Fallow
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Eugene really grew on me. By the last show he was one of my favorites. Loved him.
The principal actor for Eugune was very good - he took a very bland character without a lot of funny material (except for undoubtedly the ET Kanye West bit) and made him funny. I saw a swing perform Eugene and it wasn't the same at all.
I still like it a lot more when they use a true film/political character. If they have to use a Universal-based villain, so be it, but it's better than these random Flinstones references.
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The ripped away soldier would be my vote if it happened more frequently. I went through that house a good 15 times and only saw it once. My vote is for the distant cemetery as well
Remember that one of the factors that should be taken into consideration is consistency - if the scene isn't consistently good, it probably shouldn't be considered for scene of the year.
Also remember to everyone, we aren't actually voting yet (though you're free to say your favorite), we're only trying to determine what scenes will be featured on the poll itself.
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I've got another fun poll that's a little more thought-provoking than the obligatory House and Street of the Year polls. What was your favorite specific scene of HHN21? All of the houses are fair game. I won't post the actual poll just yet - I want to hear actual nominations (since there are only 20 spots on any poll) before deciding what scenes should be on the official vote.
Here's some criteria you should consider:
-Scariness
-Consistency/Repeatability (was this scene still scary or at least entertaining on repeat trips?)
-Strength of Acting (were the actors in these scenes, both casts, effective in their use of the space?)
-Set Design (did this scene have strong set design in addition to simply being scary?)
I'll post my initial nominations/scenes that are almost guaranteed to be nominated. If you disagree with a nomination, please say so and explain why. Justification should be provided with actual nominations as well.
Distant Cemetery (Winter's Night)
Hall of Crypts (Winter's Night)
Coffin Room (Winter's Night)
Blue Light Finale (Winter's Night)
Ripped Away Soldier (Nightingales)
Body Room (Nightingales)
Machine Gun/Bungee Chord Nightingale (Nightingales)
The THING Escapes from the Ice (The THING)
Kitchen Gunfight (The THING)
Presidents' Day (The Re-Election) (H.R. Bloodngutz)
Ho Ho Homicide (H.R. Bloodngutz)
Get Lucked (H.R. Bloodngutz)
Waterfall/Steam Hall (Saws'n'Steam)
Flesh Aquarium (Saws'n'Steam)
The Raven Hall (Nevermore)
Masque of Red Death (Nevermore)
The Black Cat (Nevermore)
Death of Virginia (Nevermore)
Winged Demons (In-Between)
Rave/Laser Room (In-Between)
Pixie Stix/Line Room (In-Between)
Chapel (Forsaken)
Courtyard (Forsaken)
Tilted Ship (Forsaken)
Bungee Chord Finale (Forsaken)
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Two questions now that the event is over...
1) Why a static mask behind the first boohole? To save $$$?
2) What was up with the Legendary Truth-style "slider" in the wall? I saw it a whopping two times through my like 11 runs through this house, and when I did, it was by accident... nothing drew your attention to the guy in there.
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I had a very hard time ranking these. Every single house had merit and something to offer this year: not a single stinker. Well done A&D for some fantastic houses.
1) Nevermore: The Madness of Poe --- Say what you'd like, but some of the scares in here are just brilliant. Not to mention a fantastic tribute to some spooky Poe tales. Great story from beginning to end.
2) Winter's Night: The Haunting of Hawthorne Cemetery --- Some brilliant scares and some uninspired scares. Awesome show scenes. Absolutely stunning sets, chilling atmosphere. Wish there was more attention given to the plot, but that Distant Cemetery scare made up for it.
3) In-Between --- Absolute mindf*ck; reminds me a lot of Dead Exposure, my scariest house of all time. This house is SCARY even on repeat viewings since many of the scenes are designed in a way where you're either blinded or the actors have many places to leap out from. 3D seemed iffy, but I don't really care. A few uneven scenes kept it from the top. Appreciated the story told and how it kept to the site's backstory.
