Spathic

If during house construction it was discovered that the building was essentially unusable (and SS44 was long rumored to have been "condemned") there would not be any warning way in advance. To me this seems far more likely than a secretary throwing away a memo.

Do we know that there was no communication? Is anyone here privy to the internal communications involved here? Is it not plausible that during the process of preparing SS44 for it's house that the crews discovered that the building would need substantial repairs before they could safely house a house? If you are looking at an additional 2-3 weeks of construction before you can even start the house construction is it possible to be done in time for the event? And would it be worthwhile to put that much extra money fixing a structure ultimately slated for demolition anyway?

Well i think it's clear that the Icon will be Lemmy from Motorhead. Famously addicted to slot machines, and sings a song about the ace of spades... Ok totally not gonna happen but i thought it was funny...

Why would they do the same set up from two years ago with the hangover? unless the show revolves around the whole "going back to the well" remake and sequel crazy phase in Hollywood but even then...

The theme drink is pretty much the same every year. Fruit juice stored next to some booze. I get one for the cup and that's about it...

Alcohol is a huge revenue stream for the Universal parks. Like it or not booze is a part of what makes the event such a financial success. D-bags will be D-bags regardless, restricting alcohol sales will not stop that. It may actually make things worse as people get absolutely hammered before hand or smuggle in their own liquor.

I hope you are right I'm a fan of the show in general, but you could literally hear a pin drop halfway through the first show.

I usually feel people are too hard on the Bill and Ted show, but this year i kinda have to agree with the trashing of this event. When the absolute highlight of the entire show happens 2 minutes into the preshow it's not good. It kinda felt like they were just going through the motions (and not being subtle at all about the formula) and the dancing at the end was pretty much a sausagefest.

My bet is that most people were trying to mad dash to get to as many houses as they can before they close the lines, rather than enjoy the scare zones.

Marseille was the site of an infamous bubonic plague outbreak (known as The Great Plague of Marseille), and Paris has The Catacombs (which doesn't have a direct tie to the plague but was created to relieve disease caused by contamination caused by improper burials and mass graves in church graveyards). Mix those two stories together and you get a great concept for a house.

Could go either way, the spawning sewer was weak but the underground feeling of the Hallow was totally Rad. Personally I'm pretty psyched about the whole event...

I think Miramax is still owned by Disney (the Weinsteins sold it and have been working as the Weinstein Company, though there was talk of them trying to buy back the miramax name) so that is even less likely.

thats the shark prp in the disaster queue i believe...

sequel or original doesn't matter much to me really. I don't think the name on the house matters as much as high quality production, inventive layouts and scares. I'd like more houses like Leave it to Cleaver, The Hallow, Dead Silence, Psychoscareapy, or any of the classic monster houses from last year

The real question is who would want to take a tour of an undressed set anyway? it just doesn't make sense...

UTH is unmasking the horror. I've never gone but its basically a daytime behind the scenes tour of the houses so you can get a real good look at the details. not sure what else is involved but i think i am definitely gonna try and do it this year....

[derail] LOL! I grew up in Connecticut and most people look at me like I have two heads when I call that character "Abdow's Big Boy". I think it's Bob's Big Boy in other places, but it's always Abdow's to me. [/derail]

Awesome that they extended it, just sucks that my AP expired on the 13th (I get a comp preferred pass from my brother but won't get it until mid november this year).

