Houses

#1 - Jack Presents 25 Years of Monsters & Mayhem - What a long and incredible house! Great scares, great sets, and a lot of references to old houses! Plus, the room at the end that both terrifies you and gives you a quick history on Jack! This was hands-down the best house of 2015.

#2 - Body Collectors: Recollections - A fun and scary house. Beautiful façade, cool costume design, and great make-up! This probably could've been best house of the year if it had gotten its own soundstage, rather than having to share with FvJ.

#3 - Freddy Vs. Jason - A fun and exciting house. Quite some interactivity with the Freddy's, and just watching the two of these horror icons beat the crap out of each other while still being hunted by them. Same problem with Body Collectors, probably would've been a lot better if it got its own soundstage.

#4 - Asylum in Wonderland 3D - Before you start getting mad because I have this house ranked so high, there's a reason to it: This was my very first HHN house. Because of this, it holds a special place in me. Lots of fun and goofy sets, fun interactivity with the actors, and the first Shrek house!

#5 - Insidious - Pretty good house. Cool set design and some good scares. Only problem was that most of the scares really didn't hit with me. Best scene was definitely the final hallway with the fans touching you.

#6 - The Purge - Eh, I give this house the benefit of the doubt since it had to be put together at the very last minute. I got some good scares in here, though. If everything had gone to plan and this stayed as Scream, it probably could've been the 2nd or 3rd best house.

#7 - An American Werewolf in London - Even though I hadn't gone through the 2013 house, I felt this house wasn't that good. The scares didn't really hit, sets weren't the best, and it felt really short to me. Only good thing was how realistic the puppets were. Other than that, pretty lackluster house, and makes me think the 2013 one might've been overrated.

#8 - RUN: Blood, Sweat, and Fears - Another eh house. This house was fun, and interesting in the concept of it... But it was executed badly. Really only one good scare in here, and completely lacking in good sets.

#9 - The Walking Dead: The Living and The Dead - Remains to this day as my worst house of all time. Not a SINGLE good scare in here, no impressive set design, the horrible pool scene, and the DJ room at the end. Such a horrible house.

Scare Zones

#1 - Psychoscareapy: Unleashed - Holy crap this zone was so much fun to hang out in. So much fun interactivity with the actors, good scares, and it was Psychoscareapy! 

#2 - Icons: HHN - Another fun scare zone. The Icons were so much fun to talk to, and their mini-shows were fun to watch! Only bad part was that The Usher's was really the only good mini-show, while the others were pretty underwhelming. Other than that, an incredible zone.

#3 - All Nite Die-In: Double Feature - Yet another fun zone! So much fun to talk to the actors in here, and see the different horror characters! Plus, this is the spot of the fastest I've ever ran, when two Purgers chased me through the zone with their chainsaws. Terrifying and awesome.

#4 - Scary Tales: Screampunk - A good zone. Not that big, not too many props, but it was cool to see fairytale characters all bloody and insane.

#5 - Evil Roots - I still don't get to this day what all the big hype around this zone was. It was just your typical Central Park overgrown, mother-nature zone. 

Shows

The Carnage Returns - 4/5 - A funny, entertaining, and bloody show. Only problem was of how much it relied on the audience screaming what Jack says.

Bill & Ted's Excellent Halloween Adventure - 4/5 - A funny and entertaining show. Kanye West was a hilarious villain, and time travel! 

Hope you enjoyed this 3-year late review! 

This year, I had the pleasure of going TWO nights instead of my usual one night trips. My first night was Friday, October 23rd, and my second was Saturday the 24th.

So, without further (Insidious hehehe) ado, here is my review of Halloween Horror Nights 25!

My absolute FAVORITE house this year was...

Body Collectors! Recollections! Re-collections? Who cares about the subjective title?! This house was incredible!

The facade was breathtaking, the snow was great! The first room had a very good scare that was also kind of a show scene. The rooms that followed were wonderful. Some highlights for me include the spine rip scene, which was my first time ever seeing this effect. My first time walking through I was so interested by the effect, one of the Gentleman's assistants gave me an amazing scare! I also loved the assembly room. Overall, just an amazing house. The assistants make for amazing scares in the rooms they're in.

My second favorite house was...

A TIE! My first ever (I think) tie between two houses. These two houses were Freddy Vs Jason and Jack Presents 25 Years of Monsters and Mayhem.

Freddy Vs Jason was great. It had a ton of strong scares. I loved the individual Freddy and Jason parts, but the scares were the most prominent in the versus parts. The versus parts were scary, but I felt that the sets were definitely lacking in comparison to the individual parts. Overall, a very good house for scares!

Side Note- both times I went through, Freddy won!

Side Note- I felt weird going through with a Friday the 13th shirt, because I am team Freddy...

Monsters and Mayhem was great as well. Some of the coolest scenes I've ever seen. It wasn't nearly as scary as FvJ or Body Collectors, but it was SO much fun to go through. I loved the classic monsters scene SO MUCH! All of the monsters targeted me, and they had some cool scares they could work with.

Side Note- I LOVE mirror Jack!

Side Note- Forsaken scene was very disorienting for a first time experience with that house.

My third favorite house was Insidious!

This house was creepy, but not terrifying. I missed alot of scares but saw a bunch of effects. The house also felt pretty long, I guess the weird Hodge-podge of rooms made it feel like it. The masks were very well done, and the scares I did get were very good! Overall a pretty awesome house.

Side Note- The room with the moving walls had a creepy gurgling sound and it really creeped me out.

Side Note- The room with the bodies in the pews was so creepy.

My fourth favorite was actually The Purge!

I was so apprehensive about this house. The reviews were so mixed and I didn't want to be disappointed. But my run through had TONS of energy! The house made me oddly sad, because I am such a fan of Scream and walking through and seeing the scenes that could have been felt strange. But, the cast made up for the lazy set re-dressing. I saw the plant as well!

Side Note- Seeing the Scream 2 Column scene was great, that would have been an AWESOME room.

My fifth favorite house was Asylum In Wonderland 3D!

My two run through's of this house were very good. The house wasn't particularly scary, but I loved the cool effects. The costumes were very cool and they worked well with the UV light. One of the best 3D houses I've been in. I also really like the ending scenes back in the asylum, as well as the twist ending to the house.

Sixth favorite house had to be Run: Blood Sweat and Fears.

I enjoyed this house, but I didn't find it very scary. The sets were okay, but I wish that some scenes could have represented the countries a little more blatently like others do. Like the Japan room had very much of a Japanese theme, while the Egypt room was just one of Hellgate's bathrooms. Both casts were very good with their scares and seemed to have a lot of energy.

Side Note- The Japanese mirror scare was very cool.

The house that takes my seventh favorite was American Werewolf in London.

Don't get me wrong- I love this house, it was my favorite during HHN 23. But it just didn't hold up this year next to all of the other incredible houses. The new wolves were VERY aggressive and large, but the house just felt like seeing an old friend that has changed over the years. I still love this house, I just wish a repeat could have waited a while before happening.

My least favorite house had to be The Walking Dead.

I really did not like this house. The scareactors tried the best they could, but every place a scare could happen from was either obvious or out in the open. The sets were also kind of boring and repetitive. Season 5 didn't lend much for a house, in my opinion.

1. Body Collectors: Recollections

2. Freddy Vs Jason/Jack Presents: 25 Years of Monsters and Mayhem

3. Insidious

4. The Purge

5. Asylum In Wonderland 3D

6. Run: Blood Sweat and Fears

7. American Werewolf In London

8. The Walking Dead

My number one scarezone this year was PsychoScarepy: Unleashed!

This zone was great. The props were very fitting and so humorously dark. The thing that made this zone so great was the actors. They had AMAZING interaction! Great zone.

My second favorite scarezone was HHN: Icons.

I actually really enjoyed this zone. The stages were very nice, and all of the icons were very cool to see as I never came to HHN during their years. Really fun zone.

My pick for third was All Night Die In.

This zone is so much better when it's not crowded in its location. Both casts are a lot of fun to watch, but I think my personal favorite is the black and white cast. Very cool.

Side Note- The selfies in this zone are getting out of hand.

My fourth favorite was Scary Tales: Scream Punk!

I enjoy this zone a lot. The costumes are pretty neat and the actors seem to really be getting into their roles and space. Special shoutout to the Little Red who came up in my face when i was distracted and yelled "TALES!".

My fifth is Evils Roots. This zone was too congested the nights I went. I didn't see many actors, but the ones I did looked great. The stilt scarecrow gave me a good startle. Very atmospheric.

The Carnage Returns is GREAT! Just an awesome show. A lot of funny and gory moments.

Overall, I really enjoyed this year. As a kind of still fresh HHN fan, seeing beloved houses and characters was very nice. Overall great houses, and awesome scarezones.

Man. What a fantastic year. It really felt like a 17, or 19 for me. Those were my golden years; 17-20. WOOF. You didn't get any better than that. The themeing. The houses. The twisted taters (you always have to say taters in a Gollum voice...well, I do...). Those were the YEARS. And honesly, 25 felt like one of those YEARS. It was fantastic. Except for that damn firework in the beginning. It's the return of the DUD. HAHA. You guys. That firework. IT'S BACK. That had more of an impact on me than JACK. It's like last year's fireworks lame cousin who drives a truck and loves ICP. You're lame, firework. Go back to the other fireworks and feel bad.

Okay. Okay. Let's get to it.

LAAAAAAADIES and Gentlemen, in this corner, from the binary planet of one-zero-one-one-zero, weighing in at 250 tons, the robot that just cannot stop...ARMYOFROBUTTS!!

HEY! EVERY YEAR. EVERY YEAR YOU SHOW UP. AND YOU DO THIS. IT HURTS. It hurts every year. You can't say that about people. LET'S GO. FORGET IT YOU JERK, YOU DO THIS EVERY YEAR. THE REVIEW.

Spoilers, fun, and nonsense awaits you, my little Greedos.

New paragraph.

Jack Presents: 25 Years of Monsters and Mayhem
Sweet mother of ZEUS. Who titled this house?

Might as well start this off right.

AND WE HAVE OUR HOUSE OF THE YEAR.

Seriously. There's no contender. This is the best of the best. From design, to length (*wink*), scareactors, content...this house is EVERYTHING. This house could come back every year and I woudln't be mad...I'm looking at you WEREWOLF. LOOKING. AT. YOU. 

The facade is fantastic and is so ominous. Seeing more of those portraits, and they are awesome, was really cool. CINDY! She has a portrait. But poor B-Mare. She has nothing. She was even taken off the shirt. Poor, poor B-Mare. You were the best, and now you're loam.

Going into the house, you don't know really what to expect. Was it going to be like the "best of house" in 20? Well, kinda? But WAY more original content, which is great. And no Dead Exposure...which is even better. Just KIDDING. No I'm not. I loved the scene transitions  with the Jacks, and they certainly did some great spoops, too. Right away, I knew this was THE house. The bear puppet? Fantastic. And then seeing poppa bear..it brought a grizzly sized tear to my eye. I LOVED it. Going into The Forsaken, with the best scene. GREAT. And they got rid of those glowing eyes, which is a plus, honestly. Because they can actually HIDE and SCARE. Kudos to whoever thought of that gem. And then stuff just gets better from there. My favorite part of the house was with the classic monsters. I like seeing the Monster, AND EBENIZER WULFMN. Me and him go WAY back. I hope you're still studying law, friendo. How's the family, Sam and Barbara? I hope they're great. Miss you buddy....ahem. Seeing the Bride was great. Really  great stu---*HUMMMMMMMMM* OH MY LORDY LOU, PHANTOM JUST SCARED THE PANTS OFF OF ME. Literally. They ran off without me. Now I'm just walking around looking for my pants...no, I'm not trying to pick you up, vampire ladies of the night. My pants ran away. Oh, haHA. Yeah, it IS a little cold in here. grumble grumble.

Okay. Found my pants.

You know what was really supremely great about this house?  I LOVED seeing the tank at the bottom of the cathederal during the Gothic scene. When you peeped over? That was AWESOME. I saw that and said..."TANKS. TANKS A LOT, HHN." And then, of couse that signaled that my little ladies are back. I missed you...EWWWW. SO BALD. So bald you tiny creepy nurses. <3 <3. Please come back in form of a street next year. I jumped for joy when I saw those little bald, Baraka looking ladies. They makes me so happy, but instantly creep me out when I focus on them. UGH. GROSS.
And then, you keep winding through and there's just so many more surprises I won't get into. The finale was great. Just great. GREAT. GRATE. GR8. What a great house. Exiting through all of those black curtains, I knew this was it. Going outside, seeing the soundstag--*VROOOOM*. EDDIE. WHAT THE EFF. Where did you--*VROOOOM*.

Oh. Your. God.

MEATY MEETZ.

HE'S BACK. HE'S BACK. HE'S BACK. HE'S BACK. HE'S BACK. HE'S BACK. HE'S BACK.

excuse me...I have *sniff*...I have dust in my eye.

House Count: 5
House Rating: 1 Meaty Meetz out of 1 My Life is Whole Again.

The "Z" stands for "I miss you"

An American Werewolf in London
I must've jumped in that TARDIS, because I SWEAR I've seen this before.

Honestly, if you want my thoughts on this house, read my review from 2013. It still stands, but it's not my House of the Year. Everything is still great. After experiencing it 2 years ago in Orlando, and last year in Hollywood, it did lose some shine..but it's still great and you can tell it's a labor of love.

House Count: 4
House Rating: 1 We Need to Talk out of 3 It's Not Me, It's You.

Freddy vs. Jason
Dawn of Slashers and the First Time I saw Boobs on Film. Thanks, 80's.

This was a VERY close contender for House of the Year. Really. It's fantastic. I may be a liiiitttlllle biased because Freddy was my first role in 2007, but none the less, it's a FANTASTIC house. It really felt like 2007 all over again, not just for Freddy, but also going back to Camp Crystal Lake...also, RIP Jaws queue. Just kidding, BYE JAWS.

Also, second year of a versus house. Glad to see we got more "versus" this time around, but I hope this isn't a trend. Next year "Sharkando versus Sharktopus"...actually, that sounds badass. DIBS. MY IDEA. DIBS.

Going in, you knew two things..Freddy, Jason. How those were going to play out, I really had no idea. I kind of had an idea...that film from 2003 or whatever. But apparently it's nothing like that, so I was intrigued. I do know this...QUEUE VIDEO, PLEASE. Man, what an opportunity for a queue video. AND IT'S GONE. POOF.../sigh....Jumping into the soundstage, you're instantly taken to Camp Crystal lake, and Jason has already started his Purge. RELEASE THE BEAST. DIBS. MY IDEA. JASON vs. The PURGE. Take that, horny teenagers...and your sex. That'll teach you. Really classic scares, and really effective. Jason was at every freaking turn. And he was PISSED. It was awesome. Winding through the cabin, and camp...And then...well...magic happened.

1...2....Freddy's coming for you...

You're on Elm Street. You're in the dream.  And it just becomes legendary at this point. Seeing the classic kills from the films, translated into real life was great. It was DIFFERENT than 2007, and I'm SO happy, because I just expected it to be the same. But you're seieng all new stuff. Going through the boiler room, seeing all of that iconic scenery. And then, if I may take a quote from Ken Wantanabe..."Let them fight" and they DID. You actually saw them brawling. It was GREAT. Some of the gags were LEGIT, too. Freddy stabbing Jason and stuff, and vice versa? So cool. Winding through the coor--did...what was that? Was that a roid-raged Freddy? Hold on...

...

hahahaha. It was. Freddy, you been working out man. Looking..you're looking good, man. I laughed so hard I ran into the sweaty back of the guy in front of me. Gross. Now I have beer flavored sweat all over me. Ugh..this is the worst. Thanks. Thanks a lot roid-raged, Freddy. This IS a nightmare. Nightmare in Soundstage 24. 

Going underwater, seeing Freddy in a Camp Crystal Lake shift, all gold. The finale was great. Man, what a great freaking house. I, for one, will take a Freddy and Jason house every year.

House Count: 5
House Rating: 1 Roid Raged Freddy out of 72 High School Students. (they'll never have a chance)

Body Collectors: Recollections
One thing is for sure, those Collectors aim for the throat.

Hello, old friend. Great to see another Body Collectors house. It has a great history within HHN, and honestly, it has a lot to live up to. Unfortunately, for me, this house was kind of a little boring for me? Definitely wasn't bad, but it lacked some CHUTZPAH. Yeah, yeah, you're yelling at your computer screen. Just...listen. Or read. Read and listen..RESTEN.

Facade? Check? Ominous setting? Check. Person in the fire place? Check.

The setup was great. Great mood going into the house and it really sets itself up. *SHNIK* Man, how can you not cheer at the slit throat? Great setup, moving along...where..how..I'm lost. CURSES. WHY DID I ENTER A SOUNDSTAGE DURING THE DAY? I CAN'T SEE SQUAT. Table. Table in my way. Desk, chairs. I just whammied my knee on this table, guests are so angry. WHERE. WHERE DO I GO. *SHNIK* "YOU'RE GOING THE WRONG WAY". HEY HEY HEY. Listen, lady! You're dead! I can see that. Oh...the door to my left? That very obvious door that I completely missed because my eyes hadn't adjusted yet? Yeah..thanks. /tail between legs. Ew, gross. I'm not a furry. No, I won't give you a hug. Get away from me, guy dressed as Star Fox. NO, I won't be your Slippy. LEAVE.
Geez. How did that guy get in here? But yeah, I seriously got lost in this house. It was  awful. Moving along...!

Nice wintery set up, and people in the snow? Am I going through the Shining? I'm not sure what's happening here, but it looks nice, so I accept it. And from here...? Catacombs and jail cells. Not really doing much for me in terms of scares, but it looks pretty, I guess. Some guy growling like a dog, walking around like Gollum (HUZZAH. Second Gollum reference!) and some basic scares. As always, the Spine Girl scene is great, although nothing too new, and the scene where the Collectors making the bodies? That was pretty great. And some really epic music, too. And then we go back through some catacombs and cells, and a guy gnashing his teeth at the end. That guy makes me laugh. He was great. Good job, dude. You made me sincerely laugh because you just hammed up the scene so well...but then it ends.
I guess it just falls a little flat for me. Not terrible, but really middle of the road for me. As always, great to see the Collectors, but this time, they're a little more forgetable.

House Count: 4
House Rating: 4 Chairs in My Way (WHERE DO I GO?) out of 1 Man Gnashing his Teeth.

RUN: BLOOD, SWEAT, AND FEARS
One Country to Rule Them All (note: It's Germany)

Okay. This house was middle of the road, but I had probably some of the best interactions in this house. And that puts it in my Top 3. Crazy, right? This house was AWESOME because the actors are having FUN. Funactors? Maybe? But, let me tell you, I haven't laughed this hard in a house in a LONG time.
First off, queue video is FANTASTIC. Second off, GREAT facade. Third off...uh...look at all of those ropes?
Entering the house is pretty great. Really good set up, very Hunger Game-ish (OH GHAD, I made a Hunger Games reference), like you're being forced into the game. That count down really got me pumped. And the Police? Policia? Armed Forces? Master Chiefs? Did a great job moving you along into the game. Going into the steam zone thing was cool, and I met Jaden Smith from After Earth. He gave me a piece of his face; good jorb, Jaden. AND THEN YA GET THE STEAM. And you're on your way.

Loved the mirror gag with the Samurai guy, you're just waiting for, OH SWEET JESUS. Little fan lady came out of nowhere. Where'd you come from, Kitana? Good spoop. And you pass her and KAPOWI, Samurai guy is right there. My buddy and I had a good chuckle when he got spooked by him and he yelled out, ME SO SORRY. In which Samurai Guy comes back and has a great chuckle. I laugh, my friend laughs, Samurai laughs, Samurai kills friend; it was a great time.
Moving along, getting SO pumped after that. Loved going through Canada and singing  O CANADA with those crazy Canadians. It was a blast. And then singing Carmena Burana with those gladiators. Just so much fun. And then...then here they are. DAS BLITZKRIEG BROTHERS. We started a chant "DEUTSCHLAND! DEUTSCHLAND!" And the brothers kick in "DEUTSCHLAND!DEUTSCHLAND!" We're all shouting, chanting! The whole room is going nuts. SO. MUCH. FUN.
Really. This house is great. Kudos to every funactor involved. You made a pretty boring house so much fun. I went through 5 times in one night because you guys were killing it.

DEUTSCHLAND!

House Count: 9
House Rating: 3 BLITZKRIEG BROTHERS out of 2 Canadians, eh?

Insidious
HE'S GOT YER BABY. HE'S GOT YER BABY.

I wish I could say I've seen the first Insidious, but I have not. I saw the second film, and that was a mistake. But hey- we learn. And I learned by not seeing the third OR the first. Because, man. I did not enjoy the second one, and it wasn't because I was lost...I was not.

The house was...okay? I guess. People were saying this was the most intense house of the run, but it just kind of falls flat. The facade was great, a nice colonial type of house, in which we enter through the side, and then we encounter Darth Maul,  scary ladies in wedding dresses, and sheets that stand up *insert boner joke here.* I did not understand what was happening here, and probably shame on me for that, so I really can't discredit what was happening. There were some okay scares, though. And the sets were really great. Darth Maul was particuarly scary, and there were some great moments with him.

 I liked seeing the return of the claustrophobic hallway..I guess that was us going into the Dark World? What's it called? I don't remember. So, I'll just got it Dark World. Dark World was pretty effective, and kind of tonally different. The "funeral" scene was really great, too. The house was also decently long (that's what she said) and people all over were getting spooked. It was like I was not a part of the spook, but I did like seeing the other get scared, so it was worth the wait.
Again, I probably should have seen the film, and I probably would have liked this house a little more, just because I can understand the story of it. But, here we are. It just falls middle of the road for me.