4) H.R. Bloodngutz presents Holidays of Horror --- My most improved house through the run. This ended up being a lot of peoples' favorite in the groups I took and I understand why... there's a lot of variety here in both the costumes and sets, it's SCARY without being TOO goofy (ala Cleaver), and every single cast member is 100% devoted to their roles. I want to echo everyone else in hoping for another Bloodngutz-centered house somewhere down the line. (Oh, and again, great story is told.)
5) Saws'n'Steam: Into the Machine --- A straight up scary house with the most elaborate sets I've ever seen in the Jaws queue. The show scenes and victims helped this one stand out, as did the Bioshock influences (note: this ISN'T a Bioshock house, but it does take some very cool inspiration). Again, great casts (lot of devotion to the role, varying degrees of insanity and sinister intent), and a very cool story told. Wish there was more saws and a slightly more intense finale.
6) Nightingales: Blood Prey --- This is doubtlessly going to be a franchise house and I'm very chill with that. What I'm not chill with was how uneven this house was due to one of the casts kind of (for lack of better word) sucking. If you got the good cast, it ranks higher - if you get the bad cast, it ranks very low. Still, the audio and set design are great, and the premise and execution are strong. Some very cool scares, and awesome show scenes (if you're a lottery winner and you get to see them).
7) The Forsaken --- I hate to put this one so low because I actually do like it a lot. The sets are gorgeous, the plot strong and well-executed, and some fun surprises (tilted floor FTW). The casts have a high energy and got stronger over the course of the run. I like the eyes but it's a shame they gave away your location on occasion. Some scares are very predictable, others are well-timed. It just failed to capture my attention as some of the others did - not your fault, might just be the subject matter.
8) The THING --- This is the only house where I can honestly say I was disappointed to a degree. This was not a bad house, but it's not as great as it could've been - part of this is due to the film itself, which honestly does not lend itself well to a house at all. The repetitiveness of the costumes is a big factor, as are the oft-missed scenes (seriously, some of them take forever to reset). Both casts were inconsistent... sometimes people would try, sometimes they seemed very bored. The finale was weak - more time should've been spent in the ship I think. (Oh, and more giant puppets!)
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1) 7
2) Canyon of Dark Souls
3) Acid Assault
4) Your Luck Has Run Out
5) Grown Evil
6) Nightmaze
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The final minutes of 7 - you deserve SotY! I was lucky to be there for the final photo.
Best street I've ever experienced. A job incredibly well done.
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They took out a bunch of props on the right side of the Thankskilling room (everything from a table to the drapes and even the gun the Pilgrim uses. Facing the fireplace, it was everything to the left of it.
How the hell does someone get deer piss through security, much less inside a damn house? Holy crap, the nerve of some people. Thankfully it was so close to the end of the run that they were just able to remove the props without much trouble. Unbelievable.
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Congratulations to 7. Well deserved.
I sure hope this means they got Street of the Year like they deserved.
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Can someone provide the House/Streets of the Week thus far, and come Monday, the House/Street of the Year?
Canyon and Acid both deserve Street of the Weeks, but 7 deserves Street of the Year hands down.
House of the Week/Year is a toss-up, they were all good.
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As of last night, this is competing for my favorite house of the year. It's already my favorite fun house. I really have a hard time finding one actor that looks bored on either cast, which is extremely easy to do in some other houses. I could shout out to almost every actor on both casts. Seriously, you guys are all great.
You know, I was wondering why Bloodngutz had grown on me so much in comparison to some of the other houses. I think you hit the nail on the head - even those with less than stellar costumes/scares (Independence Day & Valentines Day rooms) work REALLY hard to get scares. It's an excellent group, kudos to you all.
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Enjoyed reading this - we disagree on some things, but that's to be expected. I really enjoyed meeting you outside NASCAR a few weekends ago - in case you don't remember, you were one of the double teamers who kept cornering my girlfriend and I.
In regards to your Bioshock rant - you're a smidge inaccurate here, I have to say (no disrespect!) The "scuba suit" guy indeed does not look like the Big Daddy you described... however, there are multiple types of Big Daddy's, you only described the Bouncer style (far more advertised, the one on the cover, etc.) There is a more traditional looking scuba suit Big Daddy called the "Rosie." While the look is still not completely the same, I feel the inspiration is still there. That said, this isn't a Bioshock house - but again, there's some pretty big indisputable inspiration taken from it (and I take no issue with that. It's really cool!)
