Halloween Horror Nights 33 (UOR) - Speculation & Rumors

[ShellyFinkelstein]

Yep. I wasn't fully awake yet when I wrote all that & was too lazy to elaborate more lol.. but yes.

I still like the concept of Eddie holding Jack's severed head! (which I'd welcome with a confetti canons if they finally used Eddie)

If only.

 

[Acandrews12]

Bloody Mary (if only )

My dream. I’d give a kidney (or more) for her to return. 18 is the one year I would go back to if I could. The elaborate backstory, her character, *chef’s kiss*

Now for my take on the two icon discussion, I wonder if it could be like it was in 17 where we will have a main icon (Jack) and sub-icons (Freddy, Jason, Leatherface).

 

[pumpkinbot343]

Technically 2005 featured two icons.

 

[GA-MBIT]

I think people are taking this thread as a collective, and so when this thread talks forever about how much they want an Icon, it's strange to some when the thread then goes on to talk about how Icons are overused or not worth the effort or whatever.

But "The Spec Thread" isn't talking at all, people are. Maybe this actually isn't fans "not knowing what they want", and maybe it's just that different people want and prioritize different aspects of the event. It's not hypocritical of "the thread" or "the fanbase" to want different things, because that's a silly way to look at this IU community.

I urge yall to engage with the actual users that post stuff and not just conflate ideas or quotes into the larger "HHN Spec thread" blob.

 

[Wesker69]

Technically 2005 featured two icons.

No. No it did not. There was only ONE icon (The Terra Queen) & a marketing image (The Storyteller). The Storyteller had zero presence at the event except for the cameo in "Where Evil Hides" (maybe a random hotel appearance/outside the gates).

The only reason that book-carrying granny exists is because the marketing department at the time was incompetent & not local. They apparently didn't know how to advertise a "blood-thirsty inter-dimensional Queen hellbent on harvesting humans for her immortality". It was too difficult. So instead of an iconic image with a badass motorcycle (The Terra-Beast), we got grandma dropping anvils on a dude tied to a bed of nails.

The Storyteller has had no consistency at all anytime she has appeared at the event. In 2006, she was ripping out tongues. Also, in the 2006 short-film, she had the supernatural ability to manipulate a dude to put his hand in a garbage disposal. Then for the 30th anniversary icon house, she was suddenly now a shape-shifting demon. Because sure.

/End 2005 fanboy rant

 

[pumpkinbot343]

The Storyteller had zero presence at the event except for the cameo in "Where Evil Hides" (maybe a random hotel appearance/outside the gates).

Hmmm? (I’m slightly curious)

 

[PrimalScream1996]

Yeah, I admire that they tried to revamp and re-image her lore and look and give her something new for 30. They could try again with her but seems unlikely they'd wanna take her any direction aside from anniversary years.

When I got to talk to TJ back in 2020 during the signing, I brought her up, he really didn't have much to say about her which could tell you much about what they really had made for her during the time, she was just a marketing decision, and everything he talked about was mostly stuff that they had a deadline and plans that were here and there and scrapped and needed to make the deadline with the event and already had fully focused on the event on Terra Cruentus and Terra Queen and nothing more, nothing less. So Storyteller is honestly just there.

 

[Legacy]

its so funny how you take one persons comment and lump "all" into it. I, me, personally said "don't overuse them" it was an opinion, didn't mean to strike a nerve with some of y'all. We need an announcement soon because with all do respect you all are reading into this poop (lol no swears allowed i guess ) to much lol. Me saying it would be nice for a year gap in between icons vs what has been received as me saying "ditch icons" suddenly... are 2 totally different sayings.

I agreed with

when he discussed the pumpkin lord. In this case it can be seen as a "mascot" like mentioned above and didn't require a background story. It was just embodying Halloween for the theming. This was a great and awesome execution for what ultimately became an "Icon". It was nice to see a new original character that has no relation to the other icons.

FYI the term "overuse" is for the storytelling and how potential icons interweave with one another. I was referring to other icons (caretaker, chance, eddie, etc) all eventually having some interweaving story that you need to be following thru previous events, in order to understand scare zones or theming for the year. Feel like its was a logically discussion but clearly it has been taken the wrong way so ill just move on from it!

