Halloween Horror Nights 23 Wishful Thinking

[WESKER69]

^which is exactly why I don't want to see a TWD 2.0 house this year (well that, and the house was awful). Or a house based on AMC's new upcoming "Bates Motel" series (especially when UNI can do a Psycho house without the need for AMC)..

[TsunamiFox]

I for one dont want to see the traditionals return. I loved the legion but im tired of repeats. Hate me for my opinion but id like to see more new stuff.

Trust me, I understand your point completely. I don't like repeats either, but I loved the Traditionals a bit too much and the characters within the legion, and that's why I want them to return so bad. Too many good memories I'm not ready to let go of just yet. A bit selfish sure, but this is wishful thinking is it not?

Edited January 9, 2013 by TsunamiFox

[boogeyman13]

As a fan of Halloween, I would not mind seeing the Traditionals again. However, that doesn't mean it would have to be a repeat. They could give the legion a redesign. New characters and imagery could freshen them up quite a bit. I would love a scarecrow with a jack o lantern head and glowing eyes.

[LV-426]

^This wasn't a UNI/A&D decision. That was due to AMC... they didn't want the house to be bloody or scary. Go figure.

Bite. Your. Blasphemous. Tongue.

HHN started in the studios and it belongs in the studios. Also, you thought the park was hell last year, just imagine what it would be like having those crowds shoved into IOA. Good luck trying to do anything.

Also, HHN at IOA isn't really that exciting, its actually much more difficult, especially in the street department. Unlike the studios, the islands are heavily themed and they can't detheme said islands in order to retheme them for HHN due to that taking away from the daytime park experience (especially for people going to the park for the first time).

My first year was at IOA, that was 2005... it was great, but the crowds the event gets now.. it'd be hell. You'd have to do a 2-park event if IOA was going to be included in the picture. However... the problem many of you forget is that its only going to result in more dead space, more walking, and most likely, budget cutting.

Point is... the studios is and always will be the best place for HHN. Plus the only construction that will be going on this year will be Potter 2.0, so unless something new pops-up, we'll have better crowd flow.

you are right, but a lot of us never experienced the event in both parks. I would at least like to have the memory of seeing the even like that. Even if there is a lot of walking or dead space, I would like to experience that at least once. I guess I just want to see what the fuzz is all about.

[Stitch_101]

^which is exactly why I don't want to see a TWD 2.0 house this year (well that, and the house was awful). Or a house based on AMC's new upcoming "Bates Motel" series (especially when UNI can do a Psycho house without the need for AMC)..

Just a small correction... Bates Motel is an A&E show, not AMC... But your point stands. Bates Motel is suppose to be more of a psychological drama, probably not something that will transfer over well to a maze.

[LV-426]

the thing about the houses in SS is that they make amazing facades for them. you can't even compare to the tents since they barely have any facades at all. (Havoc was like the only really good one)

SS tend to be darker as well, in some houses that can be a plus. Plus they can play with the temperature in the SS, like Winter's night which was amazing or the Thing house.

Speaking of the Thing, I love both houses and I really loved the 07 tent house, but the SS house was a lot better. Like I said the facade was amazing and the house just was a lot better, Tent houses are nice and like Poe they can be amazing but SS houses have a little more detail to them which I like.

[WESKER69]

I would love a scarecrow with a jack o lantern head and glowing eyes.

We've been there, had that... sort've. BUT... they're sort've iconic and accompany the jack-o-lanterns in the trees very well. You could even have a small horde of them. They could be something that returns year after year, despite whatever the theme is. Sort've like how the Grim Reaper style winged Iniquitus should return as gaurdians of the entrance gates.

Dammit.. I knew that sounded wrong. I'll watch the show, even though a far superior prequel/sequel movie already exists.

Just because a house is inside a soundstage, doesn't mean its always going to have a more impressive facade or set design. But it also comes down to budget as well.. 2005's Cold Blind Terror comes to mind (no real facade, no sets) & 2006's Die-In: Take 2 also comes to mind (crap facade, nice sets). As for the tents, Havoc wasn't the only tent house to have a great facade...

2006's PsychoPath & 2008's The Hollow... perfect examples and i'd even include a few others just because they included props to enhance the house entrance..

Of course a SS house is going to be darker, its inside a concrete building with no windows, and no doors, offering you this chilling challenge- "to find a way out!" (okay so maybe not that last part). Temperature wise, SS22 is always cold.. and I didn't notice a temp difference (aka- it being "cold") with 2011's Nightingale's which shared the SS with The THING.

As for The THING houses, those were two completely separate concepts based on 2 different movies. One of them being an original concept set in Florida (taking place after the original movie) and the other based on the 2011 prequel set in Antarctica. Unfortunately, a lot of the details the 2007 house had were lost due to lack of lighting. The images Mike Aiello showed us in 2010's VIP Lounge during "The THING" Q&A, well it was mind blowing to see what the house had offered but went unseen.

