The Wicked Growth: Realm of the Pumpkin

[Lucky Planet]

This is probably my all-time favorite house. I love everything about it. And I don't even know why, but I got so much joy out of hearing the witch scream, "the Pumpkin Lord, he grows Halloween!" while waiting to enter the house every time.

I love the house but I wish it had more orange stuff inside. I wish it had more orange vines or more pumpkins or that the masks of the actors had a little orange tint to it.
it is one of the best houses, but the facade is so beautiful. I wish the inside had more pumpkins or pumpkin roots or something.

and yes, this could just be called Scarecrow 2. it is a good sequel.

 

[rinacee]

Assuming you're referring to the facade and entrance tunnel, I looked my hardest yesterday and couldn't find a single smashed pumpkin. Not sure if they got replaced or if I'm completely blind, but :shrug:

I noticed one or two that were smashed on Friday at the entrance to the tunnel, but on Saturday they were gone/replaced!

 

[Tbad556]

I noticed one or two that were smashed on Friday at the entrance to the tunnel, but on Saturday they were gone/replaced!

Glad to hear I'm not crazy (and that they're replacing them as needed) Thanks for the confirmation!

 

[ultimateforce]

Did I miss the discussion that the witch, skeleton, and pumpkin masks though to be for a H3 house were for this house all along?

 

[JawsVictim]

I didn’t see any smashed pumpkins in the facade Thur - Sat this past week. I did notice a couple with the bulbs out, but no damage.

 

[SirAustin77]

A lot of the houses this year have great quotes. Both this house and Bride are great because of the voice overs. I love the Witch's opening lines of the house with the "PUMPKIN LORD!", however the line delivery of "I'am the pretty one... yeeesss" is so memorable and gives this house a lot of character. Anyone else have any other small moments in this house that gives you so much Halloween joy (because there is a lot of moments to choose from IMO)?

"GET...BACK...IN THERE INGREDIENT!!!"

 

[Disneyson1]

Gonna be the Debbie downer here, thought this was a great part two of Scarecrow but did not find it terribly innovative as a house overall.

Spoiler: House Details

I’m not sure if I bought the “mummies” coming to live in this Carey-esque town. The lattice scare is GOAT, and the Covered Bridge is iconic. Pumpkin Lord reminds me of the Ursula float from Spectromagic. I imagine him rolling around like a little firefly from Main Street Electrical Parade. Didn’t think he was awfully scary, but enjoyed that my veteran pumpkin dude from years past got to do the last scare. Overall, more than any other house, these scares blended together more.

I’m shocked that this is the “rave review” house, as it really is more of the same that is done as a staple every year: the “twisted tradition”, “trick-r-treat”, etc. The design is great, but I feel like it’s not got a lot new to offer.

 

[Brian G.]

Gonna be the Debbie downer here, thought this was a great part two of Scarecrow but did not find it terribly innovative as a house overall.

Spoiler: House Details

I’m not sure if I bought the “mummies” coming to live in this Carey-esque town. The lattice scare is GOAT, and the Covered Bridge is iconic. Pumpkin Lord reminds me of the Ursula float from Spectromagic. I imagine him rolling around like a little firefly from Main Street Electrical Parade. Didn’t think he was awfully scary, but enjoyed that my veteran pumpkin dude from years past got to do the last scare. Overall, more than any other house, these scares blended together more.

I’m shocked that this is the “rave review” house, as it really is more of the same that is done as a staple every year: the “twisted tradition”, “trick-r-treat”, etc. The design is great, but I feel like it’s not got a lot new to offer.

You do know there is a Review thread, right? Probably better to put all your thoughts in there instead of each respective thread (which is primarily used for general discussions on the house)

 

[Disneyson1]

You do know there is a Review thread, right? Probably better to put all your thoughts in there instead of each respective thread (which is primarily used for general discussions on the house)

Apologies. I figured that it would be better to go on deep dives in each house thread than do a mega-post on the review thread so that it could be seen by the right people and be on-topic instead of reading as too much of a glut. Guess I was wrong. I’m done now, but if you’d like, feel free to delete the posts (and the food review post) if you want me to post them as one cogent mega-review. Sorry again!

 

[Brian G.]

Apologies. I figured that it would be better to go on deep dives in each house thread than do a mega-post on the review thread so that it could be seen by the right people and be on-topic instead of reading as too much of a glut. Guess I was wrong. I’m done now, but if you’d like, feel free to delete the posts (and the food review post) if you want me to post them as one cogent mega-review. Sorry again!

