Obsession at HHN?

[Pacific]

(Imade created purely for comedic purposes)


Kind of curious when Obession content will hit the parks.

There's obviously HHN. This is almost guaranteed to get a house at HHN next year. Nikki (and Wish Nikki) as a character(s) has become a sensation and has really resonated with people. So bringing her to "life" is going to drive people mad.

One Wish Willow is a super hot item right now and WILL sell out at an event. Though, with how Obession is behaving more like GA crowd pleaser than a typical horror movie, I wonder if they'd be willing to sell One Wish Willow outside of HHN. It's a pretty inoffensive item, has a fun box, and fun imaginative interactive element.

 

[rageofthegods]

Obviously this is what will replace Fallon

 

[deadbydawn]

Seems like a no brainer to have at least something at Horror Nights this year. I would assume along the lines of merch, or a photo op, that kind of thing.

 

[Jerroddragon]

My guess is Obession might be one of the RIP photo ops this year

 

[DOOMBOT]

Obsession is one of my absolute favorite movies in a long time, and it would be an undeniably poor business decision to not capitalize on the IP for HHN.

But ... I walked away from that film both in love with it, and totally cemented on not wanting to see it at Horror Nights. The horror and themes involved are pretty personal and intimate, and the scale of the movie is so small-scale (there's really only one "horror movie monster" and like, 7 rooms shown in the whole film) that I just don't think it would work very well. Unless they go really psychological with it, I think it would just land like Orlando's Happy Death Day or even their OG Exorcist house. Just missing the point on both why this movie resonated with people, and what makes a haunt scary and interesting.

The very most I could see is a M3gan-type role in a zone, but even then, I don't know how I'd feel about Nikki being represented in that kinda format. I'm sure it's happened before, probably multiple times with different characters I can't remember, but the metaphors going on with Nikki are just a lot more loaded than most other characters repped at HHN, and she doesn't have the crazy iconic "movie character look" like M3GAN, or the "crazy guy in a mask" mass appeal like Grabber, Jason, Michael, Art, that allow you to disconnect a bit and just react to the scary person, imo.

Merch and photo-op standees feel totally fine to me. I think One Wish Willow's will probably be the most popular item in every Spirit Halloween this year. For some reason though, bringing the IP in other ways just doesn't appeal to me at all.

Honestly, talking about a movie I love as much as I do, and that I had such a personal reaction to as "an IP" leaves a definite sour taste in my mouth, if I'm honest. That's a personal hang-up. I know that. It's probably one I'll have to swallow too, cause I know NBC/U are probably chomping at the bit to capitalize on this in any way they can. I think part of me has been hoping that this movie ends up like a Hereditary or Get Out, where it just exists and everyone agrees it's really good and we just ... let it be haha.

I've also been wrong about this stuff before so :shrug: Maybe I'll totally love the Obsession house or whatever. We'll see what happens.

 

[Brian G.]

Think this thread is better suited as an HHN thread, not an in-park thread. So the discussion moved to the appropriate destination.

 

[Clive]

Having now seen the movie, I'd expect a photo op/advertisement and merchandise if they can get it produced and delivered in time. That's about it.

 

[Ball Don't Lie]

I bet if the film came out last year rather than this year, we'd be getting a house. But I'm not sure if anyone anticipated this being a huge mega-hit so it feels like nothing is prepped. Agree they could put together a photo op or maybe display some props somewhere, that would be very cool. Also really loved the movie so fingers crossed for next year.

 

[Clive]

I don't think this movie can support a house. Even two or three rooms in a compilation Blumhouse/Atomic Monster house would be a stretch.

 

[Viator]

Having now seen the movie, I'd expect a photo op/advertisement and merchandise if they can get it produced and delivered in time. That's about it.

My gut tells me Hollywood is prioritizing a RIP Photo Op. It's been quite common for Hollywood to do RIP Photo Ops for specific key films during the commercial year; Candyman, The Black Phone are good examples.

Think a RIP Photo Op area also allows a bit of a safety net, atleast for how much they can do with a facial character alongside also giving the actresses secure spaces encase someone tries anything funny.

 

[RFRees]

I'm not sure the movie works as a house, but I wouldn't be surprised at Universal making an attempt at it.

 

[rageofthegods]

I'm on record as thinking Obsession is tough to do as a full house and is better suited as a section of a Blumhouse maze (I made my own attempt to write out an Obsession section here) but the movie's success is genuinely so extraordinary that I think it deserves its own headliner house. Like, to be clear, it's tracking for a finish of around $275 million domestic, which would make it the third highest grossing horror movie *of all time.* Even adjusting for inflation, that's about what genre classics like The Ring and Poltergeist made. Obsession is the kind of property they should put on billboards and center trailers on.

A full Obsession house probably by necessity will involve a lot of sections "through the eyes of Nikki," i.e. Exorcist Believer-style red wallz with scrim effects depicting the tougher scenes like the nice date scene and the party. If they're truly worried about thinness of material or not being able to cast enough actresses to fill a house, then one option is doing a compilation house with Curry Barker's next film, Anything but Ghosts, which also happens to be a Blumhouse title. You can call it something like "Horrors of Blumhouse: Director Showcase."

Oh, one more thing: they should put little LEDs on the eyes of the Freaky Nikki masks to simulate the glowing eyes effect. I think that'd be cool.