Fun Fact: there was supposed to be a THING house besed on the original movie, sharing the SS with Screamhouse in 2002.

But we've seen over the past 7 years Tent houses rival the quality of SS houses. Personally, I don't see the reason to completely fap over a SS house vs a Tent, they're both enclosed buildings. The only thing a SS house can truly provide is height/bungee effects because amazing facades can be done outside of a SS house. 2011's Saws-n-Steam was in the JAWS queue and it was just as good as a soundstage, hell it had a freakin waterfall. 1998's Frightanic is one of the most infamous houses of HHN and that was done in the Disaster queue (complete with a ship facade). I wouldn't say SS houses are better, they just have the potential to be...

[Tobias]

^ I'll add that for some houses don't need a fully elaborate/detailed facade to be a good one. Sometimes a simplistic facade works really well. (The Hallow, Nevermore)

The way I see it, no matter where they put a house...they're going to put in a quality house. An' speaking of house venues, I wonder where they're going to put a 8th house with all the changes that are going on. Is it possible for the Disaster queue to go back to hosting two houses? Or will they be using a new venue which they've had in mind before like Curious George? (I was going to mention the possibility of the Parade building hosting two houses, but I think that topic was done in by the Superstar Parade adding to the float count that needs storage.)

[Ecto_Freak]

Maybe we wont be going to 8 houses for a while but there is no telling right now.. We honestly dont know and the designers can do A LOT in a small space. Have you seen how small the tents are? You can do a lot with twist and turns.

[foREVer56]

^it has always amazed me how they can fit the houses they do into those tents. They look so small!

And both the SSs and Tents have had good and bad. 2012 for example. While Gothic and DE were amazing, SH was awful. Then in the tents, P&T was great but AC sucked (sorry Chris ).

Edited January 9, 2013 by foREVer56

[Troiandan]

I wouldn't say SS houses are better, they just have the potential to be...

I strongly suspect this is what most people mean when they hope for a house to be in a SS, not that SS houses are all innately better - although I obviously can only speak for myself. Silver Screams, Catacombs, Havoc, Forsaken, AC - all my favorite houses from the past several years have either been in a tent or parade.

But if there is a house that I'm particularly looking forward to, I would also like as many factors to be in its favor as possible - including a bit more room, a bit more control over lighting issues, etc. If a SS will provide that extra bit of potential, I look forward to that. That said, I personally believe a house I enjoy will thrive regardless of location.

[ScottEdmondson41]

This is my first time back here since last years event ended and I just got done reading through this thread so far and now it is time for me to contribute my two figurative cents, or in other words my wishlist and comments on some of the things you people have been talking about.

- 8 houses again. I commented on the survey I did as I was leaving the park one night that they need to find some way to make it back to 8 houses and I don't care if it's a soundstage or a tent or anywhere else.

- I am torn on the subject of the scarezones vs. hordes. I miss having big set pieces in the streets and different ones at that instead of just a bunch of cemetery type stuff throughout. With last years hordes depending on your timing and luck you could go a whole night and barely even see any scareactors in the streets or you could have some nights where every single dang time you were in the streets you had scareactors in the streets everywhere you went. The latter was AMAZING and the former sucked. I had both of those happen to me on different nights. With the traditional scarezones you knew where there would be scareactors and where there wouldn't be any. The hordes were very awesome and amazing if you got lucky. And They need to have it be where they can go into the stores and restaurants etc. again. Seriously, that was amazing getting surprised by a scareactor in the store while I was looking through the shirts to find my size. Somehow they need to keep that but have different set pieces like from scarezones. Some kind of combination of the two ideas might be able to get the good parts we love from both ideas and that'd be great.

-I'm sure there's going to be some kind of IP at the event this year after how successful with the general public last year was, but I hope there's not as much of it. And However and whatever the IP's they use this year are, they really should not be the whole way they market the event. Last year the marketing was just advertising the IP's that they had. They should have an original icon with the IP's if they have IP's. I would be fine with no IP's but I'm accepting that we probably will have at least some. They should have their own original icon presenting the IP's then like they did in 2007 and 2009. Those were fine with how they had Jack and The Usher presenting the IP's those years.

-I would like an icon this year. Anybody that remembers me and my posting from 2010 should know I absolutely loved Cindy and I would love for her to be brought back as the main icon. But if not her, then some other icon. No, haunts don't need icons, but I do like having them at HHN.

-Hopefully not as heavy on the IPs this year.

-I'm not sure what company is doing it, but the new Evil Dead remake looks great and I think that could make a good house. Maybe also Mama or TCM.

