The Horrors of the Wyatt Sicks (HHN 2025)

[Lc.]

When ur the creative director of the biggest Haunts in the World and are a fan of an IP, who they also are a fan of ur work aswell, AND have chatted for years about collaborating, something can come to fruition. That kind of passion and power it holds is far more stronger than you'd think lol

 

[Viator]

To add to @Lc. i would add that considering this year—they have one of the strongest quartets that they have ever had on a GP level.

I’d rather see the wildcard IP if given the chance, to be something creatively that one coast has petitioned and wanted to do for years (or just being a concept that they really want to explore in).

It the roster was less than what we have, I’d raise questions sure, but Wyatt Sicks has its place as the defacto group in the modern big scale WWE that has had horror on its emblem. Be the Tom Savini aid for Fiends mask, or the use of VHS/Analogue horror in promoting/hyping the Family, I think I’d rather see these characters explored to be in a way that makes sense for HHN.

While it is early to tell, I think I trust Murdy more when he has a challenge.

 

[Michael S]

With so much horror out there, do we need to push the boundaries of what horror is? Like seriously? I'd argue this is easily more horror than The Weeknd or maybe even Fallout, but there are so many true horror IPs that still have yet to come to HHN, that pushing the boundaries feels like it is starting to weaken the product. And every year we get brand new horror IPs, like a Terrifier, or Smile, Barbarian, etc. or even revisiting old ones like Nosferatu or Candyman (both under Univesal's banner), that it truly is mind boggling to see the need to go this route.

I get why they would take big swings at Stranger Things or A Quiet Place, whether they're a miss or not, but stretching this far? For the sake of what, reaching a new audience? Here's the top 10 highest grossing horror movie franchises we still haven't tackled that are viable for a maze: IT, Sinners (obviously brand new), Silence of the Lambs, The Conjuring Universe, The Ring, The Grudge, Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer, 28 Days/Weeks/Years Later, Resident Evil...I have to imagine any one of these has a bigger pull than WWE. WWE couldn't even get their own brands of horror movies (See No Evil, Leprechaun, Incarnate) off the ground, why would their fans care for a horror maze?

Just would love to sit in on these executive meetings to hear the reasoning and see the data -- is all I am saying lol

I understand where you’re coming from, but there’s plenty of reasons why certain IPs haven’t been featured at the event, and it never comes down to “we’re just trying to push the boundaries of horror.” In a perfect world, I’m sure those would’ve been featured already. But there’s a lot of hurdles to jump to obtain certain properties that, because of that, we may never see at the event. We just have to accept that, at some point. It’s all about the $$$

 

[rageofthegods]

Yeah quite a few of those IP have well-documented issues. They've been trying for Scream/Conjuring for years!

Also we have Jason back after 8 years! Surely that counts as bringing back traditional horror?

 

[Freak]

I’m neutral about the concept. I’m apathetic about wresting, but this will sure beat another round of Insidious or Blumhouse. I think this could be really cool!

I am hoping for some Undertaker cameo or reference at least. They got to pay homage to the first WWE character at HHN!

 

[chris.g]

It’s weird because I can’t really hate. In some way or another every IP has the material to truly deserve to be included this year - Wyatt Sicks too. I’m not the particularly targeted demographic, but this is an interesting year for sure.

 

[Spookies n' Stuff]

With so much horror out there, do we need to push the boundaries of what horror is? Like seriously? I'd argue this is easily more horror than The Weeknd or maybe even Fallout, but there are so many true horror IPs that still have yet to come to HHN, that pushing the boundaries feels like it is starting to weaken the product. And every year we get brand new horror IPs, like a Terrifier, or Smile, Barbarian, etc. or even revisiting old ones like Nosferatu or Candyman (both under Univesal's banner), that it truly is mind boggling to see the need to go this route.

I get why they would take big swings at Stranger Things or A Quiet Place, whether they're a miss or not, but stretching this far? For the sake of what, reaching a new audience? Here's the top 10 highest grossing horror movie franchises we still haven't tackled that are viable for a maze: IT, Sinners (obviously brand new), Silence of the Lambs, The Conjuring Universe, The Ring, The Grudge, Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer, 28 Days/Weeks/Years Later, Resident Evil...I have to imagine any one of these has a bigger pull than WWE. WWE couldn't even get their own brands of horror movies (See No Evil, Leprechaun, Incarnate) off the ground, why would their fans care for a horror maze?

Just would love to sit in on these executive meetings to hear the reasoning and see the data -- is all I am saying lol

I'm gonna be honest, I can recognize that it doesn't really count, but the fact we even have the previous Undertaker maze to point to at all makes me personally feel like this isn't that much of a push outside the standard boundaries. Like if there was no IP attached and this was just an original maze about a group of original characters, and everything was the exact same, I don't think people would bat an eye. I think the WWE name is making people feel like it's more out there than it actually is.

I can 100% agree that there's some stuff that should have been higher on the priority list for like over a decade now, but at the same time I don't really feel like thats this mazes fault, I'd personally blame the norm of repeats post-2020 for essentially thinning down our lineup by 1-2 spots each year.
If anything the eternal inclusion of Blumhouse is doing more to water down the event than anything else, since a lot more of their IP at the event are based on straight up bad movies or flops while most critical hits each year fall through the cracks and never get represented.

