Ringwraith

Dogma

Can anyone confirm the removal of Sam from the scarezone? Read something about it on a Facebook page.

I didn't see that! Where is this description?

I have a theory. The theory is that there is a "head of household" per house and that character will be one of four icons they'll be using to headline the event in the future. The Voodoo Queen for Dead Waters, Nathaniel Crow for The Reaping and we'll start to learn the other two names of the "heads of household" for the other two houses. I feel like Universal has used the classic icons for awhile now and their "Festival of the Deadliest" is the way of introducing us to new icons. Just a thought.

Don't forget the "UNGHHH"

Looks like a projector to me.

Scary Tales...

These stories are just the beginning. They only lack one thing—you. Come and be a part of these tales before the firelight dies out and we are plunged into darkness. The Festival of the Deadliest is almost here…and it’s enticing lights are pulling us to our wondrous doom. Does anyone get the idea we're getting a new set of 4 icons just in time for the 30th Anniversary (27, 28, 29, and 30)? It may be a stretch, but the wording and the way the houses could be potentially set up has me wondering. Nathaniel Crow(The Reaping), Voodoo Queen(Dead Waters), *insert leader of angel/demon*(The Fallen) and *insert name of queen bee of vampires*(Hive) could all be heads of their respective households. Just a shot in the dark.

It’s the ancient battle between good and evil. The Fallen are flying, jumping, and crawling up from the kingdom of darkness and laying waste to all who cross their path of destruction. These creatures are awesome…and yes, I did say flying. This house is a mix between beauty and decay, high screech and deep roar, and delivers more surprises than I can fit in this paragraph.

Since the great dustbowl, an abandoned farmhouse stands in Nebraska. The bountiful fields ravaged by the farmers’ plows have spurred anger in the Land. Scarecrow guardians have risen from the blood soaked soil to seek revenge. The harvest that will be reaped this season is you.

We’re huge fans of those little-known 1980s horror movies, and we wanted to make you feel as if you’re in those movies. The story takes everything that is sexy, beautiful or cool about vampires and flushes it down the toilet. These Nosferatu are nasty, animalistic, and vicious. It’s the type of house that will make you cling to your date all the way to the exit…if you make it that far.

We have had houses that later became scare zones in the streets of Universal Studios Florida. This is one of the first times, in recent memory, that a scare zone has influenced a house. For Halloween Horror Nights 24, we had the Bayou of Blood scare zone. It was so strong in character and story that we had to revisit its story again. We’re excited to have you explore the Dead Waters of the Voodoo Queen and her hellish realm. Trust me…you’ll freak out when you see the half sunken riverboat and the skeletal remains of her victims close in.

It sucks, but he unfortunately HAS to be in order to keep his job. I talked to him at the Entertainment Designer Forum and it's clear he's got his hands tied when it comes to control over the amount of IP's, the website and marketing in general.

2 lawsuits are still out in the ether. 1. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/judge-allows-900-million-conjuring-lawsuit-warner-bros-1033425 2. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-conjuring-house-owner-norma-sutcliffe-to-sue-warner-bros-fans-trespassing/ I'm also going to take a wild guess at the top photo with what looks like it SHOULD be AVD. I think it's Hive. My guess is that somewhere in the Hive, they've taken the liberty to set up something much like Alien, where they're birthing Vampires out of these pods.

Falling into the trance that Chris from Get Out falls into would be AMAZING, although not very scary. The creepy townspeople would be awesome too, however, there are a lot of political undertones that they're probably trying to stay away from. That hypnotizing scene, wouldn't really touch that though. Split would be great just to have multiple personalities come around every corner. Would almost be like a Shadybrook house.

Sorry I wasn't able to tie everything together. What I meant is the overall "what's popular," sheep mentality, affects what we do at our event as well as how we market and what we market. The camera rant was a bit of a side bar, but it pertained to the mentality.

