Mae
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Posts posted by Mae
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My husband said I sounded like Renfield when I saw this post...
squee!!!!!!!!!!!
Mae
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The bestest archive for HHN sites, HorrorNights.be...is NOT FOUND!
Does anyone know anything????
Mae
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I would love to see another Ghost town... as of course stupid hurricanes had me miss that year. Cool idea to mix with the LT.
As for queue videos, I have always loved the videos... or at least something to entertain whuile you wait in the heat for 10 min to 1 hr+
I'd be happy if we got something similar again, too. I thought Ghost Town was spectacular. The details were stunning and there were so many places to hide a scare in each scene, just the suspense of where they would be was enough to throw you. It had a very authentic feel to it, as if they worked with the scareactors to become 'actors'; they had appropriate accents, lines and 'screams' consistent with the story/theme of the house, and a certain carriage to them that made it feel very real.
Line entertainment and comfort is something all parks should be working on constantly!
Mae
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One more thing, I am quite surprised that you don't know about Emeric Belasco when after all, the man was your father....
OMG Jimmy!
That's why I recognized the name!
DanielMyron....gah, there aren't enough face palms!!
Mae
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There's more to the de Sade quote that I found interesting:
"Evil is a moral entity and not a created one, an eternal and not a perishable entity: it existed before the world; it constituted the monstrous, the execrable being who was also to fashion such a hideous world. It will hence exist after the creatures which people this world. "
A monstrous, execrable being that fashioned such a hideous world...from a Creationist point of view, that could very well be an insult to God.
Still thinking about the preacher thing. Legacy, if it doesn't turn in this direction within the next two years, I say you start your own event!!!
Mae
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That's true actually, If they changed how queue lines and things were set up, I think it will give the event some needed "freshness"
I kinda wish the music videos in the queues came back, like in 2008, I remember going to interstellar terror, they had a screen with music videos, that was fun
One night a line attendant did the entire Thriller dance! It was a definate highlight!
Mae
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All they had were music videos in 2008? Wow, queue videos have really gone downhill.
It bugged me that, outside of Zombiegeddon, the queue video was the same for every house. 2004 (the first year every house had a video) had a different video for every house. Castle Vampyre had Kenny Bauble investigating the Castle, Ghost Town had the history of Thunder Gulch, Hellgate had the awesome Warden welcoming you to Hellgate. Deadtropolis even had a local, channel 6 anchor reporting a zombie outbreak. Those were awesome queue videos. If they are going to keep them going, I would much rather see Universal take the time and make the videos all organic to the house.
(Catacombs desperately needed one. How hard would it had been to tell the story of the plague, plague doctors, and Cary, France in a faux-History Channel special style? I mean, really.)
I have to agree; 2004 had the best queue entertainment yet. I liked the 2007 Freddy video, it had some thought put into it and introduced the storyline of the house a la infomercial style, but the rest of the houses from that year had very little to offer after the first 5-10 minutes. I remember seeing the same sequence 10 times while waiting to get into TCM that year, and we weren't even in line that long!
I did, however, enjoy the little text games they used in 2008 and 2009. They took me back to my youth and those text rpg games you got to play when you took computer classes in 7th grade. In this age of high function, super fast phones with internet/wifi capabilities, I would love to see a game with 'rewards' if you finish. Give us a downloadable video or song, or a digital badge that could culminate in some sort of hurrah on the website at the end of the run...it's the 21st Century, USO! If you want to begin a new era of fear, you better get with the times!!!
Mae
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Although Matheson could have been adapted quite successfully, houses based on the works of Sade would have been the wrong kind of awesome.
To put it simply, all involved would end up getting arrested!
Now THAT would be an event to remember!
All silliness aside, we've all noticed the word 'evil' coming up a lot, but now 'moral' has come into play. Who was it that brought up a sort of psycho religious figure as an icon? They might have been onto something.
ETA: In fact, the concept of Saws n Steam from last year, with the 'speaker' and his message, would fit in that well. What else is a 'preacher', but one who bears a message? The CDT were his disciples, and the masses in the city were the sheep. Anyone who was 'outside' was fair game, and outside has applications beyond just not in a covered structure....
Mae
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Kind of a relief. As original as a "lab animals run amok" idea is, I don't think it would work as an HHN maze.
Then again, if it were the tongue-in-cheek house of the year, it's just odd enough to be a hit. Think "Creatures!" in a lab setting, stuffed to the gills with oversized foam-latex puppet zombie creatures. Hmmm, I may have just changed my own mind.