I get the concern, but that’s not how Universal has traditionally leveraged its Icons. The overarching story isn’t and has never been the “point;” That’s why retcons are so prevalent. The only interconnectedness for any icons beyond “they all work for Fear” is tied to one icon - Jack. And even that canon was exceedingly simple prior to Oddfellow.

Jack = Clown
Eddie = Clown with chainsaw, brother
Chance = Lady clown, lady-friend

And in this world, all clowns have some sort of relation. Oddfellow, who was always canon to Jack’s story, was presented as an icon completely independent of Jack. You didn’t have to know anything about Jack to appreciate Oddfellow because the connection was only ever a fun Easter egg for fans.

 

[Wesker69]

Hmmm? (I’m slightly curious)

Which I expected so I looked into what Horror I could unearth. "The Storyteller could be seen walking around outside the park gates, telling her "story"."

This I never saw first hand because my butt was inside the park for Stay&Scream to get through as many houses before the lines got bad

 

[HHN Maddux]

I get the concern, but that’s not how Universal has traditionally leveraged its Icons. The overarching story isn’t and has never been the “point;” That’s why retcons are so prevalent. The only interconnectedness for any icons beyond “they all work for Fear” is tied to one icon - Jack. And even that canon was exceedingly simple prior to Oddfellow.

Jack = Clown
Eddie = Clown with chainsaw, brother
Chance = Lady clown, lady-friend

And in this world, all clowns have some sort of relation. Oddfellow, who was always canon to Jack’s story, was presented as an icon completely independent of Jack. You didn’t have to know anything about Jack to appreciate Oddfellow because the connection was only ever a fun Easter egg for fans.

This. For the general public, this is all they need to know to understand the Icons:

• Jack - Murderous clown.
• Caretaker - Murderous surgeon.
• Director - Murderous director.
• Storyteller - Murderous old storyteller.
• Usher - Vengeful usher ghost.
• Adaru - Fear demon.
• Lady Luck - Luck demon.
• Chance - Murderous clown's girlfriend.
• Pumpkin Lord - He is Halloween.
• Dr. Oddfellow - Murderous Ringmaster.

As Legacy said, the interconnected story is there for the superfans (and it's a lot of fun to get into, and I'm pleasantly surprised at how in-depth Oddfellow's was), but you do not need to know about it at all to understand any of the Icons.

 

[Wesker69]

I'd say Lady Luck was more along the lines of "Fate" (which was a scrapped icon idea)

Also still hate the "monster" look she was given. It was stupid & unnecessary. But that's a rant for another time.

 

[saint.piss]

• Dr. Oddfellow - Murderous clown, but immortal.

Not to be that person but Oddfellow isn't a clown he's a Ringmaster.... lol

 

[PrimalScream1996]

Plainly to say about the icons, in the words of Al Jolson:

There's always more addition stuff being placed in the icons, maybe more on some than others but in the directions they've been going, there's more to see, just sit back and enjoy the ride.

 

[Wesker69]

Not to be that person but Oddfellow isn't a clown he's a Ringmaster.... lol

I decided to let someone else take that one. So, thank you lol

 

[Midnight Detective]

So taking it WAYYYYYY back to when we were discussing decades for the event - when talking about what would set the 90s apart, my first thought was making it basically Tony Hawks' Halloween Horror Nights. Just like how the 80s events we got were the modern nostalgia version of what people imagine the 80s to be, I think a 90s event would be best set up as a 90s, DIY punk, Xtreme set up. Pretty close to the corporate idea of what punk is on the early release shirts that we got.

With the two icons rumor, I actually think it would be really cool if we got something similar to the original 2001 set up for the event. Initially, Eddie was going to usurp Jack and take over the event. His house, RUN, was a self-built shoddy haunted house. I think they should drop the clown angle for him and return him to being basically just a edgy "heavy metal" anarchist.