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I had to cut it, unfortunately. If it isn't an original costume, it shouldn't be included. If I were able to add another option I'd include "The THING" costumes since they are NEW and ORIGINAL to HHN despite the THING house from 2007 and that the movie unit developed the look (A&D still had to craft them, after all).
By the way - you can call it "Sorrow Angel" if you wish, but Sorrow Angel is to Weeping Angel as Hockey Mask Killer is to Jason.
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Just so I'm clear, which costume is Lady Hawthorne?
The spirit dressed as a bride - she appears in the "Distant Cemetery" scene.
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I take it the hoodies for this year are sold out??
It's been stated multiple times on this page alone that the hoodies are sold out. It is unlikely that they will be restocking this year.
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by 6:45 nevermore was already up to a 45 minute wait if that gives you any clue (and yes it was actually 45 minutes...I waited). Lines were really bad last night for a sunday.
Something crazy must've happened then. We got in line around 6:40 to 6:45 and it took us 15 minutes, max. The line always looks daunting but often it really isn't bad at all.
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This zone has shocked me. From being near the bottom to kicking so much ass last week. On Sunday I sat and watched both cast about 2-3 times. While one cast has better women dancers. The other cast has better minions (LEAPFROG!) All and all this zone is near my number #1.
The Sloth's minions are some of the best hands down actors I've seen at this event this year.
I don't know how they do it. Their body movements are so contorted and bizarre and yet they can move with such speed and proficiency... they rack up 3 scares every 5 seconds in how effing fast and effective they are. These guys deserve Street Actors of the Year.
(Though there isn't a single actor in this zone that I could complain about. They're all brilliant, though I have a particular liking for the Vanities... they have so much fun whispering and growling in peoples' ears.)
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So I ran this poll last year - thought I'd try it again this year. I can only do 20 options for each question, so I had to separate it into zones and houses - and even then I had to make some really tough decisions on what to include on the ballet. Some justifications for the exclusions/nuances:
STREETS
7: I had to combine the male and female costumes for each sin, otherwise they'd take up 14 of the slots. Besides, the costumes are supposed to complement one another. And yes, this includes the daylight and the nighttime transformations.
Raven: If you want to vote for the Raven for houses as well... well, you gotta use the option in the Streets, I guess!
HOUSES
Winter's Night: The zombies were unfortunately out because they've done those types of characters before. The Blue Light Wraiths from the finale were excluded due to their similarity with the Canyon of Dark Souls Wraiths. Hawthorn has a very specific, recognizable costume and thus gets her own spot. The Skeleton Man was excluded due to his similarity with past "blending-in" costumes. "Other spirits" refers to any other of the ghost-based characters found in the house.
Nightingales: Had to lump all stages of the Nightingales into one slot. Gas mask soldiers didn't get included since they've been done in some capacity before; ditto with the regular soldiers.
The THING: I know, I know - the costumes in here are different from the previous THING appearances. However, I was pressed for space, and felt compelled to make this call. If you really loved one of the THING costumes, feel free to write it in via a reply - there were some great ones.
Bloodngutz: Independence Day... people... were excluded due to the genericness of their costume. Peeps guy was excluded because he practically has no costume. Hay Man was excluded for the same reason as Skeleton Man. Arbor Day Girl was excluded since we've seen actresses in that sort of attire before. Pilgrim & Pocahontas were excluded due to the basicness of their costumes.
Saws'n'Steam: Almost all of the costumes here were used in or were heavily drawn from the scare zone last year.
Poe: Again, tough calls had to be made. Vulture Eye from Telltale Heart was excluded due to what many have complained to be the "plasticness" of his mask. The Raven can be voted for in the Streets category. The Pit & the Pendulum characters were fairly generic. Poe's Wife was excluded to her costume being similar to previous corpse-like women at HHN.
In-Between: Unfortunately, the demon characters had to be condensed into a single slot. Most of the masks use the same mold, though I realize there are significant differences amongst the actual costumes. I apologize for this.
