HHN Hollywood house line up:

Clowns 3D: Music By Slash

American Werewolf In London

Face/Off

The Walking Dead

From Dusk Till Dawn

Dracula Untold

AVP

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Orlando's commercials just keep getting worse & worse

ugh, will we ever see a return of the REAL HHN Orlando?!

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You can't really blame them.

Horror films, especially in the last 5 - 10 years, have had a crazy resurgence.

The whole "found footage" genre has become a sure-fire way for studios to make money. Paranormal Activity IV (which is actually a Latin-American-targeted spin-off of the core series) made a modest $90 million. But its cost? $5 million. Even factoring in the [minimal] advertising needed since the brand is already recognized, that's HUGE profit. Obviously Saw left its mark and started this new thing where a series releases one movie around Halloween every year without fail - no marketing required. Insidious, Sinister, Possession... Like rapid fire. People expect it, and they see it. A tradition.

Then, it spread to TV. American Horror Story, True Blood, Vampire Diaries, Teen Wolf, Walking Dead, From Dawn Till Dusk... Like it or not, horror is in and basing attractions (permanent or temporary) on already-proven hits is easy for guests to digest. I LOVED the viral build-up and gradual release of the mythical Terra Cruentus from HHN 15: Tales of Terror when Islands of Adventure was entirely re-cast as an ancient Dungeons-and-Dragons type world where the islands were interconnected. Guess how many visitors understood that story, much less knew it existed at all? I'd wager: very few.

Made worse by the fact that the event is regularly hosted at Universal Studios Florida and NOT Islands of Adventure where - let's face it - there isn't as much raw material to use for immersive themed lands. The New York and Hollywood theming does SOME good, but only for bringing to life modern-set horror stories like - you guessed it - Walking Dead or Halloween.

Ah well. The event still does what it does best by scaring the pants off of people. As a theme park fan and a story person, I miss the old days. But they may be in the past.

HHNXX might've been the way of the future - an event icon that drew on the legacy and history (which delighted fans like us) but with recognizable houses and scare zones that didn't require or benefit from some in-depth study of a backstory.

Don't forget found footage movies are cheaper as well. Not as many rigs needed, not as many cameras needed. Don't need to pay as many make up or cg people.

Plus the fear of the unknown. That's why people like them. That's why studios like them because it makes a bunch of money.

If movie A costs 95million to make because of make up etc, and makes 135 the studio would be happy.

If movie B costs 35 million but only makes 95 million, the studio would be very excited.

Exactly. And you're right about fear of the unknown. Used to be that studios knew to hide the creature / bad guy / violence until the end... if they ever showed it at all. Truth be told, nothing can be as frightening as what your mind can imagine. 2008's Cloverfield was essentially a big-budget found-footage creature film whose viral marketing RELIED on audiences not seeing the creature until the film premiered in theaters. Even then, it's only really seen in tiny increments and snippets, one limb at a time, throughout the film. It WORKED. Cloverfield and the first Paranormal Activity had the same budget ($25 million) and both approached $200 million in box office receipts, faring even better on home release).

Just the other day, I watched a movie with one of those scenes where, on a dark and stormy night, a person creeps into a room and toward an armchair with someone - or something - sitting in the armchair facing away from the camera "watching" a static TV.

My mind had about a million horrific and nightmare-inducing things that could've been sitting in that chair staring at the static on the TV. What they ended up showing was, of course, a little gross and kind of scary, but it's NOTHING compared to the impression that might've been left if they hadn't shown anything but a horrified character's reaction.

It was all about subtlety. That changed with the slasher films of the 80s / 90s, came to a head with the unrated "torture-porn" sub-genre of the 2000s (Saw, Hostel, Devil's Rejects, Hills Have Eyes, I Spit On Your Grave, Human Centipede), followed by a period of remaking old classics but with the gore and mutilation being shown instead of implied (Crazies, Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, House of Wax, My Bloody Valentine) and now studios are returning to the low-budget, low-SFX, indie-style horror. Even if it's not for the same reasons, at least we're getting back to it.

It's all cycles. The big monster films of the silent age, the creature features in the 50s and 60s, the unknown real life horror movies of the 70s, the slasher films of the 80s, the torture porn and found footage of the last 20 years.

Each era had small pockets of other things.

A fun thing is to watch the George Romero zombie movies. Each movie is made with a certain fear built in. Over commercializations, isolations, etc

Orlando's map for this year

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10152234221182035&substory_index=0&id=10300702034

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Orlando's map for this year

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10152234221182035&substory_index=0&id=10300702034

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Looks like the attractions for this year are all crammed in the front

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Possibly to direct guests away from the Wizarding World of Harry Potter as much as possible since it's closed.

