Aaronupsidasium

One thing that will determine whether either Potter attractions will be open is the third shift maintenance (overnight maintenance that is able to keep Forbidden Journey from going down for a refurb and have it be open 365 days a year). From my experience, third shift means 11pm-7am which would not allow it to be open for HHN. Though Transformers closed an hour early each night last year for overnight maintenance so it might not be an issue.

To be fair, The Purge movie and scare zone at Hollywood were very different.The movie was made extremely cheap almost completely without exteriors. The scare zone and opening scaremonies looked great in Hollywood. I assume the sequel will expand the idea of The Purge outside just a home invasion movie.

It was 1996, I was 10 years old and was going on vacation in Florida in October. My family would always go to Universal but we decided to do this "halloween event". I was more excited to see the new Terminator 2 3D show and got on all the great rides without any wait. As for HHN, the biggest memory was my mom being COMPLETELY hypnotized at the Animal Actors theater. I remember only a few other things: chainsaws at the front gate, a toy maze, Will Smith doing the Fresh Prince rap while dragging the alien from ID4 at the Bill & Ted show. The next time I went was 2007 when I was able to really appreciate it and have only missed one event, 2009 , since then.

Silverwood has an awesome looking attraction called ZombieWood Express where you join a convoy to escape the invasion and the actors on board fire at zombies through different scenes and it ends with a giant explosion. A real ride like this would be a great way to expand The Walking Dead other than just doing another scarezone and house. While it would be easy at Hollywood with the Tram Tour, Orlando only has Hogwarts Express (not gonna happen) and Disaster. They could have the queue going through the preshow and then have some actors in the Earthquake scene and then disembark in the maintenance area and then go though a maze through the outdoor field and Disaster's overflow queue. (Not sure if they can get actors in the Earthquake scene though)

^If Universal drops The Walking Dead, Busch Gardens will surely pick it up. They'll put those Clydesdales to use!

Crap I forgot to ask how much Demon Cantina resembled From Dusk Till Dawn. I would assume that Universal's current special effects could replicate the movie's better than 2005. Plus I think it hit's that sweet spot for horror movie fans that grew up watching it on cable like AWIL.

It would be great if they would build the Bates Motel and the House as the facade/exterior in a soundstage. I've never been in a PsychoPath house so I can imagine: A creepy front desk scene with Norman. A peeping Tom seen where Norman can try to get you while you're looking through the peepholes. A horrifying human taxidermy scene (I think they were hinting at in the TV series). Any scene in the Bates' house from the original movie (Milton's death, Ms. Bates reveal)

I was just watching From Dusk Till Dawn on HBO and thought of how it would be great if HHN gave that movie the American Werewolf treatment. HHN hasn't had a vampire maze in forever and the movie should have the same cult appeal as AWIL.

Universal owns the rights to Psycho/Bates so they can just have maze that will capitalizes on the popularity of the A&E show.

I was excited that during the annual survey, Universal asked if I'd be interested about including old icons and having a collectable map. I can't remember if they asked that in previous years but it did make me excited if they had them for next year.

I can't imagine that anything at HHN could feature as much lewd behavior or debauchery than what happens at the corporate events/retreats

Likely: Insidious (a super hot franchise that had a popular house out west) Walking Dead (too big of an IP to let slip to another park) Possible: American Horror Story (another big IP that they could do in their sleep) PsychoPath/Bates Motel (they own Psycho the rights, might as well exploit it while the A&E show is popular) Hannibal (very popular IP though the NBC show is constantly on the bubble) Urban Legends: Boogeyman (likely), Chupacabra (likely and hopeful after the amazing AWIL puppets) and El Cucuy (not so likely). Long shots: Let the Right One In (another cult horror film like Cabin In the Woods...it might happen) Scream/Halloween (Popular slasher franchises though their last movies bombed and it would be easier to go with Psycho/Bates)

1. American Werewolf (4x) 2. Cabin In The Woods (3x) 3. La Llorona (3x) (the second half underwater was my favorite part of any house though) 4. Evil Dead (3x) 5. Havoc Derailed (2x) (biggest surprise) 6. Walking Dead 7. Afterlife (2x) (biggest disappointment) 8. Resident Evil

I think people are being pretty hard on Universal for the music. Like most TV shows the tracks are pretty short (around a minute) and are more atmospheric than memorable. So the main theme will stand out against the tracks that they were provided. And people expect to here it as much as Hedwig's Theme at the Wizarding World. They did play the Roque Bancos' score from Evil Dead but while we were expecting to hear a lot of air sirens, those actually only take up a few seconds of tracks that are 5-7 minutes long. Anything is better than listening to the Shutter Island music while watching construction workers build Transformers.