I would argue they're handicapped by the general public. Comcast is ponying up the dough, but they're investing in acquisitions and not in-house. I suppose it's a sound business practice, but we're not really extracting the best out of Universal's creative minds. The Forsaken, as an example, was a BRILLIANT concept that really didn't take much to put together. However, it's believable and although it's "based on history," it's original in its own right. There are so many moments in time that could be altered to include "what if" horror elements, but the GP doesn't want to see it. Marketing is targeting those folks, especially with the selfie Soul Collector wallpaper. Sorry, I'm about to go on an old man sounding rant for a second. The front facing camera is one of the worst technological inventions that could have happened to us. The human need for instant gratification and having a constant ability to see themselves in a "mirror" has not had a positive impact. Let me say, I'm 100% guilty of using the feature to send goofy lip syncing videos to my fiancee, but that's about it and it's maybe once a month. EVERY day, people are held up because some idiot is in traffic, or walking in a walkway or WITH THEIR INFANT, taking a picture of themselves, or on some sort of social media. This has greatly accelerated how self-involved people have become in general. They'll bump into you or completely ignore their surroundings to get where THEY want to go. Humans, inherently, have always been somewhat self-involved. All of us. But the technology that's been recently developed has only encouraged it. To put a positive spin on the technology front, there have been many developments that offer GROUP participation where teamwork and socializing with those around you is necessary. Interactive games, VR houses, Legendary Truth etc. really enhance the experience at Horror Nights and are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to expanding the event to guests. Let's do more of THAT. In conclusion , marketing is only feeding off of what's popular, "hip" and "cool." Quite possibly, it may be ok to take a risk and be the one who starts the trend(whatever that may be) instead of following(no pun intended). The websites in from 16-20 were unbelievably interactive, fun and a great way to promote the event. Anyone can correct me if I'm wrong, but it can't be THAT much more expensive to invest in those sites again. I'd actually be very interested to know the traffic numbers back then in comparison to the current numbers for the recent sites they've posted.. The fact the "soul collectors" number is only around 41,000 since they started the site, doesn't tell me people are entirely buying into this idea. I would have thought they'd be in the 100,000 range to be considered successful, but what do I know.

I was a scareactor at the Hollywood park from 2011-2013 and I had only been exposed to HHN in Orlando previously to that. I'd have to say the ONLY houses that would even come close to comparing to Orlando were ones done in the soundstages and even those would be on par with the tent houses we have here, in terms of quality. Their event, by in large, is also a little trashier and has a more "grungy," "sexy" feel to it. That's for some people and not for others. The conclusion I've come to as far as that's concerned, is not only the location (Hollywood vs Orlando) but the heads of the events are very different people. Aiello is a huge horror nerd who is also a family man. Murdy is more of the rockstar mentality and really fits in well with the "glamour" of the area that surrounds him, because he's a former actor and has worked in the production world of Los Angeles. Their fingerprints are definitely seen on their respective events and if you know the two, you can see the stark contrast. A little insider birdie told me that we were going to get an announcement on Sept 15th! Stay tuned! HEY NOW! Hollywood has La Llorna!! ....sometimes.....maybe.

I didn't get a chance to go in that one. Did the scareactors touch or "abuse" the guests or was it physically demanding? I know a waiver was signed, but after reading the reviews for it, I wasn't sure what for.

Last year's extreme house? Did I miss something?

This is one of the best posts I've read on here. Pretty eye opening actually and I've come to the conclusion of what I'm really trying to get across. I want THEME PARKS to dictate what ends up being popular. I want more Pirates of the Caribbean stories where a film was created because of the ride. I want the theme park and entertainment designers to be the next creators of material that the general public will want to see more of; no matter the medium. However, in that same breath, I'm realizing that may not happen for awhile, based on the amount of funding necessary to build that world, without knowing if consumers will grab ahold of it or not. However, I guess it can't be worse than making a $200million box office flop, so maybe there is money out there for those types of investments. Thanks for the patience that let me figure out what point it is I was trying to make.

I mean if you want to settle, that's cool. It just comes down to the fact there's an entire galaxy of content we could be creating but we're just recreating things that already exist. I get that it's a business decision, but if we had one or two hard hitting IP's per year, we'd be more than ok.

Obviously we've had IP's since the beginning of the event because that's how the whole thing was started. I'm sorry if I wasn't clear, but I was describing the point in time at which they starting to be used heavily and where, most likely, the "IP vs Original" discussion began. Murdy himself, at a scareactor orientation, told us that HHN in Hollywood was struggling and that's why they got rid of it for awhile. He left the Orlando group to come to LA and revive it. So unless you're calling Murdy a liar(which is very possible), then that's what I'm banking on for my information. They used to do 6 things or sometimes 7 things nobody has heard of to 0 or 1 thing and it worked just fine, earning them titles as best Halloween event in the country.

Alternate description of Festival of the Deadliest Beginning September 15, Universal Orlando’s Halloween Horror Nights will bring unimaginable horrors to life in five spine-chilling “scarezones” filled with menacing scareactors that stalk guests as their prey. This year, these horrifying street experiences will live within a collection of the most unearthly and macabre terrors called The Festival of the Deadliest. From the depths where nightmares are born, this horrifying “scarezone” is an ancient tradition filled with hellish wonders that are hard to resist and impossible to escape. This ghastly collection of madmen and monsters from beyond the veil have joined together to revel in firelight and create the ultimate afterlife of fright. And this is just the beginning. It's really starting to sound like traditions from other countries and lore.

Very true, but then the scarezones may have looked a little different than they do now, to make up for that. I remember Mike stating that he likes to tip the scales back to even, in the streets if there are a lot of IPs in the houses.