Fiends (2024 to Present)
- Thread starter Nicole
- Start date
Fiends is awesome!!!! Great addition to Howl O Scream. Lots of stupid funny but thats my sort of thing. Reallllly had fun with it!
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Watched it twice on Sunday and I love it! Here’s a full show video if anyone is curious…
Direct Link to Embedded Media Source
Direct Link to Embedded Media Source
I have to say, I'm happy with this iteration of Fiends as well. My wife and I saw it last night. The cast is fantastic. The punchlines are pretty funny, even if they are quite cheesy and forced. I just think a show like this fits very well into Howl-o-Scream. I enjoy a well produced, well choreographed, well-written show as much as the next person (not to say this show isn't any of those things), but sometimes I also just want to indulge in some cheesy camp with fun songs, a fun cast, and cheesy pop-culture jokes. Howl-O-Scream is the ideal time for that kind of show given that Halloween and camp have always gone together well. I'm hoping this show gets enough positive reception to stick around for a while.
The disclaimer for this show needs an update on the website. It says "This show contains adult themes and may not be suitable for children." If they bring this show back in the future, it should say "...and is not appropriate for children. To paraphrase Igor, what is wrong with parents?
Fiends isn't the freakquel this year it seems.
I love that they're continuing the story!
This year's version falls flat, unless you're up to date on the latest Tik Tok and Instagram trends. Most of the jokes seem forced. The songs choices are more current, which is fine, but they lack that rock energy. The story line is a bit dis-jointed. Portions just don't make much sense. Dr Frankenstein is summoning aliens, but he gets werewolves and vampires??? Did he he take a naughty nurse and make her into his bride, or was the bride assembled from spare parts? There is a nod to Rocky Horror with a very short Time Warp sequence at the very end.
I don't normally make posts really reviewing anything on here, but this years version was so bad it makes me want to make a post about it. Just like the last few years there are a lot of new pop culture references, AI jokes, modern Tiktok humor, etc. There were a few lines and jokes that were really awkward and corny, and not like in an ironic "the joke is being awkward" way. A lot of the jokes feel extremely, EXTREMELY forced too. The story now kind of revolves around this AI robot thing, that is trying to make an immortality potion for Dr Frankenstein, but it's kind of hard to follow and doesn't make a ton of sense. Igor is also now played by a woman, not sure if the show has ever done that before. The actress does a hell of a job playing Igor, definitely not saying she is bad, but Igor... really should be played by a male. He was written to be a male, his whole character revolves around him being a male, multiple jokes reference him being a male... And he's a woman this year?
Hoping others enjoy it and I'm the minority, I always want to see BGW Entertainment take wins, but was really not happy with this years show.
Hoping others enjoy it and I'm the minority, I always want to see BGW Entertainment take wins, but was really not happy with this years show.
The story isn't that hard to follow. Freakenstein wants to become immortal, so he's using AI to create an immortality potion. It all goes wrong in typical fashion. If you've seen the last two Fiends shows, it follows a similar story to those.
I thought the actor/actress playing Igor did a great job tbh. I didn't really notice they were female at all, and if they did a good job, I don't think it really matters in the long run.
Yeah some of the jokes are forced, but I laughed quite a bit. The audience seemed to really enjoy it as well. The jokes seemed a bit edgier than usual too, which was a nice surprise. IDK how long that'll last.
I thought the actor/actress playing Igor did a great job tbh. I didn't really notice they were female at all, and if they did a good job, I don't think it really matters in the long run.
Yeah some of the jokes are forced, but I laughed quite a bit. The audience seemed to really enjoy it as well. The jokes seemed a bit edgier than usual too, which was a nice surprise. IDK how long that'll last.
It sounds like you, like me, just don't really like the cringe humor, pop-culture, BGT-ified version of Fiends.
It continues to irritate me a lot that when they brought Fiends back to Williamsburg in 2024, instead of following in the footsteps of the actual, original, long-run Fiends in the Festhaus (it IS a Williamsburg-original creation!), the short-lived (weak) revival in Das Festhaus, and then the absolutely peak, legendary, 2012-era, original Fiends run in the Abbey Stone Theatre, they threw most of that out the window and back-ported the yearly, cringe-humor, pop-culture-skewering version of the show from Tampa.
Tampa's show was copied from Williamsburg's super early on and sorta had a split evolution situation—it evolved entirely separately and significantly differently than our own—following the desires of its market and responding to its competitors for many, many years in isolation from Williamsburg. Their show evolved to compete with HHN's Bill & Ted and onboarded a lot of other BGT HOS shows' content (like BGT's pop-culture skewering The Midnight Hour, for instance).
So yeah, what I'm saying is that we had our real, authentic, original (IMO, much better) version of Fiends supplanted by a fake imposter from Tampa and I want a 2012-like, fun, quality, Halloween, story-based, musical revue-focused Fiends back—I don't need rapid fire, bad jokes that, at best, will be aged/played out 7 days later.
I think anyone can play any role if they do a good job.
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The nurses aren't wearing heels this year. I'd imagine dancing in heels is much tougher than the shoes they currently wear.
Original Fiends in the Festhaus didn't use heels and BGT's version was split off from that iteration (so as far as I know, Tampa nurses have never used heels?). When BGW brought Fiends back to Das Festhaus and redesigned the nurse uniforms, they got heels at that point. Since then, BGW has used heels (until this year I suppose).
I know Fiends isn't for everyone, but I honestly really love it in its current form.
There’s just something about the over-the-top, relatively relatable obscenity that makes it work so well. Howl-O-Scream is so objectively thrown together year after year, despite marketing the event to be big and great, that having a show that’s unabashedly campy, trashy, and self-aware is such a great palette cleanser.
There’s just something about the over-the-top, relatively relatable obscenity that makes it work so well. Howl-O-Scream is so objectively thrown together year after year, despite marketing the event to be big and great, that having a show that’s unabashedly campy, trashy, and self-aware is such a great palette cleanser.
Yall just say any dumb stuff that comes to your head huh? Igor is the same actor who was in oktoberfest and he's not a woman but even if it was a woman, what difference does it make?
I thought the show was great, I know what to expect now. First year really threw me because I expected the old BGW version but I've come around to it now.