HHN Hollywood, I've Had it With You.

[Freak]

I have been a die-hard HHN fan since 2009, my first year. I found that as a high-quality event with awesome sets and great scares. After that year, I could only imagine how potentially awesome the event could get. Although there were some years that were solid (2011 and 2012), there was always a LOT of room for improvement. This year, I was hoping they would do so by adding more shows and have an overall theme, but unfortunately, they have failed to do that. I went with the mentality of, "Even though HHN is not going to be a good as I had hoped, I'm still going to go there and have fun". But oh well. at least they're apparently improving the quality of the houses, scarezones and Terror Tram. This is for sure going to be our best year with the acquisition of the sound stage house, the backlot, a "new" repeat (Walking Dead), and the use of some GREAT properties.

Then I finally went to HHN.....

After I had gone, I was VERY disappointed with how the event turned out. It's basically the same event we've seen for many years, but sacrificing some of the quality the event had. There were STATIC DUMMIES in Insidious and Evil Dead, black walls everywhere in El Cucuy (I'll let Insidious go on this, but it was still lacking in detail overall), and even some in Black Sabbath; there were props reused EVERYWHERE from Saw, Hostel, TCM F13, and Alice Cooper. On top of that, the scares and gags we've seen have been exactly the same since I had gone in 2009! The body cut-in-half gag is beyond old, distraction-scare is getting annoying, and the scarezones have been exactly the same since 2010, but half-heartedly re-themed. This sort of creative laziness while jacking up the prices is inexcusable. It's such a shame that HHN Hollywood has decided to ride off of their own success and praise and just go on cruise control, not willing to listen to their fans. After buying the multi-night pass, I feel ripped off for buying it. The only reason I've gone two more times is because I wanted to get my money's worth.

As if this year was not disappointing enough, THEY CANCELED THEIR ONLY SHOW THERE THAT WAS FUN TO WATCH. I just cannot have HHN without Bill and Ted. That's the bread on the butter, the icing on the orange roll (Which I'm eating while writing this). I was even planning on going again yesterday and closing night just to see Bill and Ted and go through Walking Dead and El Cucuy one more time (My two favorites), but after that whole delima, I have made the decision to withhold spending more money for you. Oh, and you have the gal to RAISE THE PRICES after you canceled your only show there that everyone loved. If that isn't a slap in the face to your fanbase I don't know what is.

I have found that Knott's Haunt has been delivering higher quality than Horror Nights has lately. You can call me insane all you want, but I have found this to be true. Even though they need to have more audio triggers to be super-effective, I have still been far more scared at Knott's than HHN. A lot of their scares can be simple (Just someone jumping out at you), or someone jumping out from a counter, a bungee cord, or from above you. Whatever the case IT'S VARIED. It's better than distraction scare ALL THE TIME. It may not be effective 100% for scares, but it at least make the enviroment seem more natural. I even got scared by some of the special effects in Gunslinger's Grave and Black Magic (Collapsing mine, spiked walls, etc.). Murdy would never think to do anything innovative like that because of the "just stick with what works" mentality.

I've said enough before you get bored of reading, but I'll close with this. If you preferred HHN over Knott's this year, that's totally fine, but I have no idea where you're coming from. Horror Nights has five houses that have mere "good" quality instead of movie-quality they've had before and ZERO shows, plus the Terror Tram that never changes. Knott's has eleven really good quality houses where at least half of them are EASILY more detailed than anything at HHN, and they have at least six shows to keep the crowds and lines reasonable....and it's all at a reasonable price.

Horror Nights, you've lost a really hard-core fan. After you canceled Bill and Ted for having no backbone, for trying to appease the offended who wouldn't have affected your ticket sales anyway, I cannot, out of good conscience, support you and your foolish decisions. After seeing how great HHN 23 was (Even though I preferred 2010 more), it has shown how far behind Hollywood is even with Knott's. Murdy, if this is your last year, win me back as fan. I will still only go once if it keep up like this next year, but stop there. HHN has always had so much potential that it has never really seemed to have met, and I want you to finally tap that potential. Please Murdy, win me back as a fan. Add more shows, stop with the black walls and overusage of reused props, make massive, movie-quality sets, add more to the scare zones, give us an overall theme and an icon, and for Pete's sake, change up the scares. But for now, Freak out.

