HHN 25 Discussion

[Arsik_22]

Watching walkthroughs of Hollywood's houses this year, our event is still much higher quality than their's. 

I did our employee preview night here in Hollywood and it was pretty disappointing. Of course it was just a dress rehearsal and a ton of elements were missing, but compared to previous preview nights, it was pretty bad... Well, besides Insidious which was phenomenal and Halloween also being very good. The only thing that's better in Hollywood are our masks and prosthetics. When I went to Orlando last year, the Walking Dead zombies and From Dusk Till Dawn culebras looked pretty bad, especially comparing it to the prosthetics Boneyard FX makes for our event. Even with the slightly lower quality masks you guys have, the facades, sets, and scare tactics are better executed no doubt. 

[Primusjim]

After a year of just lurking, I guess I'll go ahead and attempt to add something to the discussion.

My wife and I went last night and had a blast. I've been going since 2001 and the last two years have been up there with our favorites. For us, for several years before 2014 it seemed like there would always be one or two houses where they went all out with extremely detailed sets and great costumes, producing amazing results like my all-time favorite, the original Screamhouse. Then there would be four or five that they spent a medium amount of time and money on, resulting in just okay houses. Finally, there would always be one or two houses that seemed like they had been created in about a half hour after they had already spent all their money, giving us houses like my all-time least favorite, People Under the Stairs - Under Construction. But last year and this year even the houses we don't like are amazingly well thought out and designed.

We'll be there again tonight and tomorrow and at least every sunday after that. But after just one time through everything, Insidious and Body Collectors were the best for us, and The Purge was the worst. It looks like we really got hosed with the Purge though. It you look past all the stupid graffiti, it looks like the original concept tied into the Scream franchise would have been right up our alley.

Lastly, what are some of you talking about when you say HHN isn't scary anymore? Are you talking about being startled when a scareactor pops out at you? I see groups of teenage girls that seem to be scared at all times walking around the houses, but that's about it. We jump now and then, but the event has never been scary to any of the people we've went with. I'm not trying to come off as a tough guy, because I'm not. I just want to know what kind of scary some of you mean.

[HHNFreak88]

I am really saddened by how many people are "mad" that the event is not that great. It's opening weekend. The event will improve over time. I was really satisfied with all of the houses, except for The Walking Dead (boring, not scary, and the "pools" weren't all that intuitive), American Werewolf (because I hardly noticed the new puppets and I don't like repeats), and Purge (because you could definitely sense it was supposed to be Scream).

Asylum is probably my favorite 3D house they've done in the past. I don't understand why some of the posters say that AIW is a dud. It's very trippy, the scare potential is there, and the detail in that house is unbelievable compared to other 3D houses.

Here's a suggestion...why don't we all stop griping about opening night/weekend, and let the scareactors/event continue to grow over the next few weeks?

Edited September 19, 2015 by HHNFreak88
Double posted

[hhnholdem]

You know how ops will stand in a corner and tell you to keep moving. Twice last night I had an RIP tour let in front of me before I entered the house and those same two houses ops never said a thing to me. I've heard that money talks, but I guess it silences also.

[Dermitder]

According to BehindTheThrills twitter it seems the houses on todays UTH tour were

Freddy vs Jason

Body Collectors - Recollections

RUN: Blood, Sweat, and Fears

The Walking Dead: The Living and the Dead

Asylum In Wonderland 3D

Jack Presents: 25 Years of Monsters and Mayhem

Edited September 19, 2015 by Dermitder

[Pandry]

We'll be there again tonight and tomorrow and at least every sunday after that.

Just FYI, Sundays start next week. Tomorrow is an off night.

[Primusjim]

Just FYI, Sundays start next week. Tomorrow is an off night.

Thanks for the heads up. We would have felt pretty silly finding out at the front gate.

[Marco-S]

If anyone remembers that teaser image we got a while back that we all thought was Bodycollectors? But then somebody said it was RUN not too long ago. 

