Greetings internet dwellers!

Ventured into the rain of Florida today. As I suspected, Central Park got a lot of stuff added to it since my last visit. I am surprised, they put more stuff out with a looming storm off the coast. Last year, if you remember, they took down the banners in Hollywood, in preparation for an incoming storm. 

​Anyway, here are the pics. Lots of nifty detail in those rune thingy's. 

Greetings internet dwellers!

Back at the Studios today, for more Scare Zone construction action. Production Central is heating up, with stages, and a hanging mural thingy. Central Park, added some trees. Hollywood, has a new banner, or two. 

I suspect, more to be added to Central Park, in the near future. 

Greetings internet dwellers!

Hot. It was very hot out today. Still, I managed to snap some pics of the Scare Zones under construction. New York, seems to be the farthest along so far. San Fran, is coming along, and Central Park is starting to ramp up. Other than that, that's pretty much it for streets right now. 

​Enjoy.

Greetings internet dwellers!

It's finally happened. For those that don't know, American Horror Story has been on the HHN radar for a while now. If you listen to the scuttlebutt, the TV show was supposed to come to the event as early as 2013. The word on the street, was that the creator's and A&D, couldn't agree on the best course of action in terms of the show's content, and how to do it at the event. 

​American Horror Story creator Ryan Murphy, is notoriously a control freak, and apparently didn't want the show's content to be downgraded to a PG-13. That's the rumor anyway. Flash forward to 2016, and the world's have aligned. The show is coming to HHN XXVI. 
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Mike Aiello shared this on the Universal blog:

"First, we needed to decide how to capture all that content into a single house. The uber-maze or larger template we’ve adopted, most recently with our popular 25th Anniversary maze last year, was the most ideal format.

"This all-new house will feature Season 1: Murder House, Season 4: Freak Show and Season 5: Hotel.

You’ll be confronted by the horrors that reside within the walls of the newly bought Harmon residence and evade the abominations that call it’s basement home.

You’ll witness the atrocities that befell many of the unfortunate souls of a roadside Freak Show and encounter Twisty, a maniacal and deformed clown performer.

Lastly, you will check into the Hotel Cortez and unlock the domain of The Countess, as she ensures your stay is anything but pleasant."

There's already new speculation flying around, about what this means for the future. Is it the new Walking Dead? Only time will tell. This for me, is kind of a mixed bag. I think it's a little too late for American Horror Story. It feels like the show is starting to wain with fans. 

I personally, watch American Horror Story. However, I haven't really enjoyed the show, since season 2. For me, the series started to lose its footing with Coven, which is by far, the worst season of American Horror Story I have seen. Freak Show, was all over the place, but enjoyable for certain aspects. I have not yet seen Hotel, as I cut my cable as the season was starting, and I am waiting for it on Netflix.  

That being said, I look forward to what they do with the property. The anthology nature of the series, lends itself to a wide variety of things for A&D to do. And as big as this house is going to be, I am intrigued. 

Greetings internet dwellers!

We are one day removed from the announcement of the surprise VR experience, coming to HHN XXVI. This new upcharge experience, has garnered a mixed reaction on social media. While most of the feedback is positive about the experience, there is a very real anger from people about the price. 

The Repository, will set you back $49.99, if you want to experience the attraction. While it is being billed as a "10th" house by some, that isn't really the case. While it is an extra experience, it's more like a bonus mini house; the 9.5 house, if you will. 

Die-hard fans of HHN, have been asking for some kind of upcharged, intense house experience for years. Truth be told, a more extreme, upcharged experience, has been planned for past events. 2003, was supposed to have one for example, but was scrapped due to legal concerns. It was later morphed into Infestation, a mini show involving that year's Icon, The Director. 

The new VR experience, is actually a nice marketing move for the event. Howl-O-Scream, has been offering their own version of an upcharge experience for a while now. These extra experiences, give guests something different, and unique for visitor's to chew on. In some cases, even more intense solo experiences. 

The problem people are having, involves the price for The Repository. To Universal's defense here, you are not obliged to fork over the extra dough to do the Repository. It's an added experience, and HHN has been doing such things for a while now. 

