Cody

It feels like the cast this time around isn't quite as strong as we had in 2013. There's also been some removals of scareactors that were in the original incarnation, which doesn't do much for scares.

I've heard what's claimed to be the story behind the sudden replacement of Scream with Purge, which also explains why the sets seem so generic. Initially, MTV gave Universal the rights to make a house based on the new Scream TV show that just premiered this year. However, after Wes Craven's death Universal wanted to change some aspects of the house to reflect the original films as a tribute to him. MTV didn't like this idea and neither side could come to a good compromise, so MTV revoked the rights. Since the Scream house was already far into construction by the time the decision was made, it was hastily redecorated for a last minute Purge conversion. The bare surfaces all got covered in graffiti and relatively limited set dressing from the film was added. Pretty much all of the audio was used last year or is the same set of stock sound effects their library has had for ages.

This house wins for unintentional hilarity. The overuse of screens has already been mentioned (not even well placed ones like in Forsaken in 2011, but outright bad, obvious screens displaying pretty low resolution graphics), but it also suffers from virtually none of the Freddies having consistent build or faces. The Freddy masks appear to only be partial masks to expose the actors' real mouths so they can more easily talk and make expressions, but it highlights differences in the real people's appearances. Instead of looking like Freddy Krueger, it looks like a guy in a Freddy Krueger mask. The house also ends with an abysmal Freddy dummy that sits stiff in an unnatural pose and has easily visible wires hanging it from the ceiling.

The Transforming David even had a pillow to prop his head up. That was a request I made during rehearsals 2 years ago when I was cast in the role, to allow for my head thrashing and visible face for the audience without excess strain.

That sounds extremely unusual.

I got to talk to a Fake Productions contractor while in line for Body Collectors and he confirmed what I guessed after going through the house: it is literally the same house. They didn't simply tear it down after 2013 ended, they just disassembled it into component parts and hauled it off in pieces to warehouses. They simply needed to put it back together (with slight modifications) in the same soundstage. There are small differences, like a few different actor placements (the position of the two Nazi demons in the living room was swapped so they could add David to the room) and set dressing changes (the police box is gone, there's no longer three booholes for one of the Nazi demons, etc.), but otherwise it's virtually the same house as 2013 right down to the costumes and sound effects.

Whichever cast went on at 11:45 PM last night was my preferred cast. The Germans on that cast are great and everyone was pumped as hell during cast change walking to the house. "Final Countdown" had started playing as they passed by the queue, which is what really got me excited for this one. They still need to figure out their roles a bit and get some more energy to have some fun, but I honestly really enjoyed going through it. Remember how the 2006 Run was Hostel with the serial numbers filed off? This year it's The Running Man. It mixes darker and gorier stuff (like the Hellgate setting) with extreme levels of 80s.

My sister was one of the last people through this house on the last set. She ended up joining hands and dancing with the last Predator (the one who wasn't standing next to the Xeno tossing a Facehugger around).

During one of their last sets, they changed casts by having the vampires in the final room yank the Gecko Brothers through the curtains.

I believe both of them work the Orlando theme parks (as do most of the actors).

Purge got Street of the Year. They celebrated by removing their masks and reciting the pledge of allegiance from the film in front of the bus. They also celebrated by nearly running me over with a motorcycle on their last set. Going back to my thing about the Walking Dead wait time sign, they basically locked it at 45 minutes for the entire last night. The line actually started around 30 and gradually dipped below 20, but the sign never budged.

I'm impressed, we already got an ambulance called to Roanoke or Dollhouse/Halloween.

Someone must have given these guys a kick in the ass while I was gone, because their aggression on Friday seriously puts them at Street of the Year levels of contention. They were making scares practically non-stop and engaging in greater creativity (one stiltwalker hid in the dark alcove by the Despicable Me entrance on the sidewalk and one of the actors casually sat on a bench with other guests to blend in). I saw one stiltwalker move at a downright powerwalking pace to go after a pair of girls and he left them running in circles. Everyone seems to have gotten braver and more familiar with their area and costumes. If they keep up this pace, I can confidently call MASKerade my favorite zone this year.

She's there this weekend as well. People likely missed her because she still gets her time off for breaks and lunch.

That's my theory. I've been attending since 2006, so I understand that it's not uncommon for the signs to have incorrect postings. But they tend to at least be close to accurate the majority of the time. On the other hand, the Walking Dead queue this year has been inaccurate literally every time I've seen or been in it. I would dismiss it as typical mistakes if there wasn't consistency. It dates back all the way to Employee Preview; the line said 75 but it was only half an hour at the end of the night. Also, think about how it looks to management. Folks like Charles Gray and Aiello don't have the time to stand in every house line and time it themselves to determine how packed a house is, and TWD is the big property that everyone concerned with the bottom line wants to push to squeeze as much money out as possible. Inflating the wait times makes the house look far more popular than it really is (when even on a peak night that's completely at capacity the line at 11:00 PM is barely going above an hour wait) and makes it look like a big seller.