It was body collectors. 

If you don't mind spoiling the house or have been through it all ready, the proof is in this video 

 

http://youtu.be/0wzvVDdfB-U Around the 1:45 mark.

[Pandry]

Thanks for the heads up. We would have felt pretty silly finding out at the front gate.

No problemo.  I did look like a fool when I showed up at the gate last year on that same Sunday just assuming it was a HHN night!  I was thinking, wow, lines will be really short tonight.

[Dead Inside]

According to BehindTheThrills twitter it seems the houses on todays UTH tour were

Freddy vs Jason

Body Collectors - Recollections

RUN: Blood, Sweat, and Fears

The Walking Dead: The Living and the Dead

Asylum In Wonderland 3D

Jack Presents: 25 Years of Monsters and Mayhem

No Insidious? Wow.

[ForeverEvil1]

Damn, all the originals. Nice.

[Arsik_22]

Swap out Asylum for Insidious and that would be the perfect line up for the tours. Either way, as long as Freddy vs Jason and M&M are in the line up for October 3rd's tour, I'll be so happy. 

[Guest kiwisoup]

People keep saying how relaxed Hollywood is about people recording in their houses, but it looks like this year Orlando and Hollywood are both on the same page with only media recording 2 houses and releasing highlights until after the event is over...

[Oysterhead00]

According to BehindTheThrills twitter it seems the houses on todays UTH tour were

Freddy vs Jason

Body Collectors - Recollections

RUN: Blood, Sweat, and Fears

The Walking Dead: The Living and the Dead

Asylum In Wonderland 3D

Jack Presents: 25 Years of Monsters and Mayhem

I'm VERY happy by that list!   I have no real interest in seeing the Insidious movies, but EVERYBODY says it's so amazing so kinda hoping I get to see it with the lights on...but not sure which house I'd pick to replace.  Maybe Run...but the picture of the sign has me thinking it's more than just chainlink fences and something worth taking pictures of.

I'm avoiding MOST spoiler tags and the house and SZ forums.

Swap out Asylum for Insidious and that would be the perfect line up for the tours. Either way, as long as Freddy vs Jason and M&M are in the line up for October 3rd's tour, I'll be so happy. 

Not the 3D house!  I need pictures to look at with my 3D glasses when I get home!  (Poking fun at myself since I LOVE the 3D houses...that most people hate).

[foodstampsFTW]

I'm sitting here resting a bit at Springfield and I wanted to just say that body collectors is fucking amazing, the facade is gorgeous, the sets looked nice and it scared the shit out of me, it was a great first Orlando house

[AbeLinkedIn]

Good lineup for the UTH tour houses. Insidious I can take or leave since I could never get into the movies (Though the Hollywood house looked alright) and Walking Dead is, no offense, kind of stale no matter what you do with it. Seeing Body Collectors, RUN, M&M, and Freddy Vs. Jason will be a treat for certain. Asylum I feel wouldn't be the same without the 3-D, but that's me. 

Overall good picks for lights on tours. 

[MissBA]

Insidious is the rave review house this year. M&M, Bodycollectors are all great but there's been a LOT of good word traveling around about Insidious. So I can kind of see it not being on. I think their wait times get up there despite the location even before B&T show dump. I haven't been keeping my eye on it but it seems like a headliner so far.

[somebody85]

Good to hear a lot of positive things being said already. I'm excited for a bunch of them especially Freddy vs. Jason, Body Collectors, Insidious, M &M and Asylum In Wonderland. 

I just watched all the Hollywood house videos from two HD sources and while I can't comment on anything in Orlando this year yet, I will say that their Insidious house is excellent. From what I've heard, ours is supposed to be a knockout but I'm not sure if it will top that one. As someone who's seen all three movies multiple times, it's very well done with the scenes they chose. I'm glad it left out a lot of the 3rd movie too.

