Fallow

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Did there appear to be a lot of them?

Tada! Excuse the senior picture cheesiness. Scare actors, please give me everything you've got!

I was afraid of that....... ........anyone want to buy me a hoodie and we meet up to exchange sometime during opening weekend? 100% serious on this, btw...

I agree with Jake - everyone shrieked that they'd buy a hoodie even if it's generic. Well here it is. I was one of those people - and the price is right. I'll be buying it. Could it have been better? Maybe - hard to say. There's a very thin line between tasteful and gaudy/tacky when it comes to hoodies I think (though I'm no expert on fashion). I'll show my support this year. If next year's hoodie is as generic? Well, maybe not then. But I wanted a HHN hoodie - they finally gave us one. I'm showing my support & gratitude. I just hope they still have hoodies available by this weekend... they mentioned it wasn't a huge supply.

Hoodie for $40? Sold. I hope there's still some opening weekend...

Wow, those clips from Dr. Who are really impressive (I should watch that show more). These Weeping Angels really seem like they could be the new Body Collectors in that they're supernatural creatures based on an awesome TV series. I hope they take inspiration from the actual creature's behavior in the show (i.e., have them remain completely still until the "blue light" extinguishes, then they move forward and get in guests faces for when the light goes back on). Huge potential here!

Not to prolong the "roof" debate (I think at this point it's beating a dead horse, some are bothered by it some can go either way) I will say that the ops are without a doubt the biggest potential detractor of a house. Good god, can they please get some actual training? It absolutely ruins the experience for them to wave around their flashlights and shriek to keep moving. It's awful. I know where to go. Only step in and assist guests when they appear lost (read: NOT MOVING SLOWLY, LOST) or are causing some sort of trouble. In Catacombs for the final night last year, weren't all the ops wearing creepy hoods? I wish they could try that for all the ops this year. Would help at least a little.

Seriously guys, expect 50 bucks. That's in line with their most expensive zip-up hoodies.

Dude, you shouldn't take this so personally. I know the roofs aren't the main point. I never said anywhere in my post that I don't appreciate or respect or enjoy (which I do all 3) the hard work the designers and actors put into the houses and streets. This is a discussion board, and the roofs became a point of interest when they disappeared last year. We were under the impression based on the press image released that roofs would return, at least in Forsaken - which has proven to be untrue. As such, I (and evidently a few others) are disappointed. I'm simply expressing that disappointment. Will it ruin the house or the scares? Of course not, that'd be stupid. Is it still a detractor? In certain spots, yes, I feel it kills the immersion to look up and see the warehouse. I'm still going to probably love this house - I'm just expressing a concern/disappointment over the roofs. Nothing wrong with that. The condescension isn't warranted or appreciated. No need to act holier than thou because you seem to feel you're "above" expressing your disappointment in something. Thank you Hush for the dignified response in contrast to my own opinion. As I am entitled to my opinion, you're entitled to yours. Like I mentioned above - lack of roofs will not ruin a house (though it can hamper certain scenes - see Dead Exposure last year), but their presence is much appreciated since it helps with the immersion. As for your argument that the low-roofs wouldn't work in the fort itself - I do agree here. I've explored plenty of forts myself and they're often fairly vast. Roofs would be appropriate, however, (IMO) in the ship portion of the house (assuming there is one). I didn't learn the actual plot of the house (which apparently involves the ship AND the fortress) until a night or two ago. There are certain parts of houses where a roof doesn't make sense - any outdoor portion of a house, most commonly (see Wolfman). Just remember that this is a discussion board and varying views should be allowed and perhaps even encouraged, regardless of whether or not you necessarily agree iwth them. The condescending attitude some posters here take can be very irksome at times. Not trying to call anyone out, just trying to make people aware of it. ==== Back to actual Forsaken discussion -- I'm very intrigued by the idea that we enter right into the house, with a "facade" of sorts happening midway through. My guess is we'll be starting in the ship and travelling into the Fortress, which will serve as our mid-house "Facade" (the courtyard room mentioned?) Also looking forward to seeing these water effects for the "hurricane." The costumes shown so far are great! I just hope the house isn't as short as some of you are making it out to be...

