12 replies to this topic

[Freak]

Another interesting haunt has started. It's called, Delusion. This is basically set inside of a mansion where it is a walk-thru of a horror movie playing right in front of you. Sounds interesting.

[Creeper06]

Hmmmmmm.... very interesting indeed. Pretty pricey though. And the site needs some work. You have to read through the FAQ's to really get an idea of what the heck you're buying here.

I'll be curious to hear what it's like if anyone checks it out.

Edited by Creeper06, 12 October 2011 - 06:27 PM.

[zombieman]

Hey all, it's your old friend Zombieman.

You know I've never let you down before. I've posted fair and brutally honest reviews. I've never been a shill for any haunt.

I am therefore staking my reputation that I have built on this board when I give you the following order: GO SEE DELUSION THIS WEEKEND!!!

There are only THREE days left this Halloween season. I implore you to drive as far as it takes to see Delusion.

It's expensive. REALLY expensive. So expensive that when I hit the "buy" button, I asked myself what the hell I was doing. This was going to be another overpriced haunt that I will be disappointed with.

Good God, I was wrong! I'm not going to spoil a thing, since I trust you WILL go see it this weekend. Just take a look at the reviews. You will not find anything less than 4/5 stars.

Freak, it is NOT a walkthru of a movie. No, no, no - not nearly that simplistic. This is the house we all WISH HHN would put on, but they won't. They can't - ever.

If the $40 price tag makes you hesitate, let me change your mind in one paragraph:
No doubt you have all heard about Alone over at Busch Gardens in Tampa. It's the upcharge house that costs $40 after you've already paid $50 to get into the event. You've heard person after person saying that it was worth it. Californians have dreamed to be able to see it. Well, now is your chance. Delusion is BETTER than Alone. Although you cannot actually go in by yourself (they force groups of 8-10), the actors can and WILL touch you. I assure you it is appropriate to the storyline, but "touch" is a rather light term for what happens... Now you're intrigued, right? You've heard that Alone is an interactive house, right? Well, Delusion is more interactive. It takes place in a REAL mansion. There are no "typical haunted house" rooms. No inexplicable clowns or plants in the audience (although you might swear there are). No vortex tunnel, squeeze room, dot room, animatronics, or chainsaws. No masks, shaker cans, or feathers. All the "haunted house" rules that we have learned are broken in Delusion - every last one of them. It was designed by a stuntman (does THAT give you an idea of what to expect?) Your chin will be dragging on the floor. I guarantee it.

Now, here's the thing. Word of mouth is spreading like wildfire. I found out about it through a tweet from Niel Patrick Harris. He's a big theme park/haunt nerd. Tickets are now going FAST, and they are limited. Even though groups of 10 are let in, they are let in in 12-15 MINUTE intervals. I had almost no line, but still had a 20 minute wait. The haunt runs from 7pm-11pm. That equates to about 200 people per night. That's not many. You need to go to this site and reserve your ticket N-O-W. By the way, the site stops selling tickets 6 hours before showtime, so you may need to drive out if you login late. Just because the site says a performance is sold out, it may actually be down due to it being too close to showtime. Parking is ample and free along the street. Tickets are sold for a particular performance hour (i.e. 10pm). They also sell a pass that lets you in three times in a row for any evening. It's about $90. The house is great, but a repeat performance wouldn't really enhance anything.

This is the very first year for this event. Who knows if it will return next year. Even if it does, I can't promise that the touching part of the experience will remain. I've stated many times that there is no way a haunt with touching can happen in litigious California. Let me tell you, the first lawyer that goes through this house will have a field day. All the more reason why you NEED to see this house in the next three days. The length of the experience is a good 15-20 minutes, but it's 20 minutes you will not soon forget. The story builds and builds to a pretty good conclusion. I found the story to be better than the one used in Alone.

I'm really glad I found out about this place so late in the year. It was the PERFECT way to cap off the season. I barely miss Orlando at this point. Well, that's not true. I still really miss it, but Delusion took the edge off.

I cannot repeat this enough - SEE DELUSION THIS WEEKEND!! I promise you - you have not seen anything like this before.


[EDIT] I just sent some of the regular posters of the HHN Hollywood area a PM about this event. Sorry if it looked like I was spamming you. With only three days left, I thought it was the best way to get you to see this.

