that thing was gone from the house as of last night. Just Scoleri now.

Yeah the white puppet was not working last night,
And first slimer was missing as well for me.
The stilt ghost never showed on any of my runs either.
 
Yeah the white puppet was not working last night,
And first slimer was missing as well for me.
The stilt ghost never showed on any of my runs either.
Stilt was there (I saw him in Cast B, and I saw my roommate leave at the end of the night so he did stay the whole time, so I can only presume Cast A had the scare as well). Just glad I’m not the only one that saw the other problems.
 
I feel like a say this a lot thru different forums, but just remember there is a lot of reason for there to be holes in a house:

-Some triggers (especially “talking” ones) can take a LONG time to reset. While one may be able to be pressed every 2-3 seconds, some can take 7-10 seconds which can feel very VERY long.
-guest incidents where the actor has to leave to report it
-injuries that can cause them to miss 1 set but not the whole night
-costuming / prop issues
-(this applies more to the first hour or two of a house being open) some holes may be filled by firecrew or reserve, but since they aren’t hardcast it can take a bit to get to location then costume and make up, and get show direction as well

And then sometimes you put it all together and get really bad timing... making a really bad run.

I say this all cause while ghostbusters was a visually stunning house the first time I went through... I knew it wouldn’t last until the end of the run. There’s too many issues that could pop up, and I feel like they all did and will continue too which is very sad. This house continuously drops for me, and it’s not anyone’s fault, just too many moving parts that all broke at once. Plus overall, this year is seeing people drop like flies. Which also isn’t surprising with how long this run is and how the majority of nights are 2ams. Definitely rough for everyone involved.
 
I feel like a say this a lot thru different forums, but just remember there is a lot of reason for there to be holes in a house:

-Some triggers (especially “talking” ones) can take a LONG time to reset. While one may be able to be pressed every 2-3 seconds, some can take 7-10 seconds which can feel very VERY long.
-guest incidents where the actor has to leave to report it
-injuries that can cause them to miss 1 set but not the whole night
-costuming / prop issues
-(this applies more to the first hour or two of a house being open) some holes may be filled by firecrew or reserve, but since they aren’t hardcast it can take a bit to get to location then costume and make up, and get show direction as well

And then sometimes you put it all together and get really bad timing... making a really bad run.

I say this all cause while ghostbusters was a visually stunning house the first time I went through... I knew it wouldn’t last until the end of the run. There’s too many issues that could pop up, and I feel like they all did and will continue too which is very sad. This house continuously drops for me, and it’s not anyone’s fault, just too many moving parts that all broke at once. Plus overall, this year is seeing people drop like flies. Which also isn’t surprising with how long this run is and how the majority of nights are 2ams. Definitely rough for everyone involved.
Yeah, basically all of these reasons have come into play this year. For context, I do have a friend who is hard-cast here. Before I’ve said that both Winstons dropped; as of today, only three of the original Ghostbusters (out of ten? two Rays + two casts) are still there. They didn’t put a lot of thought into the designs for the proton packs, so people are giving up. Stilts should be okay now; I haven’t heard anything from the roommate outside of the first two weeks. I can’t guarantee anything about any other scare, but I know about all of those complications.
 
All I can say is oof if I’m talking about my run yesterday.
  • The librarian scare wasn’t there (not close to a cast change, just a hole).
  • The first physical Slimer (after seeing the Pepper’s Ghost version) wasn’t there.
  • Ray was in that hallway, but very sparse on his scaring. I actually said out loud, “oh, he’s gone, too?” and he stepped out of his boo hole just a little to stamp his foot at me as a startle tactic and went back in. Yikes.
  • The hand-on-the-wall effect has been off for quite some time, but usually I’ve seen it in the setting where the hand is fully extended but stationary. There was no hand there last night, as if the effect were just abandoned.
  • No Winston, at least in Cast B.
  • Forgive me for drawing a blank, but the white ghost scare that’s a large pop-up puppet right after the stilt scare either wasn’t working or was very few and far between with its scares. I didn’t see it go off or even be in the process of resetting.
  • The final Slimer wasn’t present for me at all, though the guest behind me did see him for a split second.
Had nearly the exact same experience last night, but I did get the hand through the wall as well as the pop up ghost after the stilt actor. They stopped the line right after my group for a cast change I think. Worst run I've had by far.
 
Phew, that ghost is one of my favs.
I feel like a say this a lot thru different forums, but just remember there is a lot of reason for there to be holes in a house:

-Some triggers (especially “talking” ones) can take a LONG time to reset. While one may be able to be pressed every 2-3 seconds, some can take 7-10 seconds which can feel very VERY long.
-guest incidents where the actor has to leave to report it
-injuries that can cause them to miss 1 set but not the whole night
-costuming / prop issues
-(this applies more to the first hour or two of a house being open) some holes may be filled by firecrew or reserve, but since they aren’t hardcast it can take a bit to get to location then costume and make up, and get show direction as well

And then sometimes you put it all together and get really bad timing... making a really bad run.

I say this all cause while ghostbusters was a visually stunning house the first time I went through... I knew it wouldn’t last until the end of the run. There’s too many issues that could pop up, and I feel like they all did and will continue too which is very sad. This house continuously drops for me, and it’s not anyone’s fault, just too many moving parts that all broke at once. Plus overall, this year is seeing people drop like flies. Which also isn’t surprising with how long this run is and how the majority of nights are 2ams. Definitely rough for everyone involved.
I mean, one of the main complaints from the Original Ghostbusters movie cast was that the weight of the Proton Packs was too heavy, so they're staying true to the movie.
There has been many cast issues during these past two days, hoping its fixed by next week.
 