House reviews: First off Doing any of the sound-stages without having your eyes adjusted to the dark does them no justice. It's like night and day. If you do go through early find the darkest pair of shades you can find and keep them on until you get into the second room. It'll be at least 50% better. Wolfman: This house was excellent on preview night and good on opening weekend (what little we could see of it.).This house can be ruined by drunks in front of you pissing off the scare-actors though (there seems to be less boo-hole scares and more “long form” style. The sets and the costumes are excellent and the scares can be right on if they have the timing down. The shotgun between the eyes at the end still pisses me off though... It's just not appropriate... Dracula: This house in okay during the day but is fucking Epic after sundown. I had gone through it twice early in the day (once using my sunglasses trick) and missed out on some really great scares simply because of the blindness. I knew that the classic monsters were going to be awesome houses despite the usual whiners deriding the very idea as being not scary enough, but they are really doing it right. Frankenstein: On Thursday in the dark this house was incredible! One of the first Franks made this burly Scotsman (who looked kinda like a mini-Hagrid) scream like a little girl! I wanted to give him a high five. It was the best single run through of any house I've been in. You are doing yourself a disservice if you skip this one or never go through it after dark. Cleaver: I personally love this house, it walks the line between making me jump or grin like an idiot. Its the house that is at once hilarious and funny and creepy with the potential for full on quality scares. I just hope the victim with metal dinner tray dials it back some... Too many bangs takes the shock out of it. Saw: For someone who loves Halloween and HHN as much as I do I'm not really much of a horror movie fan and thus I have never seen any of the Saw films. I think that means a lot of the specific details in the house are lost on me. Still the house looks great, and the set pieces are well constructed, much better than that lame electric chair dummy in reflections last year. The Spawning (see Preview review at the top of this Thread) Chucky This house has the drunk douche-bag attractor in full effect. When they aren't yelling “'ey Chucky!” every 10 feet they're knocking on boo-holes and just being stupid. Three nights in and the plush toys are already walking out of the place (and not the ones that move either). The house itself is typical funhouse. Spinning tunnel, bright colors, an almost Carnival atmosphere. I kinda feel the same way about this house as I feel about indy-rock, I love the music but hate the kids. Silver Screams This house lacks in the scare department thus far. The house is awesome looking, the sets are well designed and the costumes in most of the scenes are perfect. The actors are definitely doing what they can, I just feel a few of the vignettes are a little sparse (Shaun, “Medieval Dead”) or have timing issues (MBV).

Opening Night Didn't have anyone with me for opening night, but last year I had met some pretty cool people so I was hopeful that I'd find a group to go through with. Went to the stay and scream area and met up with mz_, Jenn, Brooke and Jason (I'm terrible at remembering names so that may be wrong and if it is I apologize). We hit a few houses (Wolfman-Dracula-Frankenstein-saw-cleaver) and met up with Michele (from whom I've learned that Chez Alcatraz is the place for drinks, first time I ever had a drink that wasn't straight fruit juice at HHN). We did Silver Screams and then both shows. A great night all in all, these folks are the best and I look forward to hanging out with them again sometime soon. Saturday Hit the park a little early with my brother and caught the horror make-up show (I love it when they pick the most foreign looking people in the audience, Asian tourists are the best) then had a bite at Louie's before heading to stay and scream. Had a lot of fun this night too, it's different going through these houses in a small group because you can set your pace. We did end up having some Ohio tourists tag along with us for a bit (I explained to them that if they wanted to see Saw or the Spawning they should probably do them sooner rather than later). We did the houses in this order; Wolfman, Dracula, Frankenstein, Saw, Cleaver, Chucky, Silver Screams. I had it in my mind that we'd do The spawning last then hopefully hit the last B&T show and meet up with mz_ & co. Unfortunately just as we were entering Silver Screams it started to rain and by the time we got out it was pouring like crazy and we pretty much got drowned walking through the exit queue. It didn't look like the rain was going to let up anytime soon so we trekked to B&T. We couldn't get more wet at that point and it seemed like the best place to get out of the rain. If we gotta wait it out at least we'll be entertained. The rain sucked but it was a great night anyway. Thursday (Oct 1) I had to work until 4:00 so we didn't get to the park in time for S&S. I did have to take the chains which I have always had on my wallet off before they would let me out of the parking garage. Seems funny when you can do way more damage with a set of house keys. I ended up spending half the night checking that I still had my wallet. Fortunately the entrance wasn't very busy so we were in before the lines got long. This time I was with my older brother (Bret) and his girlfriend. He didn't get a chance to go on Preview night so the goal was to try see everything we could in one night. We wanted to go to the first showing of B&T and found that we were there before the first show. We ended up going through Saw (with barely any wait time) before Bill & Ted. By the time B&T let out the sun had gone down and made it perfect for going through houses. We hit Cleaver next and saw mz_, drew, and Jenn in line behind us (I had to tap Jenn on the shoulder and say hey you, due to my whole name remembering thing lol). The lines were pretty quick all night and we ended up going through Frankenstein, Dracula, Wolfman, Chucky and Silver Screams before exhaustion (I had been up since 5:30 that morning) got the best of us.