It also doesn't help that this house was always insanely busy.

House Count: 1
House Rating: 3 Boner Jokes out for 2 Sith Lords (No More and No Less)

The Purge
Let us SCREAM from the rooftops, RELEASE THE BEAST

I'm basing this soley on what we had, not what could have been.

Honestly, I'm a big fan of The Purge films, and I have no idea why. I mean, really, they're okay. But I find the idea so much fun, and it's really probably just the IDEA of the Purge of what tickles my Beast Bone *insert second boner joke here.* Either way, I find this house REALLY enjoyable, and it's for ONE reason...well...15-20 reasons. THE PURGERS.

Man, you guys kept this house alive. The sets were pretty mediocre, and that's nobody's fault, but The Purgers were awesome. There were some pretty awesome things going on here. Firstly, having the nicely dressed Purger out front talking to folks really set the mood, and then...BWURRRR....BWURRRR. God, I love that siren. Seeing the screens with the rest of the Purgers happening around the country, that was pretty fantastic. And then going through the house was great. Aw, man. Jiffy Pop! I haven't seen Jiffy Pop since it was in this movie about a guy running around in a mask murdering teenagers. I can't remember what it was called.... anyway.
Lots of guns blowing people away in this. I will say I wish I saw more unique kills, but you know..that's a minor gripe.

Going through the garage and...oh, somebody got lost. Let me help you little, tiny girl. It's okay. Come with us, we'll meet your family outside. How did yo--OH NO. SHE'S DEAD. A PURGER TOOK HER AND MURDERED HER. that. was awesome. I love seeing that stuff. It really ties it all together, like this one rug I had in this room. I wish there were more gags like that. And we finish it out with STROBES STROBES STROBES STROBES STROBES. Lady murder on bed. STROBES STROBES STROBES. Sweet Jesus who steals hubcaps from cars, I'm flopping like fish out of this house. Somebody put a plank in my mouth so I don't swallow my tongue.

As I seizured out of the house, I reflected back on what happened, and really, I give kudos. They really turned around a crappy situation and not only turned it into something that worked, but something that worked effectively.

Job great, work good.

House Count: 5
House Rating: 45 Gun Shots to the Face out of 0 Sidney Prescotts.

The Walking Dead: The Living and the Dead
something something Walking Dead  something something 

WOOF. Here we are. The RETURN OF. I don't watch the Walking Dead, nor do I watch FEAR the Walking Dead...but I DO watch The Walken Dead *insert Disaster joke here*.

I have no clue what is happening here. We have Walkers, and we have people, living in harmony. And then we have sleepy time for me. I just kind of wander through this house, just trying to wrap my head around everything. The sets are very impressive, as they usually are with these DEAD houses. But, everything else falls flat for me, unfortunately.

Really, I don't have much else to say. I think it just falls under fatigue for me. Oh well. Maybe next year.

House Count: 2
House Rating: 7 Zoombies, Coral out of 1 Coon Tombstone (that's racist)

Asylum in Wonderland 3D
Wait...I have to go ALL THE WAY AROUND TO GET HERE?

Hey! This is pretty neat! Using the Shrek building for a house? That's pretty cool they were able to pull it off. That's really impressive. The Shrek building and all. I mean, to build a house in one of the theaters was really cool...can't talk more enough about buidling a house in there...because..well...womp womp. Alice isn't looking too fine.

I think the idea was taking Alice from 2008, from that awesome Street, and then basing a house around it, but man, it doesn't really translate. I will say, best use of the vortex, and I really liked the sets, they were all pretty good. I did not like the costumes too much, and the scares didn't play into the scenery very well. The 3D was some of the better uses, but what was that one house a couple years ago...what was it called? The one about the serial killer. Let me check my old review: oh yeaaah. Afterlife. That was it. Definitely some things from Afterlife here.
This house wasn't as good as Afterlife. And that says it all.

House Count: 3
House Rating:  2 Checkered Unitards out of 1 Underage Alice

HOUSE RANKZ:
1. Jack Presents: DON'T TALK ABOUT BLOODY MARY.
2. Pepperoni Face versus The Goalie from The Mighty Ducks
3. JOG: TEARS FOR FEARS.
4. The Purge: Totally Not Scream
5. Tax Collectors: What the IRS Thinks of You
6. Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace
7. The Return of the Werewolf Bar Mitzvah
8. Alice in WonderDuloc
9. The Snoring Dead

STREET RANKS:
1. All Nite Die-In: GRAYSCALE EDITION
2. What Evil has Taken Root?
3. Saws n' Clowns: Into the Circus
4. Psychoscareapy: Get it? It's like THERAPY, but it's SCARY
5. HHN Icons: DON'T TALK ABOUT BLOODY MARY.
6. Chainsaw Drill Team: TIME TO GET DRILLED *insert boner joke here*
7. All Nite Die-In: NOW IN TECHNICOLOR
8. Kids Like the Steam and the Punks Still, RIGHT?

Now I ... I recognize, children, that I am an ancient being at the ripe old age of 31 *cough hack cough* ... And I've been to HHN .. *hack* several times..but... Here.. Here we go........

I'll ... I'll have my gggrrannndddssonnn type the rest..... *coughcough* ... I'm 31, you see...so it's hard for me to see the screen......................

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HOUSES
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25
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What is there to say about this house nobody said already? It's almost annoyingly amazing. Eff off with your amazing incredible every-room-rules house.
GRADE: A+

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AWiL
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What I gather is that they voted on the house they wanted to have re-done from the past 25 years, and they came up with this house, from 45 seconds ago. That's bull. Sure the house is still awesome, but it was awesome the first time.

It's like you locked me in a dark room and just played "Bohemian Rhapsody" - I can't do anything about it. 
GRADE: INCOMPLETE

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FvJ
==
First off, there's no way Jason would win. These are two immortal non-dying beings, but in the FvJ movie, Freddy surrounds Jason with a curtain of water and he turns into a child and curls up quivering like a wuss. So how's he ever get out of that? Eff that. But the house was cool. Even though the Phillip sculpture was lit up so much it looked like a light bulb. And they just left the phallic Freddy-eating-Patricia-Arquette sculpture pink, where they had to paint it pink for the movie because ... Well, it looks like a wang. Also Patricia Arquette's nipples stick out. Seriously. ............. Wait, does that increase or decrease the score? I don't know.  
GRADE: A

==
Body Collectors
==
They should've built a wall and made this part of this soundstage freezing cold. Also, I saw a wall give birth to a ......Guy?
Grade: A

==
Insidious
==
These movies are rambling nonsense but the house is creepy. I .. T.....Th..... An...... Nope. --Conclusion Here--
GRADE: B+

==
Run
==
Various people various weapons I don't care. Luckily this garbage house earns the C.
GRADE: C+ (TAKE THAT! A TWIST!)

==
The Walking Dead
==
Eff this stupid nonsense. I don't care anymore. Stop doing this. 
The above helps in no way. It's personal opinion, and if I were of the mind that shared personal opinion I wouldn't obsessively go to HHN every year.

That said, this has been the damn house for the past, what, 15 years? And every year I take the UTH tour and it's like "Oh and this is the supply room and the hospital and the woods and blahblahblah". .......... Uni, you handed in the same project you've handed in twice before. I can't grade this bullhonky.
GRADE: INCOMPLETE

==
The Purge
==
LOL, STFU. This should've been Scream. And then they obviously repurposed it in six minutes. I can't grade this.
GRADE: INCOMPLETE

==
Asylum
==
This is the best thing that ever happened.
GRADE: A+

Overall: B+
Yeah, that's right - B+. But you know what, that's what it deserved. In fact, it's what it started with. There was no way for this year's houses to earn above a B+ because one of the damn houses was exactly the same as another house from just TWO years ago.

==================
SCAREZONES
==================

I have nothing to say here I ain't done didn't did say other place. 

Overall, I give it an A, not an A+, because of all the #$*(#&($#*&)()*#) FOG. YOU DON'T NEED IT, UNI, AND THOSE OF US WEARING CONTACTS HATE IT

===================
SHOWS
===================

===
Bill and ted
===
The worst thing that ever happened. Hunt down what I said in the thread if you care. I don't want to rethink it.
GRADE: F-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

===
Jack's Show
===
Just a photo op and sucking the GP wang. But I got some good pix. Whatever.-
GRADE: B-

THE EVENT

Overall .............. HHN25 was awesome. Every year is awesome though. Even when there's poopy garbage. 

And even the comparison from my first run (second day) to my last (last day) ............ wow. None of you people sucked. I wrote better nonsense than Bill and Ted in middle school, but other people disagree so whatever.

I GIVE THIS EVENT AN A. AND THAT IS OFFICIAL. 

Halloween Horror Nights 25: My critical, disjointed review.

Overall: 

The event gets an overall 7/10. I do NOT think the houses were as good as they could've been. I do NOT think the scarezones were as good as they could've been. But that said the event was "good." There was a consistency of "good" in this event. Note, though, I am hesitant to say the event is a true return-to-form because much of this year absolutely was reused, intentionally (but to a flaw), to celebrate its 25th year. Outside of the Body Collectors I do not think the original content was as good as it could've been. Unfortunately I will never give IPs the love they apparently get because it's less difficult to copy a successful horror movie than it is to create loved original content.

I am very glad they increasing the number of scareactors in scarezones so that guests have a greater chance of being startled, but the money was wasted. The scarezones felt incomplete. Yes, the parade exists, but the parade does not stop vertical decorations, does not stop other items from other mobile props from being placed, etc. The wage cost for the extra actors could've been better spent on hiring less, but more talented actors and increasing the ambiance through props, effects, etc of the event. Many of the costumes looked ESPECIALLY plain or really amateur.

The second night I went, Sunday, seemed to have the event firing on all cylinders. It was dramatically better than the Friday I went just two days prior. I have absolutely no idea why. It's critical they bump the event up to that level of intensity. That along brought the event up from a 6 to a 7.

FYI, there is no excuse for the event to NOT have all the props/effects/makeup ready and working by the opening night of the event. Period.

Jack:

I do not think he was used effectively. Having a show, commercial, and house does not make an icon. The icon needs to add to the atmosphere. Jack did not do that.  Plastering his face on every piece of memorabilia actually hurt a consumer's ability to choose. Why not get a mug with another icon on it? Claiming the event to be a carnival while having no actual sense of a carnival is pretty lame. This year could've been a perfect opportunity to really make Jack darker. Now, he seems like a "jackass shock rocker." If they wanted to a return to form they should've brought Jack back a la Director, Caretaker, etc. They must've flirted with the idea because I get SOME vibe from his early teaser and the Commercial, but someone, somewhere, must've jumped in and forced him to be more accessible. Going forward it'll limit how he can be developed, again. They should've used this year to develop his story more, but they didn't.

Jack's Carnage Returns:

I watched Jack's show on YouTube and was relatively impressed. Jack's makeup looked great. I liked how the show was more adult in nature. Acknowledging the event had gone soft is GREAT, too. Loved the stage itself, too. Knocking The Walking Dead was funny. Chance and Jack were great actors. I liked the playful incorporation of the other icons. I wished they'd stop the "HELL YEAH JACK" nonsense, though. Forcing crowd interaction seems to be a filler for a lack of material. Would've been nice to see a story develop on stage. The name of the show speaks to HHN17 which is a nice continuation nod. I didn't like the dancers at first but thought it played out well since they assisted Jack/Chance and made it seem more carnival like. There needs more action, though.

Store & Memorabilia:

Perfect idea to bring this type of store to the event. It's, frankly, long overdue. Speaking of stores, at Orlando airport they no longer have an HHN display, just a few items for sale. I think the shirts and mugs were definitely good, but it would've been nice to see something fantastic like the full Bloody Mary shirt, or some diversity to the icons face on the mug. We all have our preferences, let's cater to them. Jack is not the only thing people want. Location wise it was a fantastic choice. I loved seeing them label which props came from what year/house.

Park Entrance:

The entrance to the park was was very poorly decorated. I miss the days where it had more decorations. Yes, there is a cost element involved, but it absolutely makes people excited. However, I will complement Jack's voice playing over the speakers at times. 

Marketing:

This year's marketing and website were pitiful. I've never been so disappointed by the event. They had a perfect opportunity to nail the hype for the event and it fell terribly short. The days of websites past are long gone, apparently. There is no excuse for the poor release schedule during the Scream fiasco. Release the original content to hold fans over. There is no genuine interaction with the website. The Twitter account, unless Creative took its reins momentarily, was embarrassing. Jack's Maniacs intuitively made no sense. Why would we become a maniac and then go get attacked in his houses? Some social media posts also spoiled far, far too much. 

Pricing, Dates, Time:

I love that the event is open an hour later early in the season. I hope they're making money during the last hour and a half. By 11:30 both nights houses had their average wait time drop to, at most, 30 minutes, mostly averaging to 20 minutes. An hour before that they were hovering at 60. The Rush of Fear pass is a PHENOMENAL, intelligent offering priced very wisely and so is their express pass.

(I will get the houses/scarezones up as soon as possible, but this is the first part. Hopefully by tonight something will be up).

So, Keep that in mind when your reading. I don't get a chance to makeup for a bad run-through. I am seeing this as presented one time only.

Anyway let me dive right in with a play by play. I'll censor anything I feel is a spoiler with tags.

First off, we got to Universal at 5:30 to do the AP party. By the time I was able to go through the line, metal detectors, and finally the ticket turnstile, the opening ceremonies were completed and regular guest were already coming in. At this point I realized the AP party was probably no longer worth the effort. I mean, basically we were only late to the party by the 10 min it took to get to the gate from the parking lot. 

Regardless, We proceeded to the party which involves rushing through HHN-ICONS (The icons were on their stages) and also through Evils Roots which had two or three scareactors, My wife also got an amazing shot of one of the bat critters,

Anyway by the time we got to the first house, TWD it was 6:26 (seriously took that long to get through the lines) and the posted wait time was 45 minutes. We actually only waited 24 min so that is great so far. 

The Walking Dead (2 out of 8)

Overall the walking dead had decent sets. Unfortunately more of the same from years past. I was particularly disappointed with 

 bloaters in the water, seriously they were just people standing in water. Where are the levels of scaring?

also

the same thriller dancing zombies from last year

Overall not impressed at all. I mean I recognized what they were doing. I just didn't feel they weren't accurate or effective representations of the scenes they were trying to depict. It just kind of ended. Throw in that zombies are boring and played out and It was a snooze fest. Kudos to the one zombie who hit me with his chin (I think) while growling in my ear. Only thing that startled me. Also why is the facade worse than the one from last year? 

Anyway so we moved immediately to The Purge. It was 7:00 and the posted wait time was 1 hour however we only waited about 45 min. 

The Purge (2 out of 8)

The opening room was creative but, once we past that it was very clear that the house was Scream with the walls sprayed with Graffiti. Like every wall. EVERY WALL. Yeah there were guys in masks that came at you with various weapons. It all pretty much felt the same in every room.

At that point we got a drink in MIB and then moved to Insidious at 7:52. Posted as a 55 min wait time actually waited 1 hour and 5 min. 

Insidious (6 out of 8)

Finally a good house! Great scares, great ambiance, great effects. My only qualm was the obnoxious ops standing in the middle of the scenes. Really kills the house. In one room the dude was standing right in front of and obstructing the scares.

Filled up our cup... BTW I like the new cup idea. I don't really like the size or that I can't fill it up more than once every 10 min. I get that it is supposed to stop you from sharing but the amount of fluid in the cup is like a swig for me. 

Next we moved to Run so we had to move through ALL NITE DIE-IN. The classic monsters were out. They were completely swallowed up by the crowd. It was very hard to get through the scarezone with all the people. The scareactors were using the crowd to as a distraction which is great but it doesn't really feel like a haunted, abandoned drive in when you are elbow to elbow with people. 

We arrive at Run at 9:13 and the wait time was posted as 45 min. We actually waited 47 min.

Run (5 out of 8)

I like the concept for this house. Like a post-apocalyptic, alternate universe 80's. I liked how it was laid out with the nationalities having specific rooms/kills. But it felt very short. I was hoping for a little more. Some good and imaginative scares. Seemed we missed quite a few due to timing though. Still good house and a solid effort. 

As we left the modern monsters were out and about. Again way too crowded. We actually just went behind the screen to get away from the crowd. But... the strangers dude followed us and got my wife good. Bravo!

We then move to Body Collectors through PSYCHOSCAREAPY. There wasn't much going on here scare wise. A few people dressed in costumes. Zero scares. I also, inadvertently, watched a video of the scarezone from the EP and a great deal of the set pieces were missing from that. The burning gazebo seemed a bit too on fire. It was constantly flaming up. 

We arrived at Body Collectors at 10:18 the posted wait time was 60 min. We came to the sinking realization that we wouldn't make it to all the houses. So we decided we would hit the originals, then FvsJ, and then AWIL if we could (I knew there was no way). Another thing we (and everyone else) noticed was the disproportionate numbers of expressers to standard line that are let in. I counted roughly 50 expressers to roughly 15 standard. At one point the line was held up for the expressers yet they refused to let us in the house. I realized what I had surmised all along. People who just pay to get in and don't pay the extra money are considered third-class. They do not care about them. Expressers get priority by at least 3 fold. Then of course first class are your rippers. Despite all that we still waited only 30 min. Realize of course the line was only, in reality, a 5 min wait without the unfair treatment.

Body Collectors (7 out of 8)

Beautiful facade. Just amazing house all around. I really enjoyed this house. Just breathtaking. Great scares and imaginative setups. I wish I could have done it again.

I decided I had to see Monsters and Mayhem if nothing else. So we skipped F vs J, stopped at monster cafe to fill up the cup, and traversed Screampunk. Not as crowed but zero scares... until we got into the line for Monsters and Mayhem. They got us pretty good through the minions queue. When we got in the line at 10:56 the posted wait time was 60 min and we waited just about that. 

Monster and Mayhem (8 of 8)

Wow just wow. This house is everything I could ever hope it would be and more. Hands down the best facade ever. The house is a fantastic blend of things from the past. Just awesome. This made the night for me. If only I had skipped a few houses and done this one two or three times. Great consistent scares. Honestly I can't say enough about how much I loved this house. Only one thing bugged me.

Why was there only one actual Jack sacreactor in this house while everyone else in Jack costumes just had Jack makeup on. Are they supposed to be his manics? I just didn't understand

Filled the cup (apparently you are on your own that last hour fill-ups stop at midnight), hit our first bathroom break and headed to Asylum. It's a little weird to figure out how to get in but not ultra difficult like I was told. We arrived at 12:10 with a posted wait time 65 min. We experienced more of of the third class shunning. I counted 60 expressers before I had to move. 25 standard. We wait 40 min but the line was more of a 20 min wait tops.

Asylum (1 out of 8)

Man I wanted this to be good. Holy crap did it suck. It was not scary, not like Alice, goofy, and unimaginative. I truly hated this house. I guess this is because I loved the In-Between so much. I really had high hopes for this one. So disappointing. I guess, to say something positive, I did like one costume. I also thought some of the 3D techniques were pretty cool. The facade was really good.

So at 12:50 we sprinted to F vs J. Full on run. We made at 12:56 (cut off was 1:00) and there were 6 people behind us. The posted wait time was 45 min. Of course, there were no expressers getting in as the line was closed (and being removed behind us) so it moved pretty quick. Ah a glimpse of the good old days were everyone was equal. We waited about 19 min.

Freddy  Vs. Jason (4 out of 8)

This probably would have scored much higher... if there were scareactors. I mean it looked great but I counted 10 scareactors. We went though at least 3 rooms with no one in them. The actors who played Jason were very intimidating. I saw one Freddy and he seemed like he was ready to go home. But, as I said the sets were really cool.

As we were walking out all the lines were being removed. In the streets, all the lights were on, scareactors were gone, and people were hurriedly removing props. One guy seemed particularly eager for us to move along so when he said: "Bye, thanks for coming have a great night" I finished it with "Now get out of here!" and he laughed. But it did feel like the carpet was being removed while we were standing on it  To my dismay the new store was closed. Luckily, the main store was still open. So were carefully chose a few items from the wide variety of over-priced merchandise (seriously $20.00 for a refrigerator magnet?!?) and we promptly left.

I did not see the any shows, I did not See AWIL (I really didn't care as it was a replica. Still would have liked to compare), I rushed though all the scarezones, and barely made 8 houses.

Despite all the stress and running around, I enjoyed 5 of the 8 houses. Only one pissed me off and I felt like it was a waste of time. M&M and Body Collectors are high up on my list of all-time favorites.I would say I'm glad I went... but I don't really feel sad that I can't go back. For the price... tough call. I REALLY want to hate on the corporate greed-machine that it has become. But they have a great product... So long as you understand that you aren't going to see it all in one night without some monetary lubrication, divine intervention, mastermind planning, or blind dumb luck.

So to recap my ranking from best to worst.

M&M, Body collectors, insidious, run, F Vs J, TWD, purge, Alice

AWIL is NA 

The scarezones... eh. I have little opinion on them. I moved so fast it was hard to get one. What I did see around the mindless throngs of bodies I thought looked good. Just couldn't see the scares through all the people. I wonder if, eventually, they will phase them out and just have photo ops... kind of there anyway 

Shows have never mattered to me. I mean if I had time sure but there just wasn't any. 

Overall I give the event 8 out of 10 hard earned coins. 

To start out, I would like to say that of the three years I have gone, this year was by far the best. Not one maze was "bad." It was also nice running into some HNN members including MZ, Figment, and Dr. Jimmy. 

Let's start with the mazes. Here they are ranked from worst to best:

The Walking Dead: The Living and the Dead (6/10)

A lot of people really disliked this house, but I thought it was really fun. It was way more intense than TWD mazes from 2013 and 2014, and the food bank scene was awesome! Not much else to say besides it's TWD.