Entering the house now. Line is about 50 minutes. The sign is literally almost 2 hours overestimating it. Edit: I don't think the queue even has a 160 minute capacity. The wait was under an hour and used almost the entire queue space available.

Okay, I got in line for TWD. It says 160, but looking at it I estimate 60 minutes, 90 at the most if it doubles back out of sight.

Express doesn't play as much of a factor as it seems, as the Express lines only get occasional groups of people rather than a nonstop flood like the regular queue. Express couldn't really add more than 5, maybe 10 minutes at the most. What I do know is that the line has never been more than 30 or 35 minutes every time I've gone through and has visibly been no longer than 40 minutes but has consistently read wait times of ridiculous lengths. I'm going again tonight and I'll record how the line looks and compare it to the posted wait time just to prove my theory.

American Horror Story is ripe fodder for several years of HHN. Each season is radically different, not only in setting but also in tone, and has more variety by itself than any season of TWD ever has. On the other hand, TWD is basically a gory character drama that just happens to take place during the zombie apocalypse. Horror is a secondary focus, with the zombie apocalypse simply acting as a convenient plot device to allow for the intended plots to happen. Much of the content could be recycled simply by putting everyone on a deserted island, or a planet of hostile aliens. And when you get down to it, zombies are overdone. I still love them and work with them in stuff that I make, but they've been around for decades in their current form. Zombies lack variety, as they're either crazy running people or crazy slowly shambling people. They have little diversity, so every zombie house has to distinguish itself by what it does different. Dead Exposure used the blacklight "camera flash" gimmick, while Zombiegeddon used the idea of captured zombies running amok in a zombie hunter training facility and tied it in with the scarezone outside. The Walking Dead has nothing to distinguish it but the popularity of the show. It's a generic zombie house that points and says "Hey fans, remember this scene from The Walking Dead?" And when your house has to build its popularity off of references to a contemporary TV show rather than its own merits or what it does differently, that's not a good sign.

Hollywood's puppets are nowhere near our quality. I was a puppeteer for part of the AWIL run last year, and I'm sorely disappointed in how Hollywood has built theirs. They seem to lack some of the articulation and they even have totally static heads with the jaws locked open (whereas ours had compressed air triggers that opened the mouths; I do have video of one of the puppets operating in full light off-hours, but I'm keeping it private as long as any of the other people involved still work for Universal). Likewise, our Xenomorph puppets appear to use the same compressed air triggers to thrust out their inner jaws.

The security brought in for HHN is an outside contractor from what I understand, rather than regular Universal security. By and large they're not very professional (they have little in the way of training and are mostly disposable drones) and serve as little more than a harassing presence at the gates. They certainly haven't stopped contraband from getting in or violence from occurring. After having attended multiple Halloween events this year (including Howl-O-Scream, Cedar Point's HalloWeekends, and a number of local haunts in Florida, Ohio, and Michigan) I've come to the conclusion that HHN Orlando not only has the toughest security but the worst environment when it comes to violence and drug usage. Literally no event or haunt I've attended has had such hostility from the guests, nor have they had the massive security presence. This is the only event that's had metal detectors, for instance, and Cedar Point doesn't even bother with bag checks.

He's always been there, though the size of the zone makes it a bit harder to find someone so small.

Of course, Equity actors always need work. Unless she was given a job with greatly better pay and/or conditions, I don't think she would have quit as long as it provided steady work for the rest of the month. That said, I feel like the zone has grown stronger despite losing the show. Initially the zone was essentially all about the show and lacked actors and size, and was barely a detour on the way to the Kidzone houses. While the show is gone, the zone has been expanded, more actors have been added, and they've all gotten into their groove and started scaring well.

Writer, singular. It's the same writer from 2012 and 2013. Also, Elsa's song wasn't written by him. That was the actress's audition piece and they wrote it into the show for her.

I have a sneaking suspicion that TWD has been inflating its wait times. Three times I've entered the queue at 60 or 90 minute waits and only waited 35 minutes at the most (including delays). Every time I've walked past the queue since, the time has consistently been anywhere from 60 to 120 minutes but was visibly very short, the same length as when I waited 30 minutes. Entering other house queues confirmed that the line wasn't double-backing in the soundstage section backstage, so no chance that they changed the queue over there to lengthen it out of view. Either way, the Walking Dead line has always had a massive discrepancy from what it actually claims. I have a suspicion that the wait time is being artificially inflated, either to keep the house from becoming packed or (more cynically) to make it seem more popular than it is. I'd brush it off as lucky mistakes if I hadn't checked literally every day that I've attended the event several times a night and found it to be consistently wrong. It's happened too often to just be a typical error.