Oysterhead00

This is pretty interesting. Yes, the picture is from Hollywood but I like the idea of making the facade look like the company logo. https://hhnunofficial.com/2017/07/10/blumhouse-maze-confirmed/

Thanks for the reminder! They also talk in Memes and emoji's....like cavemen carving hieroglyphics on cave walls (cavemen + hieroglyphics is a joke so don't point out its Egyptian).

I believe to be a millennial male, you have to have at least considered a man bun. To be a millennial female, you have to have averaged 5 duck lips photos on social media per week for a 2 month period. However, if you have a regular Starbucks order that is over 20 syllables long, you get a Millennial 4 Life card. So glad I'm old and my parachute pants, Whitesnake and Dokken iron-on patches on my stone washed jean jacket, and scar on my left ear where it used to be pierced are the only regrets of my youth

My 100% uninformed sourceless gut feeling is something like this: Sam Raimi goes to Dino DeLurentis and says he has an idea for a film, it's "Evil Dead meets Knights of the Round Table meets Monty Python's Holy Grail....it's called Army of Darkness." The sources that led people to believe a Gothic / Catacombs mashup was happening said something similar, like "The house is an original. Think, Gothic meets Catacombs." Maybe meaning an illness...affecting people holed up in a medieval church. It was just misinterpred as a literal crossover. Again, I have no idea....but the way clues were given and then stepped back upon the 2 former houses being combined while not shooting down their source or saying what they've heard doesn't kinda fit the bill. If insider A was told that it involves an old church and some mysterious costumed people...and then Insider B was told Gothic meets Catacombs, both would assume that the other insider's claim supports theirs and the Gothic vs Catacombs rumor became "fact" and now both Insider A and Insider B are hearing stuff that seems to contradict their understanding of the info they received. Just seems how some of these things play out.

That's interesting as this was the second time I received it...first time it was addressed to a different name which just so happened to be my middle name! I never use my middle name and know I would have never used it for a ticket or placing kind of order or anything and was wondering how they got it. Guess it was just a freaky coincidence.

Not sure if this is going to work, but will give it a try... Subject: <Your name>, We Have Your Soul Text: You'll receive exclusive content about this year's event, special offers, and more. You'll have the time of your life. Or what remains of it. Get Gory Details ›

For 99% of the people going to the event it doesn't affect them at all.... A lot of people don't know Chance was the icon last year, just some Harley Quinn knockoff who was on the commercial, merchandise, had a house, and a scarezone. It's really only for the hardcore fans who feel that they need it and pour over past details nobody else knows...and marketing as it makes their lives easier to have a focal point for their media, print, web and social activities. Makes their lives a lot easier. Also, it's a nice thing to put on merchandise other than just the logo, fake blood, or trying to mush all the houses onto a single item. But unless you make the event ALL Originals, they'll never truly tie it all together in any way that you experience at the event. Short of having the icon appear in every single house in a manner that shows they are influencing the events unfolding in each house it really won't work...and IP owners aren't going to allow you to alter their property by sticking a clown in the house and having him order the Aliens to attack the Predators, or influencing Michael Myers to go on a rampage, or making ghosts haunt the people of Insidious etc. It REALLY doesn't make a difference...but people here who know an Icon's back story and thinks they know how old Cindy should be based on the chronology of unknown backstory will say it makes all the difference in the world, cry when we don't have, and then cry if we do have one since marketing !@#$ed it all up and it didn't live up to their personal interpretation they had in their mind. In fact, the PERFECT Icon for the event would be....Universal's Chief Marketing Officer. They are the most evil swine known to man! And their evil will be present in every single house. Like if a house has to close down due to flooding, it would be the dastardly CMO! If you caught a shift change, that damn CMO did it! If you thought a costume looked fake, yup, you guessed it: the CMO. And the truly unspeakable evil that they do just about every other year....a 3D house!