Asylum in Wonderland 3D (6.5/10)

As far as 3D houses go, this one was phenomenal (particularly when the only other one you experienced at HHN was Afterlife). It did lack intense scares, however, and it would have been better if not 3D.

The Purge (7/10)

Whatever this house lacked in set design (understandably) made up for it with atmosphere and intensity. While not the scariest or creepiest of the event, it was by far the most intense overall.

Insidious (7.5/10)

While Insidious was a great house, it wasn't nearly as scary as anyone made it out to be. In fact, I got a few better scares in TWD. The one thing it did have going for it, however, was the creep factor. Definitely the most unsettling house of the event.

An American Werewolf in London (N/A)

The only reason this one has no rating is because it is a repeat. To see my full thoughts on this one, check out my 2013 review.

RUN: Blood, Sweat and Fears (8/10)

This house gets a lot of hate, and I don't really understand why. The first time I went through it I didn't care for it very much, however it got better with every trip through. It was a solid house and a good send-off for the Disaster queue.

Freddy vs. Jason (8.5/10)

This was a great house with great sets and great actors. I felt totally inmersed in the sets, and I almost had a panic attack (from excitement, awe, and fear) when I found myself at the doorstep of 1428 Elm Street. It was also by far the scariest house of the night. The only problem was the last few rooms. They lacked the amazing detail of the previous rooms and the video effects were laughable.

Body Collectors: Recollections (9/10)

This one was great. I was finally able to experience a Psychoscareapy house AND a Body Collectors house in one fell swoop. Amazing sets, characters, and story truly made the experience one to remember, too.

Jack Presents: 25 Years of Monsters and Mayhem (10/10)

I was given only one word to describe this one, it would be awesome. It had by far the best sets, scares, and characters of the night. A truly amazing house that one must see to believe.

Now, onto the scareszones:

Scary Tales: Screampunk (5/10)

This zone showed a whole lot of effort and very little payoff. The giant gears were pretty sweet, but the characters just seemed generic and not very intimidating.

All Nite Die-In: Double Feature (7/10)

A very fun zone which could have been terrifying if it wasn't for guests turning it into a photo-op. That's really all I have to say about this one.

Evil's Roots (8/10)

By far the most atmospheric zone of the event. What it lacked in scares was clearly made up for in atmosphere.

Psychoscareapy: Unleashed (9/10)

This was an awesome zone! It was extremely chaotic and I actually felt as if I was in danger at times!

Icons: HHN (10/10)

This zone was downright jaw-dropping. While not as scary as Psyhoscareapy, it was amazing to see all the icons together. The kills are what really sealed the deal for me.

Now onto shows:

Bill and Ted's Excellent Halloween Adventure (6/10)

I'm not sure where they went wrong this year. Last year's show was awesome and this year's was just sublime.

The Carnage Returns (10/10)

This was an amazing show overall. The dancing, the music, and the pyro all enhanced the amazing special effects. This one was truly a spectacle.

Well, there you have it! My review of HHN 25 is complete. I'm looking forward to HHN 26!

Houses (in order of least favorite to favorite)

9. The Purge. I've never seen the film but I know the premise. I can only remember a few parts, however. If I remember correctly, they went a little overboard with the flashing lights in this house. Grade: C

8. The Walking Dead. This one was probably less scary than the purge, but I do think that they were more creative in this house than the purge. (Also, a scare actor got me twice before the house even started). Grade: C

7. Asylum in Wonderland. This was a very creative house. I thought that the facade with the comic book was interesting. The part with the knights in the black and white checkered room was my favorite part. It wasn't very scary, though. I almost fell over in the tunnel thingy. Grade: B-

6. American Werewolf in London. I saw the movie a few years ago, but my memory was a bit hazy so a lot of things seemed out place, but I remembered some of it. The entrance with the bar was great and the part with the car and the dead body through the window was really good. Grade: B

5. Run. I was most looking forward to this house, but (even knowing the premise) I was very lost going through this house... the first time. Luckily I had done the regular line the first time so I can use my express later in the night when it got more crowded. The second time, I started to pay more attention to everything that was going on and enjoyed it a lot more. (Being a Willy Wonka fan, it was nice seeing they used the Candyman song in the Candy room) Grade: A-

4. Freddy vs Jason. This house really surprised me. Before going, I thought that this was going to be ranked a lot lower considering I'm not a fan of the Friday the 13th series and I only liked the original Nightmare on Elm Street. But this was very well done. I made the mistake of using my express pass when the line was only TEN MINUTES, so I'm pretty angry at myself. The scare actors got me a lot in this one. Grade: A-

3. Insidious. This house was by far the creepiest, especially the hallway part. With express, I only waited in line for about 5 minutes (with the majority of those 5 minutes just walking towards the front of the line). A friend of mine, who didn't have express, waited three hours and ended up only having time do this house. Grade: A

2. Body Collectors. The facade and the entire house was beautiful. Besides Run, this was the only house I did twice. The second time (around 1:00 AM on Saturday morning), there was a delay and the line just stopped, inside the house, for like 25 minutes. I was so disappointed that I was paused in line at the black curtains right before I could see the facade. By any chance, does anyone know what caused this delay? Grade: A

1. Jack's 25 Years of Monsters and Mayhem. This was the first house I did and I loved it; It'll always have a special place in my heart. I did this one first because I read in an article that made for a good recap house of the previous 25 years and was great for first timers. Even though this is my first year, I have been following HHN since 2011, so I was able to identify some parts of this house. My favorite part was the Screamhouse part, with the Caretaker (who's my favorite icon) and Cindy. Like Freddy vs Jason, I was so disappointed I used my express pass because I wanted to do it again but by that time, the line had gone up to an hour. Grade: A+

Scare zones (in order of least favorite to favorite):

N/A. All-Nite Die In. To be fair, I barely spent any time in this one so I'm going to refrain from grading and ranking it. I did see photos online and I thought going in the black and white costumes was very creative. Grade: N/A

4. Scary Tales. I liked that gear thing with the steampunk balloons on top with the dead bodies hanging on the side of it. The costumes (as bloody fairytale characters) were nice. It was a bit underwhelming though. Grade: B-

3. Evil's Roots. The scare actors were on fire in this one. The decorations were beautiful too. Grade: A-

2. HHN - Icons. I probably spent the most time in this scare zone. There was an enormous amount of creativity and detail that went into those floats the icons sat on. I was able to see (and record) an usher, director, and caretaker kill. I wish I could've seen the storyteller do one; I'll probably have to look online for that. Grade: A-

1. Psychoscareapy Unleashed. This scare zone had the most clear plot: Escaped Mental Patients. I thought that the frightened trick or treaters was a nice touch. There was also an enormous amount of detail in this one too. I liked how the individual New York buildings had basic Halloween decorations on them as if someone actually lived there. The crashed bus was a great idea too, as well as the pumpkin carver and the apple bobber and that third thing with the person and the microphone (I wasn't exactly sure what she was doing). Grade: A

I didn't do any of the shows because I saw Jack's show on YouTube about a month ago and heard that Bill & Ted wasn't worth it. Overall, I had a fantastic time for my first time and I am looking forward to going next year.

• This review is based on multiple times going through each house and seeing the shows. 

• I feel like the marketing for this year is a little weak. I feel like with the popularity of jack I would've seen more commercials for the event, or maybe even more than one commercial. I feel like I've only seen a few billboards on I-4 and the ad on youtube. Nothing on TV or radio.

• Merch this year is very disappointing: What I don't understand is the lack of anniversary type merchandise. Other than the horror alumni shirt and a mug, there isn't really anything else with past houses or icons other than werewolf, classic monsters, nightmare on elm street, and childs play (which I desperately need that throw blanket btw.) Also whats the deal with the Usher being looked over in all the icon merch we do have. My last gripe about the merch is that the annual house shirt is MISSING A HOUSE!!!!

• Thank god they retired crouching and crawling for now!!!

Okay enough ranting... On to the houses. I'll take you on a journey through my typical route.

Insidious: As someone who was not a fan of the movie, I was very apprehensive about the house and its location. However this was a great house. Other than the first 2 or 3 rooms where its a lot of dead space, this house has tons of action and is really creepy. By the end of the house I really want to run out it gets pretty terrifying. Scare wise its really good but the suspense, and creepiness is really what gets this the score it does. 9 out of 10.

Freddy vs. Jason: This is a great house. After not getting it right on the first "vs" go around, I feel like Universal got this one right by giving each person their own section and have them battle it out in the end. I was expecting this house to be really violent and it delivered. The stagnant, set Freddy's were a bit unexpected but they work will with the other effects in the house. 8.5 out of 10

Body Collectors: This is such a beautiful house, after only being able to see a section of them in the 20 years of fear house I finally got to experience the Gentlemen in all their glory. This is a house that really relys on show scenes so if you miss it you miss the house (spine rip girl). The inmates are really good and the soundtrack and sets fit in perfectly. 8 out of 10

American Werewolf in London: As much as I'd rather see a new house, this is one where it was okay to bring back. The best house in an otherwise lackluster year, it deserved to come back. Puppets were great, a lot more lifelike than I remember, the floor one always seems to get me. I also totally forgot half the house existed after the transformation room. There are always good scares to be had and intensity is always up for the actors. The only reason the rating is so low is because I've seen it before. 6.5 out of 10

Asylum in Wonderland: As you know, if you've read my past reviews, I'm a sucker for 3-d Houses, and this one is nothing like I've seen before. This house is straight up weird, but in a good way. I really like how the house transitions from really happy and bright to really dark and brutal. The last bedroom scene gets me every time. Mad hatters are really good and they utilized the spinning tunnel well. 7.5 out of 10

Run: This was my most anticipated house coming into the event. The first time I went through I really didn't get it. As I've gone through it a couple times now, I'm more understanding and appreciate it a lot more. Sets are really good for being a Disaster house and the actors are really good. Wish there was more in the ways of a finale scare, but overall not a bad house. 7.5 out of 10

Walking Dead: They should have retired it after last year. Last years what great, totally unexpected, set the bar really high, and this one is just bleh. At first when you go through you think its gonna be a violent house with the prison and everything, but like two rooms later its just a bunch of swaying zombies until the end. The pool zombies are great every night and the house is always well staffed, but there's zero action. Go away Walking Dead no one loves you anymore. 6 out of 10

 Purge: Now this is a haunted house! Its been a while since I've been in a house so violent and loud. It really gets the blood going. The actors know their role and you really think they're out to get you. My first time through I hustled to get out of there. Props to these guys, blood effects and shotgun effects are awesome. Like I said this house I violent and gory like it should be. Best house of the year hands down, and maybe the best one I've seen in a few years. 

Jack: This is straight up a fun house to go in if youre a fan of the event. Obviously your going to have people whos favorite character or favorite house wasn't featured but all in all its a really good house. Scares are pretty good and they made it so all the sets kind of run seemlessly into eachother. I'm also really glad universal loved HHN 21 as much as I did. I'm hoping one day we'll see some sequels to those. One comment I do have is that some of the Jack's seem a little chunky and not well cast. Stupid nitpicky stuff but it threw me off the first time I saw it. But all in all, a lot of the houses and characters in this house deserve to be there. they are memorable. fan favorites. Great house 9.5 out of 10

So final house rankings are as follows:

1. Purge

2.  Jack

3. Insidious

4. Freddy vs. Jason

5. Body Collectors

6. Asylum in Wonderland

7. Run

8. American Werewolf in London

9. Walking Dead

So now the scarezone,

Icons: This is a fun nostalgia scarezone. All past icons are included which really makes it for me. Really wish Jack, Chance and Eddie were included, but you can't win them all. Always receive good scares in this zone. I haven't gotten to see all icons show scenes but the directors and ushers are on point. 4 out of 5

Evil roots: Really cool really creepy scarezone. Actors, especially the fairies, use the fog really well. Always receive the best scares in this zone. 5 out of 5

All nite die In: Now this one I really should give two separate ratings for. Its day and night when you switch to black and white and the color sets. Black and white scareactors are always on point and really know their roles well. On the other hand the color ones really haven't gotten the hang of it yet. It also feels a lot more empty when the newer guys are there. 4 out of 5. 4.5 for black and white and 3.5 for color.
Psychoscarepy: This is an awesome and fun area. The casting was done perfectly for the inmates and I always have a great time watching all the crazy people go around. Never really targeted for scares in this one but always have a fun time playing with the actors. 4.5 out of 5Scary Tales: This is a really pretty zone to look at and thats about it. Costumes are beautiful but for the scary factor it isn't really there. 3.5 out of 5

And last but not least the shows:

Bill and Ted: First I want to say that this years would be a lot better if last year didn't happen. Last year set the bar really high with jokes and everything. A couple of my favorite lady dancers were missing two so that was a bummer too. The last show I saw which was October 7^th, all of the jokes really seemed to miss with the audience. And what really bummed me out was the dance finale, they really couldn't have picked worse songs for the present day finale. The throwbacks were great but the modern day songs were a real disappointment,

Carnage Returns: This was a cool show for me as I've never seen a full on Jack show before. It was a lot more adult than what I was expecting, gags were pretty cool. But let me say, they did the perfect job casting for Chance, she was spot on, perfect for what I was expecting for her role. Great job to who ever the actress is.

Thanks for reading along if you've made it this far. If there's anything you disagree with or want to discuss please feel free to comment. Thanks again.

Killswitch

There will be Spoilers

Scarezones:

Scary Tales Screampunk: I don't know man, this zone did not do it for me, compared to the props the other zones has, Scary Tales is lacking, and the actors never seemed to be trying when I went through. Definitely the worst thing this year

Grade: 3/10

Evils Root: I really liked the atmosphere here, the traditional Halloween feel really works, the actors just seemed to walk around though and it's really small so I guess it's okay for what they have to work with, but this is completely fine

Grade: 5.5/10

PsychoScarepy: While Evils Root was too small, I felt this zone was too big, or not enough actors for the space that was provided. With that said, the burning gazebo was awesome, the actors were on point, I never saw the mini shows they had here, but I assume they would have added to it like Icons.

Grade: 7.5/10

Icons HHN: This was really good. Having never been to Orlando before, it was great to see some icons and their minions in action. The main thing that makes this zone special is the Icon kills. I saw 3 out of the 4, though I can't really remember the caretakers even though I think I saw it. I missed the directors. These gave a good feel to how the icons would have been if this would have been their year. My favorite was the Usher. Probably because it was the goriest of the ones I saw, and people in movie theaters need to shut up. The actors were on fire here.

Grade: 8.25/10

All Nite Die-in: Yep definitely my favorite. Tons of characters I'm familiar with, a great concept, fantastic actor work. The black and white group was pretty good, though slower than the modern cast do obvious reasons, my favorite from here was the fog was leveled out pretty good and I almost didn't catch it but the wolfman was crouching in the fog and jumping out and scaring people. Awesome. This zone moved up to number 1 though when I finally saw the modern cast(which wasn't till the last night) oh shit were they awesome. It just worked better for me. The actors were really just aggressive and really getting those scares. The best thing that happened in all the zones happened during the modern cast. I was just relaxing and enjoying the zone and then this girl who I just saw was walking around, got grabbed by Jason, she started to run away, almost ran into me, then Jason got here and killed her, wasn't expecting it at all and it was awesome

Grade: 9/10

Shows:

Bill and Teds: Meh, the dance numbers were cool, especially the opening just because of Hollywood Undead, almost got a perfect score because of that, but some many jokes either fall flat or are really old and not funny anymore. I have no clue why Kanye was the villain this year, what exactly did he do this year. Really mediocre but it's nice to see it since Hollywood is never getting it again.

Grade: 5/10

The Carnage Returns: my review of this show will be in the form of a slightly altered Mad Max Fury Road quote

"We had a jack show at HHN 25 and it was perfect in every way"

Grade: 10/10

Houses:

The Walking Dead the Living and the Dead: this house I would say was the closest one to being bad, but I wouldn't say it is. It's just very stale. It doesn't seem they put very much effort into this. The actors don't seem into it at all. The revolving door scene wasn't good and the walkers in water effect is atrocious, looks so fucking goofy. I did get some scares in here but not that many. Hollywoods was much better

Grade: 4.75/10

American Werewolf in London: never say the 2013 version but I saw Hollywoods and loved it. It's a repeat so it's not as good as last year but I still got scared. No idea why they didn't do our nazi werewolf scene as I thought it was much better. Also this was very short, shorter than last years, don't know how that happened. 

Grade: 7/10

Run Blood Sweat and Fears: I really dig the idea of a game show where you win if you survive not being killed. I think that sounds really fun, and that's what this was, really fun. I didn't get all the scares, but I did get quite a few. I really like the facade,it was kinda small but it fit the house. I thought the Japan room was well done, I liked the kabuki scare and the air they had blasting in their deafened my right ear for a little bit during my first run. I loved the German room, the actors energy was amazing and the electricity aspect of the characters worked really well. Don't know why they decided to represent America as candy, I think hamburgers and potato chips would be more appropriate, but maybe that would be too similar to the Canada room. I think the transition room were real well done with the leaderboards.

Grade: 6.5/10

I know this is lower than AWIL but it's ranked higher simply because I enjoyed it more but werewolf is a better made house.

Asylum in Wondeland 3D: This shit was trippy as fuck. I fucking loved the comic book facade, I dig the cartoony vibe. I could barely walk in the vortex tunnel, an effect I've only seen poorly done in the house of horrors over here in Hollywood(RIP). The 3D makes this house special and gives you that unique experience. Would have liked a second run but the line was always too long. Needed more scares.

Grade: 7/10

Jack Presents 25 Years of Monsters and Mayhem: as I wrote that, hundreds of hate messages were sent to me(JK). I really liked this house but I do not see the insane praise some people are giving it. I loved the facade, walking through Jacks mouth and seeing the pictures of the icons was cool. The scary tales room was great, HHN Bear FTW, even though I didn't like the zone, I would like to see them do another scary tales house. I thought the Forsaken room felt out of place, wasn't necessarily a bad room, just felt out of place. I loved the classic monster rooms, especially the phantom of the opera scare and the Frankenstein effect. The gothic room was amazing(of course I looked through the last window), really liked the nightingales room, the floating ghost effect was cool. Now that H.R. Bloodengutz/Leave it to Cleaver room was fucking awful, was there even an actor in here, fuck you strobe lights. The finale was ok. You know, for a jacks presents house, there was barely any Jack. Any other rooms I didn't mention were either ok or just not that memorable.

Grade: 7.5/10

The Purge:Now the really good stuff. My first run though was just good, I thought it was too dark(couldnt see shit), every scare didn't hit, but the actors were fantastic and it was just an aggressive house. The second run through though, oh shit. The lighting was brighter so i could see but still dark, it was the right balance. The scares were there. The actors are still on fire, the heavy metal was a great fit, this house is like a rush of adrenaline. My favorite moment was the room with the bait actor pretending to be in the crowd. I saw her walking through this side place before i went into the room, she just smiled at me and went in the back of us. I just caught the scare before i left the room(my dad who was in front of me didn't see it) and it scared me pretty good. I wish Hollywood would do scares like this. I know this wasn't originally supposed to be the purge, but it really work. i liked the graffiti all over the walls because it fit with the chaotic feel of the house. Surpised me how good it was for a last minute house.

Grade: 8/10

Freddy vs Jason: I've never seen a nightmare on elm street or a Friday the 13th house, so its cool i get to see both in one. The Crystal lake facade was a nice, the whole 1/3 of the house was really good, Jason scared me quite a bit. The 1428 Elm Street facade oh shit it was fucking amazing, the whole scene was fantastic. The Freddy portion of the house was ok. The boiler room looked cool but the scares never hit for me. The vs scenes are a fucking epic though, they are all so cool, especially the first one, Great final third. My problem withe this house is there was many Jason's and not many Freddy's, which is okay i guess considering he was much scarier. I never saw Jason win though

Grade: 8.5/10

Insidious: The 2013 version in Hollywood is my favorite house I've ever been(which may or may not have been changed), so I was very excited to see Orlando tackle this. And i was not dissapointed at all. It's fucking awesome, the facade is beautiful, the scares are definitely there, the sets looked good, the actors were great, everything that was in the house worked. While i like both of Hollywood's version better, you guys got one scene perfect. The Further scene is something out of a masterpiece. Insanely fucking terrifying. The crowd control on the first run was atrocious it took the 1.5 times longer to go through it. The second time was alot better though, not perfect but better. Really great house.

Grade: 9/10

Body Collectors Recollections: Im going to reuse my mad max fury road quote here. "We had a body collectors house at HHN 25, and it was perfect in every way". Easily the best house of the event. The facade is fucking gorgeous, the blizzard setting really works, the sets are great, the body collectors look creepy, and the scares, oh the scares. Every room got me, and some got me insanely good. I cant remember what room it was exactly, but i just walked into a hallway and there was an actor behind me(obviously didnt see him), yelled in my ear, and I swear i ran so far forward and screamed obscenities. Also I missed the spine rip the first time because of that chick. And the room with the windows are the gentlemen were on the other side in the snow, at the end, I dont think i've ever got the water they spray on you so much in my mouth(giggity), it was a direct hit. Couldnt stop thinking about how good it was for hours after I did it.

Grade: 10/10

Overall Thoughts: This at the time of going, was my favorite year of HHN on both coasts. They only truly bad thing was the Scary Tales scarezone. Everything else was very very mediocre to Fucking Amazing. The only real problem was the first  couple times I went, the posted wait times werent even close to the actual times. The worst was a 45 min wait for FvJ and i ended up waiting about 85. I also would have liked some houses to have more scares, but there was plenty of great houses to equal everything out. Yep, a great first year for me

Overall Grade: 8/10

We saw FVJ, Body Collectors, and Jack Presents in the AM. Then did Asylum, TWD, and Insidious in the PM. I kind of wish they were reversed. The later 3 houses were really stuffy and hot and the first 3 were ice cold in the morning. 

