HHN Hollywood 2012 Speculation

[DTH316]

My probabilities aren't an exact science haha, and it's only based on the clues given.

I'm also hoping Quigley isn't something we have narrowed it down to yet. OR it can be Poltergeist, because that'd be pretty cool and different. Lords of Salem can wait until next year since we already have AC. Tired of his seeing his face plastered on the front gates!

However, that "one of the directors was on the maze tour in 2010" thing puts us in such a tight corner that it can honestly be only a handful of things. I've looked it up in many different ways and I still get the same answers and the only viable director is Tobe Hooper. I wish that answer was Sam Raimi, or John Carpenter, or Neil Marshall, etc, etc. but no

So, basically, it's Poltergeist, or the more likely TCM or the long shot Funhouse.

NEW THEORY on the Amok replacement. Maybe it's possible, as we've speculated, that TCM was the original maze that got pushed out when the release date changed and was then replaced with Amok. But then, Amok got cancelled too so perhaps Murdy called up Tobe Hooper and said, "we can't do TCM but if you have anything else..." which then lead to Poltergeist happening. Or I could be completely wrong. Whateva.

I just hope Suffer Little Children isn't La Llorona.

Edited July 26, 2012 by DTH316

[Colorblind Guy]

Thanks to everyone for responding. I have a better feel for what is going on and the mindset that everyone has. I think that I speak for most of us when saying that It would freaking awesome for every maze to be new, but looking at the history there has been multiple repeats of mazes throughout the years. I would be surprised if every maze was new. Does anyone know when the next announcement is going to be?

[LadeeAurora]

i just tweet him a second time on that question on when is the next announcement. We see if he answers lol.

[zombieman]

So much has happened since I last read this thread.

So, HoH is closing for two months to make way for HHN... Did they ever close it for previous "overlays"? Do we know for certain that this two-month rehab will simply be removed after HHN? In any event, I'm thrilled by this news, but at the same time, I'm thinking that what they are doing is creating an "HHN Overlay" that will be able to added and removed quickly in successive years. Not unlike what Disney did with the Nightmare overlay. That is to say - I am betting we will get something new for this HHN, but we will find it to be exactly the same in 2013, 2014, etc. Mark my words...

Regarding the AC maze, I forget - is this the one that had the smell of cotton candy as a hint? If so, then I recommend that DTH put The Last Temptation of Alice on his playlist as well as GTH. I speculated Last Temptation as a theme waaaaaay back.

As for 3D? Never been a big fan, but I really appreciated how HOTC was a non-3D maze with only Chromadepth accents. I picture ACGTH using Chromadepth hallways to transition from sin to sin, but having each "sin room" non-3D, but with 3D elements. In other words - much the same way they did with HOTC.

And Hollywood will NOT be shipping the WTMN to Orlando. Maybe a couple of the unique props, but not the entire maze. These things are fitted to their environment. Even in years when both coasts presented the same houses (Saw, TCM, F13, NOES, Thing), they were 100% different from each other.

Poltergeist.....I really, really hope this doesn't happen. It was scary as heck back then, but has no relevance now. Even the most iconic scene from that movie (the TV) has been used endlessly in generic haunts for decades. What is there left to do from that movie that hasn't already been used in 10 movies since? It makes no sense to me to use such an old IP that most of your customer base has never seen. I think the Suffer the Children clue is clearly the return of La Llorona. But then again, Murdy's clues this year have been anything but obvious.

[Grindhousehero13]

Poltergeist.....I really, really hope this doesn't happen. It was scary as heck back then, but has no relevance now. Even the most iconic scene from that movie (the TV) has been used endlessly in generic haunts for decades. What is there left to do from that movie that hasn't already been used in 10 movies since? It makes no sense to me to use such an old IP that most of your customer base has never seen. I think the Suffer the Children clue is clearly the return of La Llorona. But then again, Murdy's clues this year have been anything but obvious.

thank you finaly someone who agrees with me on the relavence of Polterguist!