I went into Havoc Derailed expecting to have wasted over an hour in line since I read mostly bad reviews and barely remembered the original house. I really enjoyed the house! The actors and the effects were really fun and scary. Also Welcome to My Nightmare and House of Horrors were my favorites of last year's which might have to do with me not liking a lot of 2012. Despite that I enjoyed them despite a lot of bad reviews.

In 2009 it opened very late around September and they kept it closed during HHN since it had so many breakdowns and horrible capacity. It was closed for "maintenance" during entire fall of 2010 so it was out that year. I finally rode it during 2011 HHN were it still had really bad capacity. To be fair Transformers closed an hour early for nightly maintenance during HHN so I'd expect the same or more for Gringotts. I really think Islands would be the best venue since it doesn't have a parade, a night time show or brand new attractions that will attract tons of crowds. A good way to have the Potter areas in HHN would be to just loop the soundtrack to Prisoner of Azkaban, which is already kind of fits well with the event since it's generally spooky but won't confuse kids that there's a special Potter event happening at Horror Nights.

Terra Cruentus Tribute A house based on SNL's skits with Merryville broken animatronics that come to life. The Exorcist (original movie). At the Mountains of Madness with Guillermo del Toro designing. A PsycoPath house in a sound stage with the motel and house in the facade. They Live 3D house. Chupacabra built in the Triceratops Encounter. American Horror Story (best scenes from seasons 1-3, must have Rubber Man, Bloody Face, Minotaur, dismembered Adam Levine, ect) Also, Bill & Ted moved to Toon Lagoon so the extreme pyrotechnics can return.

Happy Halloween, Audience Dudes!

I'm pretty sure Evil Takes Root was created by Universal's marketing department after seeing that they got the rights to Cabin, Evil Dead and American Werewolf. A&D usually works with marketing but sometimes they seem to go on different directions. The Walking Dead is the highest rated show for viewers 18-35 (beating network shows, The Wold Series and the NFL) so I don't see Universal letting it go anytime soon...

The only thing I can think of is that in the parking lot behind the soundstage they couldn't turn of the lights which might wash out the video. They did turn the bright yellow lights where the projector is. I've had complaints before about Universal's preshows for Revenge of the Mummy and Forbidden Journey that give you important information about the attraction but they're impossible to view. Disney seems to be the only ones who know how to do a preshow and move the line along.

They still do they double-shot refill for 7 dollars which is a good deal compared to most bars. While in the Florida last week, I didn't see any obnoxious drunk people at the three nights I did HHN or for Epcot's Food and Wine Festival.

I think 2011 was really the best year in terms of houses & scare zones. While there were some drawbacks that year (no coherent theme, Bill & Ted was the worst I've ever seen), I don't think you can match that year's quality, variety and creativity of houses and scare zones to any of the ICONIC years. Also remember that HHN always changes. Back in the early 90's it was more like Pleasure Island: a parade, a scarezone, a few houses and a rock concert on the weekend.

I kind of felt the way you did about La Llorona the first time saw it though it was my second house before 7pm so it might have had a lot of daylight sneaking in or effects not working. But the transition scene was amazing the second time i went through it. They pumped lots of fog into the room that worked with the lighting to make it feel like you're being submerged. And then the actors come from behind the sheets to scare the crap out of you.

Was Mary Shaw in the elevator scene? As for the lines, I always do the back houses first so when i finally got to the soundstages, they all had 90 minute waits. I braved the line Cabin in the Woods since it was my most anticipated. It ended up being less than an hour, though i still wish you could have seen the pre show through the whole line and not just right before you enter the house. I think express pass holders hit the soundstages first in the night which clogs up the line early in the night.

I would love for them to have a photo op for the characters that they have rights for. I really want a picture with Sharknado!