Freddy Vs. Jason Tour: FVJ's set  blew my mind. The boiler room mirror effect part of the maze blew my mind. Just walking around it with lights on was enough for me to question if I was going in the right direction. Apparently our tour guide had once gotten lost in that part of the maze during training. They reached a dead end which I think was explained to be a "boo hole" and confused him but yeah. The boiler room was my favorite part of the house. The details are stunning though. I love walking through the house facade midway through the maze. It felt like an appropriate balance between both IP's though to me I think Freddy had more detail and "screen time" than Jason. There's an underwater scene and I loved it. There's a canoe above which a lot of people in my tour missed so in the underwater scene; look up.

Body Collectors: Recollections Tour: The Facade was such a great photo op. It's so beautiful, the inside decorations are beautiful. Everything was just so gorgeous and very detailed. I really don't have much to say besides that unfortunately as far as tour goes.  

Body Collectors House Review: The snow effect wasn't running. I was told there was snow and I didn't get to see it, not on the tour or during my run through the house which actually really made me disappointed. The house was still beautiful. Not very much on scares but one good thing is I only remember seeing one house op through the whole run for some reason so they were really out of the way and didn't take from the house. The rotunda-like room got me good. I did not like the idea of an actor above me, not at all. The headless actor to the left I already knew about; they slowly stood up and sat down so it was ineffective. Also the padded room; I knew the effect from the tour and saw the room coming but thankfully it still got me regardless so that was good.

Jack Presents- 25 Years of Monsters and Mayhem Tour: Though I'm not fluent in HHN history, just the variety was still cool. My favorite was probably the ship room. I loved the concept of the slanted leveled pathway. I loved the puppet bear in grandmas house. I loved Cindy's coffin. I pretty much loved everything in this house. Most of all I have a huge crush on Jack so being surrounded by him is like a girls dream. I really wish there are a few effects I could see in this house in action. I likely will not be going back before the end of the run though. It's getting really busy I hear.

 Asylum in Wonderland 3D tour: Complete with 3D glasses. I managed to find one of the little HHN coins on a table inside of Asylum. If you find a coin in the houses someone is intentionally leaving them behind, you can take them they aren't glued or nailed down. Just don't intentionally go ripping off set pieces. lol. I really wanted to see the light room in action. Apparently there's 2 triggers you can get. Either A the colorful lights turn off and you get strobed or B the lights turn off and you get blacked out. I'd love to experience a blackout after being disoriented, standing in total darkness. This house is heavily themed after Alice: Madness Returns. You cannot and will not convince me otherwise. I'm a huge fan of the game and I can tell from a mile away whoever designed this house has played that game. For that; the "new" concept isn't that original. It's a great concept and I love the spin on the traditional alice but to me it felt too much like McGee's alice. We got a rundown on why our version of 3D houses is different than Hollywoods. Honestly I kind of like the color on black approach but to each their own. 

The Walking Dead Tour: The only house I was disappointed in. I don't have much of a hate for TWD. Never been in any of the previous houses, never watched the show. I don't care about it and never will most likely. I understand the hate towards it because of the re-use through the years but I'm personally indifferent to it. However I loved every house except this one so that says something. I think at that point I would've rather seen purge and look at all of the rushed changes of added blackness and graffiti than to look at pretty much nothing but shipping crates. The set just was unappealing to me. The water scene could have been better. It was hard to see the second pool in the back, I imagine it be almost unnoticeable going through normally while getting scared because it's behind you and not in the direction you're going,  Looking around the pools were poorly done. They build a waist high wall of props to divide you from the pool, and then there's just a couple feet of nothing in-between the pool and the prop wall divider. Some people I hear didn't even notice there was water there. It could've been better executed maybe via more props surrounding the tub or level it more so you can see it better. The prop wall was waist high, the tub is waist high, at that point you could've probably had an actor stand in darkness and do the laser effect that mimics water waves. 

Purge House Review: I know purge isn't on the tour but it's in the same area location wise. Plus it's smart to do Purge and then do Insidious which is what we did. I do not like the emergency sirens in that deep tone. I can't stand it they terrify me so already before we even got to the front of the house getting that emergency broadcasting system suspended alert raised hairs. That siren creeps me out. There was no actor out front in my memory but I also was really focused on the bus so I'm taking my memory with a grain of salt. This house was the first house I went in for the entire HHN25 run. It's probably my favorite in terms of "did you get scared?" Answer: "yes". The other two houses didn't come close to the amount of times this house made me jump. I really actually want to see a real purge house. I know the sets were "meh" But the actors killed it. I was with a group and it seemed like every gun blast hit me. Every. One. I felt alone in this house like I was the only one who was being targeted despite holding onto the person in front of and behind me. I jumped enough to be embarrassed. Sudden movements and air blasts scare me. This house got me good so for that I'm thankful. 

Insidious legit creeped me out a few times during the day. First being the elevator room/hall. Before the tour went down that hall just looking down it into darkness was eerie. Then the tour guide shined a light into a scrim to expose a demon unexpectedly and being next to it made me jump a little.  Of course the room where they just had dummies sitting with drapes over them was spooky too. You probably could not pay me to go through this house in darkness with effects running. 

Insidious House Review: This house was not as strong as it was on the tour unfortunately. I really got creeped out by looking down the empty elevator room into darkness. (I know the house ops would probably have a heart attack if 10 feet of space was uninhibited by the congo line) But that hallway was really super creepy without anyone in it; knowing that you had to go down it without knowing what to expect at the end or on either sides. The line of people ruined how scared I was of the hallway during my tour. There were also effects the guide pointed out on the tour that I couldn't see during the night and completely missed despite me knowing that they were there. I really wasn't all that interested in the black strobed rooms with the drawings. Neither in the daytime or at night. The room with the dummies with drapes was ineffective at night as well and I thought it'd be more creepy because one or two would be real and I wouldn't know which. My actor/actress just quietly & slowly stood up and sat right back down. The movements weren't sudden or anything to make me jump and I jump easily.

-------------------------------------------

Scarezones:

My two favorites are Psychoscareapy and Evils Roots. Evils roots with the darkness, fog, traditional halloween decor as well as the tightness of the space really brings the zone to a new level. I've gotten a couple good scares through that zone. Psychoscareapy is a really fun zone. Don't rush through this zone. There's a lot going on and it takes going at a different pace to really appreciate the diversity of this zone. I also walked through clowns once. It wasn't scary; I love clowns. But this zone was sooooo funny I about pee'd myself watching a clown just terrify the tarnation out of someone else. I really wish I could explain what went down but it was just nonsensical madness and it worked. It was hilarious not scary but the girl ran anyways.

1. Universal believes chainsaws=Scary - If you want evidence of this look to the fact that 2 1/2 scarezones have them, at least three houses have them, and all the roaming hordes have them.

2. Universal believes Eprompts=Scary - If you want evidence of this look at every house.  Seriously, every house.

3. Interactivity is for scarezones - The only house I had any interactive moments in were Run: Blood, Sweat, and Fears, but the scarezones were packed out with method actors and interactive moments.

4. Masks are the new makeup - Once again, look at every house and you will see more masks than makeup.

5. Jack's show should have had seating - Self explanatory

6. You best know the source - The Walking Dead and Insidious made it very clear that if you did not watch either property, you would have no idea what was happening.  Even An American Werewolf in London suffers this complex during the nightmare scene (but much less so than the other two).

Those negatives out of the way, here are some of the positives from this year's event:

1. The scarezones were very interactive.

2. The Jack show was excellent.

3.  There were quite a few solid houses.

4. The roaming hordes filled in the dead spaces nicely.

5. The return of gore.


Random observations:

1.  Why no drop down boo holes? - And when was the last time we saw one?  These are an effective scare tactic that many haunts use.  I am not saying "These need to be in every house" so much as "Why have we not seen these in a while?"  It just seems odd to me.

2.  Throat slitting, anyone? - Take a minute to think about this, there were at least four houses with a throat slit scene that I can think of right off (one of them has two).

My credentials are that I have been going to HHN since 2009 (what some consider to be the last true Icon year) so I do not quite have the same perspective as some of those going longer, but I have a different perspective from those who have only been going since TWD years.  Truly, caught in the middle.  This fact shapes my entire review as I am sure the things above have made clear.

Now let's do a quick breakdown of the houses:

9. The Walking Dead: The Living and the Dead - I have to preface this by saying last year's house was fine as was 2013. Neither of them were groundbreaking, but they also were not terrible. This one though, has no story, only one scene that was effective, a terrible facade, and the sets were meh. I went through this twice to give it a decent shot and still could not get into it at all.
Story/Concept: 0
Sets/Effects: 1
Scares: 1
Atmosphere: 1
Repeatability: 0
TOTAL: 3/10

8. An American Werewolf in London - A near replica of the house we had two years ago with two of my favorite scareactors missing and one new scare added. The sets are still good, the story remains unchanged, and (apart from the aforementioned actors) the scares are in the same places. This one will rank lower thanks to me already having seen it, the sets being replicas, and knowing where all but one scare would be coming from (it does not help that the new scare was ruined by the person in front of me backing up when it happened so that I knew it was coming).
Story/Concept: 2
Sets/Effects: 1
Scares: 0
Atmosphere: 2
Repeatability: 0
TOTAL: 5/10

7. The Purge - A clear story, boring sets, and one cast was super into the material. I went through this three times and only had one memorable walkthrough where the cast all seemed super into their jobs (also, a certain scene happened right in front of me). Much like the movies, this is a great concept that has yet to be properly executed.
Story/Concept: 2
Sets/Effects: 0
Scares: 1
Atmosphere: 1
Repeatability: 1
TOTAL: 5/10

6. Asylum in Wonderland 3D - This had one of the better stories, an actual finale, okay sets, and good costumes. That being said, there were not a lot of scares in here. I enjoyed myself in this house, but would not wait longer than 30 minutes to see it again. Also, that tunnel...
Story/Concept: 2
Sets/Effects: 1
Scares: 1
Atmosphere: 1
Repeatability: 1
TOTAL: 6/10

5. Run: Blood, Sweat, and Fears - A good concept, decent sets, and at least one of the casts was on point. I enjoyed every walkthrough of this house as it was just fun, but only one of my walkthroughs yielded much in the way of scares. Not the greatest dark comedy house I have seen *cough* Bloodengutz *cough* but not the worst either.
Story/Concept: 2
Sets/Effects: 1
Scares: 1
Atmosphere: 1
Repeatability: 1
TOTAL: 6/10

4. Freddy vs. Jason - I wanted to love this house, but I was able to guess where all the scares were going to be coming from before they happened. Both casts were great and the sets were pretty, but I just did not find this to be all that scary. Also, the lack of Freddy one-liners made it hard for me to get into this house. That being said, it did have one of the most accessible stories of the event this year and a clear finale.
Story/Concept: 2
Sets/Effects: 2
Scares: 1
Atmosphere: 1
Repeatability: 1
TOTAL: 7/10

3. Insidious - This house has some great scares and creep factor, but the story is unclear even to those who have seen the movies. We twice enter the Further, but only once have that amazing transition hallway leading to confusion as to where we are at any given moment. If this was intentional, good on them, but I found it a bit off putting from a narrative standpoint. The buildup in this house was amazing, but the finale did not work for me. This still remains one of the better houses of the event though the awful lines make it hard to repeat (or want to repeat).
Story/Concept: 1
Sets/Effects: 1
Scares: 2
Atmosphere: 2
Repeatability: 1
TOTAL: 7/10

2. Jack Presents 25 Years of Monsters and Mayhem - A lack of any cohesive story does not stop this from being a very fun house to walkthrough.  There were a lot of good scares, amazing sets, and both casts seemed on point.  It took two walkthroughs to really see and appreciate everything this house had to offer.
Story/Concept: 0
Sets/Effects: 2
Scares: 2
Atmosphere: 2
Repeatability: 2
TOTAL: 8/10

1. The Body Collectors: Recollections - Those who read my credentials know that I have not seen a Body Collectors house before, but I did catch them in the last anniversary house.  Therefore, what may be old hat to some of the more senior members, proved to be amazing to me.  This house had all the creep factor I was looking for, an easily understood story, and some absolutely gorgeous set design.  Easily my favorite house of the event.
Story/Concept: 2
Sets/Effects: 2
Scares: 2
Atmosphere: 2
Repeatability: 2
TOTAL: 10/10


The scarezones were a very different beast from the houses.  Here, interactivity was stressed, the scareactors were nearly always on point, and the crowds were manageable so you could scarezone watch all day.

5. Scary Tales: Screampunk - One more setpiece would have made the difference in this zone.  The one they have is great, but the lack of fog makes it hard for the actors to hide.  The actors did the best with what they were given and I saw some solid scares and tag teaming in here even if I only received one or two myself.
Story/Concept: 1
Sets/Costumes: 1
Scares: 1
Atmosphere: 1
Repeatability: 1
TOTAL: 5/10

4. Icons - Not a bad zone by any stretch, but there was little tying it all together.  We had our four mains leading up to Jack's show because, well, why not?  This proved to be a hugely interactive zone that I could have spent a long time watching in action.  The scareactors were on point and brilliant at tag teaming and utilizing them to draw people to a mini show and then disperse them via scares was a great idea. 
Story/Concept: 1
Sets/Costumes: 2
Scares: 1
Atmosphere: 1
Repeatability: 2
TOTAL: 7/10

3. Evil's Roots - Like Icons, no cohesive story, but a VERY effective zone for scares.  The fog and lighting effectively cover many of the scareactors leading to some of my best scares of the night.  Not much in the way of interactivity, but the creep factor more than makes up that difference.
Story/Concept: 1
Sets/Costumes: 2
Scares: 2
Atmosphere: 2
Repeatability: 1
TOTAL: 8/10

2. All Night Die-In: Double Feature - One of the two scarezones with a solid story this one shines when it comes to the method actors.  Nearly all of the actors stay true to their source material leading to a zone that can be both frightening and fun to watch (also, another heavily interactive zone).  The only complaint is that traffic flow can seriously disrupt the scares, but a lot of the actors got around this issue by hiding behind one group of people to jump out at another.
Story/Concept: 2
Sets/Costumes: 2
Scares: 1
Atmosphere: 2
Repeatability: 2
TOTAL: 9/10

1. Psychoscareapy: Unleashed - I could sit here all night long.  No joke.  This was not a super scary zone, but man were the actors on point with their interactions.  They really kept this zone both fun and creepy at the same time.  It seemed like every time I walked through this area I saw something new.  Also, the actors chasing not just guests but eachother as well was super effective in creating atmosphere.  One of my favorite things was Nurse Brooke's version of the costume contest as it really added a lot to this area since her nurse was sympathetic and imposing with a very small touch of humor.
Story/Concept: 2
Sets/Costumes: 2
Scares: 1
Atmosphere: 2
Repeatability: 2
TOTAL: 9/10


The roaming hordes were great at filling in the dead space and the clown saws in particular were amazing (see the clown saws cast change if you can).


Finally, we come to the shows.

Bill and Ted's Excellent Halloween Adventure - It was, fine.  Apart from the beginning cameo and resurrecting the classics sequence nothing was too notable or memorable.  I did like the costuming during the MJ song as that lead actress' outfit was amazing.  I am still waiting for them to do a horror themed show like 2013's (which was the best B&T I have seen) as I think the structure helps things.  I mean, we had a Purge house so we could have had a Purge themed show fairly easily.
Story/Concept: 1
Sets/Effects: 2
Dance: 2
Humor: 1
Repeatability: 1
TOTAL: 7/10

The Carnage Returns - This is the show I wanted.  The jokes worked, the dance was good, and though the story was paper thin it remained fun.  A horrible venue and long show time makes this one a hard one to repeat (my wife was recovering from a broken ankle).
Story/Concept: 1
Sets/Effects: 2
Dance: 2
Humor: 2
Repeatability: 1
TOTAL: 8/10


Parting thoughts: This year was a return to form scarezone wise and the houses were decent to amazing (apart from TWD).  I am hoping that having an icon this year, the phenomenal scarezones, and the great originals are tracking well so that next year will be a true return to form on all fronts.  I have mentioned some of the things I would like to see at the beginning but I will add to that list entrance arch decorations, an entrance arch scarezone (was 2009 the last year?), and an icon that ties the event together AND gets their own house.

Nighty nightmares,
-Cooger and Dark

Scarezones:

5. All Nite Die-In – Double Feature:  Ah the drive-in. Had one a mile from me growing up. Very fond memories. I freaking LOVED this scare zone. The B&W and color idea was great! It makes me happy to no end that the Classic Monsters were representin’! All my favorites were there (exception of the Creature but Im sure that would have been horrible to do)! Then the “modern” era had some greats too. My wife and I spent more time in this zone than any other. We got some great pics too but were NOT complete a$$holes about it like a lot of people were. Cell phones are slowly killing the scare zone. But it was still great! I might be in love with Carrie too… don’t tell my wife.

4. Scary Tales - Screampunk:  Man I really wanted to love this scare zone and I realize WHY they have to keep this area to a minimum but it just wasn’t there for me. Too bright and not enough going on. The costumes were great and the scareactors had some serious focus on their roles! I did like the huge "thing" in the middle. 

3. Icons - HHN:  This was really cool. A nice way to honor and introduce the former icons. Loved the 5 minutes shows each would do. All very cool! HHN did NOT hold back on the gore this year. Lots of blood, cutting of throats (an act that was repeated quite a bit in this years event), electrocution, and that poor dudes tongue! LOL! Awesome job on this one!

2. Evil's Roots:  Definitely an “old school” scare zone. Kind of had that Grown Evil or Harvest of Souls feel to it (I said almost!). The bush guy got me a few times. LOVED LOVED LOVED that they went crazy with the pumpkins!

1. Psychoscareapy - Unleashed:  Now this might be my favorite of the year. What a great idea. A small town, middle America-type towns Halloween Festival taken over by escapees from an asylum… well, you know where this is going. This SZ was huge. Lots going on. Lots of great acting, costumes, shows, etc. It was just a great concept IMO executed very well! I live in the Midwest so I feel like this could be some small town anywhere around me. Loved it!

Houses:

9. The Purge – I know this was a last minute replacement when Scream fell through but ugh… this house just wasn’t good. At all. I thought the Purge worked great as a scare zone last year. In fact really well. But as a house. Blah. Loud metal music and strobes does not a house make. But I realize what it was there for and kudos to the actors inside. But that franchise just isn’t made for a good house. We only went through this once the first night and skipped it the rest of the trip.

1/10

8. The Walking Dead: The Living and the Dead – I was not looking forward to this at all. In fact I’m TWD’d out. As most of everyone is… But I was pleasantly surprised that this house was pretty cool! In fact probably my fav TWD house out of all of them! Good scenery, good scares, good flow to it. I really enjoyed it!

7.5/10

7. An American Werewolf in London – I know as an HHN “super fan” I’m supposed to be all shitty about this coming back and be all cynical about it. Well f**k that! I LOVE this house!!!! This one wasn’t as good as 2013’s, maybe a little rushed, but AWIL is so bad ass! The movie is one of my all-time fav’s and those wolves were SICK! Loved that there were more this year and that last one that rears up and howls before it goes into attack mode was so epic. I could go through that house  a million times and still be in awe of how awesome it is! But just bc it’s a repeat I’ll dock it .5 point… LOL

9.5/10

6. Insidious –So I wasn’t expecting much out of the house. Damn was I surprised! This house was effing GREAT! They did a great job of setting a very creepy vibe right away. That red faced demon is so cool too. The actors in this did a great job. I’m not sure if she kept doing it on purposed but that woman with the shot gun kept hitting me in my man parts every time I went in there! LOL Keep your eyes open for the blue lanterns!!! Great house, after my first walk though I was so happy Orlando picked this up!

9/10

5. Run: Blood, Sweat, and Fears – I went through the 2006 RUN house and it was cool. But honestly I don’t really remember too much about it other than the line video was interesting. So I can’t really compare this house to the previous editions (I didn’t see the first one), but this one was fun. Nothing mind blowing or revolutionary but I had a good time going through. The geisha, gladiators, etc was a cool mix up of things. The guy on the table saw loved to pick on my wife as we went by (I think all 4 times). Good kills, good blood, good action, good house!

7/10

4. Asylum in Wonderland 3D – I was kind of torn at the idea of this house when it was announced. But I like the 3-D houses and we skipped one last year. The façade was obviously reminiscent of The Inbetween (which I loved) so I was stoked to go through the rabbit hole! Of course you know what comes next… “keep looking forward” is usually the battle cry! This house was cool. Nothing crazy or particularly new but a cool and effective 3-D house. Very fun going from trippy to gory!

7/10

3. Jack Presents: 25 Years of Monsters and Mayhem – Now this was my most anticipated house to go through. As soon and I heard the rumors I was stoked. When they announced the name I was double stoked! “No way could this be a bad house” the monster loving little Peoria screamed in my head! It did not disappoint. Some great scenes from our favorite houses! Scary Tales, Gothic, Nightingales, Jack all over, etc… It was pure joy for this horror nerd from walking into Jacks mouth to finish running away from Meatz Meats and Eddie! I loved this house so much.

11/10

2. Freddy vs Jason – Now through my several years going to HHNO I have come face to face with some of my favorite movie monsters… Xenomorph, the Thing, American Werewolves, Predator, Hellraiser, Chucky, Wolfman, Frank, Drac, etc. I didn’t make it to HHN17 so I missed a couple of my favorites, but all was redeemed when I got to come face to face with Freddy AND Jason in the same house! They nailed the sequence for this house. Starting in Camp Crystal Lake and slowly transitioning to the boiler room and 1428 Elm Street. I hope everyone noticed the underwater scene. It was really cool! I also got some great photos in here from the UTH tour!! Thanks Jesse!