[Colorblind Guy]

Zombieman is right about Poltergeist being rehashed in movies and in minor league haunts. If anyone could turn Poltergeist into a brilliant maze, its Murdy. It is very possible that Poltergeist is coming. Directed by Hooper, story by Speilberg, and this year is the 30th anniversary of the release.

[Trevler]

Ugh. Poltergeist. Another one of those movies where barely anything that can be represented in a maze happens.

Not to mention a mostly generic setting. Oh no, another house.

Edited July 26, 2012 by Trevler

[DTH316]

Okay, let's all just have TCM back for a third year instead of something new and different - _ -

HHNH hasn't done a supernatural/paranormal maze (La Llorona... sorta counts). That's ALL I'm sayin!

Edited July 26, 2012 by DTH316

[Grindhousehero13]

I just feel like if there gonna go with "THAT" angle, I mean a ghost/haunting movie they should go with "Paranormal Activity", before anyone goes on a rant I know its basicly the same lack of a tangable Villian, It's in a suburban house, but just like with Polterguist Murdy would make it work but the difference between the two? PA has more relavence and it has proven it could work since Orlando's "Legendary Truth" house took nods from PA working the camo scare and other ghost effect plus the nightvision lighting could add something fresh IMO plus like I brought up in my creation in the contest this year it could take a page out of knotts book and use the "Live Feed" they used in Endgames and play footage from the maze either in the queue or online. but again thats just my opion

Okay, let's all just have TCM back for a third year instead of something new and different - _ -

HHNH hasn't done a supernatural/paranormal maze (La Llorona... sorta counts). That's ALL I'm sayin!

I dont get why everyones convince it has to be one or the other.

[DTH316]

I just feel like if there gonna go with "THAT" angle, I mean a ghost/haunting movie they should go with "Paranormal Activity", before anyone goes on a rant I know its basicly the same lack of a tangable Villian, It's in a suburban house, but just like with Polterguist Murdy would make it work but the difference between the two? PA has more relavence and it has proven it could work since Orlando's "Legendary Truth" house took nods from PA working the camo scare and other ghost effect plus the nightvision lighting could add something fresh IMO plus like I brought up in my creation in the contest this year it could take a page out of knotts book and use the "Live Feed" they used in Endgames and play footage from the maze either in the queue or online. but again thats just my opion

I dont get why everyones convince it has to be one or the other.

It's one or the other because, unless we find out someone else BIG was on that maze tour, it's a Tobe Hooper movie. And TCM and Poltergeist are the only two that'll be made into a maze.

As for Paranormal Activity, I agree it's more relevant but it doesn't have anywhere near as much of the scares. For Poltergeist, you got the tree, skeletons, guy ripping off his own face, the clown, giant worms, creepy mirror people, old dude with the hat, scary ass thing in the closet, generic ghosts. From a business stand point, PA is the obvious choice but it's LESS possible to make into a maze. Poltergeist would be way scarier and have way more going on and it's not exactly a small movie in the 80s. It was a BIG movie with 2 sequels, a TV show in the 90s, multiple special edition releases recently on DVD and blu-ray, it's 30th anniversary with a remake on the way. And when we have Alice Cooper as one of the biggest draws to the event, Poltergeist doesn't exactly sound crazy.

http://boxofficemojo...turalhorror.htm

And if you look at this chart, Poltergeist is pretty dang high on that list for a movie made in the 80s. Adjusted for inflation, it's a bigger movie than PA is today and PA is pretty damn big from personally going to the theaters and seeing how crowded it gets. As a kid born in the 80s, I can tell you that me and a lot of my friends, who also attend HHN, know of this movie because it was the scariest as shit PG movie EVER for whatever insane reason our parents thought it was okay to watch -- that and Jaws. This was back when VHS became a thing a lot of people started to have and Poltergeist was just one of those movies that was easily attainable and was ALWAYS on TV. Granted, there's a lot of other cool properties on that last that I'd rather see like The Ring, Insidious, Drag Me to Hell or Thirteen Ghosts but the question of the matter is which Tobe Hooper property is going to be used.