All good. Just post them again in the Review thread. I'll leave these up in the meantime. :thumbsup:

 

[Tristan]

So there's already a pumpkin with a cult following. If anyone sees Lil' Boo remember not to be rude and say hi.

https://twitter.com/HHNLilBoo

 

[Tobias]

Gonna be the Debbie downer here, thought this was a great part two of Scarecrow but did not find it terribly innovative as a house overall.

I’m shocked that this is the “rave review” house, as it really is more of the same that is done as a staple every year: the “twisted tradition”, “trick-r-treat”, etc. The design is great, but I feel like it’s not got a lot new to offer.

To be fair, you kinda' gave a good reason why it's the "rave review" house. If any house is considered a "great part two of Scarecrow", it would be more shocking if it *wasn't* getting rave reviews as Scarecrow is highly regarded as one of the GOAT's.

Also, a house doesn't need to bring in something new to land rave reviews. It usually just has to execute what it has and people will take notice. WG also has the advantage of incorporating themes and characters of traditional Halloween which guests eat up every year, it's a major crowd pleaser of a theme which is still going strong. Case in point, last weekend I was still overhearing guests who missed the Jack O Lantern's in Central Park. They still clamor for stuff like that.

An to bring things full circle, Scarecrow: The Reaping didn't really bring anything new to the table either. Scarecrows are a classic Halloween Horror staple. Mirror tricks to make a scene look bigger like the finale were done before, same with a ton of close up scares, dummy scares and water sprays and drips. Heck, to call myself out I made a stupid judgement over a POV that the whole thing felt "one-note". (Definitely learned my lesson there as I was dead wrong!) Ultimately, the house is hailed as a GOAT, while staying in familiar territory.

Don't get me wrong, I do encourage new things to be thrown in the mix, but it's totally possible to have a killer and well-received house without them.

 

[UNIrd]

Would you believe we did an RIP tour and they let us in through a plain backdoor entrance and not the iconic entrance I've seen so many pics of on IG? I barely even got to see it on our way out. This was the only house they did that.

The house was definitely #2 of the night behind Hill House. Fantastic, great scares, and really intense at times.

 

[JawsVictim]

Would you believe we did an RIP tour and they let us in through a plain backdoor entrance and not the iconic entrance I've seen so many pics of on IG? I barely even got to see it on our way out. This was the only house they did that.

The house was definitely #2 of the night behind Hill House. Fantastic, great scares, and really intense at times.

They always do that for this sprung tent. Happened on our tour with Depths in 2019 and the tour guide said it’s always their short cut. Seems especially insulting to pay all that money and not get to go through the tunnel.

Regarding this house receiving tons of praise…well yeah! Considering how dismal the rest of the houses are this year, of course this one’s getting rave reviews! It’s the one house where the scares aren’t totally hindered by the plexi vinyl and the cast scares aggressively.

 

[Lucky Planet]

this house has really nice sets and really nice effects, is not just about scares but it flows really well. puppet theater and this house flows better than icons or welcome to Carey. has less vinyl. both have better actor placement. these two are miles better than the Soundstage houses

 

[ghostsarejerks]

this house has really nice sets and really nice effects, is not just about scares but it flows really well. puppet theater and this house flows better than icons or welcome to Carey. has less vinyl. both have better actor placement. these two are miles better than the Soundstage houses

Unpopular opinion but Welcome to Scarey has better scares and actor placement than Icons...

 

[JawsVictim]

Unpopular opinion but Welcome to Scarey has better scares and actor placement than Icons...

Strongly disagree here. The fence scares in Wicked Growth are the most thrilling moments of the event this year.

 

[ghostsarejerks]

Strongly disagree here. The fence scares in Wicked Growth are the most thrilling moments of the event this year.

I wholeheartedly agree that Wicked Growth and Puppet Theater are the best executed in terms of pacing, mostly that Icons is kind of a drag compared to most other houses.

 

[JawsVictim]

I wholeheartedly agree that Wicked Growth and Puppet Theater are the best executed in terms of pacing, mostly that Icons is kind of a drag compared to most other houses.

Oops sorry!! Totally misread your post. My bad.

Yeah, idk pacing in Scarey and Icons were both awful IMO.

 

[Lucky Planet]

Unpopular opinion but Welcome to Scarey has better scares and actor placement than Icons...

yeah. icons is very awkward and has a lot of vinyl. the scenes are nice but it gets messy