Triplets of Terror (HHN 33)

[Midnight Detective]

I'm still up on the Triplets themselves, but the house didn't meet the personal hype I had. Going through, it gets SO CLOSE, I just wish it was longer and carried a climax.

My personal dream sequel would be a prequel - I would love to see a house earlier in the timeline where they suck at murdering/make mistakes. Something like this would only work with having already had the house we have now, and would elevate it conceptually imo

 

[Brian G.]

I did the house again on Wednesday after being away for a couple of weeks. None of the issues are the fault of the cast. It just feels short and unfulfilling. I want to like this house, but I feel like there were some big missed opportunities here.

1. Shift the podcast/paper clippings to the entrance while still keeping the house facade.
2. Instead of starting with 1984's murder and jumping to the last one, I think it may have worked better if we went through each decade's kill.
3. With how story-driven this house is, a pre-show queue video could've helped.

 

[Jake S]

1. Shift the podcast/paper clippings to the entrance while still keeping the house facade.

I think this would have made a big difference. Wish they had done this.

 

[krazyhorrorkid]

Also, news reporter narration during the scenes where they display the different decades of the killings would have been great too. This house needed it.

 

[Clive]

I've been here before as a creative, so it gives me no joy to say this, but Triplets feels like a case where the team got so invested in their "big idea" concept that they eventually got lost deep in the woods instead of seeing the forest for the trees. It's a cool idea on paper, but the story just doesn't translate in practice, at least in this form.

I think this is a house that really would have benefitted from some "play testing" // "test screenings" during the later stages of development. I fully understand why they don't typically do that sort of thing, but they needed some perspectives from people unfamiliar with the nuances of the concept. I imagine many would express confusion if they were presented the current layout/progression of events without any prior context or setup, which would've given the design teams time to make crucial adjustments. Everyone involved with making approvals here was "in too deep" to realize their premise had become incomprehensible.

 

[ReelJustice]

I've been here before as a creative, so it gives me no joy to say this, but Triplets feels like a case where the team got so invested in their "big idea" concept that they eventually got lost deep in the woods instead of seeing the forest for the trees. It's a cool idea on paper, but the story just doesn't translate in practice, at least in this form.

I think this is a house that really would have benefitted from some "play testing" // "test screenings" during the later stages of development. I fully understand why they don't typically do that sort of thing, but they needed some perspectives from people unfamiliar with the nuances of the concept. I imagine many would express confusion if they were presented the current layout/progression of events without any prior context or setup, which would've given the design teams time to make crucial adjustments. Everyone involved with making approvals here was "in too deep" to realize their premise had become incomprehensible.

Brother, did you write this for Triplets or Museum or Bloodlines?

 

[Clive]

Brother, did you write this for Triplets or Museum or Bloodlines?

Applies to both... we're getting there...!

 

[Drummanmatt]

At least bloodlines had the podcast to explain the backstory which worked well. I still feel like every time I go through the first scene the mannequin is gonna turn around and say “you know nothing John Snow” lol

 

[GA-MBIT]

The one thing that bothered me in this house is that, at least for me, the interior of the Barmy home didn't match the exterior. The exterior screamed "hoarder/hillbilly" and the interior just looked like.. a normal house.

I think the issue is that the house was messy, but it wasn't gross. My family house sometimes gets about that messy when the four of us get to working a ton and don't have time to pick up. A solid afternoon could reasonably clean the mess from that first room.

Like you said, the facade pitches "hoarder", "grime", "Rob Zombie", but the interior doesn't sell that at all. That lack of grime and trash, alongside the clear effort put into the birthday decorations, just leads to a muddled introduction to these characters. Like the rest of the house, and a lot of this year, the creative design and ideas just never come together in a satisfying way.

 

[Midnight Detective]

Brother, did you write this for Triplets or Museum or Bloodlines?

Museum at least gives you information on the premise in its line

 

[Crypt Keeper]

3. With how story-driven this house is, a pre-show queue video could've helped.

They could easily project that video playing in the podcast scene onto the side of the Soundstage.

 

[Midnight Detective]

Scareactors are trying but... officially worse than Chucky. RIP

 

[GA-MBIT]

Scareactors are trying but... officially worse than Chucky. RIP

I disagree. In both cases, the scareactors were trying real hard, but with Chucky, the house itself was incredibly cheap, unscary, and had a lot of decisions that actively hurt the experience of a haunt like the constant use of TV screens with overly long video clips to tell the nonexistant story.

Triplets is just a less than stellar execution of a middling concept. Nothing about it screams "worst house ever" other than the overall fan backlash it recieved before the event began imo. The sets are large and well built, if confused within it's own lore and lacking a ton of impact. It's got some decent execution of scares like with the Dog mirror fake-out or the Hobo changing between the street corner and him yelling for help. The Triplets are unique and easy to tell apart from another. I think there are a few other picks for worst house, at least since I've been going in 2016.

Chucky also had some elements that were cool, but the lack of intensity from the puppets, reliance on boring plain-clothes victim scares, and literal barebones sets (don't worry guys, the sets look bad "ironically" ) just keep that one locked at the bottom, at least personally.

FWIW, totally cool to disagree on this, it's all subjective. I've just seen this sentiment a lot and wanted to get my two thoughts in on it.

 

[Midnight Detective]

I disagree. In both cases, the scareactors were trying real hard, but with Chucky, the house itself was incredibly cheap, unscary, and had a lot of decisions that actively hurt the experience of a haunt like the constant use of TV screens with overly long video clips to tell the nonexistant story.

Triplets is just a less than stellar execution of a middling concept. Nothing about it screams "worst house ever" other than the overall fan backlash it recieved before the event began imo. The sets are large and well built, if confused within it's own lore and lacking a ton of impact. It's got some decent execution of scares like with the Dog mirror fake-out or the Hobo changing between the street corner and him yelling for help. The Triplets are unique and easy to tell apart from another. I think there are a few other picks for worst house, at least since I've been going in 2016.

Chucky also had some elements that were cool, but the lack of intensity from the puppets, reliance on boring plain-clothes victim scares, and literal barebones sets (don't worry guys, the sets look bad "ironically" ) just keep that one locked at the bottom, at least personally.

FWIW, totally cool to disagree on this, it's all subjective. I've just seen this sentiment a lot and wanted to get my two thoughts in on it.

I agree with a lot of what youre saying. Just for context Chucky is not my worst house ever, but it's a pretty good standard for... not good lol

Chucky had a factor going for it that it progressively got SLIGHTLY better and better through the event. Triplets is so broken at a design level that it hasn't, and can't get better.

There are 3 rooms, the first two and the meat hallways, that have zero scares. At the climax, in the birthday room, it's structured in such a way where you can see the scareactors. Arguably 4, because the homeless scare is more of visual than a scene that can actually startle you.

For design of the structure, the house looks great. Unfortunately within that structure, the boo-hole placement is real bad. I like the design and character of Melody and Harmony, but the way the Triplets are used, again, hurts the house. Harmony is almost a passive character.

I do have positives - I actually think the podcast room is really cool, abet horrible placement and wasted in a house so short. I love weather affects in houses, so the rain and snow affect are pluses for me. Visually, the scene where Melody comes out with a buzzsaw while Harmony watches is a good scene. Finally, the climax room, especially the music has a great vibe.

I typically see each house 2 to 3 times through the event, with the exception of houses like Chucky, Museum, Triplets, because they have walk on times at points. That's where the killing blow on Triplets for me is. It's the first house in years that I unfortunately don't want to see one more time, even if it had a 5 minute wait time, because the execution is so poor.