My completely baseless prediction. I have zero insider info and didn't even bother look at the rights for any of my IPs, some could now be owned by Disney and be 100% impossible.
Theme – The end of an Era – closing out the 80s, setting up the next 5 years to be set in the 90’s.
IP Houses (yes, I'm a big John Carpenter fan)
1. Best of Netflix – ST, Hill House, Suspria, etc. Don’t want a full ST house again. Mashup house like Blumhouse.
2. Zombieland Double Tap – gets the street to house treatment. Haven’t seen the movie, but assuming there is enough good stuff to justify a house.
3. The Thing – John Carpenter’s classic finally brought to life. Exactly to movie standards following the plot, nothing from the sequel/reboot or previous house. 100% faithful to the movie.
4. Halloween – Mashup of the last movie/reboot plus Halloween Kills. Halfway through the house have a big setpiece with fire effects with Michael trapped in the basement. Second part of the house is Halloween Kills.
5. They Live – the Cult Favorite / Comedy House – They give you fake glasses to wear (that do nothing, there’s no 3D or anything, but just the experience of having the glasses and seeing the “truth” in the house). Three rooms in a row have to be the same characters fighting – really hamming it up for how long and ridiculous of a fight that was.
Original Houses
1. XXX Years of Fear – Past Icon(s) in a house. Maybe do something silly like have it be the year 2100 or something so it’s in the future and they’re looking back at the HHN days and have “artifacts” and one of them is some kind of timewarp to bring the icons into “present day”. Pretty stupid idea, but just trying to think of something for how they could change it up.
2. In Between Requel house – Everybody’s favorite 3D house makes a return. Hopefully they learned how to overcome the scratched floor and other things that ruined the experience for some people. The String Room is still one of my all time favorites, even though it wasn’t the least bit scary.
3. Nuclear Winter – on 12/31/89 the US and Soviet Union kick off World War III and launch nukes at each other (opening room or two) then the rest of the house takes place in the aftermath/fallout/nuclear winter that follows with radioactive mutants. House exits near the Fallout Zone.
4. 30 Nights of Hell – A prison riots and the inmates take it over. For 30 days they control the prison with nobody from the outside making it in, until now….you are part of the first group to get into the prison in 30 days. Most violent house ever. May or may not tie into Hellgate Prison. Some ritualistic killings/aftermath. Prison has developed it’s own rules and even has “cops” to police themselves. A half consumed body is in the electric chair and they keep “toasting” him and take portions to eat.
5. Tooth Fairy / Urban Legands house that was previously scrapped. If they already have all the stuff for it, why not? Frees up some cash for other houses.
Zones
1. Fallout – not based off the game, but a nuclear fallout zone by the exit of Nuclear Winter. Snow machines on top of buildings making it snow in the streets.
2. Russian/Spetznat super soldiers zone. Big hulking beasts with guns (hopefully they’ll be allowed guns) take over Central Park after the Soviets Attack.
3. 80’s toys come to life – twisted Toy Story. Cabbage Patch Kid returns along with Teddy Ruxpin, stupid looking robot toys, “man in suit” Godzilla, etc. Sick of our kids always abusing them when playing with them, now they want to “play” with us.
4. Rob Zombie: Past, Present and Future – This year’s zone was so damn good that I see either a return with a different album or possibly a “From the mind of Rob Zombie” house.
5. Gremlins 12/31/89 – NYE party and Gremlins invade. Mostly people with stuffed animals on them attacking them. Lots of projections of shadows of gremlins on buildings and stuff. Attack victims. A Chucky-like stage show with puppet gremlin(s). A test to see if the technology and execution is good enough to justify a full house for 31.
Shows
1. Academy of Villains – This year’s show was amazing. Can’t wait to see what they do to top it next year. Maybe a Twisted Reagan vs Gorbachev Cold War type show to fit in with my other wild guesses.
2. 30 Year Retrospective Lagoon Show – Shows something from EVERY year….even if it’s just the event logo or promotional print ad.
3. Jack Stage show by Mel’s – Seems like an anniversary tradition. Maybe have Chance and Eddy show up and have Jack kill one of them. Something crazy like that. Or have a teenage Cindy show up and say her time is coming…something to upset the icon hierarchy. Have Fear come out and everybody laugh him off the stage. Or throw him into a woodchipper.
4. XXX – 30th Anniversary Parade – I continue to hold out hope for the return of the parade though it’s impossible with the crowds and street props.
Upcharge Interactive Experience – Horror Nights through the years. Some kind of VR/AR with all the past icons, some characters from fan favorite original houses/zones, maybe some surprise IP appearances, past shows like Death Drums, etc.
Upcharge Retrospective – Like they did for XX, but probably $15 or $20 now. Have it just cover the last 10 years. Talk about the evolution from all originals to the new IP/Original mix. Maybe show the full plans for Scream, Insideous, etc that were scrapped/changed at the last minute (might be able to get away with it if it is just blueprints and stuff with no names mentioned).
Upcharge XXXtreme house – The long rumored upcharge house finally makes an appearance.
Honorable Mention – A Rocky Horror Pictures Show house. A comedy house that calls back to all the years they had the show. Each room is a different song from the movie. People going through the house would be yelling out the audience participation parts and/or singing and dancing to the songs. I’d love this, I think most people would hate it, so didn’t put it on my proper list.