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Nights - 7
Winter's Night - 10
Nightingales - 10
THING - 10
Bloodngutz - 10
Saws'n'Steam - 12
Poe - 12
In Between - 11
Forsaken - 11
Bill & Ted - 4
Death Drums - 1
MIB - 9
Mummy - 5
Jaws - 1
Rockit - 3
Total House Count: 85
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Actually I didn't think Sunday was bad at all. Had six houses done without express, although that might just be because we used stay & scream. Did the other two with our Express passes, then did one more round and left. I did notice the times going up when we did our second go-round so the big crowd must have built up late.
It was completely do-able without Stay'n'Scream. I led a large group (about 10 people) on a makeshift tour... we were at the gates at opening and managed to complete all 8 houses, doing Saws'n'Steam twice, by 9 PM. Poe's wait time was enormously exaggerated at the beginning of the night - sign said 45, I called BS, got in line - it took 15 minutes. Saws was an absolute walk-on. In-Between and Forsaken were 5 minutes each. Bloodngutz was maybe 10 minutes; Thing was 20ish. Nightingales and Winter were 10-15 each.
After 9 though, all but the soundstages heated up. Forsaken had 60, In-Between was at 90, Poe was 90, Saws'n'Steam was 100, didn't see Bloodngutz. THING said 30 but was probably 20, Nightingales and Winter were 10 minutes each.
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What exactly happened to the Peeps guy in here? I thought they were supposed to be eating him... but the last few times I've gone a guy has run out holding the peeps as if he was going to stab us with them. It's very random and hardly registers.
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It's a no-win situation for Universal. If they're lenient with pictures, the zones become photo ops rather than scare locations (see last year). If they design the zones to be photo unfriendly and are very strict about no photos (at least posed photos), then they get ire from the photo junkies. There's really no way to find a happy balance short of having a few photo friendly zones and a few photo unfriendly zones (I guess you could make the argument 7 is supposed to be the photo friendly zone, but I've found that the escorts in there are as aggressive as their scare actor counterparts.)
For me, I'm divided. The photos were out of control last year (even though I know Fear Revealed was sort of supposed to be a photo zone) and I'm kind of glad they're moving back towards more scare-fueled streets. That said, the photography I see here every year is absolutely astounding and I hate to lose some of that beautiful art... then again, a truly great photographer can handle most any subject regardless of conditions, and you all have adapted well.
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Best moment in this house, looking up where the dead horse is, where I know an actress will be, and seeing her from behind, chilling out, drinking a coke.
I WONDER WHICH CAST -
I did have an opportunity to do this house twice on Sunday, one on each cast. The difference is night and day. I did get to see the rip scene for the 3rd time, which was fun.
(For the record - even in the "bad" cast, there were some very talented scare actresses that were going nuts @ my Nightmares shirt. I appreciate you ladies for working. But sadly a majority of that cast just seems bored.)
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Before I forget them - got Nightmare shout-outs from one of the Lusts in 7, a Saws'n'Steam actor (wasn't Harry Warden), Kim in Winter, the Nightingale in the body-on-a-table room, H.R. Bloodngutz (I don't think it was Shoe though...), the Leprechauns, the Spaniard in the second room of Forsaken, probably missing one or two... but still, it was all very memorable and I had top-notch runs through every single house. Thank you to everyone for a great final night!
Full review to follow in the coming days
House return/sequel wish list
in General Halloween Horror Nights - Orlando
Posted
Speculative sequel prospects from the new concepts this year...
Winter's Night - I think this was a one-off like Ghost Town. There's nowhere the plot can go from here.
Nightingales - Guaranteed franchise, they can tell they're grooming them to be the next Body Collectors. Let's just hope they get a better cast next time. Easy to take the Nightingales and plop them in any historical location filled with death and despair...
The THING - Movie property, been done twice. It's done.
H.R. Bloodngutz - The character/idea of travelling through many independently themed sets (ala Silver Screams or Die-In) will return at some point I'm sure, but probably not immediately. A lot can be done with this character as his fate is open ended - I could see houses based around terrible sequels, film parodies in general, or even terrible films under Universal's banner (This Island Earth anyone?)