-I would love a Scary Tales 4. I love anytime anybody takes things that are normally kid things or at least kid friendly and makes dark, twisted, scary versions of them like Scary Tales does, those are always awesome in general.

-Bill and Ted is awesome and should definitely not be taken away, I think last years was by far the worst in all the years I've been going but they should make it better but not get rid of it.

-I'm all for adding new shows. I don't care for the magic shows. Repo is awesome and yeah definitely could work.

-and a better more interactive website with fun stuff for us fans with a backstory and all kinds of fun stuff to explore. The website has definitely been lacking the past few years

That's about all I can think of to say now, but I will be participating in the discussion as I can from now on

and this is not related to HHN, but I've heard people talking about Simpsons 2.0 and new ride in simpsons and I have never of that before this thread. Can somebody tell me or link me to info on this Simpsons stuff people were talking about? I didn't know there was any construction going on there anymore, the last time I have been able to go to Universal was for HHN.

Edited January 9, 2013 by ScottEdmondson41

[Dr. D]

Alright guys I dont know about you, but I think this year is the year. EDDIE WILL RETURN!

In all seriousness lets never have illusionists again.

[carnage]

^it has always amazed me how they can fit the houses they do into those tents. They look so small!

And both the SSs and Tents have had good and bad. 2012 for example. While Gothic and DE were amazing, SH was awful. Then in the tents, P&T was great but AC sucked (sorry Chris ).

Alice Cooper was good. It just had a kind of confusing story. To me P&T sucked. I loved everyone in there but I didn't like the house.

[WESKER69]

illusionists aren't really a bad thing... however, the pre-IOA events probably had the better illusionists... Then again, those events also had more entertainment in general.

As far as REPO! The Genetic Opera goes... I love the movie, however, there is one little thing that all of you are forgetting... Universal basically ripped-off the concept for their very shitty & awful non-musical movie "Repo Men" (which was a complete box-office bomb). While UNI's movie was a failure, I highly doubt Lionsgate would let them buy the copyrights in order to do a tribute show. It's possible, but it'd probably end up being expensive... assuming Universal would even be able to acquire it.

For those of you that have never seen 2008's REPO!... here is the trailer.

If you've never seen the movie, you need to... (REPO BLURAY PARTY AT MY HOUSE)... It would make for a great tribute show at HHN and would definitely add in the adult & gore factor a lot of you want.

Edited January 10, 2013 by WESKER69

[TsunamiFox]

Alright guys I dont know about you, but I think this year is the year. EDDIE WILL RETURN!

Eddie is my favorite of the unused icons, so I'm all for this. Lets bring Run to its original light.

Edited January 10, 2013 by TsunamiFox

[Ecto_Freak]

Wow every yr somebody either brings up Eddie or Cindy.. No offense back when those character were supposed to happen the event was a totally different event then it is today.

Also we really didnt get huge facades til recently.....

[TsunamiFox]

Wow every yr somebody either brings up Eddie or Cindy.. No offense back when those character were supposed to happen the event was a totally different event then it is today.

I don't think it will happen (at least not soon), but just thought I'd comment on it because I like Eddie, haha.

[boogeyman13]

Okay, time for some pure wishful thinking. I want another cornfield scare zone with scarecrows and other beasties walking between the rows. I want big, dense, intense, and lots of corn stalks.

And then for a haunted house, I really want a house set in a 1930's-40's era orphanage that's come under the assault of the Bogeyman. You start by going through the orphanage during the attack, and then enter the Bogeyman's world (either via closet or under a bed through the vortex tunnel), and take a little spin through the his domain. And maybe, if you're particularly unlucky, you'll find out just what it is that he does with all the people he takes.

Or a house that puts the Traditionals in a house. Start with a cornfield, move to a pumpkin patch, and then maybe a local town barn where a Halloween party was in full swing until some terrifying, unexpected guests showed up.

Are any of these likely to happen? Probably not. But it would be fun!

[TsunamiFox]

Okay, time for some pure wishful thinking. I want another cornfield scare zone with scarecrows and other beasties walking between the rows. I want big, dense, intense, and lots of corn stalks.

And then for a haunted house, I really want a house set in a 1930's-40's era orphanage that's come under the assault of the Bogeyman. You start by going through the orphanage during the attack, and then enter the Bogeyman's world (either via closet or under a bed through the vortex tunnel), and take a little spin through the his domain. And maybe, if you're particularly unlucky, you'll find out just what it is that he does with all the people he takes.

Or a house that puts the Traditionals in a house. Start with a cornfield, move to a pumpkin patch, and then maybe a local town barn where a Halloween party was in full swing until some terrifying, unexpected guests showed up.

Are any of these likely to happen? Probably not. But it would be fun!

I could make love to that post.