Also, most of the park's vacant soundstages are near the entrance, between Studios and Islands. The only haunted house location they ever used over on the lagoon side of the park was the Jaws queue which is... well... you know...

Congrats to USO for winning the Golden Ticket Award for 'Best Halloween Event'

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And doing what it takes so to do.

JACK IS COMING BACK!!!

http://www.insidethemagic.net/2014/10/universal-orlando-teases-jack-the-clown-to-return-at-halloween-horror-nights-2015-announces-dates-for-25th-year/

http://attractionsmagazine.com/mysterious-halloween-package-teases-next-years-halloween-horror-nights-25/

DARN IT.

For a magical 2 seconds I thought and hoped and prayed you meant Jack Falfas.

You didn't.

And that's too bad.

Jack Falfas is a genius.

DARN IT.

For a magical 2 seconds I thought and hoped and prayed you meant Jack Falfas.

You didn't.

And that's too bad.

Jack Falfas is a genius.

Nope lol (but yes, he is a genius!)

I was referring to this Jack...

Hmmm.

You sure that's not Bart?

Terp, dashing out the door.

The OFFICIAL 2015 HHN line up for all Universal Parks

 

Orlando

Houses:

Freddy Vs. Jason

Insidious

The Walking Dead (shocker)

The Purge

An American Werewolf in London

Jack Presents: 25 Years of Monsters and Mayhem

Run: Blood, Sweat, and Fears

Asylum in Wonderland 3D

Body Collectors - Recollection

 

Scare Zones:

Psychoscareapy - Unleashed

  Icons - HHN

Scary Tales - Steampunk

Evil's Roots

All Night Die-In - Double Feature

 

Shows:

Bill & Ted's Excellent Halloween Adventure

The Carnage Returns

 

 

 

Hollywood

Houses:

Insidious

Crimson Peak

The Walking Dead (shocker)

Halloween

AVP: Alien vs. Predator

This Is The End 3D

Terror Tram: Survive The Purge

 

Scare Zones:

Exterminatorz

Dark Christmas

Corpz

The Purge: Urban Nightmare

 

Show:

Jabbawockeez

 

 

Singapore

Houses:

.... House

Siloso Gateway Blk 50

True Singapore Ghost Stories: The MRT

Tunnel People

 

Scare Zones:

Hungry Ghosts

 

No Shows

According to "Jack the Clown" on the @HorrorNightsORL Twitter account, ALL will be revealed tonight @ midnight.

 

HHN 25

Has anyone gone to one of the 3 HHNs this year? If so, what park did you attend, what did you think & what was your favorite thing(s)?

Has anyone gone to one of the 3 HHNs this year? If so, what park did you attend, what did you think & what was your favorite thing(s)?

 

 

Went to Hollywood about 2 weeks ago.  Having been to Orlando for HHN every year since 2008 and a handful of years before that, I have certain expectations about the quality of the event and was left disappointed.  The entire event felt extremely disjointed.  They had one house in the upper lot three in the lower and two more in the middle of the studio backlot which required you ride a tram.  Half the scare zones required you go out of your way to visit.  

 

Three of the houses, Insidious, Crimson Peak, and Halloween, were VERY good.  Bits of This is the End 3D were good and I liked the 3D but overall did not like the house, it was neither scary nor funny.  AVP has been done MUCH better in Orlando.  The Walking Dead was really not very good either.  Also did not like the Terror Tram.

 

I skipped the show because I have seen the Jabbawockeez show in Vegas and I was just not that interested in seeing them again and I prioritized making sure I would see all of the houses.

 

I also went to Knotts Scary Farm and I preferred that to HHN in Hollywood.  I would love to see Special Ops Infected make it out to Ohio in some way.  But at Kings Island the only two places I can think of which would have to room is Dinosaurs Alive or Soak City.

 

I will be in Orlando to do HHN this year at the end of the month.  If I think about it I might come back and post something but it would be the last week of the event so no one would have time to act on any of my thoughts about the event this year.  Having said that Orlando almost never disappoints.  They have so many houses you will find something you like.  The level of detail is just amazing and it is all new every year so even if you visit every year it will be something new.  The houses that they are capable of producing are just incredible.

Has anyone gone to one of the 3 HHNs this year? If so, what park did you attend, what did you think & what was your favorite thing(s)?

 

Hi.  I just got back from Halloween Horror Nights 25 at Orlando.  We spent two weekends.  It was a blast!.  Top houses were....

 

1. 25 years of Monsters and Meyhem

2. Insidious

3. FvJ

4. An American Werewolf In London

5. Body Collectors

6. Asylem in Wonderland 3d

7. The Walking Dead

8. The Purge

9. Run

 

All the scarezones were good, thought the two best were, All Night Die In and the Shadybrook Block Party.

 

I will try to post photos later today and i will be posting a video to youtube this week and will link it on here later.