Fallow

Wait, I was under the impression that the floating girl wasn't a Pepper's Ghost, it was a regular floating prop on a wire... (an insanely cool/creepy effect either way...) The Legendary/Psycho Pepper's Ghosts were weak. They looked like video monitors, I couldn't even really tell it was a Pepper's Ghost unless I really peered into their "rooms". Didn't help that the two scenes that utilized them were essentially identical.

I'm fine with another HAVOC if it actually introduces some special effects & unique sets - the reuse of Spawning was annoying as hell to me, since I felt like I'd already done the house many times before.

Very well done - I enjoyed the read. The full, complete version of the Bloody Mary legend was well-appreciated. You also did a great job with the FEAR page given the total lack of details on the backstory... One suggestion I might make is to try to include the backstory of Jack in the Asylum for Maximum Madness instead of just mentioning his inclusion - could make a cool transition paragraph between his reign as a demented clown thirsting for revenge to a master of the Carnival of Carnage. Perhaps for the future, new articles like this could be included, such as the history of famous haunt locations... Psychoscareapy, Carey Ohio, the Castle Vampyr, the Dungeon of Terror, etc.? Perhaps even some side characters... Samuel Meatz, Lord Samhain, The Thing [in the context of HHN], the Evil Queen [scary Tales], etc...

I think there are only three points of speculation thus far for 2011... 1) Will The Thing reappear at Halloween Horror Nights thanks to the new movie? Synergy, and past events, tell us "probably". I for one would be stoked to see an updated, all-new Thing house. Maybe in a soundstage this time? 2) How will Bill & Ted be affected by its new writer(s)? Will the show's quality improve, or will we get another XX-level stinker? 3) How much weight can we put into the supposed "clues" hidden away in Catacombs? Is the focus on "Death" (capitalized deliberately in several places) a clue or just something to throw us off? Will we be seeing The Grim Reaper as our icon?

Touche. A good op is unseen and out of mind. That said, if I had a dollar for every op that was obnoxious, rude, or annoying in using his/her flashlight, standing right in the middle of the scene, or otherwise inhibiting on my experience, I'd be rich.

Thank you. I'd like to note that I agree FEAR didn't fail because of just the creature aspect - the reason I stipulate a human icon is because the costume isn't as cumbersome (FEAR was only available for 30 minute sets due to this, apparently), and more importantly, the character can speak and interact with guests. FEAR was confined to waving his arms at the prerecorded cheesy dialogue we'd all heard before. Absolutely nothing new was learned about him once at the park. In addition, he failed due to being one-dimensional, having no real personality, backstory or character, having no true exposure to the general public in the form of advertisements (the Cloverfield approach does not work with this type of medium), and almost no role in the final event. If he'd at least had a show or something in which he'd brought forth the icons and killed a few people I think this discussion would be quite different. But we never even saw FEAR kill anyone (except maybe that one security guard)? We had no idea what he was capable of, who he was, where he came from, etc... Hell, even The Storyteller had a better role in 05, with her image plastered everywhere, her (admittedly weak, but existing) backstory being known, and her appearance to SCARE people in Where Evil Hides. Now that FEAR was "revealed", absolutely nothing has changed, except for a more mediocre event. Maybe that's what I'm supposed to fear?