Estimated Time of Arrival? I love it...such a great teaser promo. That's all it is, a teaser. A teaser for movies is a tease done with very limited actual footage...for many blockbusters, like the new Jurassic World, it's released before they even start filming the movie. Just a bone to throw to the fans to keep them engaged. Might give off the general vibe/feeling of the movie. I'm sure that the full reveal in August will kickass and have all kinds of additional info. All this says is that someone is requesting your soul...and we already have all our times will come. There's some kind of soul harvester coming. Whether it's an Icon or just an overall "theme" for the event that when you come, you won't leave with your soul....it's all good. The roses and skulls alone will make for some interesting merchandise to say the least. Liking where this is heading.

Marketing drumming up interest, getting the sheep to start drooling in anticipation, and then saying NOPE...but soon, to string them along longer. Sorry, but that's brilliant marketing. As has been stated a million times before, it's not a big ticket sales time, competition is even quieter, stuff is in flux, Volcano Bay is the new hotness...and yet they're keeping their fans engaged and glued to their twitter feed. Believe it or not, the marketing people have metrics for every view/hint/engagement/comment/share/like/etc and use that to justify their being/budget. It's an important KPI for them and while you're all pissed off since they apparently personally owe you updates in a manner that you see fit, you're feeding the beast. "Any publicity is good publicity" should be appended with "...especially when it's free and generated by non-employees." Even though your upset, you're still HHN champions putting out great reviews about the place and stuff while complaining. All with #HHN and #HHN27 tied to them enhancing corporate metrics. Personally I find the people who already KNOW the houses crying about them not confirming what is already known to be very entertaining.

Lots of different criteria, but something to be aware of is they can change the lineups at any time without notice. Sounds like your common legalese disclaimer, but it really holds weight with the tours. They have to do regular maintenance on the houses during the event...and if they have to fix something with the electric (or whatever) in The Shining the day you do the tour, you aren't guaranteed you'll see it. They also have some leeway/discretion as to what houses to do based on guests (like if you show up with a Shining shirt on, that might help your changes) and a zillion other variables. Don't want to ruin your plans...but they are VERY accommodating. Show up for your tour early and ask if they are planning on doing the house. If they say there's a particular reason that they aren't doing it that day, they very well may let you change your date for your tour if you're there multiple dates. I mentioned earlier that my friend decided to do the tour at the last second, it was allegedly sold out, and we got there early and they told him to go buy a ticket for any other day and they'd transfer it to "today". The past 2 years (I think) they've actually set it up so you can buy tickets online at at kiosks. Prior to that you had to call the VIP number. Prior to that you had to request a form to fill out and fax it in. It's not the most well oiled machine...but they are very flexible and try their best to accommodate you. In the past, I've done 7 houses on a tour once (guide asked our group if we wanted to hurry through the one house and then go through another), had them let us in the exit of AWIL to get our picture taken with the wolf puppet at the end, and been given a full "behind the scenes tour" that included showing how scareactors move around behind the walls and asking the people in the makeup/costume shipping container if we could come in an poke around (they let us, but no pictures...and this was before last year's new picture policy...and a supervisor came along and kicked us out).

You're an idiot if you go at the beginning of the event for multiple days without the Rush of Fear + Express. Spoken by an idiot who bought single day tickets for like 7 years... And then graduated to moron with RoF without express for a couple more.... Yeah, learn from my mistakes and go early and often with RoF+Express. Can't go wrong and certainly will get your money's worth.

Nothing wrong with getting drunk at HHN, so long as you're not an idiot about it. This conversation comes up every year and there are always some people who blame alcohol consumption by others as ruining the event for them. It's no different than any sporting event or concert. Assholes are going to be assholes. If there's no alcohol sold in the venue, they'll pre-game it...and also leave, have a few in City Walk, and come back. Or buy the sun screen containers that you can fill with alcohol. Or the Wine Rack bra. Or the Beer Belly. Or one of a million other ways to smuggle it in. You're not going to have an ADULT oriented event in a place surrounded by bars that runs until 2am without a whole bunch of drunks. But the irony is that most people I've seen fighting or cuffed or passed out drunk looked to be 16-18 years old and wouldn't be (legally) purchasing the alcohol in the park anyway. For a 40-something year old who lives a 1,200 miles away with real life responsibilities this is my time to just have fun and that includes alcohol. Sometimes in excess, but never a jerk about it and am safe with friends and taking public transportation or have a designated driver.

