I strongly believe that Bloody Mary was the best icon halloween horror nights

I strongly believe that Bloody Mary was the best icon so far in terms of marketability AND use at the event itself. The commercials and website were awesome, and while most people hated the house, I really enjoyed it, especially being able to see the story arc from the website come full circle. Regardless of how people felt about the house, her presence throughout the event was palpable. I'll never forget walking through the hanging pumpkins and hearing her name whispered three times, followed by all of the pumpkins going dark.

If Universal wants to continue using icons, I think that they really need to follow this framework. Pick an icon who will have a strong central story for the fans, but also make sense for the masses that don't spend hours on the website. Also, having an icon that was tied to a casino theme with no casino house was a strange choice. Same with Fear from last year. If you're going to spend that much time, effort, and money creating an icon, then give it a dedicated house, or at least have it appear in the other houses to tie things together!


EDIT: By the way, I would love to see UO take a few notes from the new kids on the block when it comes to HHN. From the pictures that I saw, HHN at Universal Studios Singapore looked AWESOME!! If you haven't already seen some pictures, then go check them out. The detail in the apocalypse-themed scarezone was incredible!! Now I know that the event was done on a much smaller scale over there than it is here, but I have felt like our scarezones have been dropping in quality recently. It always feels like there are one, maybe two, great zones, with the rest being way under-par for what this event has become. My $0.02.