Oh, and something occurred to me when Alice spilled the beans. Somebody simply just asked him. We could just do that with other directors/producers on Twitter. They're not playing the same game as Murdy, so if they're not involved, they'll simply just say "no," and we'll know if they're up to something if they give a coy answer. Don't know why that didn't hit me until now...

Edited July 26, 2012 by DTH316

[Trevler]

You know, I was SURE, SURE that when I looked at Tobe Hooper's IMDB page today, I'd only see that he'd made two movies in his career. But boy.. was I surprised to see that he's made a LOT of horror movies.

Seriously, assuming that IS a Tobe Hooper IP, there are a LOT of options besides Poltergeist and TCM.

Hell, he even has a new one coming out this year, though I can't find a release date for it.

Edited July 26, 2012 by Trevler

[Mike Murder]

I totally agree that Poltergeist is not only a stale property (unless you grew up in the 80s or are a big fan of supernatural horror films - or I guess Speilberg/Tobe Hooper - you probably don't even know what the hell it is) but it is also totally off base for the type of IP that HHN targets. Murdy has stated that the event is basically "rated R". Poltergeist is a PG rated film and what I like to call a "family horror movie". There is absolutely nothing wrong with these types of films but they are definitely not in line with the image and experience that HHN generally tries to provide. That isn't to say that Uni isn't allowed to change up there game plan from time to time but I just don't see it happening/can't really get that excited about it. I'm actually surprised that there hasn't been more decent on the board here from the folks who constantly worried (and some that continue to) about the Alice Coper houses not being "scary" enough. I understand that these reservations were more about the "goofy" or "fun" feel of the Cooper houses rather than their lack of horrific imagery and gore but the fact remains that a Poltergest maze would definitely have some shortcomings in the arena of being ntensely scary. Spooky? Sure. Atmospheric? Definitely. Scary? Not really.

As I often state, if Poltergeist does turn out to be a maze property (this or any future year) I'm sure it will be fun and Murdy and Co. will find a way to make a kick ass attraction out of it but I still don't see it as being an obvious choice.

sorry for all the typos btw. This post was written under duress. Hahaha!

[DTH316]

You know, I was SURE, SURE that when I looked at Tobe Hooper's IMDB page today, I'd only see that he'd made two movies in his career. But boy.. was I surprised to see that he's made a LOT of horror movies.

Seriously, assuming that IS a Tobe Hooper IP, there are a LOT of options besides Poltergeist and TCM.

Hell, he even has a new one coming out this year, though I can't find a release date for it.

Of course he's made a crap load of movies. BUT most of them aren't even good enough to get a theatrical release. Half of them are TV shows, miniseries or TV movies. Hardly a handful of them are even popular. Can you really see a maze for The Mangler? Or the Toolbox Murders? C'mon.

Edited July 26, 2012 by DTH316

[Trevler]

The Mangler, no, because its a Stephan King IP and it won't happen. Funhouse? Maybe. This new Genie horror movie? Maybe. Salem's Lot might cool, if it wasn't a Stephen King IP.

Actually, if it is Tobe Hooper (and not TCM, which is honest, the most likely option), Im willing to bet its Djiinn.

[Grindhousehero13]

well Im just seeing it from my stand point I guess Im a 90's kid, my parents were always horror movie buffs so I grew up either knowing of or watching alot of them but I never realy seen poltergeist and only heard refrences here and there (I heard more Exorcist, Evil Dead, Nightmare On Elmstreet, Friday the 13th, Night Of The Living Dead, ect.) and to be honest I didnt watch it until I seen family guy parody it when I was in highschool and I realy didnt think much of it being scary and I only remember hearing either my parents talk about it or it refrenced in shows and such never realy heard other people my age talk about it and that my gneration who are college students right now imagine the teens who are a big chunk of HHN profit, don't get me wrong if Murdy can pull of a maze done by a Rock star who was more big in the 70's then he can pull this off but to be honest I don't see the relevence and don't realy want or I should say care if poltergeist is a maze, I just rather see other things before it including everything repeated. and Im sure Murdy had to of toured more people then just Tobe Hooper