My wishful thinking for this year's HHN... -A new "The Thing" haunted house. I know, I know - new age of darkness, no movies, new ideas - but The Thing does come out in early Spring I believe, so I bet the DVD timing would be perfect. The Thing also provides some great opportunities for innovating scaring (via puppets and otherwise), if the original 2007 house was any indication. I'd say this is probably the most likely thing to happen on this list... -Better security at the front gate. I don't think I need to really elaborate on this as plenty of others have - I never had an issue, but some friends did. Third parties and Universal MUST communicate and be 100% in sync with each other or serious problems are going to happen. -A NEW human icon with FULL MARKETING & MERCHANDISING SUPPORT. Please, give us another Jack, Caretaker, Director, Mary, or Usher - we need a human icon we can interact with, that can appear in houses and zones, and can be seen on ads everywhere. Enough of the abstract "consumed by Fear" imagery or the "here's the 3 movie icons we got this year" ads. If HHN wants more icons to add to its roster, it has to do it properly. And once you've established an icon and exploited him/her via merchandise and ads, actually USE him/her in the parks - please no FEAR redo, we want to actually be FRIGHTENED by our icon. Give him/her a house, and if possible, a photo op or zone. -An overarching theme, which was sadly absent last year. Twenty Years of Fear was weak, and the overall event last year lacked an identity. Reflections of Fear, Carnival of Carnage, Sweet 16, Ripped From the Silver Screen - those were all memorable and had true identities, with backstories that effectively tied everything together. Exploit it on the website, on the merchandise, and in the parks. Immerse us in a new icon's world. Just being in "Universal Studios with some freaky attractions" is nowhere near as fun. -A new house location or zone or show. I'd imagine a new zone is most likely, but it feels as if the lineup has gotten just slightly stagnant in previous years - we need a new additional zone space to round out the park, or even more ideally, a new house to consume crowds. The lines have gotten out of control and more outlets are needed. A third show, featuring our (hopefully) new icon, would be great - Jacked Up and The Arrival seemed like fantastic diversions that gave the crowd what they wanted (the icon they saw in the ads) as well as setting the mood for the night. -The removal of the excess of third party vendors throughout the park. I don't mean the temporary food carts, the tattoos, or even the cheesy palm readers - no, I'm talking about those obnoxiously loud flashing t-shirt stalls. HHN music is deliberately turned OFF in areas where they are (of which there are many) so some random top 40 song can be played, showing off the shirt's capabilities. Show off the shirts in the back half of Production Central with the bright, shitty midway games (which I won't even bother to request their removal, since I know they won't leave), but please, nowhere else. It was so disheartening to leave Zombie Gras and to have the atmosphere built up instantly dissolve to Rihanna and some crappy flashy shirts. Ditto with the exits of Escueleto and the Central Park Jack-O-Lanterns. Absolutely ridiculous. -Kill this whole "you are always the victim" idea. I think it's a good thought, but ultimately it leaves something to be desired - namely, gore, and the idea that any of these things can actually harm you. 2009's soundstage houses were extremely cinematic - you had Frankenstein, Wolfman, and Dracula, all of which had mini "show" elements (heart-tear, wolf transformation, sawing of leg, etc.). These show elements are a big part of what puts HHN above other haunted houses across the nation. Hades was just a bunch of costumes popping out - which can be scary, yes, and the costumes were mostly good (the sets & atmosphere meh), but there were no show elements, no human victims of any kind being murdered. Why should I be scared, then? They can't hurt me... Same thing with Psychoscareapy & Legendary Truth. Also return of plots, please. Wolfman was more of a cinematic retelling of the film we hadn't seen yet, but Dracula & Frankenstein definitely had plot arcs. Zombiegeddon had a plot arc this year but sadly lacked a proper finale. Catacombs was the only house this year to have a true plot and finish it. More, please. -Proper finales. The finales this year were kind of pathetic. WTH was going on with Legendary Truth? Psychoscareapy's lacked any real intensity. Hades was a joke. Zombiegeddon was a fine mid-house room, but as a finale, it was weak. Orfanage's would've been better with more "smoke", but with some good timing you got a decent finale. Havoc had an inferior copy of Spawning's. Catacombs finale was solid. Hallow'd Past was bad. Really, all of them just kind of fizzled (and that's just not my opinion - the friends I brought who had only attended in 09 previously agreed vehemently). Give me a reason to RUN out of the house. Provide closure to the plot and then give me everything you've got, scare the shit out of me. Save the best for last. -Roofs over the houses. It seems like such an easy thing. It was clearly done in 2009, why it was avoided this year is beyond me. It ruined certain rooms and killed immersion in others. I even heard general public members commenting on how "all the houses seemed to be in the same building" (upon exiting Hades), going on to note "if you look up you see it's one big warehouse". Not good, people. Exceptions are of course made for certain instances like the floating actors, which brings me to... -More "special" scares. By this I mean special effects, puppets, mechanics, surprises. Everyone's expecting actors to jump out at you. Surprise us. Legendary Truth had a few of these but ultimately disappointed. Where were the floating actors? The crazy puppets (especially in Hades, no Cerberus!?)? I guess they planned for a banshee special effect in that house, but it failed for some reason and was abandoned. Pity. -A real backstory website. No Legendary Truth - the effort nice, but overall it was weak, and led to a stillborn actual investigation. I know, I know - the general public finds it confusing. I don't really get this complaint - the backstory website is established months and months before the actual event, long before any member of the general public would casually go to the site to buy tickets. Have the "launch" site have basic information but more substantial backstory for those that want to look for it. Before the core site launches, give us a cool backstory like the Universal Palace, the Carnival of Carnage, or Mary's Journals. Universal used to win awards for their websites - don't let that superior standard slip away. -Control over the amount of "ops". Didn't encounter a single good op the entire event. Not a single one. They were always distracting, annoying, and/or rude. Stop telling me to move forward, I'll go at my own damn pace. The flashlights are absolutely ridiculous. Give them the hoods that were tested in Catacombs - that might help. But even hoods aren't going to help the attitudes that most of the ops seem to have. Something needs to change with that, or the houses are going to be far less "appreciate the incredible worlds A&D have built and get scared shitless" and much more "gogogo as fast as you can through a claustrophobic warehouse". If all of that was done, I'd be an extremely happy camper. They aren't unreasonable requests - they accomplished almost all of it in 08 and 09. For some reason, 10 had a sharp decline in these standards. Is it because Michael Roddy was no longer around to keep things in check? I sincerely hope not, because if it was, and they don't realize that the quality dropped (which I feel like they won't, since supposedly XX was the "best reviewed HHN"), then we're probably just going to get more of the same - a dumbed down event. :/

