Nightmare Fuel: Circus of Decay (HHN 34)

[Clive]

I’m hoping we get third show/Icon show next year (dare to dream)

Watch them pull a "Paint the Night" and just bring back The Carnage Returns ten years later.

 

[Parkscope Joe]

Watch them pull a "Paint the Night" and just bring back The Carnage Returns ten years later.

I'm ok with them doing it again (woah oh oh oh). The 2015 show had similar stunts like the OG.

 

[HHN Maddux]

The bloody saw in the art and the show having a new writer/producer gives me some hope it could be more Carnage Returns (which IMO had a healthy mix of magic trick kills, dancing and comedy).

 

[UniversalRBLX]

Watch them pull a "Paint the Night" and just bring back The Carnage Returns ten years later.

I would not mind that at all. It was a great show and fit for Jack.

 

[SeventyOne]

B&T was growing stale as well.

I feel like B&T exists on an island. It was rarely if ever directly related to Halloween, it was rarely horror-inspired,, and it was only loosely based on a two then-forgotten actors from a cult classic movie. Yet it ran close to two decades, with as rabid a fanbase as I've seen in theme park fandom. What you call "stale" I might call tropes that audience expected -- demanded, really. And if the format remained identical (what can you really do with a 25-minute show?), the details and character designs were unique and different each year. In that way, it mirrored the haunted houses.

But if it never existed and Legal allowed it to debut in 2025 -- spoiler: they wouldn't -- I'm not sure it would be a hit today. it was of and for a different Universal fan universe, and was only grandfathered in post-Potter.

I hope there are some good magic tricks in this show.

I'm with you here. Even if they just do three like the original show, three new tricks would do a lot to make the show feel fresher and varied.

 

[PrimalScream1996]

This show should be a really good one, I liked last years', I liked the whole full circle routine, I would love to see what the new tricks being added could be.

 

[JohnHammondsCane]

my wife loves this show and is far from a theme park obsessed fan, like us. but, even she mentioned that she'd like to see them switch up the story this year, as it's seeming a little *too* similar

 

[Bort]

I'd also argue there's an element of "ya'll were watching this for the plot?!?" to be pointed out. Before the show starts, its opening announcement has the line "...and this show can oftentimes be a bit...sexy...", followed by thunderous roars from the crowd.

Like, it's a show that has featured lap dances, people crawling on leashes, and lots of provocative choreo (looking at you, "Unholy" number from 2023).

I think HNF knows what it's there to be, and does a great job at it.

 

[OhHaiInternet95]

B&T was growing stale as well.

I like the idea of having one "stable" show with another show that's unique each year. Like how we used to have B&T and Carnage Returns/AoV/etc.

Yeah, it seems like B&T was funny in the aughts but it seems like in the final years it was references for the sake of references. Pop cultural zeitgeist humor works great...you just have to include the "humor" part.

Basically, as repetitive as NMF is, I think it at least does what it sets out to do well. Always worth a POV watch for me.

 

[Legacy]

Yeah, it seems like B&T was funny in the aughts but it seems like in the final years it was references for the sake of references. Pop cultural zeitgeist humor works great...you just have to include the "humor" part.

Basically, as repetitive as NMF is, I think it at least does what it sets out to do well. Always worth a POV watch for me.

A big thing that ruined B&T was actually the pace of media. In it’s prime, they could write a script in July-August, based on auditions featuring media bits from March-June, confident those cultural references would remain timely until November. Now? A meme or major news story is viral for a couple of days and then forgotten. That kept the script, and the characters it used, from being able to be relevant because Universal understood it wouldn’t be relevant. And that, frankly, cut a lot of the show’s magic off at the knees.

The legal concerns absolutely impacted the event, but that was a concern for years. Jack Sparrow was one character that caused numerous headaches, and the infamous Lex Luther/Dr. Evil switch out was to avoid legal concerns. But, ultimately, it got to the point where writing a show parodying pop-culture weeks in advance couldn’t keep up with pop-culture anymore.

 

[Tobias]

A big thing that ruined B&T was actually the pace of media. In it’s prime, they could write a script in July-August, based on auditions featuring media bits from March-June, confident those cultural references would remain timely until November. Now? A meme or major news story is viral for a couple of days and then forgotten. That kept the script, and the characters it used, from being able to be relevant because Universal understood it wouldn’t be relevant. And that, frankly, cut a lot of the show’s magic off at the knees.

The legal concerns absolutely impacted the event, but that was a concern for years. Jack Sparrow was one character that caused numerous headaches, and the infamous Lex Luther/Dr. Evil switch out was to avoid legal concerns. But, ultimately, it got to the point where writing a show parodying pop-culture weeks in advance couldn’t keep up with pop-culture anymore.

Agreed, a major challenge for any pop-culture show is what material you write is gonna' stay relevant when the show is running. You have to strike when the iron is hot, but in this day and age the iron can cool off way too fast.

A great example actually happened last year at Knott's Scary Farm with The Hanging, where the celeb to be hanged was Justin Timberlake as it was going to ruin the tour. Probably seemed like a great choice back in June, but folks were disappointed it was him, that was already old news and not bad enough.

Another issue that can arise is some years don't give the best material to work with, case in point it's hard coming up with fun needle drops when the chart-topping songs of the year are the blandest stuff around.

For me I think the best way to have pop-culture humor/refs nowadays is via an improv show or a show where actors can improvise at times, Puppet Up!: Uncensored at Knott's was able to do that beautifully (first show on opening night a couple years ago poked fun at the newly implemented bag policy and the crowd lost it.), and Jack has done it before in the Carnage shows.