[DTH316]

Damn, zombieman really sold me on this - - only problem is I'm beyond broke lol
End of Oct and early Nov is the slew of birthdays in my family
And then ofcourse there's Black Friday and such
Plus with the winter season of blockbusters and the award season of films
If I didn't do HHN twice, I would've had money for something like this!
At this point, I'm even too broke for Sinister Pointe ($15 lousy bucks, I know)
Next year, I need to prioritize my money better which will probably help if I decide to skip Knotts (about 75% sure I will at this point) and only go to HHN once
Then I'll be able to make it to all the indie haunts that I've been wanting to do this year but had to bow my head out of in broke shame (Empty Grave, SP, Hayride, Castle Dark, Scandia).

So a blow by blow of this attraction, if you please!!!

[Creeper06]

Wow!!! Really wish I had found the time to do this now! Curses! Thanks for the recommendation Zombieman! Maybe next year

[DTH316]

TPA just posted a full walk through. I don't know, I expected more. It looks like it's high on the creep factor and low on the scares. More startles would be nice as that's my kind of thing. Creepiness can only do so much for me. Just sitting here, I was tensing up and then about 5 minutes in, it wore away quickly as I realized every scene was doing more of the same routine and that it would never go into full throttle haunted maze mode. WAY too much talking for my tastes. Probably wouldn't be a problem if the dialogue wasn't so typical (guy is killed and gargles, "not this way"). The acting is a bit cheesy too and that kinda kills it for me as well, as I'm sure I'd be ruining the atmosphere for everyone else in every scene by chuckling every 5 seconds. It's a decent length but $40 bucks is quite alot when I can go to Knotts or HHN for the night for the same price and have quadruple amount of the content, hold the monologues.
However, I give them major props for doing something different and having some awesome looking effects (girl on the stairs in the beginning, sliding down the hallway then girl hovering out, girl falling onto bed). But such tricks are far too in between to warrant the price. The music really sets the tone as well.
It just ain't for me, is all :-/

Edited by DTH316, 01 February 2012 - 10:45 PM.

[Creeper06]

Here's the video DTH mentions:



I kind of agree with him. The set-up gets very formulaic very fast: enter room, host recites some story, someone comes out and scares you into the next room. Repeat.

It is refreshing to see something new and unique and I give mad props for taking the risk. Huge kudos to the cast as well. It isn't easy to be that commited in such a venue. But, yeah, $40 seems a bit much for this experience.

Of course, one other thing to consider is how different it must feel being there in person. Watching a HHN maze on YouTube gives you a good idea of what it's like but doesn't do justice to the fear and atmosphere of being there. I assume that would also be the case here.

Just my thoughts

[zombieman]

Don't sugar-coat it for me guys. That video was terrible. I was yawning halfway through, too. As good a quality as the video was, it did not to justice to this great haunt. Being perfectly honest, if I had seen that before going, I'd have stayed home. And that ending was just dumb - completely different than the real thing. I'd pay $5 for what I saw in the video. The real thing was worth the $40. This video was just....poop.

Comments about the (dress rehearsal) video:
1) That girl on the stairs climbed on the walls and partially on the ceiling in the final version (it was far more than what you see here).
2) The flow was different in the final version. Here, the guide (who was the same one I had) is more or less ushering people from one room to the next. It was simply not like that in the final version.
3) That stupid, cheesy spider room was not in the final version (at least in that form).
4) There was a whole lot less touching in that video than in the real experience.
5) The video doesn't explain or show half of what is going on with the story - like what the relevance of the card is in the study, or how the girl got it. Or who the hell everyone is supposed to be.
6) The Basement.... 100% different in the final production. I guess they were still hashing that part out at the time of the video.

What no video can deliver is the personal experience you get by being there. The camera is focused on one person or one event, but stuff is happening all around you. While seated at the dinner table, it's not fair to judge the scene by staring across the table, when a scareactor is simultaneously holding your shoulder, whispering in your ear, and hitting the table with a knife that's an inch away from your hand.

If you've ever been to a Cirque show, then you know what I mean. A video of the main act is no where near as good as being there, as stuff is going on all around and above you at the live show.

