Rumors, rumors, rumors…

Welcome to the rumor period everybody and happy Memorial Weekend!

So have you seen the list or variations on the list that have been floating around the internet for some days now, so we’d thought we’ll share our thoughts on what these clues might be…

For those of you who haven’t seen the list, here it is:

1 -The announced – (Soundstage) The Exorcist

2 -The announced: Second coming (Tent 2) – The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

3 -The unannounced: The return (Parade Building)

4 -The unannounced: The expected

5 -The unannounced: The returning

6 -The unannounced: The requelling (?)

7 -The unannounced: Claustrophic Jewel

8 – The unannounced: The unknown

9 – The unannounced: A big reveal

Here’s what we think house by house:

Houses 1 and 2 are already announced, so we’ll skip straight to House 3: ‘The Return’ in the Parade Building.

The likelihood of ‘The Walking Dead’ returning is very high, especially since it has come back every year for the last four events. It was also located in the Parade House last year, so this is a fairly safe bet.

House 4: ‘The Expected’, ‘American Horror Story’ must be on the cards. It has been running for five seasons and is extremely popular with both the horror fraternity and the wider public. It does suffer from being a non-Universal owned or distributed property and there must be a reason why we haven’t seen it before at HHN. Perhaps the negotiations have taken this long? Just in time for #HHN26

House 5: ‘The Returning’, I would guess this would reference ‘The Purge’. It was a last minute addition to the house lineup last year and in the past it has been a scarezone, so for it to return the year that ‘The Purge: Election Year’ is released by Universal has to be a given. (Though some are suggesting Halloween II, with Michael Myers coming back for a second time!)

House 6: ‘The Requel’ This is one of the houses that Mike via the official Twitter account has been trolling us fans with. Lets first look at what this pseudo-word actually means via urbandictionary.com:

“When a remake contains a lot of new material; A remake that also doubles as a sequel.”

So in broad terms, this would mean that it is a house that revisits the subject matter of an earlier house but is not a remake or perhaps a linear continuation of its original. Confused? So are we, but in a round about way any of new spate of Batman movies, Bond films or the new Freddy and Jason movies we had a few years ago, would all be considered requels.

But what could they be bringing back but in a new way? Well anything to be honest, though the tunnel of focus should be on the fact that it would likely be an original house. So lets look at the franchises they do have:

• The icons: Too soon maybe? Perhaps a lesser-known icon like Eddie or Bloody Mary (though the latter may give the Legal team at USF a shudder or two).
• The Body Collectors: Again, too soon? They had a house last year so their return is unlikely.
• Psychoscareapy: Again (times two) soon? They did feature heavily last year, so I would rule these murderous weirdoes out.
• Dungeon of Terror, The Classic Monsters and Psycho have all featured heavily in past HHNs. Could any of these be brought back in a new unique way that is far apart from the originals? The Monsters for example have already been back in 2009 in new ways and what with the new Monsters Cinematic Universe coming soon it might be a bit too soon. Mike has also said that we will not be seeing a Hitchock house this year.
• Scary Tales: Maybe, as this has a large scope and could be twisted to fit a whole feast of different ideas.
• Vampyre: Those fang-tastic freaks haven’t been seen since 2007!
• Havoc: This arc could be explored in more depth with a multitude of different storylines that the park’s Creatives could explore.
• R. Bloodengutz presents something else? It would lend itself to the word ‘requel’ as it has media connotations.
• Saws N’ Steam have been present in a house and on the streets, they could come back with a new fresh idea – perhaps dropping the steampunk theming.
• Nightingales: They were cameoed last year, so perhaps not?

The last idea that may contradict the theories above is the fact that we and HHNRumors have been HEAVILY suggesting that Penn and Teller have been in talks with Universal (we broke this news back in Feb!). They have had a house before, so could they be building a new one but in a ‘requel’ way? As in, it’s set in Vegas but in an entirely different way? Maybe…

House 7: ‘Claustrophic Jewel’: Notice the spelling… ‘Claus’ as in Santa Claus…. Krampus anyone? Boom! Jewel? Well imagine the facade from the movie recreated inside one of the cavernous soundstages that would be the jewel in Universal’s crown!

House 8: ‘The Unknown’, perhaps the house that Mike via the official Twitter has been referring to as ‘Cobweb’. The heavily rumored Wild West house based on an original idea. Above is a snippet of the design for this house.

House 9: ‘A big reveal’. From what we have heard, this will be a big announcement, it will be a third party owned property that is not attached to Universal but It will be something brand new to HHN. It could literally be anything. Exciting though right…!?

 

So what do you think? Let us know if you hear or see anything!

The editor wishes to express his sincere gratitude to Dr Jimmy for his help in compiling this article.