Halloween Horror Nights 35 (UO) - Speculation & Rumors

[Kichkinet85]

Not sure if this will make you happy but Hallowed Out Horror posted this…

Wondering when this would make it over here. Ozzy: Memories of a Madman I like it

 

[Acandrews12]

Wondering when this would make it over here. Ozzy: Memories of a Madman I like it

Looks like it says Memoirs of a Madman. I like the name. Seems like they’re doing a similar concept to what they did with The Weeknd. Should be a fun house. Doesn’t seem to be as controversial as Weeknd was.

 

[Kichkinet85]

Looks like it says Memoirs of a Madman. I like the name. Seems like they’re doing a similar concept to what they did with The Weeknd. Should be a fun house. Doesn’t seem to be as controversial as Weeknd was.

Correct! It is memoirs. Will be similar probably to what they did with The Weeknd. Looks like we will definitely see “Bat Ozzy” in the house.

With the Jack live, Pandora, and now this it a question of when it gets announced not if. @hunnylvr looks like you will get your wish this week.

 

[kingmantis]

I think people are in love with the idea of a Backrooms or Obsession house more than the reality of what it'd actually be.

Obsession is pretty clearly playing with themes of consent and coercion, and draws a really uncomfortable parallel to rape/sexual abuse under the illusion of "love." Yes, Horror deals with pretty heavy stuff sometimes, but I think there's a difference between watching that play out in a movie and turning it into something you're supposed to walk through.

Remember, while Nikki is the aggressor for much of the movie, she's not the villain. Bear is... (I'll also allow Ian to take some blame, too). So I don't really know what the house is supposed to be. Are we supposed to be following Nikki while she's being manipulated? Are we just watching scenes play out? The movie wants you to empathize with Nikki, not fear her, so none of those really feel appropriate. The movie works because of those themes, but those same themes are exactly why I don't think it makes for a good haunted house.

I do think they'll want to bring it to HHN, in the form of a photo op, or maybe even some food or merch, but that should be the extent of it.

With Backrooms, I get why people bring it up. The setting is literally a maze.

But the horror of the Backrooms lies in the isolation: being completely alone in the endless liminal spaces, knowing something is there. The fear comes from the feeling of uncertainty while also being alone.

The biggest thing working against that at HHN is... HHN... You're in a conga line. You won't get that feeling of being alone, and without that, I think you lose the thing that makes Backrooms scary in the first place. It's more likely you'll get an original that plays off it to make it better suited for a HHN-style house.

Catching up on the thread and do want to respectfully push back on the Backrooms take, if only because I feel like we’ve seen this exact conversation plays out so many times over the years about whether or not a certain movie would come to the event based on it’s adaptability of horror.

I remember the buzz around Us was certain groups insisting it couldn’t come to the event because the horror aspect of that movie revolved around dopplegangers, and that’s unadaptable for the average guest. Then Us made a bunch of money and they fast-tracked the house for the same year.

Or years of debating whether Terrifier would come to the event over concerns about its controversial nature, that most of the horror was the graphic torture scenes so too passive for a house, etc. Then Terrifier 3 made a boatload of money and it showed up the next year.

Goes on with The Weeknd, The Exorcist, Fortnitemares this year. Are the houses/zones guaranteed to be good? Nope! But if an IP demonstrates that it will move tickets and sell merch, there’s a willingness to get creative with an adaption for the event. Not being the right type of horror hasn't been a barrier.

For Backrooms, the selling point that you get to walk through an recreation of the same practical sets as the movie, in essence step foot into the actual backrooms, is an incredible sell to the younger audience they’re after. The congaline is a tradeoff I’m pretty sure most are willing to make. Also, there are monsters and people who went crazy trapped in there too, even more if they include Kane Parson’s youtube series. There’s plenty of material for a workable book report adaption.

All that to say, assuming zero issues with rights negotiations and the other usual caveats, I think Backrooms has like an 80% chance of showing up next year, 99% after Backrooms 2 in a few years.