[DTH316]

I totally agree that Poltergeist is not only a stale property (unless you grew up in the 80s or are a big fan of supernatural horror films - or I guess Speilberg/Tobe Hooper - you probably don't even know what the hell it is) but it is also totally off base for the type of IP that HHN targets. Murdy has stated that the event is basically "rated R". Poltergeist is a PG rated film and what I like to call a "family horror movie". There is absolutely nothing wrong with these types of films but they are definitely not in line with the image and experience that HHN generally tries to provide. That isn't to say that Uni isn't allowed to change up there game plan from time to time but I just don't see it happening/can't really get that excited about it. I'm actually surprised that there hasn't been more decent on the board here from the folks who constantly worried (and some that continue to) about the Alice Coper houses not being "scary" enough. I understand that these reservations were more about the "goofy" or "fun" feel of the Cooper houses rather than their lack of horrific imagery and gore but the fact remains that a Poltergest maze would definitely have some shortcomings in the arena of being ntensely scary. Spooky? Sure. Atmospheric? Definitely. Scary? Not really.

As I often state, if Poltergeist does turn out to be a maze property (this or any future year) I'm sure it will be fun and Murdy and Co. will find a way to make a kick ass attraction out of it but I still don't see it as being an obvious choice.

sorry for all the typos btw. This post was written under duress. Hahaha!

I agree with all points. I also agree HHN could make it a kick ass maze if they wanted to. Only reason I put it in contention is because of Tobe Hooper's possible involvement (and my own curiousity of wanting to see what it'd be like). He's not exactly John Carpenter or Wes Craven where you could draw a film out of the hat and land on a good movie -- he has maybe 2 or 3 movies that could be even seen as possible of doing with all of the HHN maze-picking guidelines. Everything else he's done, for lack of a better word, is crap. He never exactly took off. He probably still works to this day for doing TCM almost 40 years ago, which isn't a technical masterpiece by any means.

The Mangler, no, because its a Stephan King IP and it won't happen. Funhouse? Maybe. This new Genie horror movie? Maybe. Salem's Lot might cool, if it wasn't a Stephen King IP.

Actually, if it is Tobe Hooper (and not TCM, which is honest, the most likely option), Im willing to bet its Djiinn.

I highly doubt Djinn will be the maze lol I don't think that's even going to get a theatrical release, which is frankly what often happens to his films. They get some traction because people look forward to "from the director of TCM", it hits a festival, gets called crap, doesn't get picked up for distribution and then flops to direct to video land to never be heard from again. It's sad but I think most people over-exaggerated his skills because like I said to Mike Murder, TCM wasn't exactly a technical masterpiece.

[DTH316]

and Im sure Murdy had to of toured more people then just Tobe Hooper

It was a specific maze tour that Murdy mentioned with Bill Moseley, Tyler Mane and Derek Mears in 2010, and I believe it was the opening night after the Eyegore Awards. That last half might not be the specific part but those 3 people definitely were. As we saw in an article WAAAAY back there was a journalist there who listed off everybody on the tour. Mostly horror's lost gems, has-beens, genre-specific stars, 80s scream queens, a few random reality TV stars and a few rockers. Lets face it, Eyegore Awards doesn't pull in the BIG names -- maybe one or two a year depending on who they're honoring and what's being represented at the event but often even they have lost some relevance in today's society. The journalist listed off everyone and even put in paranethesis what they did since, well, we wouldn't know who they are unless told what they've done in the past. Some of them HAVE directed stuff as side projects but nothing incredible like, say, Dawn of the Dead. He listed Tobe Hooper as if he was the man who needed no introduction. If there was anyone else BIG, I'm sure he would've named them but who knows. If someone can find a a bigger list and find bigger names, I'd gladly like to see it so we can weed it out!

