Ringwraith

I'm going through the archives of past events, collecting writing materials, elevations and plans etc. of past events and I'm wondering if there will continue to be a pattern as seen from 9 to 10, 19 to 20 and 29 now to 30 for the 10 year anniversaries. 1. It seems that there is a heavy push of IP the year prior to an anniversary year and then more originals for year 10 and 20. This lends to the opinion that this year may be weak from an (current) IP stand point and the rumor of no ST this year, so it's a perfect time to go in hard on the original content. Examples HHN 9 - The Mummy, Doomsday, Creature Features 3D, Psycho - 4/5 were IP related houses and MotB as the SZ HHN 10 - Classic Monsters, Dark Torment, Fearhouse, Anxiety in 3D, Total Chaos (All were original/Universal classics) for the SZ's they had Clown Attack, Apocalypse Island, The Gauntlet, Midway of Dr. Morose HHN 19 - The Wolfman, Dracula, Frankenstein, Leave it to Cleaver, SAW, Chucky, The Spawning (C.H.U.D.), Silver Screams and for the SZ's they had Containment, Lights Camera Hacktion, Cirque Du Freak, Horrorwood Die-In, Apocalypse, War of the Living Dead and Shadows from the Past (at the end of the event). HHN 20 - Everything was original or anniversary HHN 29 - We went in pretty heavy on big IP last year with RZ, Zombieland, ST, Ghostbusters, etc. It's interesting how they seem to go all in on IP the year before a 10 year anniversary. It's possible that each 10 year anniversary label is enough to sell tickets and HHN can use this time to further the roots of their lore. 2. There will most likely be an anniversary house (obviously). 3. There will most likely be an icon or a celebration of multiple icons. 4. Keep in mind, these anniversaries are coming: 30th: Tremors, Gremlins 2, The Exorcist 3 40th: Friday the 13th 60th: Psycho 5. With Birds of Prey coming out, do you think Chance will make an appearance to play off of the Harley Quinn similarities? I'm sure more common threads will appear when others dig deeper.

Could we finally get our Conjuring (with Annabelle) house?

To get an idea of what to expect from the IP side, here's what's coming up in 2020, that might bring in some crowds. THE CONJURING!! - Could this finally be the year? With the 3rd installment coming out in 2020, I'd love to see an epic trilogy house. The Grudge remake - Looks creepy Last Night in Soho - I don't know what it's about, but I see Edgar Wright directing and neon in the poster, and we know neon is coming on strong with the HHN crowds. Antlers - Guillermo Del Toro is producing. 'nuff said. However, Fox Searchlight is distributing so... Saw - This could be the comedy house. It's written by Chris Rock and stars Samuel L Jackson. Seriously? Yes, seriously. Look it up! Scarezones Army of the Dead - Zack Snyder's follow-up to his only good movie IMHO. It's also a Netflix film and we're in good graces with them. The Purge 5 - Unfortunately, it's easy money

Ooof, I'll have to go in again. Maybe watch the walk-through online? I don't know if that will help or spoil anything for you though

Interestingly enough, we went through Ghostbusters last night and it was very average, when on opening night, it blew my socks off. The cast, effects, puppet functionality, the group around you, etc. can all make or break a house. I would give it repeat visits during different times of day, to get a full grasp.

