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But will we get real skeletons like the movie did?

As someone who's been trained in, directing and teaching acting for nearly 2 decades now, I am an absolute stickler for acting in haunts. I've never seen it genuinely "good." 98% of the time it's been awful with the other 2% being passable. Including anything at HHN. I understand if GP or casual fans are into that thing and can forget about it, but there's too many layers to a performance for me to just turn my mind off to it without critiquing. This is why I love Haunts with elaborate sets, sound design, make-up, etc. because my focus is more on that. And probably why I love HHN so much, because they usually pop out and go away without too much acting-performance (at least not dialogue). Generally the performers outside the mazes or the one-off scareactor in a zone have been at most tolerable but generally crappy. And anytime a monster at KSF opens their mouth to say anything, suddenly any amount of fear or immersion I had is completely gone because now it's been ruined. So if something is relying on or leaning into the "acting," then chances are I'm not going to like it. The other aspect to it is, these performers have to be "on" 7 hours a night. Even interchanging with another actor, that's still 3.5 hours, which is a long time to genuinely stay in character, be in the moment, and in the zone. And then they have to do it night after night, same small scenes over and over again, plus interaction. I always feel bad for the victims in HHN mazes who have to pretend they're being murdered for hours and you can tell they're exhausted and not into it at all, trying to give their 100% but it's coming off as only 25% selling it, which is nowhere near enough IMO. If WB can even have ONE character living under imaginary circumstances TRUTHFULLY, then it'd be a job well done. Because I have not seen that anywhere else.

I do love improv theater in haunts, when it is done well. 17th Door, Creep, hell even how Dark Harbor meshes the two makes for a beautiful experience. Hopefully these active waiting scenes don't come off like awkward riddleless escape rooms with Harley Quinn cosplayers hosting the party.

I'd also look forward to some sort of vehicle element in NY as well.

I have to imagine that Vamp will have a NYE "ball drop" at least at midnight, if not throughout the night. Chucky will probably also have a stage to interact with him at, similar to the Chance zone in 26.

Actually thinking back to audition emails, it would make sense for Chucky to be a live puppet here. The audition emails they put out for puppeteers were saying you could perform a song with your own puppet as part of the audition, which is something you'd do for a performance role rather than a scareactor role. Previous house puppets like the AWIL werewolves and the AvE Xenomorphs were run by regular scareactors without any specialized skills or experience (myself included). An audition for skilled puppeteers would imply a more complex role.

I, for one, am really excited for Slaughter Sinema. I grew up watching UHF TV (Showing my age here. UHF/VHF were dials on your TV back before cable TV. One dial was like channels 1-12 and the other was like 15-69 or something. Network TV and PBS was on VHF while the B team channels were on UHF - and seriously, if you haven't seen the movie, go get UHF by weird Al and discover Spatula City!) Saturdays on UHF channels was always Planet of the Apes or some cheap-o movie. "It's the 2 o'clock movie!" They were always a movie the likes of which would be something MST3K would watch to make fun of. I remember one of my favs was about a guy who had been driving along with his window down and his arm resting out the window when another car came by and....ooops, cut his left hand right off. Of course, he had to go back and find it because it had his wedding ring on it and probably also because it was his hand. So, he takes it home and puts it in the freezer, you know, like any reasonable person would do. So, of course, said hand becomes evil, escapes the freezer and goes on a murderous rampage. It was great. I loved anytime it was raining or cold and we could have an excuse to be inside to watch those. (Yes, in the late 70s and through most of the 80s most kids I knew were tossed right out of the house on Saturdays. My mom would go as far as locking us outside at times) Then in the 80s VCRs opened our world to the Pam Grier early 70s "women in prison" type movies. The ones where the girls get 2 showers a month and you see both of them. Great times. So, yeah, I hope Slaughter Sinema lives up to the hype!

Houses (Updated now that I know what Seeds of Extinction is) Carnival Graveyard - Loved it from the moment I heard about it Slaughter Sinema - Would love it if HR BloodnGutz made a cameo Seeds of Extinction - By the description, this has a real Tomb of the Ancients feel to it. I am bumping it to number three; I smell puppetry... Scary Tales: Deadly Ever After - Since every Scary Tales has been great, hard to see how this could miss. Stranger Things - Easily the most anticipated of the IP for me, if only because they must be throwing oodles of money behind it Poltergeist - The movie freaked me out as a kid but I don't see how this can translate to an entire house. So many movies have copied the classic scares from this and we have seen those houses. I don't see how Poltergeist lends itself to pop scares from scareactors. Trick R Treat - Scarezone was good. I have faith in Orlando A&D that this will surprise me. I think the GP who have not seen the film will love it for Sam. Dead Exposure: Patient Zero - I didn't care for original DE, and it sounds like this will be more of the same. You can't "detail" black objects with glow paint. You just get muddy things that kinda sorta look like recognizable objects. Same with signs - no matter how good an artist, it looks like a kid painted them. Hoping this year will be a polar opposite. Halloween 4 - I don't remember any of the Halloween movies beyond #3. Don't understand why we need this. This is my "Saw" from last year. Why, dammit? We deserve better. Blumhouse 2 - My expectation bar cannot get any lower. Last year the bar was at ground level and both Orlando and Hollywood managed to trip over it. I'm gonna bury the bar this year and see what happens. Zones Vamp '85 - I wonder where they can go next year. I guess hippie vampires? Millennial vampires that sit around doing nothing? Killer Klowns from Outer Space - A.K.A. a house from next year. I think this will be a surprise hit. I hope they do the shadow puppets. Red drinks with cotton candy straws can seriously pay for the cost of this zone. Twisted Traditions - Don't see how this will be different from the other zones in this area. I feel like I've already been through this multiple times. Revenge of Chucky - If they do the Insult Emporium, I think it may be a sleeper hit. Then again, I can't imagine them being nearly as dirty and offensive as Hollywood was. Would be hilarious if they set up a nearby "safe space" with stuffed animals and blankets. The Harvest - I hope this will not be just a photo op but it will. Sorry to sound like criticalanalysis, but I don't see much hope for this. Hope I'm wrong.