I also don't think our Purge house is going to come close to the terror tram which is perfect for that sort of idea. Once again, it's really well executed out there with a lot of creative scenes and tons of different masks. I'm honestly more excited to see what I can spot of Scream in ours. 

Halloween doesn't come close to ours though. They tried but A&D knocked that out of the park in terms of atmosphere. It's just too hard to replicate what they accomplished. A few creative scenes in this one but a really stupid placement of a Michael Myers mannequin. I also don't like the masks. 

TWD was okay. That was a weird choice to have an overrun FEMA camp as one of the scenes. Those "supposedly" don't exist and that was obviously not part of the show. What is shown of that scene sure looks a lot like what was in that I Pet Goat II video so maybe they were inspired by the conspiracies or something. Anyways, I really liked the elevator scene there. The way they positioned all the walkers outside the glass is really cool. Besides that and the opening scene, I hope ours is better but don't have the highest hopes after hearing what the water effect is.

Crimson Peak has beautiful sets. I haven't seen the movie but that house looks a lot better then Dracula Untolds did out there last year. TITE is goofy but pretty true to the movie. Not really sure what else they could have done. And I'd rather have AVP again with how well it was done out there then AWOL especially after hearing that they still haven't improved the emptiness of the Piccadilly Circus scene.


 

[foREVer56]

Alright, so this was BY FAR the most crowded opening weekend I've ever seen. Longest line was 110 for Insidious on Friday, but most wait time signs were incredibly off. I waited 40 min in a 15 for RUN tonight. Longest lines I saw all weekend were 60 for M&M/AWiL/Asylum/RUN, 75 for BC/TWD, 90 for FvJ/Purge, and 110 for Insidious. My new predictions for longest waits this season:

Insidous: 180-200

FvJ: 150-180

TWD/Purge: 120-150

Everything else: 90-120

Biggest reason I bumped all my guesses up is because the express situation is completely out of control. FvJ had a 40 min express line at 11:45 IN SEPTEMBER. The express lines fill up just as fast as standby, so they're letting in even more at a time than usual. Standby lines were at standstills for up to 5 minutes at a time this weekend. Insidious being as scary as it is destroys it's crowd flow, and with it's popularity/location, I don't think 200 minutes is far fetched. Doubt they'll posta  200 min wait, but Im sure some will end up waiting that long end of October.

 

It's gonna be a BUSY season.

[somebody85]

People keep saying how relaxed Hollywood is about people recording in their houses, but it looks like this year Orlando and Hollywood are both on the same page with only media recording 2 houses and releasing highlights until after the event is over...

There is full walk throughs for every house out there in really nice HD video quality. From what I've seen of Orlando there is just highlights of Freddy vs Jason, Body Collectors, Asylum In Wonderland, M&M, Insidious and The Purge so far. There is full walk throughs of RUN and AWOL. I won't watch them until going or if I don't go, later on. We never really get as high quality videos over here even after they are allowed. Or maybe houses aren't as dark there, I dunno.

 

Edited September 20, 2015 by somebody85

[Badge]

Hopefully Run gets swapped out for Insidious. I just watched a FULL walk through of Run (yes, full house videos are starting to appear) and it doesn't seem like there would be a ton to take pictures of. Plus it is getting some bad ratings (on par with TWD and Purge). With the praise Insidious is getting, I really want to see it in the day! Seems kinda strange also that they included a house that's clear on the opposite side of everything else. One tour can do M&M, Body, and FvJ and not have to do a lot of travel and the other tour can do AIW, Insidious and TWD and also not have a ton of traveling to do. 

I really wish they would have added a house to each tour. Seeing the houses with lights on really lets you enjoy all the amazing details, artwork and craftsmanship that go into creating these amazing houses. 