Saws'n'Steam - It's a franchise already... They could probably do a sequel house a few years down the line. Will probably show up in the next reunion year. If they were to do a sequel, it'd have to be based during or after the "fall" of civilization to keep it interesting... and it should probably take place in a soundstage for bigger, even more elaborate sets.
Nevermore/Poe - I'm iffy on this one. The house seemed to be fairly well received by most people, and Poe is a timeless theme. Problem is they used up most of his best stories... the only two big ones they left out that come to mind are Fall of the House of Usher and The Caste of Amontillado. They've also already tackled the tragedy of his life at large (alcoholism & death of Virginia). If they can mine enough of his work to use (and I haven't taken a good hard look at it) they could bring him back at some point, but I'd hazard a no. Given the amount of Raven costumes I'm guessing he'll be back at some capacity for the reunion. I'll be interested to see what Howl-O-Scream does with their Nevermore house... will they change out certain scenes for different stories to keep it fresh? Could play a big factor in whether or not Universal feels it appropriate to revisit Poe.
The In-Between - I think this plot/franchise is finished... the story is concluded, nowhere to go with it. They could have a new group abuse the power of the Ouija board and open up the portal again to a new set of scenes... but I find it far more likely (actually, guaranteed) that we will see another "trippy 3D house" in the next two years, if not next year. (Keep in mind - cheap to build on the sets while still having great scares and incredibly high guest satisfaction). Basically, we'll see In-Between again, but it won't be called In-Between.
The Forsaken - Again, I think this is a one-off. There's nowhere for the plot to go, unless they want to go all goofy and do "Forsaken in the Big City" or something.
7 - I know a lot of people suggested this could be a house... I simply don't see it. We already know what the sins and their minions look like... there's absolutely no mystique about that sort of house (unlike Saws'n'Steam, where not only was the house a prequel, the characters were less defined). Plus, part of what made 7 so great was the way the ladies distracted passerby and the minions preyed... It works in the wide open, free-roam spaces of a scare zone. It'd be the same scene 7 times in a house. I'm not saying it CAN'T be done, A&D could do it, but I see this being a street only.
Grown Evil - I think this falls into the same category as 7 without the super positive reception. The consensus seemed to be that while the atmosphere created was lovely, the scares and intensity simply weren't there. I feel like a forest themed house would grow repetitive fast... there's no end to the cool creatures they could pull off, though. Still, I see this one as being done, save for the Raven and the Bat showing up at a Reunion.
Canyon of Dark Souls - Nowhere to go from here. It was a cheap set that worked well in its execution as a street. It won't work as a house except for a single scene.
Your Luck Has Run Out - We haven't seen the last of Lady Luck... she'll appear at the next Reunion as one of our hosts, I'm sure. If A&D has learned their lesson, she'll have a house (assuming they play it like Sweet 16 where each icon gets a house) or at the very least a good casino scene for a Hallow'd Past style house. The Spade Gang/Minions will doubtlessly return for the next Reunion but no sooner.
Acid Assault - Like Containtment and Apocalypse before it, Acid Assault is one note (though it was significantly better than either of those zones). It did its job and it's done. We'll see a similar theme and some recycle of props/costumes within two-three years, though.
Nightmaze - Despite some enthusiastic reviews by a few lucky members here, this zone seemed like a dud. Nobody I know who went through it cared for it... it was a cool idea but it simply doesn't work with the type of crowds HHN receives. I'd hate to see a house relegated to this nonsense... all blackness in a house might make for effective scares, but I can pull that off at any backyard haunt (yes, the moving walls, too.) HHN houses need to have sets, actual characters, and stories. Nightmaze has none.
And in addition to those, a few of the new elements introduced...
Projection Effects - Well, they spent a bunch of money on the projectors, and they were very well-received. They'll be probably be a standard event thing now.
Evolving Scare Zone - This will also likely return, perhaps in more zones and with even more drastic changes. It won't happen in houses, though - most people only get to go through a house once due to lines. Zones can be visited any time.