Cody

Keep Bill & Ted and AOV, but switch their stages.

Congratulations on winning House of the Year!

Went to the final show last night. Everyone was crying, both dancers and audience. It was livestreamed by the official HHN Orlando Facebook page if you want to watch it. I also took about 480 photos during the 7:45 show, and I'll be posting some of my favorites.

Congratulations on winning Street of the Year!

The best way to think of the Repository is a demo. I don't know of any other attraction that combines VR, escape room-style puzzles, and actor interaction into a single experience. It's still a concept in the experimental phases, and we're the beta testers.

The show's got a big following now. I always see people rocking out in the front rows every show. Last night the cast cut across Lair of the Banshee to get to a break area and the crowd broke into applause as they came out.

The fishhooks are typically hung on the hanging moss, curtains, and other crap in houses. A friend of mine who does the RIP and UTH tours was hooked a few years ago.

I found video on a closed Facebook group so I can't share it here, but last night due to the stage being taken down for the hurricane they performed on the street outside the Horror Makeup show. It was an abbreviated version that skipped the projection, Prisoner 29 sequence, and "Bohemian Rhapsody". i think it was a very cool thing for them to do, and the crowd clearly loved it.

Has anyone who complains about how heavy IPs are actually talked to A&D about it? Like, these people gushed about getting to do houses based on An American Werewolf in London or The Exorcist. The enjoy doing original stuff, but they also enjoy getting to make houses based on popular horror properties or their own pet favorites. Even before 2007 made licensed IPs commonplace, they were doing houses like All-Nite Die-In or filing the serial numbers off to do stuff like Run: Hostile Territory (almost a beat-for-beat Hostel house), and afterward you got houses like Interstellar Terror (based on Event Horizon). There seems to be this impression that A&D would love to just do a bunch of crazy original concepts that would blow everyone's mind and are forced to make IP houses under the duress of marketing, who just wants more cash to shove in their pockets. That's really not true. These guys love their horror movies and love being given the opportunity by the owners of those properties to make houses for them.

Because they didn't spend a ton of money and years of development on making the VR look awesome? Honestly it seems like you're trying to find any reason to dismiss everything this event does as a dumb cash grab while you're in the middle of handing them your money over and over again.

I'm going to have to step in to defend Universal here. Complex and realistic graphics are actually pretty challenging to make in a short amount of time and on a decent budget. SOMA spent 5 years in development, which is far longer than I would imagine the Repository's VR segment has been worked on. Also, the puzzle at the end was pretty damn easy if you paid attention. The only reason we failed was that we didn't realize that we had to switch the two sets of blocks to opposite sides of the table from how we had them.

Wait. so what did Aiello do?

Okay. This is everything as I remember it.

Okay, this was interesting. It's not a 100% VR experience, nor is it a traditional house or escape room. It's a somewhat unique experience that combines elements of everything. The VR section is surprisingly short. You actually spend more time in the real world than in the alternate dimension, and you're limited in where you can go with the headset on by the size of the room. They do their best for immersion, though; the graphics aren't exactly photorealistic, but you wear headphones so you only hear what you're seeing and there are some physical effects that I won't openly spoil which help sell the environment. Also keep in mind that this is a very contact-friendly house; you'll be grabbed, dragged around, and generally have your personal space invaded regularly. The few flaws I can immediately see: 1. The puzzles can be pretty difficult to solve in such a short time span. The first one with the safe at least lets you progress whether or not you complete it, but I found it virtually impossible to find any meaningful clues. The experience is only about 30 minutes long, so you only get 2 or 3 minutes to solve a puzzle. The final one was easier, but we were stymied in part by technical difficulties. 2. The house shares space with AHS and the noises of that one leak into the Repository. The headphones help with the VR section, but the rest of the house is still just as loud as any typical HHN house even during speaking sections. The actors with speaking parts even get microphones so they can be easily heard. The Repository could definitely use its own independent location away from other houses, where noise can be controlled. 3. The relatively short experience means that it's very rushed. Instructions are essentially yelled at you very quickly and the actors often have to repeat them several times to make sure you fully understand what's being thrown at you. There's very little time for story building, so the subtler stuff gets easily lost. And as I said earlier, the puzzles give you such a limited amount of time to solve them that you have little chance to stop and think. I'd honestly be surprised if anybody completed the safe puzzle at the beginning, since the room is so cluttered with false clues and papers that you simply can't figure out what has meaning. Overall, I think the experience was worth the money but I'm hesitant to repeat without friends who are new to it. In such an abbreviated state, it doesn't feel like I'd get a ton out of a repeat play. That said, I did get the opportunity to speak with a creative team member at the end and he said that they're definitely planning on doing more interactive experiences like the Repository in the future. Hopefully this acts as a test bed for a bigger and better one.

To my knowledge, there are 4 non-Michael scareactors in the house.

I'm currently on the 8:30 time slot tonight.

You can identify the GAT rope because it noticeably pulls down like it's attached to a lever.

This wouldn't be the first time HHN has done this. In 2014 I repeatedly went through TWD and compared the wait time posted to the actual time spent in line, and found that it was consistently claiming much higher times than there actually were every night. It got to the point where a 120 minute wait time was being posted for a line that was only 20 minutes. Having been through AHS twice so far, it's said 45 once and 90 the other and both times the wait was 15-20 minutes. A good way to tell is to enter the queue and look at the switchbacks inside the soundstage. If about half or 3/4 of the soundstage is full, the wait is only about 20 minutes or so from that point.

Looking at my room list, I believe it's 10. There are two in the backyard and the only rooms without a Leatherface at all are the first room and the flashing light room. The hallway with fenced windows has a Leatherface outside, along with the scareactor in the hall with you.

As of last night someone put a pair of 3D glasses on one of the security guard corpses early in the house.

The best I can do from memory after two trips: After the dinner scene, the house begins to repeat rooms as it simulates Leatherface chasing you through the house. The chainsaw noises from the speakers are really loud in here. One room toward the end is loud enough that it vibrates in your chest.

Look up on the roof when you go outside for the first time...

I remember when I used to see Bill & Ted once every night, always making sure to fit it in between houses. Since 2014, I've seen it once to say that I've done it and then ignored it for the rest of the year. This time, Academy of Villains is going to be my go-to show.

I've noticed this is getting a big crowd now, extending as far back as the Mel's parking lot, with fans showing up as much as 30 minutes early for front row spots.

I got dragged into the cast change last Thursday. Both sides gather up all of their actors and the guests on their side for a big standoff in the center of New York before breaking apart. I've also heard rumors from a tour guide of an intermittent "capture the flag" game that scareactors occasionally ask guests to participate in.