For some reason a house filled with mole rats just came to mind...they're those hairless rats...but they all look like the one from Kim Possible.
Which is more phallic than zombie-esque, but still vaguely alarming.
Mae
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I speculate that A&D will return to Sting Alley as a scarezone, and possibly might play with different locations a bit more. I would love to see the alley where the Blues Brothers perform turn into a prohibition-zombie mob-war shootout (MOB ZOMBIES!), and a Central Park scarezone. I think they are going to try and challenge our perceptions of the event, and by our I mean the people who are discussing it before their proposal has even been made (I know it has been, but we were discussing it before-hand). I think they will view it as a challenge to surprise us. At least I hope they do. Catacombs and Havoc completely blew our expectations out of the water. They will probably work to top that.
I LOVE that idea!!!
Mae
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I feel like I've done this before...
But I love talking about HHN, so I'll do it, again!
I have a difficult time deciding what is my favorite house. Frankenstein had some of the most amazing costumes, make-up, and sets I've ever seen and the actors were so good. Their timing was flawless every trip through. I loved the steampunk feel and the continuity to the story. My scares were intense, one time causing me to run straight into a wall...which I'd never actually done before. I had to sort of 'hold on' to it for a few seconds to get my bearings...it was that good. Dracula was gorgeous and those brides made me scream so damn much on one visith that I lost my voice! It was never where I expected, either; I never got the up scare, but the one just after that...every time. The Wolf Man was much scarier than I had anticipated. The forest scene was tremendous with growls and howls coming from everywhere and you never knew where the Wolf Man actually was; it made for a great first scare. The sets were beautiful again, with fun trivia thrown in for good measure (thanks Unmasking the Horror tour; though I do still wish we'd been able to take photos). Silver Screams was great fun and had the BEST facade, ever. EVER. I could have stood there and watched that for an hour. I somehow always got scared by the My Blood Valentine scene, even though I never once thought the movie was all that scary. (I only watched the remake for Jensen Ackles) and I was so in love with the Phantom at the beginning I felt like a groupie. (Why hasn't The Phantom ever had a house, I wonder?) Although I enjoyed the other houses; Leave It to Cleaver was great fun and the Child's Play house had one of my all-time, top 10 scares, they were weren't as much fun as those top four. I declined Saw and Spawning on my last few visits.
I LOVED War of the Dead. Again with the scareactors...they even got me in broad daylight! I loved the set pieces and the costumes and it was fascinating to be in that zone. The sound and lighting effects were awesome, especially for an outdoor venue. It was where I started my night every time, cutting through there to get to Horrorwood and Silver Screams. The Horrorwood Die-In is, I think, quintessential HHN. The atmosphere was fantastic, down to the popcorn stand and the cheesy 70's 'make-out' van. The shift changes were almost as fun as the previous year's Skoolhouse changes (almost). Lights, Camera, Hacktion! never failed to amuse and entertain and I do love the smell of metal, oil and gasoline. Containment and Apocolypse didn't start out so good in my opinion, but they both improved tremendously and by the last weekend they were in fine, fine shape. I didn't think much of the Cirque du Freak, perhaps it was just too crowded.
I liked HHN 19, but it did have some things that weren't my cup of tea. It started as a bit of a disappointment after the previous year, but there was still lots to enjoy.
I'll have to add more later. Time to go home!
Mae
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I loved the incorporation of the rides into HHN 10. I don't remember much more than Jack in the Jaws ride, but Earthquake (Dark Torment) and the Kongfrontation walk through (Nightmare Creatures ) were just cool. Dark Torment was especially neat because you went through the 'scary' part of the Earthquake attraction, then had to leave through the haunted house. It was genius. The queue for Nightmare Creatures had creatures in it, too. I remember one of them sneaking around a pillar to scare the group in front of us while we were waiting. Loved it. I've wished for that sort of interaction at HHN ever since. I would be very happy to see it, again!
Mae
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Wishful Thinking - And I'm saying this only because I seriously doubt it would EVER happen because it's just too meta.
A chainsaw scarezone through Central Park with logging equipment framing the entrances on both sides, to include a large flatbed with lumber falling off the back. The scareactors would be dressed as lumberjacks during the daylight hours, but would put on wolf masks once the sun went down.
It would be called, "Chainsaw Wolves."
(Props if you understand the inspiration.)
That would be AWESOME.