Halloween Horror Nights Event Review Here there be spoilers! Enter at yer own risk! Seriously, I waited until after the opening weekend to write this so I wouldn't feel bad about using details of the houses. If you haven't been through all the houses don't read this unless you don't mind having a few things spoiled. You've been warned. Employee Preview Really this event was geared towards doing what my niece (who just started high school and is getting into Drama) wanted to do. My group was my brother Howard (wearing a ridiculous cowboy hat )and his buddy Rob, my niece and her friend, and my other brother's girlfriend and her friend. The waiting at the gates thing is a total fiasco. Why they don't set up some sort of stay and scream for this I really don't know. Some day someone is going to get trampled in that mess... Anyway as Bill&Ted is always a must do on preview night I figured we'd head there first. The last time we took our niece to HHN she spent the whole event with her head buried in my brother's armpit, so a comedy show to start things off might be a good way to take that off that “scary edge”. We really enjoyed the B&T show, my niece loves the kind of music they play and spends too much time on the internet so most of it was right up her alley. The Lonely Island parody was truly great (doubly so because when we were walking through City Walk we started singing “I'm on a Boat” at all the ferry boats). I think the show on preview night did run way to long, though I did kinda miss the “the glowing blinking crap vendor” on later viewings. When B&T let out it was nicely dark out (prefect for going through houses). We decided to go around the front half of the park first and see how much we' be able to get done. My niece definitely wanted to see Silver Screams so it was a good plan. Up first was the Spawning, Not much of wait for this house (all the lines so far have been manageable if you do them at the right time), I felt that this house as pretty weak. Shouldn't a sewer set be wet, with water sound effects and more importantly stink? It was basically a dress rehearsal so those things can be overlooked. The house looked pretty good anyway. The scares however just didn't exist. They were trying though. I think every Sculder in the place popped out at me, but the problem was the place felt a little too well lit and I saw them all coming (maybe my eyes were well adjusted, as others were claiming they couldn't see shit). I really shouldn't judge this house too harshly since I've only gone through on EP so far. From here we went through Cirque Du Freak. (Every time I see the “John C. Reilly” character I went to say “You're not Half the boy that Nate was! You're not even half the boy the top half of Nate was after you cut him in half!”) It's really not a bad zone but I think the should move some of the freaks into the area with the pumpkins so that the area doesn't become such a nightmare. Silver Screams was next. This house is a little disappointing to be truthful. I think the usher mask looks too unnatural. I understand that they want it to seem like there is just one usher and they need uniformity but I'd rather they use makeup and real faces (like the ushers they have outside the park entrance) than masks. The scares themselves can be pretty good (the potential is there) but so far for me it's been more miss than hit. The whistle in the MBV room, seems to be out of sync with the actors at times (or rather there is one whistle and 3 actors all moving at different times, so you hear the noise and see no actors). “The Medieval Dead” room needs more deadites. Set wise the house is awesome though. Now it's decision time, do we go through Chucky and have to walk back from MIB to the Sound-stage houses or skip Chucky and try to go through all the classics. It was my niece's “party” so to speak and her friend really wanted to do Chucky so we got in line. The Spinning tunnel thing is a classic, and this one was probably the best implemented one I've seen. In the past there was almost always a spot where if you looked it would break the illusion. The scares weren't very strong (the boo holes slamming were more startling than the Chuckys themselves). If it were up to me I'd have done more appearances by other creations and have Chucky show up less often, but I guess since he is the star they have to use him heavily. The Plush section was pretty awesome when we went through. At this point my niece was getting hungry and tired we stopped at Mel's while they got something to eat and then headed to The Wolfman. I think my niece still doesn't deal with the scares very well and at this point our group split up. Rob, Howard and I went on through The Wolfman while the rest of them finished eating and started to leave. The Wolfman is a house with limitless potential. The first time through it was really excellent. A few of the effects were out of sync (the actor would move before the flash and be retreating when you see him) but that's to be expected at this point. I (and I'm sure more than a few others do as well) do have one massive complaint about the end of this house though, the guy in the last room insists on sticking the barrel of his shotgun right in your face. That is really not cool. (opening weekend and house grades/times through will be posted later in this thread.)

There was a Rob Thomas Concert at the Hard Rock on opening night so that was probably why parking was a nightmare.

I think all the Lines in chucky are prerecorded though. I actually liked this house quite a bit, that spinning tunnel is the best one I've been through.