I'm a big fan of the Saw movies. Just big dumb fun movies with old school Fangoria type effects and not CGI crap (for the most part) but it's hard to make a house out of it based on the movies. Did the first house a bunch of times....lets say 7 for the sake of discussion. 5 times were OK....not scary, but the aesthetics and attention to detail for the movie were really good and I appreciate that. I appreciate it to the point that I focus on it and invite boo scares to get me. 1 time, after a storm, we went through and NOBODY was in the traps. Other scareactors like the pigmasks were there, but stuff like the barbed wire trap was empty making it the most boring room in the history of HHN. Doing a horse shoe conga line around some fake rubber barbed wire. The other time? WOW. We hit it perfectly and it was such an amazing house. We hit every single scare and it was great. Reminded me of Hellgate Prison from back in the day...when you didn't have quite the conga line, the scareactors interacted with you individually, and cursed at you (didn't cures in Saw, but just saying the immersion was off the meter). Just leads me to thinking that every house is intrinsically amazing and when tested and tweaked it's such a well oiled machine...but logistics might keep you from experiencing it. Part of the reason I'm so glass half full and a defender of the event. We usually go 3 or 4 nights in a row on our trip down and quite often houses I didn't care about the first couple nights will blow me away. Anyway, hate the crapping on houses sight on scene. If you go in expecting something to be crap, you'll find points to reinforce your opinion.

Wonder what this means for the Universal Dark Universe. Tangentially related to HHN since some are still speculating that a Mummy scare zone is possible and that Bride of Frankenstein which was to be released in 2018/2019 was a shoe in for a future house, but might not be on the table any more. Talking with several film finance sources, Deadline reports that the Tom Cruise-led “The Mummy” reboot stands to lose an estimated $95 million off of a final estimated global box office tally of $375 million ($75M domestic, $300M overseas). The film was the biggest global opening ever for Cruise at $169 million, but the number fell to $53 million in its second weekend and negative costs were high – a $195 million production cost and a further $150 million in distribution/ad expenses – totalling $345 million. When you factor in estimated home rental revenue and take out the global exhibitors cut of the gross box-office revenue, the film is decidedly in the red (analysts say the film has to reach $450 million to break even) and won’t be helped by the opening this week worldwide of “Transformers: The Last Knight” which is expected to severely undercut the Mummy’s future box-office.

I hope they go back to the old tour too with unlimited picture opportunities. That's why I do the tours. My memories aren't good enough to justify the cost to just look at stuff that I'm already paying $100 per night to see. They have some cool tidbits, but I'm not shelling out that money for IMDB Trivia type tidbits. Last year the tour guides felt really bad since we all bought tickets PRIOR to the policy change. They did very good tours and didn't mind if you happened to fall back a room or two ;-) Was none too pleased to lug all my camera gear around 6 houses and were only allowed to take pics in 2.

It was posted elsewhere that projection / digital effects are expected in the house. I'd expect something like the axe door being hit/shaken by a scareactor with a screen of Jack's face through the hole chopped in it. Wondering if we might get a room that has a fake/perspective looooong hall with digitally projected twins. They claim the elevator scene is in the house too. I think the fire effects in the Halloween house were a trial run and we should expect stuff like that ratcheted up to 11 for this house. Having this kind of eye candy in one area of a room with the whole conga line checking it out would lead to some awesome scares from "behind".