Mae
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Field of Screams was. Harvest of Souls was located where the pumpkins are typically now. Jack's rat race was back there at HHN 15. In a way I like the trek behind the scenes... in other ways I don't. There is never really any real theme in the backlots. Sure they had one of those air sock guys, some spinning lights, and some fog one year... But that does not a theme make
ST2 was in the queue for Bluto's Bilge Rats.
I loved those extra large scarezones, but I confess to only seeing Field of Screams and Fright Yard in 04. In 05 Jack's Rat Race was closed due to inclement weather (Hurricane Wanda), more's the pity. I loved loved LOVED the 'tunnel' in 2004. It was only lighting and fog, but it was spooky and when the cast changes went through it was a completely unique experience. You never knew what was happening in there.
The more I think about it,the more there seems to be a lot of interesting places USO could use for scaring that go to waste.
I'm still bitter about missing 2002. Between that, 2004 Howloscream lost to Jeanne, and HHN 15 to Wanda in 2005, I missed too much and now it is a moral imperative to go multiple times a year. I've bought FFPs religiously since then.
Mae
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What I find ironic is that the islands were kind of the birth place for most of the icons, and was held there for more than a couple of years, but, It looks like HHN will never be at the Islands again, specially with Potter not being able to be used,
Weeelll.....3 major players and 1 minor player in each.
The best part of HHN at IOA was the textural differences in the locations of the houses. Poseidon's Fury was an awesome house location and I liked the Ripsaw Falls queue for Ship of Screams (I didn't get to see ST2). There were so many little differences that were just neat when you were used to the old park.
Mae
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The idea of a writer whose stories come to life is pretty much exactly what the Storyteller was with Terra Cruentes. The story of the Terra Queen was the story she was telling come to life. As nifty as a librarian or writer would be as an icon, they would literally be a slight variation on "Grandma."
The artist idea... heh... the original rumor I heard for the 2003 icon (the director) was that he was going to be an animator who created all the characters for HHN. I heard that concept during 2002, and firmly believe that it was the original plan, but Marketing/A&D decided to go a little darker with a snuff director.
Simply put, I don't believe these ideas are new, and rather believe A&D would be attempting to move away from such literal concepts. When you get an icon with a "profession" you immediately limit what the design and feel of the event. Jack will always be associated with "dark humor" and the circus. The Usher will always be associated with "scary movies," along with the Director. The Storyteller will always be associated with "scary stories." The Caretaker is the "broadest" of the icons because I don't believe the GP knows or understands his story, but doesn't really embody a specific idea. He just has an amazingly developed story and canon. The effectiveness in Bloody Mary wasn't the specifically her backstory (though it was with the fans), it was the simple fact that she embodied a simple, graspable, and most importantly broad, idea; "Urban Legends." She didn't embody something literal, but something accessible and varied. Fear, from a marketing perspective, did the same. Fate probably would have, aside from it being so esoteric. Death, Faith, shoot, even Politics (I've always wanted a possessed politician/antichrist-esque figure who used HHN as a "campaign rally"), the Unknown, History, are broader topics than "Movies," or "Stories," because they allow more variety in how they are approached. I think that is what the new era of darkness is intended to provide; more variety in scares by focusing on more inclusive themes.
Librarians do not write or create, merely present what has already been written. If s\he chooses to present the works of Poe, or Stevenson, or any number of other authors, those worlds would envelope us and we would be forced to follow the paths set in those pages. S\He would be more like the Usher than the Director or the Storyteller; a keeper or steward that holds those things safely until they are needed. It would be a far-reaching idea that could encompass more than just one year.
When you start using words like 'anti-Christ', people get crazy. Public relations would more than likely (probably already have) nixed anything leaning in that direction. Although that Westboro nutcase sure does beg to be 'HHN-ed'...in the bloodiest way possible.
Mae
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Initially, I was unimpressed with the event, as a whole. The houses were excellent; Dead Silence and Nightmare on Elm Street are still two of the best and most extravagant houses I've ever been in and and the remaining houses were pretty consistantly scary and fun. Even the lamentable Vampyr: Bloodbath managed to make me scream a few times. The streets were just not what I was used to; truth be told. I wanted scarezones. Lots of scarezones. From the press releases and word of mouth I was expecting scares everywhere; but there were no scares, save Troupe Macabre. While it still ranks as one of my favorite 'zones ever, it was still a bit disappointing.