However, instead of Jack, I'd have his foil be the Usher. The Ushers whole deal is enforcing rules. The Usher would be the main Icon, and "represent" the IP Houses. Eddie would be ruining things and represent the original houses. Order vs Chaos, Old vs New, Originals vs IPs.

 

[HHN Maddux]

So taking it WAYYYYYY back to when we were discussing decades for the event - when talking about what would set the 90s apart, my first thought was making it basically Tony Hawks' Halloween Horror Nights. Just like how the 80s events we got were the modern nostalgia version of what people imagine the 80s to be, I think a 90s event would be best set up as a 90s, DIY punk, Xtreme set up. Pretty close to the corporate idea of what punk is on the early release shirts that we got.

With the two icons rumor, I actually think it would be really cool if we got something similar to the original 2001 set up for the event. Initially, Eddie was going to usurp Jack and take over the event. His house, RUN, was a self-built shoddy haunted house. I think they should drop the clown angle for him and return him to being basically just a edgy "heavy metal" anarchist.

However, instead of Jack, I'd have his foil be the Usher. The Ushers whole deal is enforcing rules. The Usher would be the main Icon, and "represent" the IP Houses. Eddie would be ruining things and represent the original houses. Order vs Chaos, Old vs New, Originals vs IPs.

I love this theory, and I think it would make a lot of sense.

You can have the crossover house be a VS (seeing as how we've had a VS house the past 3 years), with Eddie trying to host a game of RUN in the Palace Theater, and we see the ultimate clash of Order vs Chaos.

And Eddie being the Chaos side works even better, since Jack is Chaos!

 

[Wesker69]

Hmm... I'm offended that you used my beloved underrated movie theater icon & the legendary scrapped icon (that i love) against me like this.

 

[TheCodeMan95]

I was genuinely surprised at how well-integrated Oddfellow was throughout the event.

For casual fans, Oddfellow was just a cool walk-around character and the zones could exist on their own.

For the super fans, there was a very clear connection through every zone with Oddfellow.

Very cool to see, and satisfied everyone.

 

[UniversalRBLX]

I was genuinely surprised at how well-integrated Oddfellow was throughout the event.

For casual fans, Oddfellow was just a cool walk-around character and the zones could exist on their own.

For the super fans, there was a very clear connection through every zone with Oddfellow.

Very cool to see, and satisfied everyone.

Very well done, not too in your face and you didn't feel left out if you didn't know who he was.

Only issue was the Oddfellow zone being lackluster in the decor department

 

[Casper Gutman]

No. No it did not. There was only ONE icon (The Terra Queen) & a marketing image (The Storyteller). The Storyteller had zero presence at the event except for the cameo in "Where Evil Hides" (maybe a random hotel appearance/outside the gates).

The only reason that book-carrying granny exists is because the marketing department at the time was incompetent & not local. They apparently didn't know how to advertise a "blood-thirsty inter-dimensional Queen hellbent on harvesting humans for her immortality". It was too difficult. So instead of an iconic image with a badass motorcycle (The Terra-Beast), we got grandma dropping anvils on a dude tied to a bed of nails.

The Storyteller has had no consistency at all anytime she has appeared at the event. In 2006, she was ripping out tongues. Also, in the 2006 short-film, she had the supernatural ability to manipulate a dude to put his hand in a garbage disposal. Then for the 30th anniversary icon house, she was suddenly now a shape-shifting demon. Because sure.

/End 2005 fanboy rant

Hot Take: The Storyteller is a significantly better icon than the Queen despite her origins. As a familiar-but-twisted archetype she fits in much better with the other icons then the over-designed dark-fantasy Queen. Her vague backstory is an advantage (as it is with the other icons) because she can be used in a wider variety of situations and her “lore” can be adapted to fit the needs of new events, something the overly-specific concept of the Queen makes more difficult.

I’d be very happy to see the Storyteller get the spotlight for a year, even though I doubt it will happen.

Special Bonus Hot Take: Eddie is a weak icon. While the Queen is too specific, Eddie is too generic. He lacks a visual or conceptual hook. He should never be more then a fan-pleasing cameo, the perpetual “one-who-got-away,” because he can’t support a more central role without being almost completely redesigned.