I think a lot of people know now that I was very critical of this year's event - that said, one area where A&D really excelled was the costume creation for new characters. Their exquisite work really brought these creatures of the damned to life, and in many cases, made them (for just a moment) truly scary. So, I ask all of you - what was your favorite NEW costumed character this year, in terms of detail, effectiveness, realism, and scariness? Anyone from Hallow'd Past, Twenty Years of Fear, and FEAR Revealed (with the exception of Cindy, FEAR, & The Minions) were excluded as their costumes were not new. Zombiegeddon characters with the exception of the Z.A.P. instructor were excluded due to space and since A&D has done zombies quite a few times before. (Zombie Gras was included since their costumes were to some extent new.) The Puritans from The Coven were excluded since they were removed halfway through the event. The Orfans from The Orfanage were included since their costumes had significant modification since their last appearance. The Catacombs Corpses were excluded due to space and redundancy (zombie-like corpses have been done before). Finally, Saws'n'Steam was not included again due to space (you can only have 20 options) and since A&D has done chainsaws in various forms before. It was a tough call for me between the Plague Doctors, the Escueleto specters, and the Minions - but the FURY from Hades ended up winning for me in the end. This costume was incredibly detailed & realistic while also being visually striking and SCARY. The actors also utilized it very well, giving me constant scares whenever I passed through its room.

Just another reinforced shout-out to everyone working this house, especially both pirates and the Cindies - you guys were incredible and moved this house from an intial #7 to my #3. My pick for the most underrated house this year, hands down, you guys were always the house I was looking forward to and would hit up when the park opened so I could do it again later with Express.

Legacy, while many of your points are quite true (if an ugly truth), I firmly believe Cindy could have been used as an effective icon. I don't know a single person who wouldn't see a black and white little girl with black eyes with smoke billowing out of them and not be creeped out. That type of freaky image (as we saw with Bloody Mary) is plenty enough to sell the event. Regarding FEAR, I still stand by that he was pretty much a failure of an icon. I'm sorry, but the little "Sumerian God of Fear" thing they threw at us does not count as a backstory - we received no indication that FEAR was a god of any kind, it still remains unclear whether FEAR was trapped, who he/it was, why he's held the ceremonies/cycles/whatever, why is the 20th cycle so important, why there are roman numerals on his chest (aging, but we know they can go more in-depth than that), why half of his body is covered in roots while the other half isn't, what relation he has to the icons, what IS the lantern, what happens now that FEAR has been "revealed" given that he hasn't killed or scared a single person? I mean, they didn't even play on the idea that he was to kill the other icons, which WAS included the little "ancient document" that was conjured up at the last minute. And now we're stuck with an omniscient character with no real purpose. As my friend observed (he attended for the first time this year), "they kind of showed all of their cards. Now that this "FEAR" guy is here, they can't really go any bigger." And he's right. Not to mention that FEAR himself in the park failed, miserably. I know this was an operations thing and couldn't really be avoided given the type of costume they built for FEAR, but the 30 minute set times meant there were comparatively long stretches of time where FEAR was not on stage - and literally not present anywhere else in the event. Several of my friends never even saw him despite going through FEAR Revealed, and those who did were far more impressed by the other icons. The consensus was while FEAR was kind of cool looking, he felt kind of out of place and they preferred the interactivity possible with the other icons. The general public DOES love interacting with the icons, that much is clear - creating an icon that cannot truly be interacted with was not a wise move. A&D is capable of creating seamless events with strong icon characters that get people to show up. Pretty much the past several years are evidence of this, as well as Islands of Fear. I really think this year was successful not really because of FEAR - most people didn't know who he was, what he looked like, and couldn't point him out to you once in the park... I think it was simply the TWENTY YEARS OF FEAR tag line. It's a big anniversary which makes people to think "gee, they must be doing everything EPIC this year". And frankly, they didn't, which was disappointing - the event has actually decreased in size since 2007, which I find incredibly disappointing. It's not hard to achieve the best of both worlds - create an icon character that is both appealing to the general public (so there has to be some sort of immediately discernable scary visual feature) and features a rich backstory to appeal to the fans, then market that character until there's no tomorrow, as well as giving them a massive park presence. This cements the character in the public's minds, it provides the glue to link the components of the event together, and it provides a strong backstory to build a house off of - what would a house featuring FEAR even be like? A cave? I don't know, I don't know where FEAR came from or where he dwells. Halloween Horror Nights became what it is today due to its commitment to creating original comment, original characters, and immersive events - if they continue with this concept of half-assing a character who has no back story or park presence, then we're back to the late 90s, and Universal might lose a customer or two to Howl-O-Scream - love or hate Sylvie, but she's a textbook example of how you build an icon.