 

[pigboy]

I think this is a really sweet and earnest concept for a house (did not think I'd be saying that about the WWE maze). I've never personally seen HHN create a house that feels like a love letter to someone that passed away. Doing some research into Wyatt Sicks really endeared me to this concept and it 100% fits the classic campy vibe of horror nights.

The average person who isn't a raging horror nerd is going to see properties here that they don't recognize all the time; the event works well anyway because you can still walk through, see cool sets, have a bunch of monsters jump out at you, and get scared. I know nothing about WWE but I'm sure I won't need to. Looking forward to this one

 

[Freak]

I have heard this may be the true underdog of the event. Heard this house was pretty terrifying for some people, and that's mainly due to the "wrestling size" scareactors.

 

[DTH]

I have heard this may be the true underdog of the event. Heard this house was pretty terrifying for some people, and that's mainly due to the "wrestling size" scareactors.

Every ranking I've seen has this in the middle or bottom. Maybe it'll be grower, but doesn't look like it's surprising anybody as of now to be a front runner or even a second or third placer.

 

[Freak]

Every ranking I've seen has this in the middle or bottom. Maybe it'll be grower, but doesn't look like it's surprising anybody as of now to be a front runner or even a second or third placer.

Really? The few people I know that went I’m hearing amazing things about it. Guess I’ll see tomorrow!

 

[bdubsCEO]

Surprised this thread went dead. IMO best house of the year and way better than Orlando’s.

 

[Jake S]

Surprised this thread went dead. IMO best house of the year and way better than Orlando’s.

I don’t think it’s the best house of the year, but it’s absolutely in my top three. They nailed this.

 

[DTH]

I award them best scareactors of the event. The maze is a mess in a lot of other ways, though.

 

[cdogsumo]

I don’t know what the hell is going on since I’m not in on the lore, but the scare actors are great in this one. A lot of energy and varied scares.

 

[ladiesman217]

The maze is a mess in a lot of other ways, though.

Honestly don't see how its a 'mess'. For a maze that tries to quickly tell the backstories of the members of the Wyatt Sicks, I think it does a really really good job at it. I knew very little about the members going into the maze but as I was walking through the maze, I noticed how each member of the team had their own dedicated room with a good amount of variety between all of them. Sure, the very first scene set in the bayou can be a bit strange if you don't know exactly what you're walking into but after that, most of the other rooms are pretty easy to understand if you're paying attention.

But at the end of the day, this maze was made for the fans of this IP. And judging from everything I've seen regarding said fans on the internet, they all seem to absolutely love it so I think it did its job well. Personally, I have this ranked in the top 3 of this year. It's really really good but its kind of a shame that the GP overlooks it.

I was in line for Jason when the couple next to me said they'd rather skip Wyatt even though it was a 15 minute wait because, quote, "I don't want to see sweaty wrestlers fighting in a house." I butted into their conversation and let them know that it wasn't wrestling at all but rather, more of an original horror story. It kind of made me wonder how many other event-goers end up skipping this house because they think its just a 'dumb wrestling house' of some sort.

 

[Spookies n' Stuff]

Honestly don't see how its a 'mess'. For a maze that tries to quickly tell the backstories of the members of the Wyatt Sicks, I think it does a really really good job at it. I knew very little about the members going into the maze but as I was walking through the maze, I noticed how each member of the team had their own dedicated room with a good amount of variety between all of them. Sure, the very first scene set in the bayou can be a bit strange if you don't know exactly what you're walking into but after that, most of the other rooms are pretty easy to understand if you're paying attention.

Tbh "mess" is definitely a strong word, but I could see people feeling like it's a little rough around the edges, I like it pretty well with only a tertiary knowledge of these characters, but I do wonder where people are coming from when they say Hollywoods is as good or better than Orlandos.

I think my main issue with it was it didn't feel like it was doing enough new, the bayou facade is something we've never really seen before, but past that, most of the environments feel like things I've seen before, a little bit of scarecrow, a little bit of texas chainsaw, a little bit of holidayz in hell, etc etc. I think what I and probably at least a proportion of others were expecting was something that pushed the boundaries and was more unique than what we got. The performers are absolutely carrying, but every time I go through I feel like the design team was caught on an unsure balance between making each character have their own distinct world, and between having a cohesive albeit not unique backwoods aesthetic, and they leaned too far into the latter than the former.
That said the only part of this house that truly bothers me is the light hallway, I get what they were going for but the fiber optics and cool little lantern tableau don't feel like enough to me to make this feel like anything other than a standard black hallway. Frankly, I think it would work significantly better if they took out the rotating spotlight and just left it as just the fiber optics, since IMO the spotlight illuminates the unthemed black wood of the walls too much and ruins the illusion of little spots of light in total darkness, and insult to injury, it isn't even that disorienting compared to other times they've used that effect.

 

[Viator]

Sounds like they added more scares to this house tonight. My friend fell after getting out of the house due to the intensity of the finale being apparently amped up.