9.5/10

1. Body Collectors: Recollections – Here is another franchise I had yet to experience. The BC’s. I will say again that the façade to this house was epic. It’s cold, it’s snowing, it’s HUGE! This house had so many great rooms to it. My favorite was the teaching/autopsy room! Which I was told was used for a couple movies filmed in the last few years. Another great scene was the headless body room. Spoiler alert! It’s awesome! Great house A&D! A real original home run!

9.5/10

The shows:

The Carnage Returns – Jack is back with a show by Mel’s Die-In! I was sure what to expect with this show but it was great! Jack and Chance having fun at the expense of some unfortunate victims. Lots of music, blood and killer jokes! It’s a good time. You should definitely make a point to see it.

Bill and Ted – A real staple of HHN. This year was pretty good, not super great IMO. My wife absolutely loved it. Didn’t have the skin that last year had but it was pretty funny. I only didn’t get ONE joke this year which is a record for this 38 year old. My keeping up with pop culture isn’t what it used to be. But making fun Kim and Kanye is always fun! Only saw it once and the second time we tried we weren’t early enough and got turned away.

Overall I think it was a fun and very strong year! Great houses and scare zones and the merch choices were a plenty. So happy it wasn’t all TWD like the last few years. Tons of stuff to choose from! We picked up a lot. I got to eat in my favorite restaurant in the world, the Monsters Café several times and even tried out the new Happy Potter ride. I don’t know ANYTHING about HP so I thought I’d have a little fun and kept asking Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones questions while in HP land and on the ride. I got so many disgusted looks, it was great! The ride was cool and didn’t make me sick either. Now my only complaint, let’s call it a legit bitch… the prices for everything. Holy shit Universal slow down. $30 for a house t-shirt! $27 (?) for a coffee mug? Plus dem tix prices… Prices are getting out of hand for real! I’m pretty fortunate to be able to go multiple times and coming from IL but if the price keeps going up like this… gonna be a hard sell in future years. Other than that… great work on HHN25!!!!!

We boarded the shuttle at the Cabana Resort around 5:30pm and arrived at City Walk at around 5:50pm, while we were on the shuttle we over heard one of the other hotel guests say that the park was already open for the event. We quickly ran from the shuttle drop off point to the entrance of the event. As we began to cross the tiny bridge to the entrance of Universal I noticed that the lines were tiny. I booked the on site resort to take advantage of the special resort entrance, but it was pointless, the lines were just so small and everyone was allowed to use any entrance. It took us about 10 minutes to enter the park completely, that is from the security checkpoint all the way up to the ticketing check point. We entered the park at about 6:15pm

I am a night person, I enjoy the event at night, I understand that daylight will not effect the houses overall vibe, but I still hate daylight. So I looked down at the event map and decided to knock out the houses that I thought would be the worst first. I located The Purge house and made my way towards it. We walked through the Icons and Evil Roots scare zones, but in the daylight they were just ineffective, so I will not count this walk through as my review portion. When we reached the Purge it was a 5 minute wait time for stand by and no wait at all for Express Pass, we used our Express Pass anyways. 

HH The Purge (Wait time 0 minutes for Express Pass 5 Minutes for Stand By)

The entrance to the was okay, nothing spectacular. The house itself was just awful, the environment wasn't very scary/creepy. I cant recall any sets that stood out to me or remember any memorable scares that got me or my wife. I'm not sure if I just experienced a bad cast or what happened, but the actors even appeared to be depressed in this house. Overall Rating 1/10

After the Purge, we made our way over to the Walking Dead

HH AMC the Walking Dead: the Living and the Dead (Wait time 5 minutes EP, 20 minutes SB)

The exterior to this house was okay. They had two burnt looking zombies lurching around, one actor played the zombie part pretty well, while the other was walking around like more of a slasher killer type. The zombies looked strange, not a very good job on the make up. I didn't have high expectations for this house, so I wasn't to let down when it was bad. Compared to previous years the Walking Dead, this maze was really short. No real scares other then some water hitting my wife during the Terminus scene. I don't think I saw one living person in this maze, maybe because it was still early in the evening? I don't know, but this house was lacking in creativity for the sets, the water scene was just awful, the revolving door scene felt like it was out of place. I did like the part with the truck at the end. No scares for my wife or I, other than water hitting us during the terminus scene. Overall Rating 2/10

So after finishing these two houses, I told my wife that the worst was over, and now it was time to enjoy the event. The sun was gone and darkness began to cover the park. I was starting to get pumped up. We crossed the bridge over to where Amity Island use to be and checked out the New Harry Potter stuff. We walked through the All Nite Die In, but as it was not dark yet, I will not count this walk through as the official review segment. We did get some awesome pictures with Jason though, he really enjoyed our Camp Crystal Lake Counselor T-Shirts. We passed through the scare zone after a photo op and made our way to Run.

HH Run: Blood Sweat and Fears (Wait time 0 min EP, 30 min SB)

They had some sort of graphic displayed on a wall for the wait line, I'm not sure if a video was playing, as we had zero wait time for this house with express pass. The entrance to this house was pretty cool. I liked the remote sentry guns outside, and I could feel the running man vibe as I entered the house. I was a little let down by the maze though, my pump that I had going before I entered, slowly diminished as we made our way through it. The sets were okay, but I swear I barely saw any actors. The Japanese set had an okay graphic playing on a wall, and I did encounter two scare actors in silly looking costumes. The Canadian room was pretty neat, and I did encounter some actors inside, we also ran into some in the electric room, but other than that I can't really remember running into any other actors. The intensity was lacking in this house, and no music or special effects could save it. I wish they would of expanded on the 80s vibe and gone with a more American Gladiators death arena, than representing all the countries, I feel that this really hurt the house. Overall Rating 4/10

Darkness was upon us! The most exciting about Run was the exit, once we left the house I could see that the night had finally settled in and the park was at its best. We were able to make a pass through the All Nite Die-In at the perfect time.

 SZ All Nite Die-In-Double Feature

I am a huge horror movie buff, I love the classics and modern day horror movies, so this scare zone was a treat for me. It was littered with horror movie icons, the Universal Classic icons were done in a black and white makeup that just worked perfectly. Your more more modern day horror movie icons were also present in large numbers and they clashed together perfectly. The actors were alive and really into character, not a ton of scares, but the ambiance and the costumes totally made up for the lack of scares. Awesome scare zone, especially for a classic horror fan, I loved the projector in the background playing the movie clips. Overall Rating 8/10

After walking through the Scare Zone we made our way towards the body collectors, but not before passing through the main scare zone for the event

SZ Psychoscareapy - Unleashed

I love the story for this scare zone. The inmates of the Shadybrook Asylum have escaped and stumbled upon a block party. Really neat scare zone, the story, the music, the decorations, and the actors all combine together to make one excellent Halloween scare zone. While this was promised to be "the goriest" scare zone ever, I felt that I was let down in that department. I didn't really notice any cases of extreme gore, but the actors sold it to me. Some were being very comedic, walking around with a severed hand and using it as a cell phone and other were being downright creepy, like a girl walking around with a doll tightly held up to a creepy children's Halloween cat mask. An asylum van, police cruiser, three mini stage shows, and a burning gazebo, quickly gave away the story as to what occurred in this zone. We walked through this zone several times and even sat down to enjoy some Ben and Jerrys while watching everything that was going on. We did notice a ton of scares occurring, my wife being victim to a few, they were just picking on her, but what got me was the actors dedication to their assigned roles. Whether it was mimicking laughs, asking for cigarettes, whispering odd things into someones ear, carving something other than a pumpkin, or asking for help, the actors remained dedicated and sold it. I really enjoyed this scare zone when the Witch Doctor song was playing.  Overall Rating 10/10

We passed through the scare zone the first time as we made our way towards Freddy vs Jason

HH Freddy vs Jason (Wait time 15 min EP, 90 min SB)

Great house, awesome scenes, great energy, and the perfect length. I enjoyed the inside of the cabin scene at the very start of the maze. It was properly place at the start to immerse oneself into the maze and created the illusion that you really were walking through a maze being terrorized by Jason. We were scared a few times in the maze, the Jasons were especially going after us because of our Camp counselor shirts, I can still recall a scene with a Jason standing in a poor lit area pointing his machete at us as we walked by and imitating a slit throat. I wish we could of had a better Freddy vs Jason fight scene, that's my only real complain and its a minimal one. Overall Rating 7/10

Merchandise, Merchandise, Merchandising!

After we finished this house the time was around 8:00 pm. We had plenty of time to kill and had had finished a good portion of the houses, leaving the best for last. So we decided to stop on over at the Horror Nights Merchandise store located right by Twister. Awesome store, plenty of neat merchandise, it also had some props used from the previous years, so plenty of eye candy. I ended up purchasing a pack of Horror Night Poker cards, a shot glass, and T-Shirt. All priced within reason when compared to the Walt Disney world Halloween event that just price gauges every item. They had all kinds of creative horror nights theme merchandise for sale, I especially enjoyed the Halloween masks. This store did appear to be the main store for horror nights merchandise, meaning it was all consolidated into this one store, where as other stores or vending carts just had some select items, I could be incorrect, but it appeared that way. Definitely a cool store, and great prices on the merchandise. Overall Rating 10/10

We still had plenty of time to kill so we decided to head on over to my favorite spot, the Monster Cafe, while this is not an exclusive Horror Nights restaurant, I do have a tradition of visiting this place every time to grab a bite to eat. I will quickly  go over it. 

Food is Good

The monster cafe is for the Universal monster movie buff, but not so much for the hungry person. The food is terrible at best, and some of the pizza looks worse off than Freddy Krugers face. My wife and I decided to split the double cheese burger, a very small side of chili cheese fries, and the pumpkin beer. The food was a little pricey, but what do you expect. The burger actually wasn't to bad, nothing out of this world, but edible. The pumpkin beer was fantastic, I found out that Universal has a private brewer that actually makes the beer, I found this out from the awesome bartender at Moes. If you like pumpkin beer check it out, the Monster Cafe is also decorated to replicate scenes from famous classic Universal Monster movies, for example they have a Creature from the Black Lagoon section and a Frankenstein's laboratory section. Check it out if your a horror movie buff and want to catch a nice buzz of some delicious pumpkin beer. The chocolate chip cookies are also pretty good

So after stuffing our faces and catching a nice buzz, it was time for the main event. We were going visit our most anticipated houses. We made our way towards Body Collectors

Body Collectors: Recollections (Wait time 5 min EP, 30 min SB)

This house nailed it, do not miss it. Awesome set scenes with such precision to small details its amazing. You could spend forever in this house just examining everyone of the sets. Some really neat gore special effects and great looking costumes. A few jump scares got us and the length was perfect. I've been trying to avoid spoilers throughout this review, so I will remain quiet, but check out this house, you will not regret it. Overall Rating 8/10

After Body Collectors we were re-energized and ready for more. We jumped into the line for an American Werewolf in London

HH American Werewolf in London (Wait time 10 min EP, 70 min SB)

Please understand that this is my first time visiting this house, I wasn't able to attend it in the previous year it was available. Please do not hate on my rating because it was a house that was done before, this was fresh to me. Now that I have all that out of the way, AWESOME HOUSE BRO!!!!!! I love this movie and it covered everything! Costumes were amazing, the subway scene was creepy, the animatronics were so cool, and we were both scared plenty of times. This house just had everything I wanted. I can't really make a complaint about it other than the ushers inside, but I will cover that at the end of this review. This is another you just shouldn't miss if you have never check it out before. Overall Rating 10/10

American Werewolf was so great, other than a bad experience with an usher, we loved the house. We made our way towards 25 years of Monsters and Mayhem, my most anticipated house for the night, but not before walking by the Scary Tales scare zone

SZ Scary Tales: Screampunk

Okay scare zone, not really full of many scares, but some cool costumes. They had some sort of mechanical contraption in the center that had some humans caught up in the cogs, it looked really cool. The Tin Man and the the suit or armor character were really working their butts off to scare some people. The suit of armor guy got my wife by quickly shifting the banner he was holding in front of her. Overall Rating 6/10

After passing through Screampunk we made our way towards the anniversary house

HH 25 Years of Monsters and Mayhem (Wait time 15 min EP, 80 min SB)

Some great sets incorporated into this house. I loved all the costumes, the entrance, the scenes were all very well decorated, my only complaint involves the Foresaken stage. Couldn't they have picked a better scene from that house? We went through this house twice and not once was an actor in that area. I was also hoping the Nightengales house would of had a scene that was reminiscent of being inside the trench. It was kind of an outside scene and the lighting was just terrible, I couldn't really see much. The HR Bloodngutz portion also appeared to be really short and quickly assembled. I was hoping for something a little neater with those three segments I mentioned. Other then that, it was a cool house, I like how Jack would pop out every now and then. Not a bad house, I liked it, and I got a few scares out of it. Overall Rating 9/10

After the anniversary house we decided to make our way towards Wonderland 3d, but not before visiting the backside of the Psychotherapy scare zone. We hung out around the police car and checked out some of the smaller alleys that actually had some actors in them hiding. They scared us a few times and we had some laughs. We continued to make our way towards Wonderland, but I wasn't feeling that excited. Usually the 3d houses are average.

HH Asylum in Wonderland 3D (Wait time 0 min EP, 15 Min SB)

Woah! The entrance to the house totally caught me by surprise. I used to love reading those old school horror comics and I was totally digging the cover art. From that point on the house was great. It was my wifes favorite, not mine, but I really liked it. They had some pretty neat effects going on with the font in certain paragraphs on the wall. Only certain key letters would have the 3d effect, while the others remained plain. The scenes were the usual for a 3d house, neon colors, strings, strobe lights, and weird costumes, but they worked rather well for this house. They scared my wife pretty good and got a few jump scares on me, probably because I was busy looking around at the scenery. Cool house, I know that most 3d houses are a let down, but check this one out. Overall Rating: 8/10

So we were down to one house and it was about 11:00pm. We decided to walk back around to the icons scare zone to check out, watch a little bit of the carnage show, and then make our way towards Insidious. 

SZ Icons-HHN

Okay scare zone, nothing real crazy. They had a few actors walking around on the ground, like the crypt keeper!, but most of them were on these stages setup throughout the path. The story teller was especially creepy b/c I swear she was looking right at me and following me with her eyes as we walked by. The usher and director were really into character and I like to see that. The caretaker had a small stage show, but we arrived right as it was ending. It wasn't a terrible scare zone, but I wish more actors would of been on the ground to provide scares. Overall Rating 5/10

We noticed a big crowd in-front of the Carnage Returns stage and decided to check it out for a little

The Carnage Returns

Jack and his gf acting like the Joker and Harley, with some musical numbers, nothing that held our attention. After two or three minutes we decided to keep moving. Overall Rating: N/A 

We noticed the massive crowd at the stage show and saw little presence inside the Evil Roots scare zone, now was the perfect time to check it out. So we made our way towards the fog

SZ Evil's Roots

I love Halloween, its my favorite holiday, and the entire month of October is my favorite month of the year. This scare zone area always get me, because it looks like someone pooped Halloween all over the place. All the jack o lanterns sprung around the trees and the zone give it the ultimate Halloween setting. Not to mention all the fog machines creating a creepy lighting environment for the zone. They had a really cool sacrificial type of Halloween thing going on to the lake side of the scare zone, while I was taking some pictures of it an actor got me pretty good. The energy was perfect in this zone and I always love to hear plenty of people screaming. My wife and I got scared a few times, and tiny scare actors really got her good. I always give a scare zone in his area a high rating just b/c of the ambiance and Halloween factor. Overall Rating 9/10

So before checking out Insidious we decided to head on over to Moes and have some drinks. The bartender was great and very informative on how the different drinks were brewed especially for Universal. We hung out in here for 20 minutes and caught a nice buzz. We left Moes and headed on over to Insidious

INSIDIOUS (Wait time 20 min EP, 90 min SB)

Not a bad house, this one probably got my wife and I the most with scares. The actors were very well hidden and knew what time was perfect to pop out. The entrance was pretty cool, it was a replica of the house from the movie and inside the scenes matched up nicely with the movie. I don't really have any complaints about this house, it was creepy, the costumes were accurate, and it was very well done. Overall Rating 8/10

So this is the last house for my review, we ended up staying in the park until closing and walked the scare zones a few times, we also checked out a few of the rides. We ended up doing the anniversary house again because I couldn't recall seeing the Nightengales scene in our first walk through. Now let me list my biggest gripe about the event.

The ushers inside the house were extra aggressive this year. I tend to walk slower in the houses because I want to look around and feel immersed in the story. I like to be scared and enjoy the rush of having an actor get the best of me. We had an usher yell at us a few times to hurry up and it was quite annoying. Some of the times we barely even had a gap in-between us and the party in-front of us. I mean we payed pretty good money to enjoy these houses and waited quite some time to enter them, then the park wants to rush us through them. It's not very fair to the customer. I made a complaint with the survey takers at the exit, but I doubt Universal will do anything about it. It really bothered me though, and I know I will still attend next year, but if they become even more aggressive, I foresee myself visiting another attraction for my scares in the future, or perhaps paying for one of the behind the scenes tours. 
 

Okay, before I get into everything, let me preface by saying that this event got way overcrowded Saturday night. Like RIDICULOUS. What a difference Friday and Saturday were. It was shoulder-to-shoulder, Disneyland on a holiday weekend crowded. The Express line for Insidious was THIRTY FREAKIN’ MINUTES. If it’s that long, then that is ridiculous. They need to sell out. It’s pathetic how many tickets they clearly oversell. I am glad for stay-and-scream. That’s a great system and a life-saver to get everything done. Okay, NOW to get to the houses. Oh, there will be some minor spoilers mentioned in here BTW.

The Walking Dead The Living and the Dead: I’m like many of you people on here. I love the show, but sick of it at HHN. At least this year, it wasn’t shoved down your throats like it is still in Hollywood. At least our TWD house was pretty descent this year. That being said, this wasn’t that good. That facade was REALY lazy. Looked NOTHING like Terminus. The gimmick of the Walkers scaring in a hot tub was ridiculously pointless. I mean, if we were going over a bridge, which was what I was expecting after hearing about this, then it would have been kinda cool. But that scene fails. I did appreciate how tall some of the sets were and liked how the forest scene was pulled off. They had mesh netting everywhere to cover the walls and it felt real. Unlike Hollywood where they STILL HAVE BLACK WALLS. But yeah, the scares didn’t work for me and it was too dimly lit in several areas for me to appreciate the design. It’s pretty clear A&D is intentionally making this house suck ‘cuz they’re sick of it. Hollywood did a lot of stuff better with this. Least favorite house of the event, by far.

Overall: D

The Purge: I am fully aware of the whole Scream debacle and what this house could’ve been. This house had to deal with a last-minute curveball and it shows. Oh my goodness it really shows; so much so, that it’s what make it the most interesting to me. Although I may have gotten a total of two good scares in my run throughs, I just didn’t like this house that much. Everything was either too dim or ZOMGZ STROBES EVERYWHEREZZZZ IM GOIN BLIIND too much. I was amused how they try to cover up all of the Scream stuff and recognized all of the scenes from the movie. They even kept the sound effects which was very amusing! They kept the smoke alarm and knife swing sound in the first room, which was funny. They even had the garage which I found  amusing. The whole fun of it for me was trying to see what scenes were from Scream and how it would’ve flowed. Overall, the house had some great talent, but the last-minuteness really showed. Yeah, minuteness is a word now. GET OVER IT CHUMP. I’ll cut them a little slack for what they had to go through. It’s just not my style though. It’s quite a shame seeing that the Scream house looked like it could’ve been good.

Overall: C

Insidious: Definitely one of the most impressive facades I’ve seen HHN do. I know the whole side-door entrance worked for Halloween, but it doesn’t make sense to do it here....especially if the entrance clearly shows it going inside the tent. I did enjoy this house, but I never got a lot of great scares in here. Sure I had a few, but I’ve never had a great run through. I did enjoy our version in LA more than this. Aside from the facade, I really felt like this maze didn’t really match up to the greatness that was Hollywood’s this year. Also, I want to say the lady in black’s make-up looked TERRIBLE. That aside, there were some nice sets and some good scares. Not in my favorites, that’s for sure, but it’s certainly not bad.

Overall: B-

Asylum in Wonderland 3D: Now, I don’t like 3D houses. They can be too cartoonish  the scares can be too obvious, and/or they can have very bland, or undetailed sets. Being that the setting is in an issue of a comic book series, the cartoonish factor I’m willing to let slide as it is naturally developed. Although I didn’t get a whole of of scares, I got some REALLY good ones. While the sets weren’t exactly amazing, I loved how they did everything humanly possible to disorient me in there. It really threw me off my guard and gave me a good jump in several areas. Certainly better than TITE 3D and I think Hollywood should take a hint from Orlando. THIS is how you do a 3D maze. You disorient the crap out of people and not make the scares so well-lit and obvious. It just would be nice to have a bit more elaborate sets.
Overall: B+

RUN: Blood, Sweat, and Fears: I enjoy it when house facades start to blast metal at the front. It really set the mood for the chaotic atmosphere inside. I liked the setting for the show as Hellgate Prison. The whole house was very high-energy and fun. I got some good scares in here. There were some parts that reminded me a bit of Hostel from 2011.Don’t have much else to say about this except that it was fun.

Overall: B

Body Collectors: Recollections: Oh man, the facade was BEAUTIFUL. The setting and atmosphere for the whole house was wonderful, the talent was great, and I loved the more theatrical scares. That was pretty cool. It’s really nice to see an old-school/gothic horror house. Great original concept. The snow was a nice effect, but my only gripe is that it didn’t really feel cold. Anyway, it’s a great sequel to Body Collectors. Certainly some of the best sets I’ve seen lately.

