Halloween Horror Nights 31 (UOR) - Speculation & Rumors

[Wesker69]

The 2009 Chucky house was great. Did it rely only on Chucky? No. It was mostly "killer toys". As for Chucky himself, one of my friends was cast in that role because she's like 5'2-5'3ish. Most of the Chucky scares were elevated "boohole" scares, so height wasn't a factor. So let's not try to act like a 2-foot doll is an issue.

They had a Chucky scareactor in the "20 Years of Fear" 2010 SZ & say what you will about their height, but that scareactor got plenty of scares (and photo-ops)

 

[carnagecam]

Does anyone remember what time stay and scream starts the park again?

 

[UniversalRBLX]

Does anyone remember what time stay and scream starts the park again?

Not sure for this year, but depending on how crowded it gets they can open it as early as 4:00ish

 

[carnagecam]

I thought the 2009 chucky house wasn't that great to be honest, but I guess thats what great about the event- there is variety for everyone.

I did enjoy the new TV show , however

 

[Killer Klown]

Finally someone says a great reason why chucky shouldn't be a house! Absolutely agree with this as who's going to be afraid of a 2 foot high doll. Unless it was nothing but jump scares from puppets in your face a house would not work at all

Was anyone scared of the ghostbusters house? Beetlejuice? The Killer Klowns? Is anyone really going to be scared of 20 year old blonde girls brandishing various weapons during the Freaky house this year? The more I think of it the “not intimidating” argument is kind of absolutely horrible, especially when taken into account that it would be a comedy house.

 

[Neo]

Does anyone remember what time stay and scream starts the park again?

Well, that's a tricky question...technically, Finnegan's and Duffs open at noonish or something. There's no reason to say you could go at opening and hang out the whole day. But they really start at park closing. Starting a little before park closing they'll put up some ropes/fences and will only allow you in if you have a valid HHN ticket for that night. If you are already in/at the place, they'll come around and scan your ticket or ask you to leave.

I don't think the park hours for Sept and Oct have officially been announced yet, but I think they Universal usually closes at 5pm on HHN nights.

Not sure what time they start the individual queue lines as I'm always hanging out in Finnegan's or at Duff Gardens.

 

[Midnight Detective]

I think a house similar to the Revenge of Chucky zone would actually work. Chucky as the mastermind behind all the toys coming to life and popping out here and there as a puppet to deliver one-liners would be solid I think.

Like someone else said, it would likely be a comedy house, so it doesn't necessarily need to be scary.

Chucky: Friends til the End pretty much was that - A lot of the characters/props in the zone were either from or based off the house

 

[TheCodeMan95]

Chucky: Friends til the End pretty much was that - A lot of the characters/props in the zone were either from or based off the house

Ah, didn't realize that.

I mean, personally, I'd be fine with a book-report style house for Child's Play/Chucky. I think utilizing puppets would still work - especially since the house wouldn't be "scary" to begin with. (Just like Gremlins lol)

Plus, with that even being said - I have several years experience working in haunts, and people.. don't like things coming at them from down low.

 

[hunnylvr]

Too much? Out of the 30 years at Orlando's event, he's ONLY had one house (2009), one SZ (2018), & one photo-op (2021)

If you want to get even more technical, him & Tiffany were featured at the event for "Bride of Chucky" promo hype back in 1998

Over in Hollywood, he was an established staple of the event during the early years. He's iconic.

And yet, he's crapping all over the merch every year whether he's there or not. So, maybe it just feels like he's there all the time to some of us.

This is why there is such a wide range of houses at HHN. Not everyone likes the same things, obviously. Frankly, I thnk Chucky is one of the dumbest "horror" franchises in history. I loathe it and everything about it. I don't find it "scary". Every year he's actually NOT featured, I do a Snooopy happy dance.

 

[Lucky Planet]

mmm....one easy and scary way for a chucky house,
have the first room with a shrink ray that "shrinks you to the size of a rabbit or mouse,"
then you hire 6 feet and taller guys to be chucky. or create 8-9 feet tall chucky costumes, like the killer klowns costumes
then have all the props be oversized house items (giant couch, giant shoes, giant table)

it sounds like im joking, but i think that would actually work, i know this idea sounds crazy or far fetched, but imagine a chucky house where we are the tiny ones.
a horror version of Honey I Shrunk the Kids would be unique, imagine the possibilities for rooms and props, and a giant chucky would be pretty scary
if the problem of a chucky house is his tiny size, go the opposite way, go enormous

 

[Clive]

They sort of tried the “shrinking” idea for the 2009 house, but it was inconsistently applied. We were meant to infer we were shrunk as a result of Chucky’s curse, which manifested as the rotating tunnel (complete with angry chants) at the start of the house. However, signs in the Good Guy toy factory scenes referenced “life size” Good Guy dolls, so it was unclear how large we were really supposed to be. (This only became more confusing when you reached the finale, where a dozen “small” Chucky dolls were placed on rotating platforms.)

All this to say, many of the popular ideas for adapting this tricky IP have been tried. The 2009 maze I recall was genuinely well-liked (I enjoyed it a lot), so there’s nothing saying they couldn’t give it another go. They can’t necessarily do a book report of the first movie, however, as those rights are owned by MGM. Universal controls Child’s Play 2 and all subsequent sequels in that continuity.