[Obsession, like Get Out, is trickier because the horror material deals with a sensitive team but more importantly, there isn’t enough horror material to adapt outside of maybe a compilation house. With Sinners you can skip over the KKK elements and still have a workable vampire house. Obsession and Get Out leaves you with maybe 20 minutes of material to stretch into a house, just not doable.]

 

[Brian G.]

Catching up on the thread and do want to respectfully push back on the Backrooms take, if only because I feel like we’ve seen this exact conversation plays out so many times over the years about whether or not a certain movie would come to the event based on it’s adaptability of horror.

I remember the buzz around Us was certain groups insisting it couldn’t come to the event because the horror aspect of that movie revolved around dopplegangers, and that’s unadaptable for the average guest. Then Us made a bunch of money and they fast-tracked the house for the same year.

Or years of debating whether Terrifier would come to the event over concerns about its controversial nature, that most of the horror was the graphic torture scenes so too passive for a house, etc. Then Terrifier 3 made a boatload of money and it showed up the next year.

Goes on with The Weeknd, The Exorcist, Fortnitemares this year. Are the houses/zones guaranteed to be good? Nope! But if an IP demonstrates that it will move tickets and sell merch, there’s a willingness to get creative with an adaption for the event. Not being the right type of horror hasn't been a barrier.

For Backrooms, the selling point that you get to walk through an recreation of the same practical sets as the movie, in essence step foot into the actual backrooms, is an incredible sell to the younger audience they’re after. The congaline is a tradeoff I’m pretty sure most are willing to make. Also, there are monsters and people who went crazy trapped in there too, even more if they include Kane Parson’s youtube series. There’s plenty of material for a workable book report adaption.

All that to say, assuming zero issues with rights negotiations and the other usual caveats, I think Backrooms has like an 80% chance of showing up next year, 99% after Backrooms 2 in a few years.

[Obsession, like Get Out, is trickier because the horror material deals with a sensitive team but more importantly, there isn’t enough horror material to adapt outside of maybe a compilation house. With Sinners you can skip over the KKK elements and still have a workable vampire house. Obsession and Get Out leaves you with maybe 20 minutes of material to stretch into a house, just not doable.]

I think we’re arguing two different points.

My point is that the translation into a haunted house is tricky to adapt.

I’ve never said something has to be “horror enough,” or that popularity doesn’t matter. If an IP is popular enough, Universal will absolutely look for ways to adapt it, but it also has to work.

I don’t remember the Terrifier debate ever being about whether it could work as a haunted house. The question was whether Universal would be willing to cross that bridge, given the content, especially since the franchise was still relatively niche at the time of that discussion. I even remember people pointing out that if it becomes successful, maybe the convo changes.

With Backrooms, brightly lit, wide-open spaces aren't exactly what haunted houses are designed around. If Uni builds a Backrooms house, I don't doubt fans will come, but how do you sell the GP on this:



If you have to ditch the bright, open, liminal spaces in favor of a more traditional haunted house layout, you've removed the thing that makes Backrooms unique.

 

[kingmantis]

That’s the key piece with Terrifier though, the conversation changed when it made money. And now Backrooms made money, so as an event you become more willing to look at a challenge than you would for a low-grossing indie.

I think it’s a similar question to A Quiet Place, which faced a similar challenge, how do you create a silent house when they’re supposed to be loud without losing something? The actual specifics are for the A&D team to figure out, but the answer is find a unique approach to the material that married the two. Doesn’t always work, but doesn’t make it a nonstarter.

The brightly lit yellow areas are only a portion of the movie. There’s varied, darkly lit environments where the monsters appear (including a particularly terrifying room of Christmas decorations). I think you have a quieter beginning where people soak in the yellow rooms before moving to these darker areas for a more traditional back half to a house as one possibility, all staying with sets and characters in the movie. It keeps that uniqueness playing by the same rules as the movie and YouTube series does.

Backrooms made almost $400M at the box office so far and is now A24’s highest grossing movie. I think those fans ARE the GP now, this is the next step in that younger generation coming to the event. I just think Backrooms at is an easier sell to people at the event than some are giving credit for. But probably better to revisit in November come HHN36, I imagine it’ll come up way more.