I have no problem if you want to spills the beans in one fell swoop. Go ahead. But to say the forum is too dumb to figure it out in 24 hours and then to "stop speculating" when the 100% facts the day before were only 1 IP scarezone and changed overnight to 2 IP scarezones. I 100% believe everything said is what was told by an inside source and know that people get confused and/or the telephone game where a message changes down the line. So no need to stop speculation. And until stuff is announced, it's still speculation regardless of your source so anybody is free to throw out whatever they want. Also hate the "I have the inside info and you're wrong!" replies. That just sounds like a parent telling a kid, "because I said so!" There are nicer ways to tell someone they are off track and give a little guidance, no matter how vague (Think bigger! Think more suspense that outright horror. etc) allows the insider to prove they have good info when it's all revealed and also keeps those not in the know involved in the discussion and fun. OK, done ranting :-)

FYI - if you want to play the hint game that can be fun for both you and those of us "not in the know", that's great. But don't post hints and then get upset at the first "wrong" guess and then insult everybody's intelligence by saying you have to "baby feedi" it to them. Or just blurt it out and be done with it. But don't give out clues and be shocked when an hour later people haven't figured them all out. EDIT: Doing my daily morning forum check for news and checked here, posted this, then went over to OU (or whatever it's called now) and see that Legacy beat me to punch about this very topic. Will leave it here anyway.

So we're getting another Purge scarezone. The Purge starts at 7:00pm in the movies. So much for Deatheaters if this is the only IP SZ.

Use the ignore user feature explained a few pages back. Makes this place a joy to visit again when you mute certain people I'm getting quite excited about this year and was on the fence about going (work and other real life issues mostly), but am leaning towards make the trip this year.

Don't get too concerned about it, they had walk up openings last year (though soooo many people cancelled with the photo policy change). It's such a cash grab for them, they seem to bend over backwards to accommodate as many people as possible. The year before my friend decided he'd do the tour at the last minute, showed up and asked if there was any way he could get on a tour (as they claimed to be sold out) and they told him to go to the ticket window and buy a ticket for the next day and come back and they'd get him in. They made sure we were in the same group too. He just had to sign some transfer of date paper. I've heard of others doing this for the combo tours too...but have heard of single AM or PM tours being unavailable. Also, we go the last weekend in Sept / first in Oct timeframe so the demand is surely lower than later in the event. Also, if you didn't do the tour last year, and unfortunate for some, the tour met and ended in the Blue Man Group area. So you had to leave the park and then re-enter to do the stay and scream. The past 7 years or so I did the tours they always winked and said, "since I'm sure everybody has day tickets for the park, we'll just disband here" and let everybody go. Looks like they put an end to that

Since this is your first time, will post the obvious in case you didn't know - you get express for each house and MOST rides (they can omit the express option for something new like Fallon) ONE time per night. So a good rule to follow is if the line is less than 30min, just go through the regular line and keep track of them. That way, if you wanted to hit a house a second time when the waits are 2 hours long, you still have your express eligibility for that house. Nothing is funnier than the park JUST opening after doing Stay and Scream and seeing people having their express passes scanned while those in the regular line pass them by since they don't need to be scanned Also, I believe the official rule of thumb is that express cuts your wait time in half. It's almost always shorter than that, but every year you hear people bitching about how they had to wait 30min for express (when wait times are posted as 90min) and they bought it being told they could "skip the lines". Don't think you can show up at 10pm and then hammer them all out in 2 hours because of express.

I'll just leave this here. I have zero inside info, just passing on an interesting link... https://hhnunofficial.com/2017/06/06/an-old-rumor-returns/

Yeah, the 28th is blocked out which sucks since that's the weekend we go with ROF+Express and that's one less day we'll get this year. Rumor is there's a private event at the park that night

Wow, stalk much? Probably just means been going to / working for HHN Since 2007...or Since VII...or one of 500 million things you wouldn't possibly know. It's not a hint and certainly nothing you should be stopping the driver for, it's just a fan of the event. I don't know Florida license plates, but most states allow up to 8 digits. If for some insane reason they decided to give hints by employees registered license plates, HHN27TWD or HHN27AHS would both work. Take off your tinfoil hat and leave this fan or employee in peace.