I feel bad for everyone who didn't get to experience this house opening night. Sure, part of it was hype I know, but a lot of it was a full, energetic staff with every effect on point. When everything worked and you hit the timing right, it really was an exceptional house.

I think Ghostbusters' opening night is destined to go down like Roa's Rapids at Aquatica during employee preview, the "fast river" that was so much faster, to a point it was hard to get out of. Still fun today but on that single night for a lucky few it was so much better.
 
I feel bad for everyone who didn't get to experience this house opening night. Sure, part of it was hype I know, but a lot of it was a full, energetic staff with every effect on point. When everything worked and you hit the timing right, it really was an exceptional house.

I think Ghostbusters' opening night is destined to go down like Roa's Rapids at Aquatica during employee preview, the "fast river" that was so much faster, to a point it was hard to get out of. Still fun today but on that single night for a lucky few it was so much better.
Do you mean specifically opening night or the opening weekend? For me, not much has changed for the worse except for half of the original Ghostbusters dropping off. Still, though, the reserves do a fantastic job for the most part. Was there some kind of X factor I really missed on the first night?

Also, have been waiting to post it when it’s attached to something else because I didn’t want to leave it floating around, fun fact: the Scoleri brothers aren’t in control of the timing of their scares. I’ve gone into detail explaining various types of scares, but this is one I was completely unaware of. The three ghosts in that room (Scoleris + dragon man) work on a cycle. You will always see their triggers activate from front to back, one-two-three, with no overlaps or anything. This means that the scares are not only a little difficult due to the bulkiness, but challenging to get creative with. You just have to get in sync with the ghost before your scare and follow the script. Fun fact 2: Nunzio’s fat suit essentially works like a backwards backpack. All of these things sourced from a reserve Nunzio.
 
Do you mean specifically opening night or the opening weekend? For me, not much has changed for the worse except for half of the original Ghostbusters dropping off. Still, though, the reserves do a fantastic job for the most part. Was there some kind of X factor I really missed on the first night?

I think the opening night hype definitely played a part. But yes, even opening weekend was better than what followed. I don't think it's just me, look at the review thread, it's fallen from easy top three to middle of the pack or worse in almost all recent reviews. This is more me saying I stand by my opening night review--it really was that good to begin with.
 
I think the opening night hype definitely played a part. But yes, even opening weekend was better than what followed. I don't think it's just me, look at the review thread, it's fallen from easy top three to middle of the pack or worse in almost all recent reviews. This is more me saying I stand by my opening night review--it really was that good to begin with.
I experienced the house opening night and still thought it was pretty meh. And i'm not a Ghostbusters fan, thus I didn't even have hype going into it.
 
I experienced the house opening night and still thought it was pretty meh. And i'm not a Ghostbusters fan, thus I didn't even have hype going into it.

For the life of me I can't see how this could be a great house. There's just so little live actors and so much of it is timing dependent. You miss a few set pieces or scareactors and the thing feels empty.
 
For the life of me I can't see how this could be a great house. There's just so little live actors and so much of it is timing dependent. You miss a few set pieces or scareactors and the thing feels empty.
Yup. There are a few good scares in the house, but your timing has to be *perfect*. Other than those few scares, you're just looking at a HEAVILY effect driven house.

As someone on here said recently (I think it may have been @SeventyOne?), Scareactor driven houses can go from being the worst house on day 1 to the best house by the end. Effect driven houses have little (if any) room to improve.
 
I think the opening night hype definitely played a part. But yes, even opening weekend was better than what followed. I don't think it's just me, look at the review thread, it's fallen from easy top three to middle of the pack or worse in almost all recent reviews. This is more me saying I stand by my opening night review--it really was that good to begin with.
That’s valid. For me, I do think the hype and just knowing parts of the cast really sold it for me. In addition, sheer beauty of some of the effects really impressed me in a way that other houses couldn’t quite capture yet. I think that sort of initial, first-impression amazement may have influenced a lot of opinions in the first place.

Given more time to think, I can really appreciate the skill that the scarers of other houses have developed over the course of the event. Not to put down the GB crew, but they really can get away with a lot based on the fact that everyone loves GB anyway. Houses like Universal Monsters and House of 1000 Corpses in particular have really brought their A-game and you can tell how they’ve figured out what works best when scaring. I’ve also started to put more thought into some of the other special effects; Pepper’s Ghost is cool, but can we talk about the usage of mirrors in Monsters? What a simple and impressive way of creating dimension, atmosphere, AND scares. Lastly, I love that things can be actually scary. Ghostbusters isn’t the least bit intimidating or dread-inducing. I’ve been startled by jumpscares, but who isn’t? Ho1kC has really made me walk slower when entering rooms and quicker to scoot out of there to get away from the scares going on inside.

I don’t know if this stuff is what is influencing other people’s opinions, but they influence mine. Don’t get me wrong, Ghostbusters is fun and impressive while the actors do care, but I can’t say that it requires as much attention and motivation for its scares like some of the others do.
 
Honestly, this was probably my biggest personal let down of the event. Just what I wanted and what happened just didn’t click. I wanted something more chaotic, a little less showy.
 
Yup. There are a few good scares in the house, but your timing has to be *perfect*. Other than those few scares, you're just looking at a HEAVILY effect driven house.

As someone on here said recently (I think it may have been @SeventyOne?), Scareactor driven houses can go from being the worst house on day 1 to the best house by the end. Effect driven houses have little (if any) room to improve.

And the effects always break down. Always. Poltergeist a solid example of this, but probably best is Wyndoat (sp?) Estate in 2010. Everyone was talking that house up opening weekend, by Halloween night it felt like half the effects had been vandalized or abandoned.
 
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