The event has offered the Unmasking the Horror tours for years. The experience allows guests to explore certain houses of the event, with the house lights on. It provides a guided, unique behind the scenes look, at how the houses are crafted. From the detail in the houses, to the backtories, to how the house was constructed, the tours are a real treat. Prices for that, range from $74 to $119. 

They also started their Scareactor dining experience last year. Similar in nature to how the Mouse does it, guests can have a meal and mingle with HHN characters. The price also includes a photo. This experience will set you back $49.99.

With The Repository, it's the same deal. It's an added bonus that you can dcide to pay for, or not. It's not part of the 9 house line-up this year, despite what some places are saying. 

The question, for me anyway, is justifying the $49.99 to do it. Why is it that price? What is justifying its expensive price tag? Is it the VR? Because if it is, that's a mistake by Universal. 

Virtual Reality, is so easily accessible these days. This isn't some new, fancy thing anymore. I can sit on my couch, and visit Rio for the Olympic Games via VR, with my smart phone. While the experience may be unique to the event, it isn't unique technology anymore. 

With easily accessable VR headsets for your smart phone, The Oculus, The Vibe, and Playstation, Universal has to sell that The Repository is something unique. And the fact of the matter is, they haven't. There is very little info on what separates this, as something anyone can't experience at home. 

Outside of the VR headset, The Repository is nothing more than a bare-bones house. It has sets, actors, lights, and fog. Not uncommon at Halloween Horror Nights. The Legendary Truth angle, is there to entice the die-hards to buy a ticket. Most regular buying folk, have no idea what Legendary Truth is.

Tickets to HHN, are already expensive. If you decide to add express, that gets even more expensive. Offering people an extra experience is fine, but you have to justify your price tag. The Scareactor dining experience for example, that's truly a unique experience. People can't do that from their home. 

The Repository is a cool little extra bonus, but a little too expensive to justify at this point. Having experienced what the team can do at HHN with VR last year, it can easily turn out to be great. However, I can get the same intense scares, from a VR horror game. 

​And that's the problem. 

Greetings internet dwellers!

Was down at the Studios today, and snapped a few pictures of some of the lighting going up for HHN XXVI. Wasn't able to get all around the park, as it started to pour during the later part of the visit. I think you get the idea- HHN streets are being worked on. Rumor has it, we may see some actual set pieces go up next week. 

Also some quick shots of Fallon, and Fast & Furious. 

Stay tuned...

Greetings internet dwellers!

So, I was going to another HHN Chatcast this past Sunday, but decided to hold off. This is why. HHN Orlando decided to dump a bunch of information on us, about the original content. This approach is similar to how they did things back in 2014. The original content for HHN XXIV, was dumped on us, with one huge IP remaining (Halloween). It was in fact, August 12th of that year, so they nearly duplicated the day as well.

This year, has been quite similar in nature to how HHN XXIV reveals went, with one IP remaining. It's also very similar with the leaks as well. Pretty sure most people know what the last remaining IP is...

So, what do we have? 

This is obviously Chance's house. While no confirmation as of I am writing this, Lunatics should be in the new tent, over behind Men In Black. 

This one has obviously gotten a lot of press the last few days, with the leak. We already know this will be located in Sprung Tent 1. This, even without the last IP, is my most anticipated house this year. Hands down, no competition. 

This, is the requel house. Fun fact, Ghost Town was the first piece of information that was given to me back in February. I really liked the original Ghost Town from HHN XIV. The event doesn't do enough Western houses. 

A little bit different from what I initially heard, but still cool nonetheless. My guess is this will be in New York.

My guess is Central Park for this one. Sounds interesting. 

Warf, huh? San Fran fits this bill. I can't wait to see if they build a huge boat for this. 

Greaser vampires? I'm in. Hollywood is in the description. 

Knowing what I know, this is poised to be the most disappointing zone of the year. It's also Chance's Scare Zone. 

In addition to the releases, HHN also gave us some house videos for Ghost Town, and Tomb of the Ancients

And that does it for the original content for HHN XXVI. I personally am not too thrilled with Chance's house. I think they missed a good opportunity to make something special. But, we'll see. I like the Scare Zone concepts very much, and Ghost Town and Ancients both seem like winners.