Overall: A      
Freddy Vs. Jason: .....or as some people like to call it, Jason Vs Freddy. IDK why people wold want to call it that way, but....whatever. This is tied with another house I will mention soon for house of the year. I’ve always gotten a great run through on this. The Jasons and Freddys were AWESOME in here. I never got to see the original NoES or F13 houses from Carnival of Carnage here or in Hollywood. I feel like this house redeemed that for me. Although I wish I could’ve seen that upside down room or mattress hallway from that house in ’07, it was really awesome being able to see a life-size Freddy’s house in he maze. The approach of going through F13, then NoES, and then battle was very fitting and it worked great. The payed homage to famous kills from the movies and also made it very epic. I don’t want to spoil it for those who haven’t gone yet, but I’ll hint at what I’m about to talk about. That scene with that wide prop above your head and that showed Jason unmasked was great to see. It felt like a mix of an actual nightmare and being put into Jason’s world. It was a great effect and was REALLY cool room. Oh, and Freddy wearing a “Camp Crystal Lake” tee was great to see. Fantastic scares, awesome scares (Had to keep a death grip on my souvineer cup to keep it from flying out of my hand!), and it was executed very well. Hollywood won’t be able to top it. The only thing I found odd about the house were the screens. IDK why they put that in there.

Overall: A+

An American Werewolf in London: This was my all-time favorite house back in 2013. The house was darn-near perfect. What’s really cool as an AWiL fan is that I have seen all three renditions of the house. 2013’s, Hollywood’s last year, and then this. Now I have something to boast about to Landis if I ever get to talk to him. Hehe. Well, it’s almost the same with a slightly tweaked layout. The wolves, make-up, and the scares have improved, but I never got a good run through....which makes me sad. Those wolves looked MUCH better. I wanted to enjoy my flashback to 23, but I got the tail-end of ALL the scares which really annoys me. Boo. Oh well, I give it a good rating since this house still has had a great legacy in my eyes. Also, I don’t think Orlando should repeat houses like this. Give us all-new content.

Overall: B-

Jack Presents: 25 Years of Monsters and Mayhem: Whew! That was a long title. Only appropriate since this was a long maze. Unlike out TWD in Hollywood, which boasted as the longest maze in our event’s history, this one actually was LONG. Did they use the entire sound stage to build this, because it felt like it. With that said, this was HOUSE OF THE YEAR. EVERYTHING about this was FANTASTIC. I loved the Scary Tales scene with the HHN Bear. That puppet and scare was GREAT! Also it was great to see that high-bridge effect live and in person. Although it wasn’t perfect, it was such a fantastic effect. Scareactors were ON IT. I’m still thinking back to how awesome it was. This house is the reason why I love HHN. So. Freakin’. Good.

P.S. BEAR! BEAR! BEAR! BEAR! BEAR! (Chant that when you go in the bear scene).

Overall: A+

Shows

Bill & Ted’s Excellent Halloween Adventure: It was pretty weird seeing this for the first time in two years. It was great seeing the Wyld Stallyons back in action. I thought the jokes were great, the villain and premise were used to their potential, and the pop-culture jabs were great. Loved the closing musical number! This was one of the better Bill & Ted shows IMO. Great to see Bill & Ted again. But until next year, “byeeeeeeee!”

Overall: B+

Jack’s Show: I loved how in-your-face and how sick and demented it was. This was clearly a huge “screw-you!” to everyone who is easily offended. If this show was in Hollywood, this would’ve been gone after weekend one. It was really great hearing Jack insult a little kid in the audience. LOL That dude is crazy. That’s why he’s my favorite icon and I don’t mind him being back. Great show.

Overall: A

Scare Zones

I’m too lazy to do them individually, but I will say they were all great. Unfortunately, I never had time to watch the mini-show in the icons zone. But the zone looked great. Unearthed was beautiful. Scary Tales was my least favorite. PsychoScarepy was AWESOME. The talent was crazy, the atmosphere was chaotic, and the mini-shows added a lot to everything. Loved the zones this year.

Overall, I thought HHN 25 was a very well-rounded anniversary year. We had continuing stories of fan favorite original houses, we had the show that made HHN more successful, a return of one of the best houses ever made, the return of two major horror icons, a “best-of” house, and the return of the legendary icons. I had a GREAT time at the event. Everything was very well-done. Probably my favorite year out of the three years I’ve attended HHNO. I hope I will be back next year. The set-design was top-notch, the scares were very creative, and everything else was just a lot of fun. For those who haven’t gone yet, you are going to love it. That’s my overall synopsis of the event. Now let me compare Hollywood and Orlando a little bit...

First, I’m going to say Orlando was better, no doubt. Although Hollywood had a solid year, 25 Years and FVJ was better than all of Hollywood combined this year. I noticed that all of the houses smelled like fresh wood, like Knott’s does. That’s unlike Hollywood where everything smells like crap, beef jerky, or vomit. I just find that interesting. I do like the bad smells honestly to feel like I’m there.

Something else I noticed is that, especially Insidious and TWD, is that the houses tend to have VERY dim lighting. I feel like Hollywood has an edge over Florida in this area as I think Hollywood used their lighting just right. We don’t have the lighting too bright to ruin the creepiness of the atmosphere, but we also don’t have it too dark to enjoy the sets. It was SO dark in TWD and I couldn’t make out a lot of the sets. Part of the enjoyment for me is being able to enjoy the set design in the houses. I want to feel like I’m there. Even in the Purge, the strobe lights were so outrageous, I couldn’t tell where I was. I mean, the strobes are great an an unnerving scare tactic, but when it’s just non-stop in your face, I don’t enjoy the house as much as I want to. In our TWD, you could totally tell where you were. I was able to see everything without the vibe being ruined for me. Anyway, I would like to see Orlando take note from Hollywood in terms of lighting.  

Another thing I found was interesting was how loud the houses and scare zones were. Oh my word, PsychoScarepy was BLASTING. If the zones were that loud in Hollywood, they would get noise complaints up the wazoo! No way they would let the zones in Hollywood be that loud, or the houses.

I’ve seen others complain on here about this, but the ops this year were a whole new level of WTC. It’s really bad in Insidious. The line would jam up and I would get sandwhiched 500 times in the conga lines. The ops would scream at us to keep moving and not hold up the line. Well, I CAN’T GO ANYWHERE NOOB! I’M STUCK! If I wanted to move I would! On that subject, Saturday night was TERRIBLE for crowds. It was like Disneyland on a day where all of the passes were valid. It’s really bad when the express lines reached THIRTY MINUTES. They clearly oversell tickets which I hate about Orlando. In Hollywood, you wait like five minutes MAX for express. They make sure it’s a priority. They sell out of them.  

I also find it funny how they get away with casts changes in the house. They walk right in front of everybody which would NEVER fly in Hollywood. The scareactors even stop to take pictures in the streets. Another big no-no for Hollywood. I do prefer what Hollywood does. Just a tap on the shoulder and switch out quickly while no one is looking.

Finally I will address the scares. They have some really cool scares with the mirrors and the one that’s RIGHT above your head. I think it’s pretty cool how they do some of it. I love how they use obstacles and crazy strobes to throw off your senses and scare you, especially in Asylum in Wonderland. That “head” scare got me every time! Also, in the bigger rooms, I like how they use hanging obstacles covering up the scareactor. That’s something Hollywood needs to learn. FVJ SPOILER: (For example, the cabin room as the first scene of FVJ. A line of hanging clothes and the bunks cover up Jason’s scare spot). That’s something Hollywood needs to learn for their larger scenes.

So yeah, that’s my review. Hope you enjoyed it.

What a difference a day makes!  I'd give the overall event a 3 out of 10 based on my experience on 10/1, but the next day everything was MUCH better, raising my rating to a 7 out of 10.  On Thursday, everything just seemed off.  The actors were not into it.  Timing was off.  Effects were not working properly.  Friday was a completely different event.  So in every case, Friday had better scores than Thursday.

Let's get to it, in no particular order:

I need to start with something new at HHN this year that is truly ruining the event - the overly aggressive/obnoxious ops in and outside of the houses.  These are the people who stand there for a 45 minute shift, moving their hand to point the way.  Well, that's what they used to do.  This year they are yelling "keep it moving" and flailing both arms to move you in what is CLEARLY the only direction to go.  They are breaking every aspect of the spell of the houses.  They are droning on telling you to keep moving even when you are 2 inches from the person in front of you.  It is completely out of hand this year.  And the spiel of the ops as you enter the house is a new world of WTF.  At every house they are screaming things like "Keep up with the group in front of you.  Do not wander off from your group.  If you leave your group, [Freddy/Jason/Body Collectors/monsters/Mad Hatter/walkers] will find you."  Seriously?  We really need this?  I am certain that this is all the brainchild of one new talent coordinator at HHN.  I would like to find that person and tell them to "untrain" staff, because they are damaging the event.

AWIL (Thursday: D,  Friday C ).  I have despised pure IP houses since forever.  My complaint is simple and has never been refuted - Since creative is firmly handcuffed to a narrow script, how is it in any way scary to go through a house knowing exactly what you are going to experience?  That being said, AWIL in 2013 was one of the few IP houses that I enjoyed.  Went through it half a dozen times that year.  The Orlando version stands on its own as a great house; Hollywood's was terrible.   My Thursday visit suffered from few actors, and unenthusiastic ones at that.  I always seemed to get the "reset portion" of scares.  Friday's visit was far better.  Even so, I cannot justify a grade better than a C when HHN decides to bring back a house in its original form.  Sadly, I called this "synergy" effect between the two parks several years ago; Orlando is adopting (or being told to adopt) Hollywood's bad habit of repeating houses.  Less and less of a reason for me to be flying across the country to see HHN Orlando...

Insidious (Thursday C, Friday B).  Hollywood has done this three times now, and it has been a huge favorite every year.  I never really saw a firm connection to the movies.  To me, the houses were decent classic haunted house style presentations.  Usually, Orlando versions of houses are far better than Hollywood's (AWIL being a prime example).  In the case of Indisious, Hollywood's were all far better than this Orlando hodgepodge.  I think it's because the movies have such different villains, and trying to stuff three iterations of the film into one house doesn't make sense.  Orlando's comes across as a series of three teeny tiny houses.  And for the first time I can recall, the Orlando sets were really poor in comparison to Hollywood's.  Orlando's seemed thrown together.  

Alice in Wonderland (Thursday B-, Friday A-)  Like most Orlando 3D houses, this is either a love it or hate it.  To me, it comes closest to matching the intensity and beauty of the In Between.  I do not enjoy 3D houses, but Orlando has proven it can be executed to near perfection.  This year was possibly the most effective vortex tunnel yet.  I cannot tell you how much the Unmasking tour helps explain this house.  It also lets you really take in the beauty of the fabrication of this house.  As it exists in another land, many of the walls in the house are curved rather than straight.  Also, every leaf, petal and stem of the jungle/flowers are also curved.  This detail is easily missed as you walk the house.  I urge you to go to the UTH tour and really take in the beautiful set construction.  

Freddy Vs Jason (Thursday B-, Friday B+)  As I mentioned earlier, my main gripe with IP is that A&D is handcuffed by contractual obligations to present the IP in specific and limiting ways.  In this house, those handcuffs were noticeably looser.  Hell, Jason appeared in a photo-op scarezone for the first time.  The presentation here had typical movie-based sets, but for the last third of the maze, it seemed like A&D got to do what they wanted.  And that was the fun part.  The dual ending was also fun (but if you don't get to experience both endings, know that you won't miss much).  The ending changes every 45 minutes.  I'm not sure the video walls worked well.  

Walking Dead (Thursday F, Friday D-)  I think this was the weakest version of the WD houses yet.  Don't need to say much.  We are all over it.  It's laughable that I have now taken two HHN surveys that practically ask "We all know you are sick of Walking Dead at HHN.  How much would you like to see it back in 2016?"  Comcast Synergy at work...  But you want to know something really weird?  Hollywood's Walking Dead house was actually not bad this year.  Everything Orlando represented Hollywood did much better.  They didn't have some dumb walker in a hot tub scene.  Hollywood's revolving door was light years better.  Mind you - WD should have been gone from Hollywood, too, but I'm just saying it was not bad this year.  And I feel dirty just typing that.

Purge  (Thursday D-, Friday D)  I don't care that this was intended to be Scream, and I hope we never have to sit through Scream at HHN.  I love the Purge as a concept, but the movies were just bad.  I wouldn't even call this an IP house, because it was IP in name only.  Only the costumes and the Purse message were from any of the movies.  The death metal music was awful.  The sets were awful.  The scares were ok.  Even if they had called this an original house based on a concept of random thugs attacking you for no reason, it falls flat.  

Run (Thursday C+, Friday D+ )  As this is probably the final house that will appear in this location, I was hoping for a huge send-off like they did with Saws and Steam.  This was a good concept but just did not do it for me.  For the life of me, I don't know why they picked Run as one of the original concepts to use for the 25th.  I think people would have preferred to see the next chapter of Nightengales, or Ship of Screams.  I missed out on the first Run house, but thought the next two versions were not good (I'm including 2004's Rat Run mini-maze), so after two poorly received sequels why they for a third?  I'll share a freebie I learned from the UTH tour.  I don't consider this to be a spoiler: This house has the only discovered Guest Activated Trigger (so far).  It is located at the end of the Canadian room.  Just before you exit the room, there is a storage rack on your left.  At waist level there is a bright yellow chainsaw.  There is a button on the chainsaw itself that can be pressed.  I was unable to locate the button any of my times going through.

Body Collectors (Thursday A-, Friday A) An amazing, must-see house.  A&D's mastery of original content is the thing that separates HHN from all others.  You can just feel the creative juices flowing from this house.  You know they had fun doing this one.  Like Gothic, it was a joy to walk through.  See if you can locate Jack and Eddie in this house.  You are unlikely to find them, but they are there...  Let's just say it helps explain Jacks & Eddie's origin.

Anniversary House  (Thursday A+, Friday A+) I don't know if it was the best HHN house ever, because it is technically presenting a sliver of the best of the best, and not advancing any original storylines.  But it was stunning in detail and presentation.  From the moment I walked in and got a whiff of The Hallow, I was instantly transported into a world I love.  There is no sense that brings back memories like smell, and A&D knew this.  Every walkthru I had a stupid grin from ear to ear.  There were no dead spots in this house.  It was packed wall to wall and floor to ceiling with greatness.  With one exception.  The Christmas scene near the end.  I don't get it.  It was not from Blood N Gutz.  Not from Home for the Holidays.  Even as an original standalone scene, it seemed unfinished.  If anyone knows what it was supposed to be, I'm all ears.

Scarezones

I was underwhelmed by the Steampunk area.  Had high hopes, but it fell flat.  Really, the only area I truly enjoyed was Shadybrook.  I spent over an hour there just watching it all.  LOVED the little performances at the various booths.  LOVED that they used older actors for the cast.  They were really more enjoyable than the younger ones.  LOVED that they used older music here.  Probably my favorite scarezone of all time.  Cannot think of a thing I could change to make it better.

Shows

Carnival of Carnage (B)  Too long of a show for me.  Was surprised to see how similar it was to the last Jack show.  Same kills.  LOVED Chance.  Really enjoyed Jack.  Wouldn't mind this being a yearly show, but needs new content.

Bill & Ted (B)  Very happy to see B&T return.  Very happy to see they have not succumbed to PC.  Middling show for me.  Hope to see it return next year.

Overall

As an "Anniversary Year", HHN 2010 blew the doors off of HHN 2015...  2010 had all original content.  It had fan favorites (Hades, Catacombs, Havoc, Legendary Truth, Zombiegeddon).   It had its own excellent anniversary house.  It had the awesome Saws & Steam scarezone.  This year we have a whole lot of IP - which did nothing to enhance an anniversary theme.  We had a complete copy house repeated in its entirety.  We had yet another awful year of Walking Dead.  Just a yuck year compared to 2010.  And compared to any other specific year, it falls squarely in the middle - not awful and yet not great.  2015 was an OK year.  I can't blame it on Jack, because he delivered.  I can't blame it on poor original content, because it delivered.  I can't blame it on scarezones or shows.  To me, this year was held back because of all the damned IP - two of them that should not have returned (AWIL/WD) and one that was so God awful (Purge) that it should have been scrapped when Scream fell through.  These three left a bad taste in my mouth.  They do not give me hope for the future of HHN.  We shall see.  Next year will be very important.  Will they finally put Walking Dead out of our misery?  Will they shove another unchanged fan favorite down our throat because the think we want to see it again?  Are they hopefully running out of IP?  Seems like the well is going dry to me unless they start repeating those, too.

So how was HHN Orlando compared to HHN Hollywood this year?  Well, Hollywood was 100% IP.  So you can guess my feelings about it.  Of the IP in Hollywood, over half was repeats from previous years (AVP - unchanged, Insidious - same theme, Walking Dead, Halloween - people are eating it up for some reason, and Purge in the Terror Tram (yawn).  The only "new IP" we had was Crimson Peak and This is the End (in 3D).  TITE was a piss-poor house on any level.  I could write a thesis on how Crimson Peak is the personification of how IP detracts from a house.  Let me give you a synopsis, though.

Crimson Peak will not hit theaters until mid October.  So for all intents and purposes, the house is a complete unknown to all but a tiny few.  So how does that house come across for the masses who have no idea what Crimson Peak is about?  After all, IP houses present key moments from the film.  These moments are either the most memorable kills or otherwise creepiest moments.  So let's see what is presented in the house...  We repeatedly hear a female voice talking about how her mother died of some terrible disease and how sad she is.  We hear (presumably) her mother telling her to "beware of Crimson Peak".  We are told during the Tram ride over that the real main character of Crimson Peak is the house.  That the house is alive and the walls bleed.  Jeez, sounds a bit like The Shining.  So we enter the house and it looks pretty cool.  Nice sets.  And some lady in black is popping out at us from boo-holes.  Reminds me of Insidious, actually.  But the "house" isn't really doing anything at HHN.  There is a stretch wall on one hallway.  I guess that's some creepy thing from the movie.  Don't see any bleeding walls.  Oh look, there's some naked lady in a bathtub with an axe in her head.  I'm sure that must be in the movie - bet it was a scary scene, too.  Means absolutely nothing to me, though.  Just a random thing.  Ok, we're going into a bedroom now, and it looks like a nice set.  Cool video projections in the window.  But nothing's happening in the room.  No idea what this must represent.  But I'm sure it's something really important in the movie.  Oh well.   Ooooh, the finale room.  They mentioned this in the Tram movie.  Something about "Blood Clay" that the house is built on.  Yup, well it's a hallway with bubbling clay pits and some pop scares.  No idea as to why that exists in this house or why I'm supposed to be scared of it.  So, as we exit the house, guillermo del Toro and John Murdy and Universal are all anxiously hoping we want to plop down $18 to see Crimson Peak.  I for one will wait for Netflix because this looks like a stinker if the "best scenes" have just been presented to me.  What a disaster of a house.  

So overall, 2015 Orlando kicked butt over 2015 Hollywood.  2015 for Hollywood was one of the weakest years ever.  And I'm sitting here thinking back to how cool 2010 and 2011 were in Orlando...    

Hoping for a better 2016.

Scarezones:

5. All Nite Die-In: I was able to see both the Black and White and Modern characters, and I use that term lightly as it was way too congested to see the characters. I guess I preferred B&W, but this zone wasn't anything special IMO. Maybe if it was less crowded my opinion would have been different.

4. Scary Tales: It's neat. That's pretty much it, the characters look nice but it's nothing to write home about.

3. Icons: Nice to see the past on display. Didn't see any of the kills unfortunately. 

2. Evil's Roots: Loved this scarezone, that bush scareactor got me good.

1. Psychoscareapy Unleashed: This was the best scarezone IMO. A fun atmosphere and I actually got quite a few scares. Shoutout to the guy with the chainsaw who was staring at me and following me for 10 or 20 seconds straight until he finally attacked.