This is the best overall year since 25 IMHO

Same rules, different year. 1. Opinions can change over the course of the event, since all elements may not have been working, nor cast changes been smooth. 2. These are my OPINIONS. Take them for what their worth. I'm one to focus on the aesthetics and storytelling, more than the scares, so that is a major part of the equation when grading. 3. There may be spoilers, but I will do my best to hide those. Grading is listed from least favorite to favorite with individual grades for 1. Aesthetics 2. Scares 3. "Wow" factor. Sometimes the grades won't add up to what you would think would be an average final grade, but that's because there were other factors involved. First, there before grading there are some superlatives I'd like to hand out: Biggest Disappointment: Nightingales: Blood Pit Biggest Surprise: House of 1000 Corpses Best Use of Space: Depths of Fear & Killer Klowns From Outer Space Most Likely to be a Full Fledged Attraction After HHN: Ghostbusters Creepiest Atmosphere: Graveyard Games A few notes: 1. You can tell the money went into the houses once again and that's a damn good thing. 2. Lots of reused costumes and props, which is great for saving money, but if you're a fan, it shows. 3. Grandiose set pieces and large puppets are the name of the game this year. They're really starting to go BIG. 4. Facade strength is almost in no way tied to the level of awesomeness of the houses this year. They made an interesting move by showing a lackluster facade on some houses, but then the first scene is fantastic. Without further ado: 10 - Nightingales: Blood Pits: I think this may be one of the biggest disappointments for me, really ever, but only because the anticipation was so high for me and it fell so low. To be fair, this house needs a redo and it needs to be put in a soundstage to provide full potential. Those expecting Roman ruins and a grand atmosphere will be sorely disappointed. This story follows the underbelly of the gladiator arenas and while it states that for the description, it being HHN, I thought we'd get some surprises. There are a few neat scares, but otherwise, it's a dud(so far). Aesthetics - D Scares - C- "Wow" Factor - D 09 - US This landed on my list, about where I thought. While you think the material might make for a solid house, the scares don't play well and it's just not scary. This would land last on my list if I hadn't had such high hopes for Nightingales. They really should have swapped this house location with Nightingales, because what they did with it, could have easily fit in a tent. Aesthetics - D Scares - D "Wow" Factor - D 08 - Universal Monsters Universal Monsters was very high on my list as well. The house isn't bad by any means, but it again, did not meet the expectations I had for it. There were some really cool scares and the costumes were great, but since the films are set in sprawling European landscapes, this house didn't feel as big to me as it should have. Also, if you're expecting the classic look for the monsters, you won't get it, save for one. Aesthetics - C Scares - C- "Wow" Factor - C- 07 - House of 1000 Corpses Well, well, well....sometimes going in with zero expectations is a good thing. This house is the best house they've had in that trailer in a long time. I absolutely despise the film, because in my OPINION, it's total torture porn garbage with very little storytelling. However, the house is like walking through the film and it's a lot of fun! This is one of those attractions where it should just be a 3 minute walkthrough instead of a full fledged movie. They stayed true to the movie, the costumes were spot on, the scareactors were great and the sets were fantastic. If you like the source material, you're going to love this one. That being said, me hating the source material, the grade obviously suffers. Aesthetics - B- Scares - C "Wow" Factor - B- 06 - Stranger Things 2 Better than last year, but not by much. I'm going to be totally honest here and say that, completely unexpectedly, the Season 3 portion of this house, saves it from being last on my list. SPOILER ALERT: The season 2 portion feels like someone complained that there was no sign of the upside down in the first house, so they shoved a bunch of tunnels in this one with horrible puppet dogs to make it feel scary. This part goes on far too long. The rest of Season 2 has a lot of Demodog statues and really bad mannequins...seriously...wtf is this.... Ok, back to our regularly scheduled programming. Season 3 completely saves this house and I really hope they pick up where they left off, next year, although they may have showed their hand too soon and raised the expectations too high if they're going to do a full fledged season 3 house. The puppets are big, the sets are big, everything is big. Bravo on the turnaround, but not enough to keep this house from being in the middle of the pack. I'm giving this house two separate grades based on season. Aesthetics - Season 2 - D- / Season 3 - B+ Scares - Season 2 - D- / Season 3 - C- "Wow" Factor - Season 2 - D - / Season 3 - B+ 05 - Yeti: Terror of the Yukon A&D put a lot of love into this one. It's cold (I was told it wouldn't be) and very atmospheric. That being said, it's not "scary." Some of the Yetis look more like trolls and their heads were facing up when attempting to scare us, so it was kind of silly feeling. Although they did a great job with the aesthetics, I think this house reminds me of what they did with AoV(smaller stage = better). It was great as its own surprise scene in Slaughterhouse Sinema, but a full blown house with a giant budget doesn't necessarily yield a better product. Howeva....this house is beautiful. The snow, the cabins, the forest, caves, it's all very well done and I'm excited to see the house improve over time. Aesthetics - A- Scares - C "Wow" Factor - B- 04 - Graveyard Games Another beautiful house. Very interesting choices here when it comes to the selfie cameras(I'll say no more) and some of the technology used. This house, to me, is tied with Depths of Fear when it comes to the scariness. I don't usually get scared in these houses, but there were definitely some unsettling scenes in this house. A&D put a lot of love into this one, once again. The only thing I didn't like was that it felt like there were very similar scenes and costumes to Poltergeist, but overall, it was solid! Aesthetics - A- Scares - B- "Wow" Factor - B- 03 - Killer Klowns from Outer Space They dun done it again. HOW MUCH SPACE DO THEY HAVE TO WORK WITH IN THE SHREK QUEUE?! I mean really? Personally, this felt as big as a soundstage house. I was extremely impressed with what they had to work with. The film is no cinematic masterpiece, and honestly, it is really bad. But this house is so much fun! I didn't think it would be better than the scarezone, but I was very wrong. Nailed it! I'm not scared of clowns, so the scares are not great IMO, but the rest of it is solid. I rate it higher than Graveyard simply because of its "little engine that could" factor. Aesthetics - A- Scares - D "Wow" Factor - B+ 02 - Depths of Fear Great design, great costumes, great atmosphere...wow. Claustrophobia feels right in a tent house, so unlike its neighbor, this house was perfectly cast in its location. You really feel like you're aboard a sinking mining rig and that you need to escape. Even though the intent is for it to feel claustrophobic, this house still feels very big. The sets are wonderful, the scares are spot on and loud, they did a very good job with this one. Aesthetics - A Scares - B "Wow" Factor - A 01 - Ghostbusters I'm going to do my best to not hype this, but it's just too difficult. Ghostbusters is this year's Poltergeist, American Werewolf In London, Lightning Gulch, whatever you want to call it. My jaw was literally dropped throughout most of it. You feel like you're walking through the scenes of Ghostbusters and it's so much fun! Spoiler alert: Holy Stay Puffed Marshmellow Man! Holy Zul! HOLY CRAP on capturing Slimer with the Proton Packs!!!! I can't wait to go through this house again and again. There are so many surprises, it's grandiose, it's everything you would want from a regular daytime attraction that looks like it was created by Universal Creative. In fact, just leave it there as a new walkthrough show. The only gripe I have is that it was entirely too short. I want more!!! Aesthetics - A+ Scares - C- "Wow" Factor - A+ The scarezones weren't all fully operational when I went through them, so I'll do a separate post at another time. If you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer in any comments below.

