Abdul.Alhazred

I'd always thought a voodoo houngan might make for a great Icon. I think people have mentioned it in past speculation, but it's still a great idea. Wouldn't you love to see a twisted, evil version of that Universal Mardi Gras billboard guy, releasing his throng of possessed people and/or zombies on an unsuspecting populace?

In the midst of last year's rumors and speculation regarding a pervasive "Fear" entity, I got my hopes up that the Icon would have some tie-in to the Cthulhu mythology. Alas, it wasn't meant to be last year. That said, some of this year's "Cult/Church of Fear" speculation bears resemblance to the groups who supposedly worship the slumbering Cthulhu. We've had events that incorporated imagery from Edgar Allen Poe and rumors of events featuring Stephen King's creations. There are whispers of Richard Matheson (what with all of the I Am Legend and Hell House talk of late), as well. Well, if they're finding inspiration from famous works of horror fiction, why not delve into HP Lovecraft's work? If I'm not mistaken, this year will bring the release of Guillermo del Toro's "At the Mountains of Madness" film, so there's a direct movie tie-in. For those of you with longer HHN tenure than myself, have there ever been any instances of Lovecraftian horrors at the event? I might ask, "Done? Which horror?"

Wasn't the cat's name "Jones"? But I digress. Your idea is an interesting one, but I don't think it would work. In a film, you see and hear exactly what the filmmakers want you to, when they want you to. You're alone in a scary place, trapped with the unknown. Is that a monster around the corner, or just my imagination? Well, the monster (or one of the monsters) IS your imagination. It's your mind that transforms even the most mundane sound or environmental element into something sinister and threatening. In a Halloween Horror Nights maze, you're walking in a line behind a thousand other people. You're certainly not alone. You hear the screams/laughs/drunken shouts from the people standing 2 feet in front of you . . . and 2 feet behind you. There is none of the intimacy that you feel while watching a movie, none of the isolation. Long periods of walking through scenes with absolutely no scareactors does not equal suspense in the way that it does in the cinema, it means there's a Cast change. Short of a pulsed house, or even the on-your-own-style house (like Busch's Alone), you're not going to be able to achieve that suspense that's so crucial to this idea.

Thanks for taking those, Kim.

Looks like EmericBelasco got another one right.