- Feb 23, 2023
- 2,263
- 7,916
Eh, people are allowed to be excited or disappointed by whatever they want. I like that this forum has a diversity of takes, even if I don’t agree with all of them.
You are right about that but it was before it was event announced lolEh, people are allowed to be excited or disappointed by whatever they want. I like that this forum has a diversity of takes, even if I don’t agree with all of them.
Ppl are very sensitive to Art so that is different than TCM.I think the idea of incorporating all of the Leatherfaces through the guise of "Tasks" that the Sawyers give to Bubba is an ingenious element. It allows each Texas film to have some presence in a way that suits the kind of character that Leatherface is.
But I think the biggest gamble I am intently curious of; is that this seems to be the first true "Hyperviolent" house we've seen from HHN in a long time. I'd argue even further back to 2011's Hostel. Everything this house sounds like, is something that is genuinely gnarly and intending to be direct in what it wants to be.
Almost makes me wonder if it's a test of sorts--if another specific Hyperviolent IP can work in Hollywood if people find Texas this year to their liking (and y'all know the Artful IP I am talking about here).
I think this is spot on. For some posters like me (and I think Wishmaster), a classic slasher house is very exciting. When I first went to HHN Hollywood in 2008, the houses were Texas, F13, Elm Street, and the Strangers. That was great for me, given my tastes. But I do think it's cool that HHN now has more diversity - there is the more family friendly Ghostbusters, there are zombies, there are ghosts, there are monsters, there is horror comedy and there is splatter, etc. I think the reason the Texas announcement is so exciting for some is that classic slasher was missing from the slate and now it isn't, so that element is there. Of course, more than fair for that to not be to everyone's taste.Eh, people are allowed to be excited or disappointed by whatever they want. I like that this forum has a diversity of takes, even if I don’t agree with all of them.
I think it's both interesting and awesome that fans can have such disparate takes. As a big fan of the TCM franchise, my feeling was that it will do a few things that personally made me excited. First, I think it will be quite interesting to see the slaughterhouse from the original timeline, since we only ever saw it in the 2003 film, Texas Chainsaw 3D, etc. That kind of inspires my imagination, and will make me think about what the characters from the 1974 film might have been doing when we didn't see them on screen. Getting to see every version of Leatherface as well as characters like the Old Man and Chop Top will be satisfying to me, because it will be fun to get to see a grab bag of all of the major characters from the franchise in one maze. I think that the slaughterhouse setting will allow for gore and slasher nastiness with an HHN level of quality. And lastly, I think Murdy's presentation did speak to his understanding of and reverence for the property - his remarks focusing on the quote from the Hitchhiker about how the family has alwyas been in meat, one of the key lines for the franchise's kind of dark social commentary, suggest that - and I think that will be fun to see translate in this anniversary edition.I think the history lesson Murdy gave made this feel different to people, along with the "multiverse" aspect. The details are important, sure, and give so much context. But when you're going through, it's literally going to just be a slaughterhouse like any ol' slaughterhouse. The music is going to have to keep this maze on its shoulders if it wants to be distinctive from any other slaughterhouse maze -- but other than the first film's sound effects and the remake's soundtrack, the rest of the series doesn't have anything else iconic enough to pull from to make it feel distinctive. Funny enough, TCM kinda set the standard with the slaughterhouse aspect at Haunts way before there was ever a proper TCM maze, but the haunt industry has driven it into the ground.
I would love to be wrong and this maze rock it. The cast could certainly make it impressive and intense. But standing back from it as a whole, it's nothing particularly interesting.
I have a lot of fondness for Cornstalkers, but I think there's some nostalgia at play here. Even in its final year, that maze was a lot of plain corn walls in between the farmhouse and the barn.Slaughterhouse at KSF had just about all the crazy stuff you can imagine with a fairly elaborate set up. Human skins -- heck, I feel like even HHN had that at one point recent, but maybe I am misremembering because it isn't that rare to see that at a haunt.
And from my point of view, Cornstalkers (also at KSF) was WAY better than Scarecrow. Scarecrow was literally just TCM but with scarecrows.