Houses:

9. The Purge

Screw this house. No seriously, screw this house. When I exited this house I was mad. This house could have been great as Scream, instead we get this. I'll admit I had one good jump with the airblast towards the middle, but otherwise I didn't get a lot of scares. The strobes in this house went too overboard at times, especially the finale. Holy crap did that give me a headache. I wouldn't mind seeing The Purge return properly and I can't put a lot of blame on A&D because of how late in the game this was added, but this is the worst house of the two years I've attended. 4/10

8. The Walking Dead: The Living and the Dead

Going in I had very low expectations. Considering some said it's one of the worst houses ever I was really anxious to see how bad it was. To my surprise, this house was actually pretty decent. The cast I had (around 7:30) was very aggressive, and while they didn't scare me, they definitely made me move back a bit. The best way to describe it is Scarezone: The House. If the cast wasn't giving their all I would have removed a point from my score. The opening scene in Terminus was pretty cool and the revolving door was neat, this house had a lot of neat moments. Yeah, the flooded food bank scene sucked and the Knife Party song in the finale was laughable, but this cast saved the house. Also, I'm starting to notice a trend in the Parade Building where the cast gives it their all but it's just not scary. It happened last year with Roanoke and it happened this year. If whatever house is in the Parade Building next year has this same problem, we can officially say it's a cursed location. 6.5/10

7. An American Werewolf in London

I didn't go in 2013 so I never got to experience this house before. I've heard a lot about how this year's pales compared to 2013's because of the removal of some scares. Like I said in the AWIL thread last night, the first half of the house was really good but after the transformation it loses a lot of steam. The wolves looked great but the first one was the only one I got scared by. When you can see them far in advance you know what's coming and it doesn't make it scary. I'm curious if the reception will make A&D rethink doing another repeat for a long time. 7/10

6. Insidious

This house was disappointing. I got a couple of scares from the demon after the lair, the first Man Who Can't Breath, and The Woman in White, but the biggest problem was quite a few scares could be seen from far away. I got hit by the first demon and the Bride in Black where WIW was in the living room, but the problem was they were too far away and by the time they got near me I wasn't scared. Overall, it's a decent house but nowhere near HOTY for me. 7/10

5. Run: Blood, Sweat, and Fears

Originally this was high on my anticipation list but after some less than stellar reactions I lowered expectations. The queue video was great, as was the soundtrack (Smooth Criminal! Sledgehammer!). When I entered the house, after the first room I thought to myself "This house won't be good." But then in the Japan room, I got a scare! Then another! And another! I loved the Gladiator and Candy rooms, the gladiator came out of nowhere and the second scareactor in the Candy/America room was still there as I was getting scared by the first scareactor. The only time I noticed Hellgate was in the Candy room. My only complaint is that this house felt a bit short and that's keeping me from putting this as #4. 9/10

4. Asylum in Wonderland 3D

I had very low expectations for this because of the track record for 3D houses. I really enjoyed this house and actually got a couple of scares! The room with the words, the Queen's room, and the finale had some good scares. Even when actors were standing in the open like the plants were creepy. The vortex tunnel wasn't as disorienting as I expecting but was still fun to go through. Loved the tea party scene. The 3D didn't really have much of an effect but made some things look neat. Overall, a great house 9/10

3. Jack Presents: 25 Years of Monsters and Mayhem

Now we're getting to the excellent stuff. This house is filled to the brim with details. Some of my best scares of the night were thanks to the bear, the first scareactor in The Forsaken room (not sure if there were more in there), and the Phantom of the Opera. The finale and the Jacks in the house had some good scares too. I was going to redo this one but I was too tired. 10/10

2. Freddy vs Jason

Man, what a great house. I got quite a few scares from this, especially the Jasons. I missed a lot of Freddy's scares but the demon and air blasts in the boiler room got me good. Hell, the entire boiler room was full of scares. The sets were great. Didn't see any of the screens. Jason won. This house felt a bit on the short side because of how quick I went through the Camp Crystal Lake parts, but overall an excellent house. 10/10

1. Body Collectors: Recollections

This was the clear winner of HOTY for me. Right when you enter the facade you know you're in for a treat. The very first scare with an inmate popping out then a Collector splitting her throat was awesome. The room with the dead patient on the operating table had a great scare from the Collector on the right of where you enter. And that spine rip. DAMN! I was looking back and forth between that and making sure the scareactor after it reset already  Loved the room with the red robed Collector. The finale had my best scares of the night with an inmate popping out on one side then a Collector on the other. This house was simply amazing.10/10

Let's start the show...with the shows!

The Carnage Returns: After all the hype regarding its gory contents, I was looking forward to this one. Was I disappointed? No. Did I love it? No.  The illusions are entertaining, but something about it seemed campy. I'm more into suspense then torture porn, so I didn't necessarily find this scary.  Jack seemed to have the ego and stage presence of a WWE wrestler with cheesy heavy metal entrance music.  I preferred last year's short lived voodoo sacrifice over this. Grade: C

Bill and Ted: I had low expectations going in, which probably made this year's show much better for me. The actress portraying Hilary Clinton was killing it throughout the performance. Seriously, watch her next time you go. Grade: B -

Streets

All Night DIE In: Thought this zone was alright.  The Strangers did a good job of creeping us out and I had a few good scares by the classic cast in this area when not paying attention.  The girl playing Carey does a great job of holding her post blood bucket expression. Same goes for the Exorcist girl and her puke face. I think if it had been larger with more cars and objects in the path, it would have been much better.                        Grade: C+

Scary Tales Screampunk:  Cool concept, OK delivery.  The costumes are awesome and some cast members--Pinocchio, Little Bo Peep, and The Wolf--really get into their roles. Again, more set pieces would have helped with the atmosphere.                     Grade: C

Icons: This was my most anticipated zone, which I thought was a complete let down. I spent a good amount of time here and never saw a kill.  I did see the Usher eating a lady's lanyards if that counts for anything.  Also saw Lady Luck helping guests locate The Mummy on the map, proving her worthlessness as an icon. Bummed there weren't any Treaks or Foons up in here.                                         Grade: D+

Evil's Roots: Now we're talking. Great atmosphere, detailed costumes, glowing pumpkins...this scarezone was beautiful. The cast was energetic and took full advantage of the dense fog and dim lighting.  I hope we get more of this in the future.             Grade: A

 Psychoscareapy Unleashed: Loved everything about this zone. From frightened little trick or treaters hiding beyond us, to the inmates shouting out how they killed the trick or treaters' parents, to the window projections, to the mini shows...this is the best scarezone I've ever been through.  If only every scarezone could be on this level.                                            Grade: A+

Houses

Before I begin, I'd like to say I attended Thursday Oct 1 and Sunday Oct 4.  I hit each house once per night.  I felt like everything was a bit off Thursday night due to the swampy weather. Also, the crowds were way rowdier on Thursday. Luckily, Sunday felt like an entirely different event firing on all cylinders. 

The Purge: Uh, wtf was this? Oh right, a house that wasn't suppose to exist. I don't know if it's fair to blame A&D for how bad this was, but they could have done anything else with Scream's infrastructure and it would have been better and not overly obnoxious. Shitty metal music and slow strobes don't equal horror. The only scene I enjoyed was the prom queen room. Grade: D-

Insidious: While the facade looks impressive, I don't understand why they left the supports in plain sight. Myers house didn't have this last year. Very lazy to not cover up the windows. Inside the house, my first run was obscured by ops standing in the middle of rooms telling people to hurry along. Awful. Luckily, my second run Sunday was shortly after opening with no line. Friendly tip--the tent is darker inside when the sun is out since the set's lights are not up all the way. This made it a much better and scarier run than the first time through. Being alone in certain rooms was very unnerving.                                       Grade: B

The Walking Dead: Hot tub zombies, anyone? All in all, the cast made up for this house and I thought it was as good as last year's. The first terminus scene and the revolving door were my favorites. The dead horse gag got me good. Still, TWD needs to go and everyone except Universal knows it.  Grade: C

Run: I wanted to like this, and I did during some parts. The candy room, gladiators, Canadian and geisha scenes were very well done. However, I felt this was disjointed and short. The game show aspect didn't feel necessary, nor did the Run or Hellgate themes.                                        Grade C+

Freddy vs. Jason: A lot to like here--massive Jasons, fight scenes, creepy ass elm street girls, in your face energy. Still, this felt sloppy. Multiple Freddy's in eye sight, lame video projections, and the dangling wire Freddy all threw me out of my suspension of disbelief. Also, some scenes were poorly lit. I will say the actors were excellent Sunday evening. One Freddy put his claws around my sister's head while she wasn't looking and got her good.                        Grade: B-

American Werewolf in London: Loved this in 2013, and liked it this year. It's certainly missing the original cast's energy. Also, the extra wolf seemed oddly placed. Hope they don't do this again in the future.                        Grade: B-

25 Years of Monsters & Mayhem: Very, very cool house. I loved all the tributes to the past and am so happy I got to experience old characters I have yet to see.  I nearly lost it when the Caretaker scared the hell out of me. Loved seeing Cindy appear in this one as well. The extra ending outside is so cool! My main gripe is how this felt oddly off pace and didn't give context to all the characters.  I had to do a ton of explaining to my group of friends and family outside the know. I also wish each icon had been featured.                                         Grade: A-

Asylum in Wonderland: All I can say is I had a lot of fun in this house and even received a few good scares.  I think it's one of the better houses this year and deserves more credit than its getting. It's surprisingly violent toward the end, which made it a lot better.  The tunnel is crazy here.  I also really liked the bouncing heads gag. Odd the caterpillar and Cheshire Cat (outside of his smile) are missing...or did I not notice something?                      Grade: B-          

Body Collectors: Hell yes! This quickly became one of my favorite houses ever. First they hit you with a beautiful facade, then immediately throw you into the action. Every scene is incredibly creepy with plenty of scares. I even saw Jack and Eddie. The cast Sunday night was up in our faces. I loved it. So much energy. So much detail. So much gore.         Grade: A+

Overview: I'm going to be honest, I enjoyed last year a lot more. While the scarezones this year were a step in the right direction, I felt as if the houses were a step backwards.  I thought we had 2 true winners out of 9 this time around. Last year it was more like 4 of 8.

I hope next year we see more original content. Even the originals this year were rehashes of past concepts. I'd also like some cohesion in the future. Jack didn't bring any real theme with him. Houses and zones weren't connected to any central story. That's why we had 1800's Shadybrook, modern day Shadybrook, and comic book could have been Shadybrook this year. 

IPs can exist, but let's do them right and stop eating a dead horse. Make them fit into the theme of the year or provide some connection to everything. 

In summary, very fun event, but not even close to what I was expecting for an anniversary year. 

HHN 25 is only my third time attending the event. The other two years were 2009, and 2013.But I’ve followed the event for many years and consider myself a “fan from afar.” When it was decided that I’d be attending this year I was excited. I’ve never been present during an anniversary year nor a year that Jack was present and he, as clichéd and typical as it is, is my favorite icon. So, truthfully, I was more than excited for this year. I was excited for the shows, the number of houses as well as the type of houses we were getting this year (save for one,) and I was excited because my girlfriend would be attending with me and she’s never experienced anything like HHN before. Sure, we go to plenty of haunts in our area (suburbs of Chicago) but she had no idea what an event like HHN entailed.  So when we got there on the 24^th and waited in line and watched those actors walk up to the gate, I could barely contain myself.

When we first entered we made a B-line for FvJ, which I knew, based on people’s experiences the weekend before, would be a very busy house. So I wanted to get my first walkthrough out of the way as I felt like I’d defiantly want to do it at least twice during our trip.

Freddy vs. Jason

We did end up doing this house twice during our trip. The first time we went through it was still fairly early, and we had only waited in line for ten minutes. The second time was on or second to last night I believe, the 26^th, and we did it fairly early as well due to the fact that on Friday it had gotten up to about a 100 min wait time at one point! I was hearing nothing but good things about this house so I had some really high hopes, and boy was I not let down. Doing this house first was a great way to kick off the event for us.

Upon entering and feeling that cold Crystal Lake air hit my face I couldn’t help but smile. My girlfriend latched on to my backpack and tagged behind me, not wanting to go first. Right off the bat, the first Jason got me. As we continued on several more of the hockey masked killers got me. Entering into Freddy’s world was awesome and there were some really cool “kill” scenes (including one of my favorites- “prime time.”) It seems like, in general, the house starts off wanting to scare you with Jason and then turns in to eye candy and less focused on scares during Freddy’s part then ends with a mixture- which makes perfect sense.  The dream/woods area was such a trip, and by far my most favorite section of the house. Defiantly harkens back to La Lloroa but still just as effective. In fact it’s in this area that I got my biggest scare. The last Jason in this area got me really good both times I went through. The final battle scenes were fun, especially with Freddy’s dialogue going on in the background. Both times we went through Jason was the victor, and that final Jason got us good as well.

The sets were amazing, especially once we got to 1428. The woodsy smell pumped in in Crystal Lake and the dream sequence was a nice touch, and (once again) the call backs to some of the best kills in both franchises as well as some great moments from the FvJ film itself really make this a slasher fans dream come true.

Scares: 4/5

Atmosphere: 4/5

Overall: 4/5

Right after FvJ we hopped in line for Body Collectors, since it was right next door. We ended up doing this house twice during our trip as well

Body Collectors: Recollections

I have never experienced a Collectors house and was highly anticipating this one. It ended up being my second favorite house of the event!

Upon entering I just stood in awe of the façade. It was one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen, and the snow effect just really was the icing on the cake. But… damn it, why haven’t they done a 30 Days of Night house yet!?... I digress. Anyway, the mood was set before you even enter and once you enter your skin is crawling from start to finish. The atmosphere in this house was nonstop amazing and really made this a complete world for me.

There were startles aplenty to be found here, but the scare that really got me the best was the assistant in the room with the spine. So to your right when you turn you will see one of the Gentlemen ripping out the spine of a poor victim. While you pass by gawking at the act there is one of the assistants who comes out snapping at you. Jesus, those actors got me good both times we walked through. I will say in general I experienced fewer scares the second time I went through, but I feel like timing had a lot to do with it. It’s fine though because the second time going through I got to experience a lot more of the scenery and set which was equally as chilling as the actors.

Another note is the theatrical techniques used in this house are absolutely splendid. This is actually across the board true at HHN but there were some real stand out moments in the event this year and BC has some of those moments. The shadow and scrim work in various points of the house along with the audio tracks on top of all of the splendid acting just sold this house for me. There was no weak link in this house. Also- that opening music at the façade, the edited version of Voca Me sends chills down my spine, I love it. I wish I could find it some place.  

Scares: 4/5

Atmosphere: 5/5

Overall: 4/5

After leaving Body Collectors we decided to take a walk through some of the street zones since it was getting later and the sun was finally starting to go down.

PsychoScareapy: Unleashed

This was probably the zone we spent the most time in during our four days, as was my second favorite scarezone. While actors are obviously the key element to all of HHN, the actors really sold this zone for me. Especially on the stages where they would ask people from the crowd to come closer and tell them very intimate, deranged stories. It was freaking fantastic and if you have an opportunity, listen.

Also the actors in the street were just plain fun. They were scary, but they were fun at the same time. They actually acted along with you a lot of times, building a really nice sense of security that they weren’t going to “do anything” but then when you least expect it is when they’d absolutely turn or come at you with a weapon. It was great. And the set pieces, especially the flaming gazebo were also really nice and helped set a mood for the area.

Scares: 3/5

Atmosphere: 3/5

Overall: 3/5

Scary Tales: ScreamPunk

This is the first scarezone you encounter once you enter the park.  While the centerpiece and the gobos (once it’s actually dark outside) offer some great sources of atmosphere this zone offered very little for me. It really depended on the actors for me as far as my level of enjoyment of the zone. My favorite one by far was the Wicked Witch whenever she was out. The costumes and makeup is gorgeous, it’s just that the actors seemed to do nothing but roam around, and only really ever tried to scare you if a.) you had a camera, or b.) already looked scared.

Scares: 1/5 (I will give kudos to a Wicked Witch at around 9 on the 25^th though because as I came through the fog she leapt out at me and startled me)

Atmosphere: 2/5

Overall 2.5/5

RUN: Blood, Sweat, and Fears

This was the third house we did, and we only ended up doing it once. We could’ve easily had done it two or three times during our visit and a little part of me wishes we had been able to but at the same time it’s not that big of a deal for me.

I was excited for this house just because, once again, I had never experienced a RUN house. Judging by what others had said RUN was either a love or hate house in the past. Houses that have been in this location (Disaster) before in years that I’ve attended (which would be Havoc: Derailed and Leave it to Cleaver) were never houses that I enjoyed so I tried to remain neutral overall, and I’m glad I did. By not really expecting much I think I had a better time but this still proved to be the first house of the event to fall a little flat for me.

The sets were amazing, and the actors looked intimidating and great… there just weren’t a lot of scares going on. It was a lot of noise in this house and it just got to the point of a sensory overload for me so I kind of shut down during my walk through of it. While I loved the premise of it being in Hellgate and the general idea of the house I couldn’t help but feel like sections were simply just recycled scares from when the prison was used for TWD in HHN 23. Not a big gripe though as, once again, the sets are stellar to look at and the same thing was kind of done in FvJ as I’ve mentioned before. The actors though, for me, really lacked the energy that I was expecting- which is exactly what happened in Derailed a few years ago. In a house like this the actor energy is going to be everything and most of the time they just seemed to stand there. The only ones that seemed active to me were the ones you experienced once you got “outside” in the fenced area.

Scares: 2-2.5/5

Atmosphere: 3/5

Overall: 2.5-3/5

All Night Die-In: Double Feature

Once you leave RUN you enter the Double Feature. This is probably my third favorite scarezone and while it does offer up many a chance for pictures, the actors do a brilliant job of scaring as well. Never once did I see one break character.

I keep going back and forth about which “feature” I like more, the old or the new but I think ultimately I have to go with the new. While I LOVE the costumes and makeup of the classic monsters and seeing so many of them in one place, the new slashers and monsters are obviously more vivacious and active.

There are some really good moments here like Jason trying to kill a young girl who then runs away in terror, and others. I always seem to get scared the worse in street zones when I try and take pictures. That’d probably because I’m so preoccupied trying to snap the shot that for a few seconds I don’t mind my surroundings. In the middle of trying to snap a shot of one of the Strangers one of the female vampires snuck up behind me and hissed. I nearly toppled over. The same thing happened to me at a zone in HHN 23! My girlfriend had a good laugh!

Scares: 2.5-3/5

Atmosphere: 3/5

Overall: 3/5

After this point the rest of the event and the order we did things kind of becomes a big jumble to me, so the rest happened in no particular order.

American Werewolf in London

This was my favorite house in HHN 23 and while obviously I’d love for newer things I was still excited to experience this house again. My girlfriend and I had watched the film a few days before hand (her first time seeing it.)

Not a whole lot to say about this house other than it’s still great for all the same reasons it was before, and the few added scares were a welcomed change. Another welcomed change was the size of the wolves… just… wow. I loved the puppets from HHN 23 but these new puppets made those old ones look like puppies. 

While I did coax her in to doing it twice, this was my girlfriend’s most “hated” house just because it freaked her out so much. Seriously. After the second time through she B-lined it out of the exit to the nearest bench and said “we’re sitting until I’m ready.” She refused to do it a third time, although wait times would have easily permitted a third walkthrough.   

Scares: 4/5

Atmosphere: 5/5

Overall: 4.5/5

Asylum in Wonderland 3D

I’m not a fan of 3D houses. Never have been and don’t think I ever will be. I don’t know but I just feel like the sensory overload that I experience when walking through these houses just makes it impossible for scares to really be effective in any way.

 I will say though that AiW3D had some really awesome costumes and characters so even if 3D houses aren’t your thing there is plenty to at least look at in this house. It’s better than Afterlife, for me at least, which was probably the house I like the least in HHN 23. But still I only hit AiW once and that’s okay with me, although my girlfriend actually loved this house.

Scares: 0/5

Atmosphere: 3/5

Overall: 2/5

The Purge

I was torn when what happened, well… happened to this house. I was looking forward to a house based off the Scream films but not the show. But a Purge house was something I always thought could work well and I was very interested to see what A&D did to the house post-debacle to turn it in to the Purge and to see if I could make out any of Scream influence anywhere.  

You defiantly can, if you know the films and that’s all I’ll really say on the matter.

As far as it being a Purge house I thought that the creative team did a good job of changing things up. While I really disliked the constant gratified on the walls (some would have been okay but to me it was just absolute overload) other changes such as “purge security systems,” anti-NFA members, and other things here and there were welcomed additions. Something that people who have seen the Purge films would recognize and obviously something that really had to be worked on and added to the house.  

Also the actor energy seemed to always be really good in this house, although the scares really depended on timing (although that’s really true of any house at HHN.)

While this house wasn’t my favorite house I will say that it probably incorporated one of my most favorite elements of ANY haunted house I have ever visited (or been a part of for that matter, since I’ve worked haunts for ten years.) That actually threw in “victims” into the crowd of guests who would then be taken by the purgers and killed. While this sort of thing has happened plenty of times before at HHN (see All Night Die-In: Double Feature review, as well as throwing in civilians into other street zones this year and past years) this was the first time that I ever really experienced it very intimately in a house setting. The first time it happened was the first time we went through the house and this young woman came out of a corner and cut us (my girlfriend actually went in before me our first time through.) This young woman said “sorry and she had gotten cut off from her group” and was wearing a Universal Orlando hoodie so we said it was no problem and that she could go in front of us. As soon as we rounded a corner a purger grabbed hold of this girl with a knife and dragged her screaming into a closet and slammed the door. My girlfriend screamed and had reached out for a second and I was just dumbfounded at what had just happened. We looked at each other and it had taken a full moment to realize that it was a part of the show. It happened again when were outside waiting in line to do the house a second time, only this time to the people in front of us. Another lady with a Universal hoodie, without asking, just cut them and they were all like “hey, what the hell” and the male purger with the mic outside noticed and said “Oh, you think it’s okay to cut in line?” and that started a back and forth between them which eventually ended with him saying “I think it’s time to purge. What do you people think?” I looked around and the crowed was all kind of looking at one another or awkwardly smiling so… I yelled out “PURGE!” This actress spun around and looked at me in shock (whether she was simply acting or just not used to people saying anything I don’t know) but that’s all the purger needed to start his advance towards her and then they ended “off stage” and we heard a big bang. This kind of visceral interaction is exactly what I want to see more of from HHN and the haunt industry in general. We’re starting to see it more and more with houses but I was glad that Universal’s creative team added that in because it was such a huge thing to me and just made the experience that much better for me.

Scares:3/5

Atmosphere: 3/5

Overall: 3/5

The Walking Dead: The Living and the Dead

This was the worst house for me, as it was for many other people. It also consistently, during or visit, had the lowest wait time of any of the houses at the event at any one time. I think the longest I saw it get was around 35 minutes on Saturday, but in general I don’t remember seeing it going about 25 most of the time we were at the event.

 While the sets looked great and some of the gags were cool in the house (the slit throat at the beginning was probably the most wet I ever got in a blood gag in a house, and that poor horse (although awesome looking) was a low blow) in general there was just nothing. No energy from the actors and most of the other effects that were there just didn’t work… it just felt like it was thrown together because it “had to be there” (which depending on who you ask, that may be the case.)

Scares: 0/5

Atmosphere: 2/5

Overall: 1/5

Evil’s Roots

This was by far my favorite scarezone. Full of creepy atmosphere and amazing imagery it’s really what I wished HHN 23: Evil Takes Root was instead of full on Walking Dead fest (while I love the show it was just too much that year.)

The actors in this zone were really spot on for the most part really playing into the darkness and fog. During the day it’s not as powerful or intense as it is as night progresses. It’s really a zone made by Halloween lovers for Halloween lovers.

