HHN Explorer

Soooo who wants to upload the digital version of that vinyl that was released?! I really want those unreleased tracks! Especially Building the Carnival!

Ok, so I’ve done both HHN Orlando and HHN Hollywood within two weeks. Orlando Pros: - Elaborate Set Design of houses - Beautiful, well designed scarezones - No horror-less deadzones - Blinky Cups - Nice 80s theme (besides the houses) - Dark and spooky lighting - Lagoon show Orlando Cons: - Party Atmosphere/Music - Not scary - Very generic and repetitive costumes - Crappy dancing show Hollywood Pros: - Much scarier than Orlando (more startling noises) - Agressive scarezones scareactors - Costume Design - Creepy Atmosphere/Music - Generic Crypt TV Que Videos Hollywood Cons: - Crappy facades - A lot of black walls and hallways in the houses - No “real” scarzones. They’re all very basic with not much design. Toxic Tunnel? Just a bunch of lights. - Horrorless Deadzones. It really takes you out of the atmosphere of the event. Too much light as well. The whole event needs to be darker like Orlando. - No overall theme. Just the merch is 80’s - Crappy dancing show Overall, Hollywood is lightyears behind Orlando but Orlando could take some notes from Hollywood on their scare factor and “Horror” atmosphere. Hollywood really doesn’t feel like HHN. It’s a completely different vibe than Orlando.

Does anybody know which houses exit where this year? Trying to plan my strategy for next weekend

My girlfriend made this shirt for the event this year since the theme is technically supposed to be 80s. I'm still working on mine, which will be different, but just wanted to give you guys a peek at hers. EDIT: It’s missing Depths of Fear but we’re adding it.

Out of all the scarezones, this will definitely be the hardest for them to pull off. I expect little displays like the past few scarezones in this area.

This was on their official blog post today RE: 2nd Show

Anybody else find it odd that they didn't announce the final house before the scarezones and AOV? Plus they have one show left to announce and it's weird they didn't group it with the AOV announcement. They're changing things up on us. Normally it's all the houses then a full reveal with scarezones and shows. I need them to announce the last house so I can make my own house shirt for this year.

Shouldn't we be getting close to a full reveal? The event is almost a month away.

As much as I'd like to see the main gate all fancied up, it just doesn't make sense anymore. They don't need to sell the event like they use to. I think it was mainly used to attract visitors during the daytime, the one's who didn't have a HHN ticket. Seeing the gate may have persuaded them to see what HHN is all about. Also, the immersive overall theme has gone to the wayside. Personally, I'd love for them to bring it back, but if they're going to use that money on making the houses/streets better instead I'm all for it.

Can somebody DM me the PNG versions of the logos without the backgrounds? Thanks!

Got a survey today about HHN. It asked about AOV this year compared to Bill & Ted and which one I liked better. Hopefully they're thinking of bringing back B&T!

Shirt came in last night!

Hey guys! Check out my custom House for this year!

Could you possibly send me files (Preferably .PNG or .PDF) of just the logos without a background?

I didn't realize Roddy was forced out. Care to share? What you can of course.