Remember the first time you saw a bungee effect in a house? You were floored by it, and probably remember that scene to this very day. Heck, you probably remember the clothes the actor was wearing. The girl on the stairway early on was really "just a bungee stunt", and seeing it in the movie, it looks just so-so. But we've become so conditioned by what we see in the movies. We see a "movie stunt" when we are looking at this on the screen, and that's what your brain is telling you. But when you are THERE, your brain knows people don't move that way. So when you see this happening in real-life, it's amazing.

Same thing with the drag down the hallway. It's an iconic moment - for me at least. I never saw it coming and people-don't-do-that. Pretty much the exact same thing happens at the end of Quarantine and 100 movies before that. We say "that was cool" when we watch it on the screen, and then we go on with our life. When you see it in real life, and it's unexpected, and it's not trying to duplicate something from a movie, it's far beyond cool.

As for the acting itself, yes, there is a lot of talking. And again - when you're watching on the screen and you don't like or aren't following the dialogue, you can tune out. When you are there - in a near pitch black room - with sounds on all sides, your brain won't let you tune out. You don't focus on the quality of the delivery of dialogue, or fact that the candle is battery operated. You are too busy focusing on everything else.

Yes, most of the rooms had the same sort of story to them: you enter a room, adrenaline is built up via the creep factor, it is suddenly released in a surprise moment, and everyone is then chased from the room. So what? Remember when Knott's had their first "acted scene" in Dominion of the Dead? The one where there was a huge battle being waged on both sides and you had to walk through it? That was iconic, and people still talk about it to this day. Knott's doesn't do much of that stuff anymore because it created a hell of a logjam. Delusion was full of epic moments, and by the end, you felt tired.

I really wish TPA had not posted that video... It takes a groundbreaking haunt - a game-changer - and ends up making it look like far less than it was. If there is something positive to say about this video, it's that the creator may be intending to create a brand new story this year, and doesn't care that 2011 is shown in entirety. I know he is researching a new location. I truly hope this is the case.

As I said in my main review - we have been conditioned that certain rules are followed in a haunted house: No one will touch you or "invade your space". Objects will not be touched or manipulated by the customer. Things will generally happen in one area of a room, and you will be in and out of that room in around 30 seconds. You will be in an endless conga line. Scareactors will generally obey the laws of physics (especially ones that have been walking in front of you for 10 minutes). Stairways are "safe zones".

When any one of these "rules" is broken, people are surprised by it, and people remember it. When all of these rules are broken, it changes everything.

[Creeper06]

Thanks for the clarification, Zombieman. Glad to hear that the video doesn't do the experience justice (which is really what I was hoping). Also glad to hear that they continued adjusting and improving the experience. But, you're right, this video doesn't do them many favors in advertising the event. If I saw this and the price, I would have said "no thanks" too. But, I might just check it out next year based on your recommendation. If it's lame, I'll be coming to you for a refund. I know where you live...

And you're right about the first time I saw a bungee effect. It was the Wolfman in the Universal Monsters house at HHN X. It blew my mind and I still remember it in vivid detail. Good memories...

[zombieman]

Creeper06, on 09 February 2012 - 02:01 PM, said:

Thanks for the clarification, Zombieman. Glad to hear that the video doesn't do the experience justice (which is really what I was hoping). Also glad to hear that they continued adjusting and improving the experience. But, you're right, this video doesn't do them many favors in advertising the event. If I saw this and the price, I would have said "no thanks" too. But, I might just check it out next year based on your recommendation. If it's lame, I'll be coming to you for a refund. I know where you live...

And you're right about the first time I saw a bungee effect. It was the Wolfman in the Universal Monsters house at HHN X. It blew my mind and I still remember it in vivid detail. Good memories...

My first bungee was at Uncle Ernie's Madhouse at Knott's, back in '94.

Oh, and if you don't love Delusion II or whatever they call it, it simply means you don't know a good haunt from your ass.

[Creeper06]

Oh, I'm fully aware that a Haunt is only good if it's themed after tired old movie franchises or washed-up elderly rock stars... Yeah, I said it.

[zombieman]

Creeper06, on 09 February 2012 - 07:55 PM, said:

washed-up elderly rock stars...

You bastard....

That cut me to the quick. I may not reply to another of your posts for the next 23 hours.

[Creeper06]

zombieman, on 09 February 2012 - 09:18 PM, said:

You bastard....

That cut me to the quick. I may not reply to another of your posts for the next 23 hours.

Bwa ha ha!!!!! All in fun...