@BigChippah - Regarding Cindy being a "slow-burn" - I understand what you're getting at, and I think that could be avoided depending on how they presented her. Essentially, they couldn't just show a little girl, even if she was in black and white - she'd have to have the black eyes in the animatic (maybe with black smoke billowing out of them), maybe give a fire element to her, something to set her off from an ordinary, creepy kid. I mean when you really get down to it, The Director looks like a guy with a camera and The Caretaker's an old guy with a top hat. It's the little touches (the blood on the face and the evil glint in the eyes of The Director, the rot of the teeth/the dead eyes/the bloody utensils of The Caretaker) that make "ordinary" icons scary. The commercial would play a big part in this - if you have a guy walking through the woods and he comes across this burning tree with two big XXs, and turns around and sees a little girl with black smoke billowing out of her eyes, who promptly attacks him, setting him on fire... I mean DAMN, you're going to REMEMBER that! It's all in the execution. FEAR had the potential to be terrifying, it didn't work out. As for the billboards, didn't we establish some time ago (correct me if I'm wrong) that the billboard protest was a press-harboring hoax? They had no problem displaying Wolfman/Jigsaw/Chucky last year, so I don't think they'd have any problems showing a creepy little girl... Now, on to Panther's point - I agree to what you're saying to the nth degree, except on one point - and that's that the stories the public understands and that we understand should belong to the SAME character. If you have Wolfman/Chucky/Jigsaw in the forefront and The Usher hiding in the background, you have an event with an identity crisis. The 2009 situation really irked me (and I could tell it wasn't A&D's decision to exclude The Usher, so no blame there) - there was absolutely no reason it couldn't have been The Usher PRESENTS Wolfman/Chucky/Jigsaw, much like Jack PRESENTS Freddy/Jason/Leatherface. The character presented to the public needs to be the same character intertwined throughout the whole event - they did it with Jack, The Caretaker, The Director, and Bloody Mary. All of these characters holds instant appeal to the general public given their advertising campaigns (charisma/visual appeal, dread, shock, and legend-status, respectively) that The Storyteller also had (false impression given that she's an old woman who can murder you) and The Usher and FEAR easily could have had. Bottom line is, marketing needs to get it together and really work with A&D to provide a marketing campaign that appeals to the general public but also ties into the story that A&D is trying to tell, otherwise the event's overall theme becomes muddled and (as in 09) a bit of an identity crisis.

Considering I'm an avid Mary fan and there were apparently a few references I missed, I'd love a PM with any additional tidbits you know of (or you can just post them here for all to see). The only other one that pops up in my head was a possible audio appearance in Hallow'd Past - could've sworn I heard Mary talking about "saying my name", but that might've been my overactive imagination. Regardless, Bloody Mary did not appear as a scare actor in the flesh as we all would've hoped. I'm curious - how was Universal able to have The Cryptkeeper show up with little to no secrecy (and after an allegedly failed attempt to use him as an icon in 2006)?

The thing about The Storyteller is that she actually did have a presence at the event - not the presence of the Terra Queen, but a presence nonetheless - she was plastered everywhere on the park maps, advertisements, merchandise, etc. She showed up in Where Evil Hides, and her backstory (while flimsy) still made sense. People recognized The Storyteller at the event because they knew what she look like and had a general idea what she was about - she told stories and killed people. What do we know about FEAR? He has... terrible dental care, and might possess a lantern (or is trapped within one)? The public didn't get it, my friends didn't get it, I didn't get it. They saw a tall creepy guy - oo, photo opportunity! But HHN is about more than that. Jack's a photo opportunity and the public goes gaga for him, but he also has some semblance of a backstory and thus a justification of why he's there. I would ask people who'd gone if they saw FEAR, and the response was mostly "that big guy on stilts? yeah... he was... alright". Hardly the response a fear-god shoudl garner. FEAR would've been fine as an event theme (even if prefer the Cindy idea) had they actually fleshed out his character, shown him in advertisements so the public had an idea of who he was, and had him show up more during the event - he's a super icon and he had the smallest presence of ALL of the icons thus far, even debatably Eddie. That, and they should've tied the event a bit more together - utilize the Portmanteaus idea (which was pretty cool!) and have each house tie into one of the elements of fear, with an icon cameo and a FEAR cameo in each, with FEAR getting his own house in Hallow'd Past. Panther's quote really exemplifies what I'm getting at there. Newbies to the event this year found the individual houses to be great, but overall felt the theme was lacking - I agree. You want to make the impression A&D made on me with Bloody Mary in 08 - an entire alternate world, not just 8 houses and 6 scare zones. Mind you, ALL of the houses this year were great and most of the scare zones were as well - but I've come to expect the BEST from A&D as I know they are capable of it. This was an excellent year in house & zone quality, but I feel it's most like 2004 in which case all of the houses were great but ultimately there's no true personality to remember the event by - and 2004 even had the gimmick of being at both parks. Maybe my expectations were too high, but this was their flagship 20th anniversary, and I expected all of the cylinders firing. Maybe I'm just too cynical!

Thank you for your thorough counter-argument, BigChippah, it was enlightening to read. I still disagree on a few key points, however. I find FEAR to be far more confusing than Cindy given the advertising they chose for the former - it's just a mouth for 90% of the advertisements - you only see a faint outline of his face if you really look into the ads. FEAR's a cool idea but he's half-baked... and the average joe noticed. All of my friends (who attend once a year with me, with no background knowledge other than what I provide for them on the ride up to Orlando) - they thought he was ridiculously lame, even worse than The Usher, apparently. Another friend of mine managed to go the event and didn't see him at all despite spending 20 minutes in FEAR Revealed... it's now an in-joke that "FEAR did a lot". I heard similar things from everyone who went to the event this year. Had they actually advertised FEAR as a character instead of a set of dentures, it could have worked. But... meh. Cindy's a creepy little girl with black eyes who sets things on fire. What's not creepy about that? They'd obviously plaster her all over ads - I think that'd get some attention. Then again, when you put a creepy little girl and "FEAR himself" in front of corporate executives, they're likely to pick the latter simply for the "spectacle", regardless of cohesiveness [or existence] of a backstory. And so it goes...

Care to share? I find it incredibly intriguing that A&D would hide a clue for next year in a house... allegedly in Latin, no less...

So I'll assume nothing really happened in FEAR Revealed last night... not that I was really expecting anything, but it would've been nice. I heard the Bill & Ted speech was particularly touching this year...

So, did anything special happen tonight, especially in FEAR Revealed?

Well, I mean, obviously there's her mannequin in the Secrets of the Past VIP museum - and "Dr. Agana" is mentioned in the Psychoscareapy text game, as well as a debated appearance of her as the doctor in the Electroshock Therapy room/Padded finale... but other than that...

No, no - I'm saying that Jack and Caretaker had great houses to accompany their years, as opposed to Mary who did not. From what I've seen of the Art of the Scare DVD, Screamhouse looked excellent, and Jack's FEARhouse looked quite well done as well.