Before I start letting it all out there, I just want to go on the record and state that I have the utmost respect for Universal Creative, it's directors, and Universal as a company. It's a hard job toput on such an amazing event that takes a team and a lot of other factors. I am not one of those bitter "the old days were the best" kind of people and I go every year to the event and I love it. I will continue to go. Having said that, this post is about the change of overall quality since the departure of James Michael-Roddy as Head Creative Director. I personally feel that Mike Aiello isn't the guy for this job. Since the year he took control of the event and when Roddy moved over to Disney, HHN has seen major changes. Some good some bad. I feel that there is a huge difference between being a fan and being an innovator. Murdy out in Hollywood is a "fan" and by fan I mean that he isn't capable of creating fresh ideas. He loves so many horror properties and just wants to replicate them. He does nothing on a deeper level. That is why, again in my opinion, that Hollywood is never as strong as Orlando and the reason Hollywood often repeats their scarezones and houses on a yearly basis. For Aiello, I believe he is a "fan" as well. It wasn't until he took control that we saw a spike in IP houses. I have no problem with IP's as they can often be great and draw a large number of crowds. I know that a lot of this is probably out of Aiello's hands because Marketing has a pretty large say. The problem I have is that for the first time in HHN history we are starting to see repeats of these houses and scarezones. American Werewolf in London was great but to have the exact same house done within only a couple years felt very stale. I'll skip Walking Dead because we al know that was all strictly marketing's call. But The Purge? There isn't much you can do to change it or make it fresh. The lack of ideas are starting to pile up. 2 years of a Purge scarezone withing a few years, a Purge house (because Scream fell through), and now Purge represented in another house. Really? The Scarezones have become more like mini-shows since Aiello took over. Especially this year. It seems like the actors are instructed to put on a show instead of actually trying to scare people. They even have stages to do shows. It's cool and all but if you can't blend the scares with the shows than it's pointless. Everything has become a photo-op and show. This year it seems that almost all of the scarezones are photo-ops with shows. I do love it when the scareactors won't pose for pics. Every zone this year has a "show" and it's way overused. Use that energy on maybe actually scaring people. The Music. Since the departure of Roddy, the music has gone from an eerie sountrack to an upbeat party soundtrack. Heck, even last year I saw on some boards that people were complaining about it and magically within the first few weeks the soundtrack at the event had changed to be a little more creepy. I feel like Aiello treats the event as a party and not a horror event. Also, every year before Aiello took over, the music was different. Now the past 3 years I have heard the same carnival song. It worked for 25 and 26 but this year? What the hell. It was playing near Blumhouse. Gone are the eerie scores from Midnight Syndicate or Nox Arcana. The atomosFEAR has changed drastically. Everything is just lacking. The Facades have drastically changed. This year is probably the year with the least. A cutout for HIVE. No real facade for The Shining. No facade for SAW. The list goes on and on. When Roddy ran the event, the entrances were grand and exciting. Some of this carried over into HHN 21, the year after he left, but it eventually transformed into the Aiello standard. I don't want to keep going on and on so I'll end it with the most over talked about topic. The Icons and story. Since Aiello took control there hasn't been a memorable icon or story for us hardcore fans. Everything is just thrown together with a loose tie or no tie-in at all. Again, the difference between fan and innovator. When Kenny Babel and James Michael-Roddy ran the show things were original and actually had a layer of fear and creative stories and icons. They would even make amazing queue and archway videos. Fear may have sucked as an icon but at least he had a cool story that tied other icons together along with a video to explain it. This year, it's like they wanted to do some festival theme but never followed through with it. It makes little sense. Year by year Orlando becomes more and more like Hollywood's event. 25 was a step in the right direction of creative and innovative. The perfect blend of new and old. 27 has been three steps back. I think Aiello is a great guy and loves horror. I just don't think he's the right guy for the job. The event has become less scary and more like a party. A party I will continue to go to and enjoy but I am definitely ready for somebody fresh to take over. Somebody that knows what Horror Nights is really all about. Thoughts?

Now that all of the houses have been announced, here is my custom house t-shirt for this year!

So it looks like the rumored Blumhouse of Horrors now has a book painted on the left side of the facade and a patch of bricks painted on the right as of today.

I typically make a custom house t-shirt but since the full lineup still hasn't been announced, I decided to make a B&T shirt for now. Let me know what you guys think.

You're the best!

Any update on when we're going to see the mix?

Not really a fan of that Chance artwork. Looks pretty tacky and gaudy.

Made this shirt for my girlfriend this year. She wanted a shirt different than my custom shirt so I added Chance to hers.

Simpsons is always open so count on that. I can't imagine them closing MIB. They need it to keep the lines down. I doubt they would close any of the E-Tickets.

The official store now has decals: