Universal Hollywood's Halloween Horror Nights (HHN) - 2012

[the ghost]

Wasnt traps all there was to saw? Is this the same maze with different props? Either way I cant wait, and a chucky themed terror tram sounds awesome!

[downunder]

They said new traps for SAW, so I take that as they'll do murders from SAW films that they didn't do in the previous maze. Given there's been 6 films with a seventh coming, there should be plenty of set pieces that weren't covered last year. I don't know for sure because I've only seen the first film.

[PeoplemoverMatt]

I'm looking forward to the scare zone that ends in "z."

[downunder]

Tickets, finally, are now on sale, got mine.

 

If you are a Club TPR member there are some good discounts for HHN @ USH.

Edited September 1, 2010 by downunder

[COASTER FREAK 11]

Tickets, finally, are now on sale, got mine.

 

If you are a Club TPR member there are some good discounts for HHN @ USO.

 

How did you get a Club TPR discount? I didn't see a link or info for it in the list.

[downunder]

^Click on the Universal Club TPR store link in the Club TPR forum and you will find a HHN Event Admission section and a Front of Line section on the right hand side, for example I got $20 off my front of line pass for Friday night and $10 off my Saturday night Front of Line.

 

The event admissions discounts are quite good as well:

 

$25 off: 9/24

$21 off: 9/25, 10/1

$16 off: 10/2, 10/8, 10/17, 10/21, 10/24, 10/28

$11 off: 10/9, 10/15, 10/31

$6 off: 10/16, 10/22, 10/29

 

No discounts for the last 2 Saturdays.

[disney4me2001]

I'm looking forward to the scare zone that ends in "z."

 

Haha oh, I see what you did there!

[COASTER FREAK 11]

^Click on the Universal Club TPR store link in the Club TPR forum and you will find a HHN Event Admission section and a Front of Line section on the right hand side, for example I got $20 off my front of line pass for Friday night and $10 off my Saturday night Front of Line.

 

The event admissions discounts are quite good as well:

 

$25 off: 9/24

$21 off: 9/25, 10/1

$16 off: 10/2, 10/8, 10/17, 10/21, 10/24, 10/28

$11 off: 10/9, 10/15, 10/31

$6 off: 10/16, 10/22, 10/29

 

No discounts for the last 2 Saturdays.

 

I saw the Hollywood link, I don't see an Orlando link, thats what I was asking about because you said "HHN @ USO"

[downunder]

^Sorry, my bad, no discounts for USO, I've fixed the original post.

[fresh2otown]

From the L.A. Times Daily Travel today:

 

"Halloween Horror Nights 2010 returns to Universal Studios Hollywood with a lineup of all-too-familiar freak show faces — Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, Chucky and Jigsaw — that we’ve seen many times before."

"It’s particularly disappointing since HHN 2009 delivered an all-new slate of scares. I’d hoped 2010 would be Universal’s year to snatch the Halloween crown from Knott’s Berry Farm. But the movie theme park appears to be resting on its laurels rather than going for the jugular. Maybe next year.

 

Could not agree more!! At least Orlando will make sure we have a fresh Bill & Ted. Here is an idea, instead of Orlando just doing the show(s) in Hollywood, let them have full creative over the event. No repeats then. Missing a Psycho, Wolfman, or any other Universal owned property or Universal Orlando creation (Caretaker, Storyteller, Director, Jack, Usher..).

[Jew]

I honestly don't get the complaining. Aside from SAW (which will still feature some new traps to go along with some of the ones from last year), the mazes are definitely all new. Is a park never allowed to revisit a popular theme with an all new maze?

[the ghost]

^ Agreed! Jason, Chucky, and Freddy are all VERY marketable, and are large properties in Universals current project to remake many classic horror films. The thing is HHN hollywood is different than Orlando, there is really not enough space to go all out on a crazy theme as there will be 5 or so mazes and a tram. The park has "icons" but the icons are freddy and jason and characters people know. Also besides Howl O Scream, which is about an hour away from Orlando, HHN Orlando is really the only adult oriented haunt. Universal Hollywood needs to market characters that people know to bring in the masses as HHN is competing with another GIANT haunt event with knotts haunt. Lets face it, if you are the average person and you hear "Jack the Clown is getting a house this year" you'll think "who the hell is jack the clown." Freddy and Jason are infamous enough to g beyond generations and still be well known. I am not saying in the future the park shouldn't strive for more, but for now it is a relatively new comer considering that Haunt has been going on for a VERY long time and has a lot of VERY devoted fans. Maybe HHN will become So Cals main haunt scene, but for now they need characters and concepts to draw people in to build their fan following. It seems to be working too, from what I hear(this year will be my first HHN, but I have been going to haunt for the past 5 or 6 years) HHN is a DAMN good event, and many seem to love it. I am very excited for the event and cant wait to finally enter scenes from my favorite horror movies!

[RCFreak]

The way I see it, I like them keeping the movie themed mazes as USH is a movie studio with a few rides unlike Orlando which is a theme park based on movies. And you know, the park IS in Hollywood, I'm sure they will branch out in future events (like this year and Vampyre maze), but I really hope they stick with a few movie based properties every year.

 

There's a completely new icon in La Llorona that is very inherently Mexican and I don't think would work as well out in Orlando as Her and the Cucuy (Mexicans know what I'm talking about!) were the most common threats against children who misbehaved (none of this "Santa won't bring you presents" crap, we go for full on kidnapping and death) for our culture (shut up Elissa, I was still raised by two Mexican parents lol). I have a feeling she would be pretty popular out here in SoCal if they ever wanted to use her as a main icon.

[the ghost]

^ I kind of agree. I am totally amazed the director or the usher haven't been in Hollywood. Sure, the director was kind of an icon that one year, but he was SUCH a small part of the event, and no one really knew who he was. Both characters translate well, and I am VERY surprised we aren't seeing the usher this year, especially considering he fits in better at Hollywood than Orlando because we have all the actual movie stuff. However, La Lorena would be pretty cool. There was an ok maze at knotts last year, but they did it very bright and more Mexican cultural stuff than anything else. I am interested to see how this translates into a scare zone though, I know very little about the legend, but are there other scaractors? The boogeyman bear sounds kind of weird, and I honestly don't know what else will be in there.

[Gambit]

I'm going to agree that this year's line up is very disappointing. I have no problem with taking inspiration from horror movies. I think that's great. Last year's Michael Myers house was EPIC and one of my favorite houses, from either coast, EVER. However, recycling Freddy and Jason for the third time (and Saw for the second) just seems like a bit much. I know they say the mazes will be "all new" but they said the same thing about Freddy's maze in 2008 and it was maybe 1/2 new. The rest was reused from 2007. There are just so many other options out there. Universal had the Wolfman this year and that would have been perfect for a house. Anyone who went to the Wolfman house in Orlando last year can attest that it was awesome! Sorry, but this year totally feels like the powers that be thought "eh, people are going to show up anyway so no need to kill ourselves on new stuff". I mean, even the website is completely minimal.

 

I will say that I'm looking forward to La Llorona. I love her look and I love the story.

 

All of that said, I will still be attending a few nights this season (proving my own point that people will show up regardless). A reheated HHN is better than no HHN at all. Plus, I still find the event superior to Knott's.

 

Any talk of a TPR outing?

[jarmor]

The hollywood version seems a bit, ahem, hollywood to me with all the big name themed house. Is the fan base big enough to hold an influence as UO's fan base? While I love house of a 1000 corpse I still wanna see the murder ride come to life...well not the actual murders lol...

[downunder]

I haven't seen the Elm Street and Friday remakes, the impression I get is that they are quite different to the originals (especially Friday which seems to fairly different to any of the original series)? So perhaps the mazes will be very new experiences. I haven't seen House of 1000 Corpses either, so I've got some catching up to do.

 

I loved the Michael Myers maze last year, I hope they can get the rights to some great horror properties in the future that are new to HHN. My wish list: Evil Dead, Romero's Dawn/Day of the Dead, & Tobe Hooper's Salems Lot (scariest vamps ever).

 

I'm such a HHN fanboy now, Universal Creative could do a Robot Monster maze and it would probably be awesome.

[the ghost]

^ EVIL DEAD WOULD BE SO AWESOME! They could to totally use the woods from Jason to create the forest. Then there could be all sorts of craziness. It would be awesome zombie madness!

[downunder]

^There is so much they could do with Evil Dead, I guess one factor is how much it would cost and whether they could get the rights anyway. I keep plugging Tobe Hopper's Salem's Lot because it has vamps that would completely bitch slap those gay Twilight emos, Edward would need an adult diaper if he saw these dudes and they"re madder than Mantis Man:

[Gambit]

The full site is finally live! This is good. I really thought that the bare bones one was all we were going to get. This is better

 

http://www.halloweenhorrornights.com/hollywood/2010/

 

Opening night in 15 days!!!

[ghost007jas]

It's about time that they made a 'real' website for this event. It's still nothing compared to Florida's, but I'm not expecting miracles.

[Gambit]

It's true. They are obviously far less committed to the event on this coast. If you listened to the HHN Orlando Conference Call, the Florida team made it abundantly clear that the Hollywood event is done by a completely different creative team. It was like they were distancing themselves from it. It was interesting.

 

Here's hoping that as the years go on and it gets more popular, they'll put the care and investment in it that Orlando does. As it is, it's still a great time and I'll be there opening weekend. But I sure will miss Michael Myers this year...

[Jew]

^There's a difference between less committed and less established. Believe me, the USH creative team is EXTREMELY dedicated to the event. John Murdy fought for years just to bring it back in the first place.

 

It's not really a fair comparison to compare UO to USH. It's natural for people to do it since they are both Universal parks, but the reality is they are two entirely different events faced with different circumstances. Number one being that UO is THE event in its market. It's been running for 20 years and doesn't really have any competition. USH? No real history and competing with THE established event down the road. USH also doesn't have the alcohol revenue flowing in. So they've carved their niche with movie properties (afterall, they are a movie studio...) that guests want to see instead of just assuming what works at UO will work over here too.

[JT3000]

It's not really a fair comparison to compare UO to USH. It's natural for people to do it since they are both Universal parks, but the reality is they are two entirely different events faced with different circumstances. Number one being that UO is THE event in its market. It's been running for 20 years and doesn't really have any competition.

 

Don't tell Busch Gardens that.

[Gambit]

^There's a difference between less committed and less established. Believe me, the USH creative team is EXTREMELY dedicated to the event. John Murdy fought for years just to bring it back in the first place.

 

It's not really a fair comparison to compare UO to USH. It's natural for people to do it since they are both Universal parks, but the reality is they are two entirely different events faced with different circumstances. Number one being that UO is THE event in its market. It's been running for 20 years and doesn't really have any competition. USH? No real history and competing with THE established event down the road. USH also doesn't have the alcohol revenue flowing in. So they've carved their niche with movie properties (afterall, they are a movie studio...) that guests want to see instead of just assuming what works at UO will work over here too.

 

Sorry if I sounded overly negative. Didn't mean to. I love the event here in Hollywood and find to be of better quality than Knott's (even with less than half as many houses). I didn't realize that Murdy had to fight to bring it back. That surprises me since it seems like such a no brainer. But good for him! I'm glad he did. I know that he's committed.

 

I'm fine with them basing the event on movie properties. It doesn't have to be a copy of Orlando's event. I like having some variety on both coasts. But recycling three of the five houses (and that's not even counting how they repurpose the permanent House of Horrors) definitely shows the lack of commitment by someone at USH. Maybe it's the money people saying "Hey, we already have a bunch of Freddy, Jason, and Saw props in the back... just reuse them in a different order and say the mazes are brand new". Maybe they figure they can get away with reusing mazes since Knott's does year after year. I guess I just expect a little better from Universal. Instead of stepping up their game, it feels like Universal is treading water this year.

 

Don't get me wrong. I'm sure the event will be a blast, as it always is. I can't wait to go. I just want to see it get better and better every year. Hopefully, as it gets more "established" it'll do just that.

 

On another note- do we know why USH doesn't sell alcohol for HHN? I assume it's just a liability thing? I personally don't mind but it did strike me as odd the first time I went out here.