 

[Wesker69]

one easy and scary way for a chucky house, have the first room with a shrink ray

2017 in Hollywood, Chucky used a new spell to create life-size good guy dolls for the Terror Tram

 

[Acandrews12]

2017 in Hollywood, Chucky used a new spell to create life-size good guy dolls for the Terror Tram

I think something like this could work. Chucky used a voodoo chant to make Good Guy dolls human sized and now they are everywhere. Probably not likely, but would be fun.

 

[8bit slasher]

There are also ways that you can make the costumes look more “doll like” by making the crotch in the costume lower and making the limbs pudgier. Also, didn’t they get lots of short actors to play the fairies in revenge of the tooth fairy? And who can forget the kids in the stranger things house? I still think it’s possible

 

[pumpkinbot343]

I think the reason they haven’t done a Chucky house since 09 is because the IP is a slasher IP with 2-foot tall slasher.

Casting the 09 house was a major challenge. All of the Chuckys were extremely short performers (mostly women) that were taller than the actual Chucky but not so tall they were legitimately scary. From my understanding, there were a number of instances were performers were assaulted because they were too short to be intimidating.

Now, the immediate question is “what about puppets.” The puppets in AWIL were terrifying. Those puppets were also massive, ferocious looking, and fast. The problem with a Chucky puppet is that it, too, is only 2 foot tall and not really intimidating. If you look at the puppets used in Puppet Theater last year, they were distractions. The gnome wasn’t a scare. Basically, an oversized Chucky isn’t realistic or scary, and a puppet-sized Chucky is even less scary.

That means that, an effective Child’s Play house is either a book report-style house with vignettes (that most fans seem to hate), or an original toy factory house that barely includes Chucky. If the fans don’t like the first option, there’s no sense in doing it. And if the second option barely features Chucky, why pay for the IP?

The 2009 Chucky house was great. Did it rely only on Chucky? No. It was mostly "killer toys". As for Chucky himself, one of my friends was cast in that role because she's like 5'2-5'3ish. Most of the Chucky scares were elevated "boohole" scares, so height wasn't a factor. So let's not try to act like a 2-foot doll is an issue.

They had a Chucky scareactor in the "20 Years of Fear" 2010 SZ & say what you will about their height, but that scareactor got plenty of scares (and photo-ops)

Wesker makes a great point. And about the bolded parts:

1. Universal Studios Japan featured “original” Chucky houses that were just as you described. I think I’ve heard some great things about them, and Japan’s event is pretty well received, some would say better than the US parks.

2. Doesn’t Universal sort of own Chucky? I don’t imagine payment would be a problem.

 

[TheCodeMan95]

I just can't imagine walking through a Chucky house and not laughing everytime I see a 4.5 foot tall Chucky lol

 

[queenmetroid]

Frankly, I thnk Chucky is one of the dumbest "horror" franchises in history. I loathe it and everything about it. I don't find it "scary". Every year he's actually NOT featured, I do a Snooopy happy dance.

To be fair, overexposure and brand fatigue can ruin any property and I don't feel it's unique to Child's Play. It can be difficult to take any 80s horror seriously due to repetition. This is probably controversial, but are any horror veterans really scared in a maze after seeing every single Halloween film? Nightmare on Elm Street? Jason? Texas Chainsaw Massacre? I'm know I'm not because despite liking the films, I've rarely had a decent scare in an IP driven house simply because they have a level of familiarity. So I just can't really put that as a particular knock against Chucky. Now, all that being said, part of this is a stale design issue, which leads to...

1. Universal Studios Japan featured “original” Chucky houses that were just as you described. I think I’ve heard some great things about them, and Japan’s event is pretty well received, some would say better than the US parks.

+1 to this. The Universal Japan Chucky house (and many others at that event, really) do things that cannot be done in the US. While my experience with haunts in Asia has been that they tend to rely too much on subtleties for a scare, they also have some gimmicks that I haven't seen before in a major theme park haunt and straight up shocked me as a result. So there's some life to be had in old properties, provided they chose to do a different interpretation of otherwise overused properties.

 

[Wesker69]

HHN Japan & Singapore both make my fanboy heart jealous. One day... one day

In other news, I thought this was hilarious epic timing with the current discussion. Cavity Colors just announced their new line of shirts dropping tomorrow and it's CHUCKY

I feel like the tagline of this yellow tshirt fits Orlando way too perfectly haha

 

[Darko]

HHN Japan & Singapore both make my fanboy heart jealous. One day... one day

In other news, I thought this was hilarious epic timing with the current discussion. Cavity Colors just announced their new line of shirts dropping tomorrow and it's CHUCKY

I feel like the tagline of this yellow tshirt fits Orlando way too perfectly haha
View attachment 16650

I freaking love that shirt design.

 

[Clive]

For what it's worth re: the possibility of future Chucky attractions, that merch illustrates my point re: the rights Universal has and doesn't have. Whenever they use "plain" Chucky, they reference Child's Play 2 or (in some cases going forward, probably) the Chucky TV series. If they use stitch-face Chucky, they reference Bride of Chucky. Universal controls Child's Play 2, 3, Bride, Seed, Curse, Cult, and the series. They do not control the original film or the remake with the "Buddi" doll.

With all that said... I think the current creative team got Chucky out of their system with the "Revenge" zone a few years ago. They may not be itching to reuse many of the same visual ideas in a maze so soon, even with the synergistic opportunity the series presents.