​Only one more reveal to go! We can do this!

Greetings internet dwellers!

Well, it appears that some of the dam is starting to burst on HHN XXVI. We know the info on Krampus, was released early after a publications outed it before the official announcement. Now comes the Universal Passholder mailer, which has given us a name for an original house, and the number of Scare Zones. 

The original house, code name Cobweb, will be called Tomb of the Ancients. On top of that, the mailer also revealed the event will have five Scare Zones. I have heard a lot about Cobweb, now named Tomb of the Ancients. Very stoked for this property.

The Scare Zone number is interesting, as I think most people "in the know", were told six Scare Zones. It's entirely possible that one was dropped in light of the recent tragedies here in Orlando. What's interesting still, is the flyer doesn't reveal the exact number of shows. It's interesting to note. 

We had similar leaks, in the not too distant past. Halloween was outed early, and 2014, had an enormous amount of leaks and bungles. From Dusk Til Dawn, was outed early, when someone forgot to make the Youtube video private. As we get down to the wire here, with the full reveal usually coming in late August, this was bound to happen sooner or later. 

Greetings internet dwellers!

What has become the worst kept secret at HHN XXVI (see their Exorcist fake-out), became even less of a mystery before its official announcement. A publication let slip early, that the film Krampus would be coming to HHN Orlando this year.

Even after the announcement slipped out early, it still took the HHN powers that be, an awful lot of time to officially announce the thing. We have had leaks like this in the past. Similar in nature, the official Halloween movies site, let slip the property would be coming to HHN Orlando, a few weeks before the official announcement. That same year, Publix put out their HHN ticket display revealing that Halloween was part of the line-up. Mike Aiello even posed for a picture with the display.

The Universal blog, had this to say about the house: 

"You’ll not only try and dodge the invading dark elves around every corner, but will also have to keep your holiday spirits up, while sneaking past the looming presence of Krampus himself. Each encounter with Krampus holds its own unique perspective, as he gathers more souls for his sinister workshop."

That's out of the way, time for me to have a little bit of fanboy rage here. This has been the house announcement I have been dreading since I found out it was coming in March. I hate everything about this property. The movie is awful, the film wasn't overly successful, and it seems pandering to people who wanted it last year. 

We are almost a year removed from this film's release. Is there even hype about this, outside of die-hard horror geeks? That I'm not sure. While the film made a good chunk of change, it was all relative to its budget. Which wasn't much. The film made $61 million dollars around the globe. While the production budget was indeed 15 million, that still doesn't justify bringing the property to the event in my book.

Pick and choose any awful Blumhouse movie, and you have the same scenario. Would people be this excited if HHN brought Ouija to the event instead? That film cost $5 million, and made over $100 million around the world. That is a much better profit in terms of budget. So, sure Krampus was a success in terms of its production cost. However, it was not a huge hit with audiences. And it garnered mixed reviews from critics.

I just can't justify this thing's existence at the event. I hate this movie with a passion. Krampus, let me down as a film. People get so excited because the movie used practical effects. So what? If the narrative is terrible, and the characters aren't memorable, it doesn't matter. If we are going to make houses based on things that were popular for a hot minute, Dougherty's own Trick 'r Treat would have been the better option. 

You also now have the task of living up to expectations regarding Krampus himself. The title character was a practical being in the film which again, people go all goo-goo for (which I thought looked awful). Now HHN has to do it. If they fail, you are going to have a problem. And while on the subject, again, what does anybody ever talk about when mentioning Krampus? The practical effects. Nobody mentions characters or story. 

This is the first time in a long time, an IP at HHN makes me physically angry. The last time was the Evil Dead remake. However, that property was at least justifiable in my opinion. Krampus, or Krapus as I call it, ins't. From my hatred for the property, to it's pandering addition to this year's line-up, Krampus gets a lump of coal. 

​That being said, now, HHN must wow me with this house. My expectations are lower than low. Have I mentioned how much I hate this movie?

Announcement video below. 

Greetings internet dwellers!

Was down at Universal today, and snapped a few pictures. Haven't done a Photopalooza in a while. Got some Toothsome construction, and Hulk stuff for you to enjoy.