Edited July 26, 2012 by DTH316

[Mike Murder]

Agreed, DTH. One thing though, TCM may not be a technical masterpeice but it is a horror masterpeice. It still holds up as one of the most brutal and intense films ever despite using very little on-screen gore and basically being made by college kids/amatuers. It is definitely the high point of Hooper's career (which is unfortunate seeing as how it is his first film). There were a few bright spots along the way - The Funhouse is pretty solid and he does tend to do pretty good work in the short form - his episode in the first season of Masters of Horror (Dance of the Dead I think it's called) was a fun and disturbing little slice of Splatterpunk weirdness (his second season offering is pretty lame though) and the Tales From The Crypt episode he directed is pretty awesome from start to finish. It's pretty well known that Steven Spielberg pretty much Shanghaied the director's chair from him in Poltergeist so I barely count that as part of his body of work (even though technically it's his film), which is not all that impressive.

[Ridesandstuff]

To be honest, some of the properties that HHN has used in the past weren't very popular either. I can't tell you how many times I was in line for hostel and heard people saying "what's hostel?" "is it a movie or something?" House of 1000 corpses isn't very popular right now, and wasnt well recieved by critics (worse than silent hill actually),and Alice cooper isn't exactly mainstream yet it was one of the best mazes of 2011. I think that as long as a maze has good piss your pants scared, that relevancy should not matter.

[DTH316]

Agreed, DTH. One thing though, TCM may not be a technical masterpeice but it is a horror masterpeice. It still holds up as one of the most brutal and intense films ever despite using very little on-screen gore and basically being made by college kids/amatuers. It is definitely the high point of Hooper's career (which is unfortunate seeing as how it is his first film). There were a few bright spots along the way - The Funhouse is pretty solid and he does tend to do pretty good work in the short form - his episode in the first season of Masters of Horror (Dance of the Dead I think it's called) was a fun and disturbing little slice of Splatterpunk weirdness (his second season offering is pretty lame though) and the Tales From The Crypt episode he directed is pretty awesome from start to finish. It's pretty well known that Steven Spielberg pretty much Shanghaied the director's chair from him in Poltergeist so I barely count that as part of his body of work (even though technically it's his film), which is not all that impressive.

Oh, don't get me wrong, I love the film too but what I meant by saying it wasn't a technical masterpiece was basically my reason for why Tobe Hooper never lifted off.

To be honest, some of the properties that HHN has used in the past weren't very popular either. I can't tell you how many times I was in line for hostel and heard people saying "what's hostel?" "is it a movie or something?" House of 1000 corpses isn't very popular right now, and wasnt well recieved by critics (worse than silent hill actually),and Alice cooper isn't exactly mainstream yet it was one of the best mazes of 2011. I think that as long as a maze has good piss your pants scared, that relevancy should not matter.

Very true. Can't tell ya how many times I had to explain who Alice Cooper and La Llorona were. Or what The Thing is about, or if HOTC is a movie, or how many films were in the Hostel series.

[Grindhousehero13]

Agreed, DTH. One thing though, TCM may not be a technical masterpeice but it is a horror masterpeice. It still holds up as one of the most brutal and intense films ever despite using very little on-screen gore and basically being made by college kids/amatuers. It is definitely the high point of Hooper's career (which is unfortunate seeing as how it is his first film). There were a few bright spots along the way - The Funhouse is pretty solid and he does tend to do pretty good work in the short form - his episode in the first season of Masters of Horror (Dance of the Dead I think it's called) was a fun and disturbing little slice of Splatterpunk weirdness (his second season offering is pretty lame though) and the Tales From The Crypt episode he directed is pretty awesome from start to finish. It's pretty well known that Steven Spielberg pretty much Shanghaied the director's chair from him in Poltergeist so I barely count that as part of his body of work (even though technically it's his film), which is not all that impressive.

Dance of the dead was that one with the zombies attacking a town during prom right?