[Doctor Jeffula]

I have also been a dedicated fan since 2009.....attending opening night every year i went (besides this year). I was disappointed a whole lot this year more than any other year and i feel alot of what you feel. I only go once a year and this year i paid ALOT of money for front of line tickets (which i think should be good for multi front of line use and not just once) and the event was a huge disappointment...........so huge i kinda regret going because......i kinda want to go to sinister point....queen mary dark harbor....even haunted hayride.......even knotts again! But we spent enough of money on haunts and the majority was on HHN......and its the priciest of the events.

Im glad i didnt make the decision to go VIP this year as well.

The Magic is gone

[StraightEdge]

Damn.

[AbnormalVitality]

Keep in mind, I don't think John Murdy has any influence concerning Bill and Ted or Shows in general. Rumors are that it was a direct order from the copyright holder(s) of Bill and Ted that lead to the Hollywood production getting canceled?

[horror lover]

^ That's what I heard too... the producers of the Bill & Ted movies did not want the characters associated with homophobia or racism... Somehow Orlando got to keep them under STRICT limitations..

[LV-426]

Keep in mind, I don't think John Murdy has any influence concerning Bill and Ted or Shows in general. Rumors are that it was a direct order from the copyright holder(s) of Bill and Ted that lead to the Hollywood production getting canceled?

it's weird because I can understand, But yet Bill and Ted do say the F-- word in the movie... so it's bizarre

Edited October 26, 2013 by LV-426

[Grindhousehero13]

it's weird because I can understand, But yet Bill and Ted do say the F-- word in the movie... so it's bizarre

ummm isn't Bill & Ted rated PG? and I own both movies and don't recall them saying it albeit I have not seen any of them lately

I said it was a theory but are other sources saying it too?

[ferox]

The way I read the scene, it's more making fun of how Bill and Ted both do the same thing and react immaturely to each other at the same time in the same way. The moronic homophobic mindset was the joke instead of the joke being homophobic.

Anyway, if B&T's owners are the ones that nuked the show that makes the most sense. Universal is a business, and cutting the show all together is bad for business. B&T's owners don't care about how many tickets Universal sells. B&T's owners knows that most of the target audience for their movie (assuming it's the same kind of comedy as the others) doesn't know who Bill and Ted are. Even if Universal entirely rewrote all of the jokes that got it bad press, how much do you want to bet that the next headlines would be "Bill and Ted cuts racism, homophobia, and rape. Still terrible though" which would still be a bad thing to be the first thing people think of when they hear B&T. So they figured the best way is to just nuke the show rather than risk more of the general public associating B&T with bigotry and/or being unfunny while Universal might just do what is normally done when something doesn't work out and tweak it.

Of course, that's something that would make sense if it is true.

[Grindhousehero13]

The way I read the scene, it's more making fun of how Bill and Ted both do the same thing and react immaturely to each other at the same time in the same way. The moronic homophobic mindset was the joke instead of the joke being homophobic.

I honestly dont remember that part (gonna go re watch now)

but what said about the joke being on the stereotype and not the joke being a stereotype is what I was talking about when I said they resort back to the Seth Mcfarlen/south park style of joke were most of the time they are bashing the idea of the stereotype. Like with the Captain Mexico joke from 2011

[ferox]

It's not even close to that.

It will be pretty funny if it turns out that B&T's rights owners pulled the show. Especially after all this talk about how Universal gave into the gays.

I just wish the cowards who want to blame gay civil rights groups for this would have the balls to say that instead of saying "the offended" or "select groups."

Edited October 26, 2013 by ferox