Some individual in the horror make-up business obtained a copyright for Bloody Mary for any sort of horror type event (make-up, haunt, or otherwise) some time ago. Bobbie Wiener, or something similar, I think his name was. Universal wanted to use the Bloody Mary character for a HHN event - so they bought the temporary rights from this Bobbie Wiener, who I think also designed Bloody Mary's makeup in 08. Now Universal does not have the rights to use the Bloody Mary character freely, despite her massive presence in 2008 and the fact that they created her personality, image, and backstory - hence no Mary audio or appearance in Shadows of the Past in 2009 or any appearance this year outside of her map in Hallow'd Past. Mary had everything an icon should have. It began with an elaborate, engaging backstory that is fully explored and makes some semblance of sense, all delievered through a clever website leading up to the full reveal of the event. At that point, we're treated to a marketing barrage of her image and character. The character itself is creepy and interesting, and is able to get to get into our space even when we're not at the event - pretty much any time we're near a mirror, Mary has the potential to be there. Every billboard, print ad, radio ad online banner, and Burger King cup included her unearthly gaze. Moreover, an incredibly unsettling commercial was created that struck unease or even true fear into all who saw it. Expectations were high - at the event itself, we were treated to an enormous mirror at the entrance with Mary ushering us in, followed by massive projector set up around the park displaying her image taunting us and beckoning us further into her alternate reality. Plenty of cool merchandise also featured her image. Finally, she had the Reflections of Fear house in the far reaches of the park - this is the one place they stumbled, as they attempted to convey the dread and fear of the backstory but botched it by giving Mary assistants (blunting her effectiveness as a dark entity) and a baffling lack of mirrors (no mirror maze for Mary was a crime). So with the exception of that house quality, Mary was an incredible icon, and my favorite to date. (For the record, Jack is my second favorite, and The Caretaker my third.) Notice that those three icons all had everything Mary had, except an actual quality house to real send the effectiveness home. The Usher was a good idea, but lacked a truly memorable visage (he needed to be far more corpse-like in order to be truly frightening in any way), as well as absolutely no merchandise or advertising - which is a good two thirds of the selling point for an icon. Storyteller is both creepy and charismatic, and I like the idea of her - but she was shoehorned into her event year and lacked a true place in Terra Cruentes (resulting in a very flimsy backstory), despite her quality advertising and merchandise. The Director had great advertising, merchandise, charisma, and backstory - but, and this is just my observation as I never attended in 03, but it felt like he was a bit out of place in Islands of Adventure. The Director seems like the type of character that would be better grounded in gritty realism (after all, he has very little to no supernatural ties in his murders) then placed in the fantastical world of Islands of Adventure. Long story short, Universal has the template to create an effective, memorable icon, which was used for Jack, Mary, & Caretaker, came close with Director & Storyteller, but flubbed with The Usher and FEAR. Give us another icon that crowds will swarm when they see him/her, and that all of us will be super excited to see come the next reunion year.

Could someone explain what happened to the Puritans? I know some didn't really care for them, but I had nothing but nice things to say - they were great ad-libbers and still managed to get scares, not to mention excellent interaction with the Sirens.

So design a NEW character that will warrant that kind of attention. I'm glad A&D has recognized that they've relied on the 2000-2003 icons for too long (Storyteller & Usher... as much as I enjoy them, yeah...) At this point, we need some amazing NEW icons - basically, everything they did with Bloody Mary, but with a better house and a character that they control the rights to. BM was pretty much the perfect execution of an icon, which is why I miss her dearly (not to mention she's the only truly frightening icon who can get into your space even when you're not at the event).

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks so. It's not only just because it's Cindy (we got Cindy this year anyway, and she had a much bigger presence than FEAR) - that one animatic gave more backstory and context than a full media blitz was able to provide for FEAR and the lantern. Not to mention it just makes more sense - having some "master of ceremonies" diminishes the power & horror of everything else, in my eyes. A "dead tree" is a cool idea that makes sense - the hallowed grounds of HHN has laid a blood-ridden soil for it to grow and prosper, and Cindy is the perfect character to dust off and use as the game changer. Upon her burning the tree, we would've seen a phoenix effect - a true "new age of darkness", as opposed to FEAR "appearing" and declaring himself the master of everything while doing absolutely nothing himself. If the commercial had been anything like that animatic, I would've cried tears of joy...

I have to say, that was a much, much, MUCH better idea than what we actually got. FEAR felt rushed and unexplained, and now leaves the canon stuck with a horrifically weak "omnipresence" that will likely seldom be acknowledge again or expanded upon. Cindy is a forgotten relic who is reworked into the terrifying changer of the tides - the end of the past 20 years, but the start of the new age. She could've been used far more effectively as an icon, one I think people would've responded more to. Can you imagine the commercial for that type of campaign?

Final Tally: Legendary Truth: 9 Psychoscareapy: 6 Hades: 8 Zombiegeddon: 8 The Orfanage: 9 HAVOC: 8 Catacombs: 9 Hallow'd Past: 9 Bill & Ted: 2 Brian Brushwood: 2 Nights Attended (FFP+w/Express): 5