To be honest, some of the properties that HHN has used in the past weren't very popular either. I can't tell you how many times I was in line for hostel and heard people saying "what's hostel?" "is it a movie or something?" House of 1000 corpses isn't very popular right now, and wasnt well recieved by critics (worse than silent hill actually),and Alice cooper isn't exactly mainstream yet it was one of the best mazes of 2011. I think that as long as a maze has good piss your pants scared, that relevancy should not matter.

again no doubt it COULD be a scary maze but still all thoughs had more relevence then poltergiest and like you said house of 1000 corpses and Hostel were not HUGE movies but look at the titles of the maze "ELI ROTH's hostel: Hunting Season" "ROB ZOMBIE's House of 1000 Corpses", I actual heard people asking if the bear jew was in the maze and every basicly called HOTC the Rob Zombie maze, it had relevence cuz they were big names Alice Cooper was a HUGE leap of faith and was only considered because The Coop was Murdy's Idol and he's been wanting to work with him for years im sure that maze would of never existed at any point in time if it was'nt for Murdy and lets be honest outside of horror Fans who would give a second glance at the name "Tobe Hooper" let alone "Tobe Hooper's Poltergiest: There Here a new maze at HHN" hell if Tobe is the one Murdy's talking it gonna be TCM but if they put "Tobe Hooper's Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Flesh Wounds" people are gonna be saying "Oh lets hit TCM wait who's Tobe Hooper" but poltergiest at least from my view point will get the most WTF's in HHN history.

[Mike Murder]

I'm not saying that the current relevance of a property should (or does) matter when it's being used at HHN. They tend to either target IPs that can use the event as a cross-promotional tool (i.e. The Thing, My Bloody Valentine) or IPs based on talent that is interested in working with Murdy and lending their name to the event. That said, there has never been a property or personality featured that is completely unknown. If people attending HHN don't know what Hostel is (whether or not they are huge fans) they really can't call themselves true horror fans. That isn't to say that they don't enjoy horror movies, but anyone who is at least paying attention to the horror community somewhat knows that Hostel is a film series. The same could be said, on a grander scale, about the personalities involved - Alice Cooper enjoyed the height of his popularity in the 70s and 80s but unless you pay absolutely no attention to music and pop culture you know who Alice Cooper is (I mean, jeeze, haven't these kids seen Wayne's World? Haha!). Same goes for Rob Zombie (even though he hasn't really put out any relevant music since the late 90s) and any horror fan knows who Eli Roth is, regardless of what they think of his work. The same could be said of Freddy, Jason, Leatherface, Micheal Meyers, etc. Despite the remakes/reboots of their respective films, pretty much any fan of genre cinema knows who they are and what they represent because they trancend the trappings of exploitation films and have become part of the pop-culture landscape throughout the years. If any HHN patron is actually clueless about any of the properties then it's really more of a knock on them than anything.

My point about Poltergeist is more about the family friendly aspects of the franchise as opposed to the fact that it's a bit stale as far as GP recognition is concerned. A lot of what Murdy puts out there is geared heavily toward nostalgia and Poltergeist, if anything, is nostalgic to horror fans (particularly those of us that grew up in the 1980s).

I will also add that even if you have been living in a hole and don't know anything about any of the IPs, it doesn't mean you won't enjoy HHN, it simply means you will enjoy it on a different level than the casual fans, who in turn enjoy it on a different level than the hardcore horror nerds. That is the beauty of the event - it works on a lot of levels and has something for pretty much everyone.

Grindhouse, Dance of the Dead was indeed the title of a horror/comedy about zombies at a high school prom but it is also the title of an unrelated Masters of Horror episode directed by Tobe Hooper. Just to clear that up.

[Grindhousehero13]

Grindhouse, Dance of the Dead was indeed the title of a horror/comedy about zombies at a high school prom but it is also the title of an unrelated Masters of Horror episode directed by Tobe Hooper. Just to clear that up.

ok that explains an incident I once had at bestbuy thanks

but seriousily I think it's safe to say "IF" its Tobe Hooper its TCM

[Trevler]

Personally, I hope its a JAWS maze and the connection is Tobe Hooper=Matt Hooper!

[Mike Murder]

I just imagined a bunch of guys jumping out in hilarious SNL inspired Landshark costumes! Hahahaha! Please let it be Jaws!http://warteacher.blogspot.com/2011/12/space-shark-terminators-knockknockland.html