Halloween Horror Nights 31 (UOR) - Speculation & Rumors

[Melody Carey]

I've been talking with my almost 19 year old about what would click most of the boxes for the horror adjacent IP but popular IP for his generation. The only thing he can't pinpoint down is truly headlining. But his guesses are Coraline, Goosebumps, Scary Stories to Tell In The Dark.

And on a personal note, can we get a Sweeny Todd house?

Would Goosebumps work for the meta house?

I NEED A SWEENEY TODD HOUSE.

 

[Cup_Of_Coffee]

Omg we’re finally getting a David S Pumpkins house!!!!!

Any questions???

 

[JawsVictim]

I mean, if you think about it...it's one of the more popular animes out there right now, Universal sells a bunch of merch of it/it exists over at the Japan park, and it definitely plays into horror themes. Plus, with season 2 just recently finishing up, it wouldn't shock me. Idk about other generations, but I know it's very popular with Gen Z since all my friends talk about watching it. Demon Slayer makes a lot of sense to me.

Yeah this does check a lot of the boxes, but is it considered popular with the GP? ST, GB, and BJ are all unanimously well known. I had to look this IP up.

 

[Legacy]

Anime is a niche market. I’m pretty it’s not an anime.

 

[Living Dead Dude]

Anime is a niche market. I’m pretty it’s not an anime.

I mean it’s also not unlike horror nights to look at niche properties and or trying something new. We have had a music house and video game houses before. And properties nobody outside the horror community knows (killer klowns) I don’t think them expanding into a niche market is that out of question especially when you look up how much money said property has made

 

[JawsVictim]

I mean it’s also not unlike horror nights to look at niche properties and or trying something new. We have had a music house and video game houses before. And properties nobody outside the horror community knows (killer klowns) I don’t think them expanding into a niche market is that out of question especially when you look up how much money said property has made

With the exception of KKFoS (likely due to my own affection for the film), the attempts at those IPs flopped and produced lower tier houses. I think HHN is good at creating a very specific type of attraction based on classic horror films (Halloween, AWiL, UCM) or very Halloween-ish original stories (Scarecrow, Wicked Growth, Gothic). They have a poor track record when they do something atypical - Alice Cooper, Penn & Teller, Silent Hill, Resident Evil, Fear Factor.

 

[Legacy]

I mean it’s also not unlike horror nights to look at niche properties and or trying something new. We have had a music house and video game houses before. And properties nobody outside the horror community knows (killer klowns) I don’t think them expanding into a niche market is that out of question especially when you look up how much money said property has made

Yeah, but we’re trying figure out something that is being used because it’s popular with the GP. We’re not trying to figure out *random niche property.*

 

[Midnight Detective]

Jurassic Park might be a fit. They've done it before and we have a new film releasing in 2022. The plot of Jurassic Park Dominion involves Dinosaurs escaping from the park into the world so that could fit the meta idea or even the horror adjacent clue.

They even have ads with Dinosaurs interacting with 'the real world'

 

[FaceBagman]

I’d say the Dragon Ball shows and AoT are the only anime that ever cracked “GP popular” status. But I’m also woefully behind the times on a lot of trends, so I don’t know exactly how big Demon Slayer has become.

It’s at least become well-known enough to warrant merch being sold in the park last year, so hey.

 

[Cup_Of_Coffee]

Jurassic Park might be a fit. They've done it before and we have a new film releasing in 2022. The plot of Jurassic Park Dominion involves Dinosaurs escaping from the park into the world so that could fit the meta idea or even the horror adjacent clue.

They even have ads with Dinosaurs interacting with 'the real world'

The Jurassic franchise is obviously beloved by the GP also. In house property, new film, recently new popular ride, this would sound like a win.

 

[JawsVictim]

If they did a new Jurassic house upping the gore with some new Dino puppets, it would be pretty awesome.

 

[Midnight Detective]

I’d say the Dragon Ball shows and AoT are the only anime that ever cracked “GP popular” status. But I’m also woefully behind the times on a lot of trends, so I don’t know exactly how big Demon Slayer has become.

It’s at least become well-known enough to warrant merch being sold in the park last year, so hey.

I don't really follow/read/watch Anime/Manga but I don't think we'll see anything anime related in the US for HHN unless the One Piece Netflix adaptation blows up. Then maybe, and a big maybe, in 5-10+ years if One Piece has a park presence like in Japan (Toon Lagoon retheme or somewhere in Epic Universe) you would then need horror-adjacent Anime adaptation that is at that time becoming popular in the US. I honestly do not see any situation where there is an anime presence at Universal or HHN before then and that's a long time off (and completely dependent on Netflix not following their historic trend of just doing a terrible job with live-action anime shows).

Without an adaptation you not only have to alter an art/animation style to real life, but do so in a way that's faithful and approved by the creator. That's a lot of work for something so niche when you could make Halloween 5 by just throwing Michael Myers masks around.

Then there's the second issue which is the entry barrier to anime. As with video games, there is a massive portion of the population that will never engage with anime at the current time because of the medium. If you ask someone if they saw the new Star Wars, you'll probably get just a yes or no. If you ask someone if they've seen Attack on Titan you're just as likely to hear 'what's that' and then 'oh I don't watch anime'.

All that being said, I do expect to see One Piece in some capacity at a Universal Park in Orlando, but as to the when I have no idea.

 

[graspthesun]

Omg we’re finally getting a David S Pumpkins house!!!!!

Any questions???

Yes! Several! I'm so in the weeds with David Pumpkins.

I'd love to see a Coraline house. I think it would be pretty easy to design good scares and really good set pieces for.

 

[Crypt Keeper]

Are there a few IPs we can all agree have a chance to be this "horror-adjacent" house?

 

[SL1994]

The more I think of it, a Jurassic house really would check all the boxes in the description. Definitely more horror-adjacent on the spectrum but would be incredibly popular with the general public.

 

[johnathanm]

Are there a few IPs we can all agree have a chance to be this "horror-adjacent" house?

I was thinking: the list can’t be all that difficult to come up with collectively, can it? The ”divide the fandom” piece isn’t the limiting factor considering that all “horror-adjacent” IP’s seem to divide the fandom. It should be easy for a bunch of HHN junkies to muster up a list of “horror-adjacent”properties. That leaves the difficult piece as realistically weighing whether it’s large enough to headline. To me, a few obvious properties that fit the bill on popularity are (and keep in mind, I’m trying to keep it loose with the “horror-adjacent” description with the expectation of debate):

1. GoT
2. Witcher
3. Goosebumps
4. Scooby Doo (feels like a stretch to me but eh)
5. Harry Potter
6. Jurassic World

Any other properties in this vein?

 

[rageofthegods]

Did anyone mention the Ryan Murphy Netflix shows? He has a history with Horror Nights. Obviously the FX shows are out now but he's made one horror adjacent show for Netflix, Ratched, that has a second season ordered.

 

[JawsVictim]

Did anyone mention the Ryan Murphy Netflix shows? He has a history with Horror Nights. Obviously the FX shows are out now but he's made one horror adjacent show for Netflix, Ratched, that has a second season ordered.

This doesn’t fit because it has to be popular with the general public.

 

[GentleArt309]

Im probably older than most of you here.... but anything animae is a massive turn off.

 

[JawsVictim]

Im probably older than most of you here.... but anything animae is a massive turn off.

In my early 30s and started getting into some anime in the last several years. Anything Studio Ghibli (Grave of the Fireflies in particular has become one of my favorite films), Akira, and Tokyo Godfathers are all really great.

Regarding Anime at HHN, yeah I agree I’m not interested. But it sounds like it’s not happening.