In the process of writing a review to be posted later.

ALL OF THE NEON!! It would behoove them to do a little A&D HHN 29 makeover to the current arcade in NY.

What's really sad, is with the amount of money it took for a location, CGI, crew, talent, crafty, and both sound and video editing for this commercial, they could have easily made a badass interactive website and built up excitement and anticipation. This commercial is just bad and marketing is 100% to blame. Marketing, get your heads out of your butts and give the power back to A&D to do what they do best. Please. Thank you.

"Brutal, horn-helmeted warriors have risen from the grave and laid siege to Central Park. Bloodlust never dies." Unless this is zone is based opera performers in Nazi Germany, the horned helmets are NOT accurate.

We’re all familiar with the brutal Viking warriors. It’s terrifying enough thinking about facing them alive. Now picture facing them as the undead. They have risen and laid siege to Central Park with an onslaught of gore. Bloodlust never dies.

Beauty is pain. Literally. In the streets of Hollywood, your flesh becomes the canvas as blade-wielding artists slice up willing participants into horrific living works of art. Here, going under the knife takes on a whole other meaning.

An 80s-inspired arcade has taken over Avenue of the Stars. At first glance, you may think it’s a party. However, you quickly learn that “Game Over” means a permanent end for you. A gang of neon slashers are out to play and this is one game you won’t want to lose.

You know his music, now it’s time to live it. Step into the heavy metal horror of Rob Zombie’s music and imagery in this pulse-pounding scare zone. From otherworldly beings to brutal maniacs, you’ll come face-to-face with his twisted creations as the music cranks to a frenzy.

It’s time to brush up on those rules of survival. Based on the hit film and its upcoming sequel, this scare zone puts you in the middle of the United States of Zombieland. The infection has spread and bloodthirsty zombies are everywhere. The most important rule to remember: Always double tap.

The name is awful, but I've heard the design is superb. I love the interactivity element out front!

Gotta say, I'm not a fan of the name

Graveyard Games Haunted House Awakens at Halloween Horror Nights Do cemeteries give you the willies? Then this one will give you nightmares. Graveyard Games is the next haunted house to join the line-up at this year’s Halloween Horror Nights. In the Ascension Parish Cemetery, it’s normal to find teens playing amongst the tombstones. You’ll find yourself witnessing the repercussions of the disrespectful antics of two teens who have awakened the spirits of the dead. As you roam through the cemetery, you’ll wind through dark mausoleums and decaying piles of coffins. Ghosts of every shape and form will rise from the tombstones to exact their revenge as you try to escape the maze of crumbling tombstones and mausoleums. Skeletal beings, ghastly apparitions and vengeful spirits will try to drag you to the grave. And in the end, you’ll find out what happened to those who set out to deface the cemetery. Before you enter the haunted house, take the opportunity to chat with a few of the local teens and storytellers of the town. All you need is your phone and open Facebook Messenger to the Halloween Horror Nights page. Here you’ll learn the history and spooky legends the cemetery keeps. Better to be prepared for what awaits than finding yourself coming to a “dead” end.

They better use IT next year and make it a mega-house for the 30th. That would be a nice current addition.

I'm going to take a stab at this one. Since they're going with the "80's" again, my guess is that this will have a retro feel and will be a throwback to mall arcades, with ground projections that look like the photo below and neon all around. It would be neat if they had booths set up like they normally do, but they're just giant versions of these coin-op games. They'll probably have to make up the names due to copyright issues or if Nintendo doesn't want to see bloody versions of Mario.

The filming location is where the scarezone is and the presence of a certain item hints to that scarezone, even though it is also in the GB film.

Universal dropped a major hint in that promo video, as to what's going on that street.

The film is fun. The rumor down the grapevine is that the house will not do it justice.

It's happening. I can tell you not too many people are happy about it.