[WESKER69]

We'll never have another "Field of Screams" like 2004... the closest we got to that was 2006's "Harvest of the Souls"... and the Wizard of Oz scene in 2008's "Scary Tales: Once Upon A Nightmare"...

Remove the "era", the vortex, & the Orphanage aspect... and you're more or less left with 2005's "Where Evil Hides" house... which had a random cameo from The Storyteller in the attic (don't ask). This house was a complete failure and was nothing like the concept it was supposed to be. Ironically, the queue video clips shown while in line where from the 2005 film "Boogeyman"...

The Traditionals were put into a house.... 2010's "The Orfanage".

[dave]

I don't want to see bill & Ted ever go away. Even during years where it's lackluster it helps with the crowds. The more shows, the better.

Set scare zones properly decorated. If they can't do it because of the day parade, bring back festival of the dead for nights.

Definitely shoot for 8 houses. That is a reasonable amount to go through in one night if the attendance is regulated properly. I think they oversell to push express upgrades though.

For the love of god, don't remove monster's cafe.

The website this past year was weak. They should have an easy to follow/navigate homepage with a link to a more interactive site so that general visitors and hardcore fans are both satisfied. I'm not big on Facebook, so I don't really care for too much implementation in that regard. Everything there should be mirrored on the main site.

I'd like to see the return of an icon for the event.

An improved smartphone app that's worth downloading and actually works well. I doubt I'm the only one who had issues with it (iOS version).

House & show ideas:

How about a face/off show where volunteers are selected from the audience to be made up and then the audience votes on the winner. Could be fun, informational, interactive, and bring the horror makeup show outside (or they could actually do it in that theater instead of using that space for private parties).

Bigfoot house. Might even be able to put it in ET queue.

Alien Abduction or Autopsy house, maybe Area 51 themed.

Creepy Crawlers house. Rats, snakes, roaches, spiders, bees or wasps, etc. Anything like that people have a phobia of. Maybe put a mutant spin on it for the scareactors, like its a research lab of a mad scientist or something. Hell, he could even be the icon with his shtick being "experiments in fear".

Neighborhood Halloween haunt turned bad. Starts out like you're trick-or-treating at a suburban house celebrating the holiday with a backyard maze complete with cheap props, then you start seeing "real" gore scenes.

American Horror Story house. Could be done every year as long as the show is on the air with an updated story.

Guillermo Del Toro house. Give him free reign or do it based on several of his movies. Not sure how fresh "mama" would be by then, might not be able to sustain a whole house.

An Evil Dead house. The new movie looks like it will be awesome and scary.

Troll 2 house . . . oh yeah! I wonder how hard it would be to secure the rights. Horror fans would eat that up.

Anyway, just some ideas/wishful thinking I'm throwing out there.

[Dr. D]

Wow every yr somebody either brings up Eddie or Cindy.. No offense back when those character were supposed to happen the event was a totally different event then it is today.

Also we really didnt get huge facades til recently.....

I hope you know im not serious. Every year someone brings up Eddie and every year it gets more annoying. Its sarcasm.

[WESKER69]

The website this past year was weak. They should have an easy to follow/navigate homepage with a link to a more interactive site so that general visitors and hardcore fans are both satisfied. I'm not big on Facebook, so I don't really care for too much implementation in that regard. Everything there should be mirrored on the main site.

You can thank marketing for the craptastic website last year... All of the pre-2010 websites were done by Ray.. hence them being amazing. The interactive games section the past 3 years were also done by him... the lackluster websites themselves, especially last year... A&D and Ray had nothing to do with. Hopefully the higher-ups/marketing realized they screwed up & don't have any idea what they're doing.

As cool as this would be, it'd actually be too difficult to pull off for HHN... the event is only a few hours and it takes a few hours to do good make-up effects.

• 2002's Fear Factor house (rats, snakes, roaches, fish, etc)
• 2002's Project Evilution (genetic experimentation with dino DNA, resulting in half human, half dinos)
• 2008's Bloody Mary (aka- Dr Mary Agana- deals with phobias & fears, resulting in patient deaths)

[boogeyman13]

We'll never have another "Field of Screams" like 2004... the closest we got to that was 2006's "Harvest of the Souls"... and the Wizard of Oz scene in 2008's "Scary Tales: Once Upon A Nightmare"...

Hence, wishful thinking. The crowds alone would make this nigh impossible. But it's the wishful thinking thread, not the speculation thread.

So then what I'm hearing is that it got screwed it up before. Time to do it right! Although that's pretty funny that a house that failed its concept got paired up with a movie that did the same. The only watchable part of that film is the first 5 minutes, and it handled the idea so poorly...

Traditionals encompass more than some trick or treaters... Although I'll be honest, there may have been more than that in the house, the Orfanage was fairly forgettable to me. Of course, at the time I had only the vaguest idea of who Cindy was.