Actually it is very fair to Murdy & his team. It is their job to have it done within a reasonable timeframe. This is just poor time management & planning. Working movie studio or not, they shouldn't be this behind with getting the event ready, especially after this many years of doing the event. There is a big difference between working on things until the last minute & still doing things that should've been done already.. Yes, I'm very well aware that every haunt works up to the last minute before opening night, as well as during the event itself.... but that is no excuse to not have certain things like construction, audio, lighting, & video done already... This past week should've been devoted to inspections & tweaking of things, not rushing to get it done. It is not an unreasonable expectation.
This isn't like Orlando which had to completely change a house concept last minute due to rights being pulled AFTER the house was completely built with its audio/lighting done. Or deal with a Christian music event this past weekend resulting in having to disassemble their fully built stage set overnight on wednesday & having to rebuild it yesterday, as well as cover up SZ props/sets that might be gory/offensive (previous years they had to remove certain things entirely from the SZs or wait until after RTU to put them out).
Take Orlando in 2012 for example, where the house (Chupacabra) was nearly built in its location (SS44), then had to be scrapped because that location was demolished late July for Transformers resulting in having to quickly dig up a new house concept (House of Horrors) in August to replace it with that could be done easily & cheaply, file a permit for a new location (B79-parade building), come up with new masks/costumes, then have the house built & ready in time for the event. It ended up being one of the best & scariest houses that year. And it was only a simple blacklight strobe house. Even though they didn't need to, they still added more set details over the first 3 weeks of the event.
The closest Hollywood has been in the situation of having to swap out a maze last minute recently is what? when they did TCM the other year?
So yea... considering everything was locked in place well in advance without any issues like last minute IP changes or another annual event in the park happening the weekend before HHN (its usually at least 2 weeks before), I do expect them to have it done by now. That way they have the time to make any necessary adjustments or changes to things.
This isn't like Orlando which had to completely change a house concept last minute due to rights being pulled AFTER the house was completely built with its audio/lighting done. Or deal with a Christian music event this past weekend resulting in having to disassemble their fully built stage set overnight on wednesday & having to rebuild it yesterday, as well as cover up SZ props/sets that might be gory/offensive (previous years they had to remove certain things entirely from the SZs or wait until after RTU to put them out).
Take Orlando in 2012 for example, where the house (Chupacabra) was nearly built in its location (SS44), then had to be scrapped because that location was demolished late July for Transformers resulting in having to quickly dig up a new house concept (House of Horrors) in August to replace it with that could be done easily & cheaply, file a permit for a new location (B79-parade building), come up with new masks/costumes, then have the house built & ready in time for the event. It ended up being one of the best & scariest houses that year. And it was only a simple blacklight strobe house. Even though they didn't need to, they still added more set details over the first 3 weeks of the event.
The closest Hollywood has been in the situation of having to swap out a maze last minute recently is what? when they did TCM the other year?
So yea... considering everything was locked in place well in advance without any issues like last minute IP changes or another annual event in the park happening the weekend before HHN (its usually at least 2 weeks before), I do expect them to have it done by now. That way they have the time to make any necessary adjustments or changes to things.