As my visits increased and the month wore on, though, I found myself deeply, deeply in love with its atmosphere. Especially on those few days of smaller crowds, when you could just hear the music and the wind blowing in the trees. Every so often, a sinister laugh would come from a darkened corner. It reminded me of the 'good ol' days' when the whole park was dark, with simple, eerie red lighting and sound effects piped in from behind doors and windows. 'Safe spots' were few and far between; a drill team or horde could simply appear and wreak havoc. While the danger was not evident in 2007, the haunting and spooky was and it made wandering those dark crossways and sidewalks so much more...Halloween. The only time they've matched it since was the Pumpkin Patch/Skoolhouse zone in 2008. I still love me some scarezones, but those? They're magic.
Mae
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@ Jimmy LOL
That is an awesome idea too. A lot of movies and books have touched on the idea of art coming to life but I can't recall a movie that was specifically about a painter who paints things into life.
There was ink heart where they wrote things to life (and an awesome book series by Ted Dekker that does the same)
There was an Amazing Stories episode where a man loses his wife and is able to paint her back into existence.
Oh, and don't forget that Amazing Stories set in WW2 with the cartoonist trapped in the gunner under the plane! I think it was called The Mission, and it had Keifer Sutherland and Kevin Costner. Not horror, per se, but remarkable and defininitely inspiring.
Mae
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Creepy, like almost too nice, then insane mood swing into a terrorizing creature. That would rock my world. Split personality disorder on an icon would be a cool effect, especially if that was represented in a house.
Come to my house, and meet my daughter!!
I like the idea of the librarian. How much fun could that be? Someone dies and gets a big red "WITHDRAWN" stamped on their forehead.
Or, maybe something like this:
And then there's this awesome link:
Mae
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All of the mysterious literary references we have been getting lately has reminded me of something I noticed last year but kept to myself.
Consider the mysteriously sinister person of the new head of Legendary Truth, Dr. Gabriel Fell. In the second chapter of the classic horror novel Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson we are introduced to Hyde when he encounters the lawyer Utterson. Utterson's reaction to this is as follows (emphasis added):
This is in turn a reference to a little rhyme by the 17th Century British satirist Tom Brown:
And finally in the novel Hannibal by Thomas Harris and in the film adaptation of the same name, when Dr. Hannibal Lecter is is on the lam in Florence, Italy he uses the alias Dr. Fell.
I don't know where you store all that info, Dr Jimmy. Can I get an upgrade to match yours?
That is fascinating! I don't know why exactly, but it's thrilling. Thrilling in that the references are there AND that you found them out.
Can I grow up to be just like you?????
Mae
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But some of his stories, which would be the most recognizable, really wouldn't work as a walk-through, scareactor-filled, haunted house. Cujo? Christine? Tommyknockers? Even the Stand. King novels thrive on either A) Suspense, which is extremely difficult to do effectively; or
Compelling, unique characters. Would a Christine scarezone just people be screaming, "Look out for the car," in the middle of walk-way that revs every thirty seconds? Would a Cujo house have people dressed like rabid dogs? The Stand scarezone would have people in plain-clothes yelling at each other.Stephen King, marketing-wise, would be a coup, but I don't think the event itself would be very good. Because of how iconic King movies are, the houses would be too focused on set-pieces ("Look, it's Jack Nicholson axing through the door") than really allowing scareactors to scare.
A Poe event, on the otherhand, would be amazing and would allow A&D to be creative with design and characters because there aren't defined visuals and expectations.
Oh, I think Tommyknockers would work quite well. Salem's Lot, The Shining, Desperation & The Regulators, even Rose Madder all have some ideas that would be super in a haunted maze. Cell, Dreamcatcher, and, the Dome one - City Under the Dome or Under the Dome? - all have themes that HHN has already dealt with, in fact. Draping them in King's stories would be realtively simple and a thrill for any King fan.
I would rather Poe, personally, as that's where I found my love for the macabre (as have countless others!). Plus, I love period haunts, but you can probably blame too many Roger Corman movies on that preference.
Mae
Compelling, unique characters. Would a Christine scarezone just people be screaming, "Look out for the car," in the middle of walk-way that revs every thirty seconds? Would a Cujo house have people dressed like rabid dogs? The Stand scarezone would have people in plain-clothes yelling at each other.
HHN XXI Speculation
in Halloween Horror Nights 21
Posted
Darn.
Oh, well, I guess it is a little too early. When does it start? June?
Still, I like the idea of a film noir house; all black and white except for the blood. It would be very Hitchcock.
Mae