You can find the images on Rumors' construction thread. No idea if I'm allowed to link to them so I'll refrain from doing so, you all know where to look. To those wanting description: It's most similar to 2008's setup. The screen is back (of course!) and is currently showing the blue roulette lights with proclamations of HHN's greatness & Stay'n'Scream tickets. The screen is the same size of last year's. There are four poster-boards atop the arches, two on either side - the closest to the screen are an identical card with an image of Lady Luck. The further two cards are also identical, with the Halloween Horror Nights 21 logo. The "demon" version of Luck is nowhere to be seen - we'll probably see her in the big screen video!

To the unaware - I did some snooping around on the existing hoodies/sweatshirts on Universal's online shop - the most expensive hoodie they have is a Gryffindor Harry Potter zipdown with considerably more detail and color than the shown HHN hoodie. This hoodie retails for $53. As such, I expect the HHN hoodie to cost approximately $50 (give or take a couple of bucks) - it won't get as high as $60 unless they want to lose money, as that's simple price gauging. I can't imagine they'd sell an HHN hoodie for more than a Potter hoodie...

Preferred annual passholders get a 10% discount on all merchandise sold in the parks with the exception of some of the specialty shops at Lost Continent - I think Premiere passholders get 15%. In my case (as a Preferred passholder), assuming the hoodie is $50 (and basing off the pricing of their other hoodies, it will be), we'll get a $5 discount. Not too shabby!

I love it. Much better than the past two years IMO (Ripped always felt like a copout to me, and XX's didn't even make sense.) Great detail work, the note is creepy & consistent with Luck's character, and I love how the playing card is your ticket of admission to the press event (right?) Cool stuff, thanks for sharing mz!

My friend called the "Fortuna" backstory the moment I mentioned that our icon was going to be some sort of "Lady Luck" type character (he's big on mythology). I hope we get a little more (and it sounds like we will), but I like the direction. It sounds like they're going to justify her existence and make her presence make far more sense, something that wasn't really done with FEAR. Oh and that Facebook page is 99% a fan page as Legacy noted.

I do, thanks. It kills the immersion to look up and find you're just in a big warehouse. The black cloths strewn about or the grating weren't anything fancy but they were effective in preserving the illusion. Besides, many effects actually call for you to look up (see the Stygian Witches scene in Hades). I know it's apparently now a fire code thing, but you'd think Universal could find a way to work around that. Disney seems to get away with it all the time (Reedy Creek benefits notwithstanding.)

Wait, so... no roofs?

This is a major victory for HHN fans - the powers that be have responded to our requests for Hoodies at last and has exceeded them (providing a hat as well). So excited and pleased!

There will also be a HHN21 hat!

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150301293858149&set=a.288321823148.145494.76162118148&type=1&theater OUR PRAYERS HAVE BEEN ANSWERED! HHN HOODIES!!!

What was the reason for not having an actual icon house or a practical backstory?

That's kind of my line of thinking. I think they knew what they were getting themselves into. Theme parks are notorious for their fun-sucking legal teams!

I prefer to think of them more like tributes. There are three issues with abandoning the "generalization" approach and using a license: one, it costs money. BIG money for the big licenses. Freddy, Jason, Leatherface, SAW, & even Bloody Mary cost a relative fortune to license. Two, fans balk at them - they want "originality," even if it is as generalized as you claim. Three, it's much more interesting and creatively challenging to let the designer create his/her own sets & characters (even if inspired in part by a film) rather than stick to the strict guidelines of a license owner. Apparently A&D had to have all of the NLC house designs approved by Newline again and again - while it leads to a lovely result, it does stifle creativity. The occasional "true" movie house can be great - it's a nice change of pace, it's often current, and they're typically beautifully designed as well as scary (Dead Silence, Wolfman, any of the NLC houses, The Thing [hopefully old&new], Doomsday, etc.). So I guess I don't mind the generalizations, so to speak. After all, if A&D couldn't tackle any theme addressed in a movie - we wouldn't have a lot of horror themes left, would we?

You know what I see in that picture? Something that was lamentably missing from last year's houses? ROOFS!

If you have a plan, I'd say you'll be fine. Remember that only Simpsons, Men in Black, Jaws, Mummy, and (maybe?) Rockit are open during HHN. I'd give the houses & zones priority over rides since it's HHN, but it's of course up to you. Hit the houses right when the park opens and nail a few as the park closes - lines are short then. As for the Stay and Scream - I'm not sure it works if you're at Islands of Adventure. They used to do that, no idea if they do these days. You might call Universal's ticket office and see.