[somebody85]

Alright, so this was BY FAR the most crowded opening weekend I've ever seen. Longest line was 110 for Insidious on Friday, but most wait time signs were incredibly off. I waited 40 min in a 15 for RUN tonight. Longest lines I saw all weekend were 60 for M&M/AWiL/Asylum/RUN, 75 for BC/TWD, 90 for FvJ/Purge, and 110 for Insidious. My new predictions for longest waits this season:

Insidous: 180-200

FvJ: 150-180

TWD/Purge: 120-150

Everything else: 90-120

Biggest reason I bumped all my guesses up is because the express situation is completely out of control. FvJ had a 40 min express line at 11:45 IN SEPTEMBER. The express lines fill up just as fast as standby, so they're letting in even more at a time than usual. Standby lines were at standstills for up to 5 minutes at a time this weekend. Insidious being as scary as it is destroys it's crowd flow, and with it's popularity/location, I don't think 200 minutes is far fetched. Doubt they'll posta  200 min wait, but Im sure some will end up waiting that long end of October.

 

It's gonna be a BUSY season.

Yeah this honestly makes me less excited to go. I thought 20 minute express waits for certain houses last year was pushing it in early October on a Thursday. I hope this weekend is a fluke because for the amount of money that you spend for that, to still wait 40 minutes is completely ridiculous. I was surprised to even wait more then 5-10 minutes because it's never been that way before.

[foodstampsFTW]

Omg the wait time signs pissed me off so much, I choose to do certain houses because of the waits and every time I waited about 1.75 times the amount posted. I don't know if this is for anymore housed than I think it is but another big problem I had was the sound effects in some houses were way too loud, in M&M, I barely got any genuine scares just jumps to insanely loud noises, they relied too heavily on this and didn't trust their scareactors to get the job done, and also were the fuck was Jack I didn't see him in person at all, jack presents my ass. AWIL unfortunately used this tactic as well, a lot of the time the noise wasn't even in sync with the actors. The house that didn't use it was body collectors, and you already know how I feel about that. Bill and Ted was very mediocre. This kinda was disappointing for my visit to Orlando, but once I see all the houses and more days go by I hope it significantly improves

Day 1 ratings

Body Collectors: 10/10

M&M: 6/10

AWIL: 7.5/10

Bill and Ted: 5/10

[clash]

are umbrellas not allowed at the park anymore? when they checked my bag at the entrance they were saying I needed to check it my umbrella or something? (they almost didn't let me in)

but... rain???? rain anyone? what's the deal? 

[clash]

Alright, so this was BY FAR the most crowded opening weekend I've ever seen. Longest line was 110 for Insidious on Friday, but most wait time signs were incredibly off. I waited 40 min in a 15 for RUN tonight. Longest lines I saw all weekend were 60 for M&M/AWiL/Asylum/RUN, 75 for BC/TWD, 90 for FvJ/Purge, and 110 for Insidious. My new predictions for longest waits this season:

Insidous: 180-200

FvJ: 150-180

TWD/Purge: 120-150

Everything else: 90-120

Biggest reason I bumped all my guesses up is because the express situation is completely out of control. FvJ had a 40 min express line at 11:45 IN SEPTEMBER. The express lines fill up just as fast as standby, so they're letting in even more at a time than usual. Standby lines were at standstills for up to 5 minutes at a time this weekend. Insidious being as scary as it is destroys it's crowd flow, and with it's popularity/location, I don't think 200 minutes is far fetched. Doubt they'll posta  200 min wait, but Im sure some will end up waiting that long end of October.

 

It's gonna be a BUSY season.

Yeah this honestly makes me less excited to go. I thought 20 minute express waits for certain houses last year was pushing it in early October on a Thursday. I hope this weekend is a fluke because for the amount of money that you spend for that, to still wait 40 minutes is completely ridiculous. I was surprised to even wait more then 5-10 minutes because it's never been that way before.

Run had a long Express line too, I was not doing express but saw that line get really big (and it wasn't even that late) 
the wait time said 15 minutes but I ended up waiting like almost 45 minutes (The house was kind of bad, didn't see too many scares, didn't see the people around me getting any scares)