Scares: 3.5/5

Atmosphere: 5/5

Overall: 4/5

INSIDIOUS

This house… I only got to do this house once during our visit, and it was on the last day, and it frustrates me to no end. It was a great house, and I mean absolutely great in every way. The problem was everyone else seemed to think so too as the wait times typically ranged between 45 min to an hour or more while we were there. On our last day we B-lined it to this house wanted were some of the first people to go through it that Sunday.

The sets were amazing and intricate and there were a lot of really great memorable moments from the films present in this house. Now typically when there are “scenes” from the films being staged the scares (for me) generally lack in those moments in the past, but that was not the case here. Even though you were watching the scene played out the scares were perfectly positioned to get you at exactly the right moments. The timing is EVERYTHING in this house and every single actor was spot on from start to finish. Some hard work from the creative team and the actors was put into this house, and it pays off.

Scares: 4/5

Atmosphere: 4/5

Overall: 4/5

ICONS- HHN

This scarezone may not have been the scariest one but it had some really great atmosphere and some amazing vignettes by the main icons from Horror Nights past. My biggest gripe… where the hell is Bloody Mary!?

Defiantly spend some time here if you can, just to watch the stage shows. I wasn’t able to catch them all but I’m sure eventually they’ll all pop up on YouTube.  Also it’s great to see a bunch of lesser known characters and icons traveling around in the streets as well.

Scares: 2.5-3/5

Atmosphere: 3-4/5

Overall: 3.5/5

Jack Presents 25 Years of Monsters and Mayhem

My absolutely favorite house at HHN25. It’s funny to me because really this is the kind of haunted house I’m used to- the kind where it’s mainly a bunch of random rooms thrown together that cover a wide range of fears and characters.

From start to finish this house oozes atmosphere and character. Some really great moments and characters that I have never experienced before were all present in this house and it made me so happy as a Horror Nights fan. I loved how it not only covered the history of HHN but also, in part, the horror history of Universal- including monsters such as The Wolfman, Hunchback, and Frankenstein. This house reminded me a lot of Silver Screams which is one of my favorite houses from 2009.

A lot of actors got me good in this house, but the one that consistently got be both times I went through was the first Ringmaster Jack, so kudos.

This house, on top of some spot on acting and breathtaking sets had some really neat effects as well- my favorite one being the scrim used in the picture hallway. As you walk towards the picture of Jack, if you look to your right there will be a ghost which appears through the wall and seemingly floats by you. As you’re distracted of course there is a scare (which admittedly got me as well.) But that effect is just brilliant and absolutely amazing. That was one of those moments that will be engrained into my memory forever.

Scares: 4.5/5

Atmosphere: 5/5

Overall: 4.5-5/5

The shows this year are amazing. Bill and Ted I don’t have much to say about other than it was funny as per usual, and The Carnage Returns was just plain fun. Defiantly hope that Universal decides to keep doing shows like Carnage because it’s incredibly obvious that the creative team loves putting them on. The number of inside jokes was well appreciated and the kills were brilliant. Wish that there was more of a “big finish” like there was in the original Carnival of Carnage show, but beggars can’t be choosers and overall the show was really entertaining.

I loved this event overall. I felt like there was a real return to some great creativity as well as a ton of callbacks to various things that has made this event so great for the past 25 years. Universal’s creative team really went all in with this year and it shows. I thoroughly enjoyed it and look forward to another 25 years of this horrific event. 

Houses

• American Werewolf in London - 7/10
  I didn't go to HHN23 so this was my first time through this maze.  At first it didn't live up to my expectations about hearing how amazing it was the past two years, but it grew on me and I really enjoyed it.  In some of the weaker years, this would have easily been my favorite.
• Asylum in Wonderland 3D - 8/10
  What can I say?  I LOVE the 3D houses.  It seemed a little like "just throw stuff at the house and see what sticks" due to the lack of a backstory fleshed out through an interactive webpage, but when it was explained on the UTH tour, it made it even better for me.
• Body Collectors - 9/10
  Gorgeous house, great sight gags, and really good scares.
• Freddy vs Jason - 9/10
  DAMN those Jason's were huge!  The casting call was for people 6'7" and taller.  The shortest Jason was 6'3".  That's from the tour.  The Jason part was better for scares, but the Freddy "iconic kills" section was amazing.  Loved this house!  If the FvJ part was done better and I didn't miss the "winner" at the end a few times, I might have given it a 10.
• Insidious - 8/10
  Didn't watch any of the movies and haunting movies aren't my thing (though I'm curious now after it was explained to us what the movie was about).  Had some great scares and some truely creepy rooms.  If I was a fan of the movies, I probably would have rated it higher.
• Jack:  25 Years - 10/10
  Can't say anything that hasn't been said before.  HUGE house, tons of scares, and just amazing sets.  The "Best of" aspect wasn't as jarring as I thought about going from room to room.  Just amazing.
• Purge - 5/10
  It was loud and I loved the costumes that were already used in the Scare Zones...but it was just weak as would be expected given the last second nature of the switch.  Was more interesting to look for all the scream scenes than to go through the house.  Loud...but not in a good way.  Though the bed scene was probably the most brutal thing I've ever seen at HHN (and bumps up my grad a full point)
• Run - 6/10
  Much like Purge, just nothing memorable.  Forgot the house the second I left it and really can't think of much to elaborate on it in my forthcoming longer review.
• The Walking Dead - 5/10
  I LOVE the show and have been a defender of past houses...but this was just weak as hell.  The facade was non-existant, but the first "kill" in the house was awesome and brutal.  The zombies in the water was laughably bad...and the truck gag was a recycled craptactular job.

Shows

• Jack - 10/10
  I LOVED IT.  It was really only the second Icon show I ever saw (Terra Queen was the first) and the stage was huge, the pyro was great, music was great, violent as hell, some cursing, it was just awesome.
• Bill & Ted - 5/10
  Giving the performers a 5/5 for the singing, dancing, and energy...they were great.  Giving the show content a 0/5 because it was weak.  Maybe it's because I'm in my 40s and I just don't get most of the references, but it just seemed so lazy and not coherent.  Like they just went from gag to gag with no plot.  I know, that sounds really stupid to say.  But it's like how Scary Movie 3 is stupid but hilarious and the dime a dozen imitations from the same time sucked even though they were lampooning the same thing.  You need SOMETHING to tie it together and it just didn't happen for me.  Felt like it had ADD this year.

Zones - 6/10.  Nothing really stood out to me.  Just seemed like they were all recycled from past years, with maybe a little twist.  I enjoyed them, but not nearly as much in many of the past years.  Lumping them all in together.  Central Park had great ambiance as usual, but seemed like even fewer scares than usual.  The Icons zone had some cool sets, but even taking a bunch of pictures and exposing myself to be scared pretty easily I think I only got one decent scare in there.

*My review of the houses will contain spoilers for specific scenes & scares I really enjoyed.*

The Walking Dead 

Season 5 didn't have the best material to work with, but the creative team still did a good job translating most of the scenes from the show. The facade was lazily put together, especially compared to our Terminus facade here in Hollywood. The walker scaring in front of the facade was also doing a poor job acting like a zombie from the show. He seemed too aware of his surroundings and didn't even maneuver like a walker from the series. The rest of the talent inside did a good job with what they were given. Lame facade aside, Orlando's maze gave both my girlfriend and I a few good scares. The first room had explosion sound effects that were very loud and realistic. The flooded food bank scene shouldn't have been touted as something game changing, especially when the walkers in the tubs were seen as soon as you entered the room, making it impossible to effectively scare guests. The forest, barn, and loading dock scenes were all executed fairly well on the other hand. I especially liked the horse prop that would move its head when the walker gnaws at its stomach. Last year's maze was full of energy, scare actors and well designed sets which managed to impress me (fan of the show) and my girlfriend who knew nothing about the show. This year, TWD wasn't terrible but you can tell A&D doesn't want to use this IP anymore. It should've went out with a bang last year, but hopefully the higher ups allow this property to go out with some dignity after this year's event. 

House Count: 4

Rating: 6.5/10 

The Purge

I love the concept of the Purge, but I do not find any of the characters scary or intimidating. Experiencing our terrible Purge Terror Tram this year made me curious, yet hesitant to see what Orlando could do with this property. My curiosity grew as soon as I read about the whole Scream fiasco and how last minute this house was put together. For the amount of time they had, they did a pretty good job. I rarely got startled in this house, but the strobes, gun scares, and loud music created a very distinct, chaotic ambiance that most of the other houses didn't have which added more variety to the line-up. One scene I thought looked cool was the Prom Queen being stabbed in the bedroom with the Purger popping out of the closet. That was a good distraction scare that actually got me. A room that didn't work was the scare by the FFA member who popped out and mouthed the line "We are the FFA," stomps his feet, readies gun, and fires in the air. It took too long and the mouthing of the line didn't look real. With simple sets and a lack of varied scares, I'd say this is the house I liked least this year. That doesn't mean The Purge was a bad maze, it just means most of the other houses were very strong this year. 

House Count: 4

Rating: 5/10 

Run 

The concept of Run is really cool, but I found the maze boring at times. I liked Brazil's gas chamber scene, Canada's chainsaw scare, and America's candy room, but the transition rooms with display boards were identical. To add to the boring transition rooms, there were no scares in them which I thought was a missed opportunity. I also was disappointed Eddie wasn't used in this maze since he is Jack's brother and he was never given the attention he deserved. 

House Count: 4

Rating: 6/10 

Jack Presents: 25 Years of Monsters & Mayhem 

Wow! There's very little I didn't love about this maze. I YouTubed any maze I could find and researched the backstories in order to further appreciate this house. Seeing the facade and hearing Jack speak about the event pumped me up so much, and the house just got better from there. After the first transition cave with the jack-o-lanterns, the pumpkin man scared the crap out of me! Scene after scene, the intensity continued. The Goldie locks and bear scare, Gothic's stilt walker and statue, the Caretaker's mirror scare, the Cindy scare after the Caretaker's room, the transitional hallways with Jack, the Nightingales air and water gag, Jack's mannequins, and the classic monster segment (especially the Phantom) were all so damn good. The only rooms I disliked were Havoc because the scare actors did absolutely nothing (every single time) and the vampire bedroom scene because there was nothing cool or inventive about it. The Unmasking the Horror tour on our second day made the walkthroughs on night three and four even better since we knew more about the history of this house. 

House Count: 7

Rating: 10/10 

Freddy vs Jason 

I've been waiting for a Freddy vs Jason maze ever since I started going to HHN in 2007, and was hoping this would be terrifying. Thankfully, almost every single walk through in this house was truly amazing! Jason is my favorite slasher icon and Freddy is my girlfriend's favorite so we both appreciated how they split the maze into equal segments. Both icons received a fair share of time alone before battling against each other. Our first walk through was one of our best since we were the main target of every single scare. Shout out to the Freddy wearing the Camp Crystal Lake shirt (he would run and pop out of the boo hole extremely fast) and the kid Jason in the underwater scene who got me three times at different parts of the bridge (I screamed... a lot.) The only cons of this house are the projections screens which were very poor quality and the scene where Jason is lifting Freddy because you could see the rig. I'll overlook those minor flaws because of how good all of the scare actors were and how much fan service there was. It was just a really, really fun house with excellent scares that made me realize how much I missed these slasher icons. 

House Count: 9

Rating: 9.8/10

Body Collectors 

I had no idea what to expect with the Body Collectors but from the very few videos I could find from previous years, the tall gentlemen looked creepy and their mysterious backstory intrigued me. I'm a sucker for gruesome mazes with inventive kills so the spine rip scene made me so happy to see. The facade was so beautiful and is definitely my favorite of the year. I loved all of the showy kills that required multiple actors. Some scares that got me really good were the assistant that popped out of the padded walls in the mental patient's room, and the scene with the platform where the collector was wearing the red robe. While this maze wasn't as scary as Freddy vs Jason, 25 Years, or Insidious, it still made me jump a few times and it was just a really creepy, cool maze. 

House Count: 7

Rating: 8.5/10 

Insidious 

I'm a huge fan of all three movies, and thought Hollywood's 2013 & 2015 mazes were phenomenal so I had very high expectations for this maze. Once again, my expectations were met BUT I didn't love it as much as our maze in Hollywood this year. The scare actors in Hollywood were much more intense and almost made me fall to the floor at one point. Regardless, this was still a very well done maze that gave me a ton of good scares. The one room that was better than Hollywoods was the Man Who Can't Breathe's hallway since he would be right in your face, and the air gag would elevate the scare. Our hallway had three scare actors pop out from above (two on either side of you, and one in front before you left the room), but they were too far and high to effectively scare guests. The room right after you left the Red Demon's lair also was very effective since it was packed with three demon scare actors in a very small space. 

House Count: 6

Rating: 9/10 

Asylum in Wonderland 

Down, down, down! After reading multiple reviews on this site about how this wasn't very good, I tempered my expectations. Well, to my surprise I really enjoyed this house for both its visuals and scares. Not only is this my second favorite 3D house (House of 1000 Corpses is #1), but it was leagues better than Hollywood's This is the End 3D which was complete crap. While Asylum in Wonderland didn't have the best sets, I appreciated the fact there were still rooms with elaborate set dressing like the Mad Hatter party room and the mental patient room with Alice on the bed. I've never been through a vortex tunnel, and thought it was a very effective portrayal of going down the rabbit hole while also being a very disorientating effect. Another thing I've never seen in a maze before was the use of a trampoline. The bird jumping distracted me, and the scare actor on the opposite side got me really good. Overall, this was a really fun house that had great visual effects and scares dispersed throughout.  I had a great time going through this maze every night. 

House Count: 5

Rating: 7.5/10

American Werewolf in London 

I know many Orlando attendees who went to Hollywood were disappointed with our version of AWIL, but I loved it and surprisingly, I was disappointed with Orlando's rendition. Hollywood's version had a bartender in the Slaughtered Lamb, and one of the people who killed the wolf would pop out with a gun scare before seeing Jack get attacked. In Orlando, these rooms were completely empty which was pretty lame. The wolf attacking Jack was completely static unlike our version which was moved by the scare actor (this didn't look great but it still was better than a completely still wolf). I liked how this rendition had the city attack at the very end unlike our maze which had two identical rooms with Jack transforming, but even with the poor transitions and repeated room, our maze had much better scares. This was the only maze in Orlando that seemed like the scare actors didn't want to be there. THERE WAS NO ENERGY! We went through this house 6 times during our four nights at HHN trying to see if we were just having bad timing. NOPE. The scare actors just weren't cutting it. It's unfortunate since we did Hollywood's version eight times, and every single time we would run out of certain rooms because of how amazing the scare actors were. The puppets and sets looked great (our facade looked much better though), but it was an unmemorable maze overall. 

House Count: 4

Rating: 7/10 

The Evil's Roots 

I loved everything about this zone. The costumes, lighting, heavy fog, and overall atmosphere. Last year, Blood Bayou had all of that but was lacking energetic scareactors. This year, almost every character was attempting to scare guests, so this was a huge improvement. 

Rating: 8.5/10

Icons

Some people may dislike the fact that this is primarily a photo ops zone, but I loved it. The icons deserve their own zone, and I'm sure most people want pictures of or with them so this was the perfect way to give fans what they want. Face Off didn't have the greatest costumes or scares so the photo op in general was mediocre. This year, not only was it awesome interacting with the icons, but you would see them kill victims throughout the night and their minions would actually try scaring. 

Rating: 9/10

Psychoscarepy Unleashed 

Wow! The energy and talent in this zone was fantastic. I loved the apple bobbing and pumpkin carving stands, and how the scareactors would interact with guests. Everyone here legitimately seemed like mental patients, which made me feel uneasy (in a good way) at times. Also, the Halloween block party theme was a great idea. I could've spent the entire night here because of how entertaining the scareactors were. This is definitely one of the best scarezones I've seen in years. 

Rating: 10/10

All Night Die In 

This was very a very cool zone to watch, and I loved all of the photo opportunities you have.  Being able to take a picture with Jason Voorhees was awesome. The classic monster cast had a great variety of characters, but I didn't think the modern characters were very cool besides Jason. What was up with the Chucky and Tiffany masks ? They looked terrible! I also was bummed I didn't get to see Freddy. He wasn't there any of the 4 nights we went, does anyone know why he was removed? I also didn't know who the cheerleaders or vampires were. I wish we could have seen Michael Myers, Leatherface, Hellraiser, or other more notable icons instead of The Strangers or Purge characters. I understand right's issues but if your gonna do it, at least try to go all out. 

Rating: 7/10

Scarytales: Screampunk

I really liked the costumes in this zone, especially the Tin Man and the Wolf.  Shout out to the wolf dressed in the grandmother's clothing. He was absolutely terrific every single night we went through this area. The way he'd run throughout the area in such an aggressive manner was very impressive. The big prop placed in the center also looked really good, I just wish there were at least one smaller prop in each corner of the area that connected to the prop in the center. 

Rating: 7.5/10

I enjoyed all of the scare zones and thought they were so much better than last year. Overall, the four zones and roaming hoardes were really well done and I'm glad they were improved upon. Yes, some scareactors still just stand and stare but the majority of scarezone monsters actually were scaring. That was my biggest gripe last year. I also like that Orlando's event is lenient about photo opportunities and flash usage outside. It makes for some great photos! 

Bill and Ted's Excellent Halloween Adventure 

Doc Brown coming out with Bill and Ted in a Delorean?! SOLD! Wow, this show was so much better than last year. Kanye West was an easy target and many of the jokes on both him and Kim landed pretty well. Jabs at Disney about Avatar land were also funny, and it's so true... Who cares about Avatar anymore?! Overall, I got a good amount of laughs and the dancing segments were entertaining as usual. 

Rating: 8.5/10 

The Carnage Returns 

Say hell yeah, Jack! Seriously, stop shouting that out every 3 minutes! Lol Jack and Chance looked great and I loved the interaction between these two twisted clowns. Some of the segments were a little meh, but I thought the kills were very inventive and surprisingly gory (especially "The Big Ass Saw"). The show could've been a very solid 10 minute show, but instead it was an entertaining but slightly boring 15 minute show. 

Rating: 7/10 

Overall 

I've attended Hollywood's event for 9 years and this was one of the most disappointing events I have attended. Orlando's event on the other hand blew my mind. This may be my favorite year I've been to on either coast so far! Not only was Jack's presence amazing, they actually capitalized on this with the merchandise this year. I happily spent my money on the phone case, mug, Did you miss me Jack shirt, keychain, bottle opener, and jack collectible. It was so nice not seeing very much The Walking Dead merchandise like there is in Hollywood the last 3 years. Also, one small complaint that began to annoy me even more on night 3 and 4 were the show control employees inside the mazes. When they tried making us hurry to the next room to catch up with the group in front of us, I purposefully would walk slower because I'm not about to ruin my experience for you to hit an attendance quota per hour. I paid good money to take my time and casually walk through a maze. Overall, I'm really curious to see if they'll be able to come close to this level of perfection next year. 

Event Rating: 9/10

Houses-

Body Collectors: 10/10

Run:8/10

Asylum in Wonderland 3D:8/10

FvJ:8/10

AWIL:7/10

M&M:10/10

Insidious: 10/10

TWD:8/10

Purge:8/10

Scarezones-

Die-in: 9/10

Scary Tales: 7/10

Icons:9/10

Evil's Roots: 7/10

Psychoscareapy: 6/10

Shows-

Bill and Ted: 5/10

Jack's Carnage:9/10

9/16/15

I was there from opening (seven) until ten o clock. 

Walked through zones to get to food. No scareactors.

First house that I did was body collectors. There was barely anyone. I freaked out screamed and tried to run. Very creepy.

The spine rip scene was actually intense.

Second house was Asylum in Wonderland. This is my first 3d house.

The vortex disoriented me so bad that I was genuinely terrified through the house. The queens cardmen were intense, plant handed scareactors. Knights almost taking toes off. Dead rabbit.

Awesome.

I then hit the Jack show. It was pretty good. It sounded like chance had the same voice as ana in last year's bill and ted. Cursing. Violence. Mayhem. Blood. Pretty good.

Bill and ted sucked this year imho. A lot of the jokes fell flat, and the crowd only made noise for like two things

(doctor who and the delorian(sp?)) Kimye wasnt funny. North was okay. The presidential candidates as ghostbusters was not funny. Vape is made of people, eh. Taylor swift. Orange is the new black. Justin bieber. Avatar world again. Disney jokes: hocus pocus, star wars. Lots of references to past bill and teds. Vacation movie. Deez nuts. Pitch perfect. Jurassic world: kardasharapters. Avengers. Magic mike xxl. Fifty shades of grey. Tina from bobs burgers. A couple other peiple I didnt recognize.

Don't try to hit it if you're only going one night.

Die in I didnt spend much  time in the zone but I really loved the classic monsters.

Frankenstein, Frankenstein's monster, nosferatu. Frankensteins bride. Dracula. Purger was the only one I recognized in the modern one.

Icons I didnt spend much time but the icons looked awesome. Very reminiscent of face off last year, minions do the scares.

Psychoscarepy was interesting but not that intense. Very similar to purge last year.

Chainsaw clowns were okay in simpsons

Chainsaws by transformers looked like they were exhausted, they didnt try scaring anyone when I went through.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

9/18/15

9PM-12AM

Scarezones were better. Walked through them most of the night. Die-In; saw both sets, pretty cool. Walked through Evil's Roots: It looked great. Icons wasn't bad, I still missed the kills though. Psychoscareapy was still meh in my opinion. Scary Tales; I love the costumes.

Chainsaws were more interactive.

Gringotts

Run- I'm the biggest baby in the world, so this was terrifying for me.

A lot of it was super cheesy (I'm looking at you, mannequin with the ninja stars), but I really enjoyed this house. The electricution(sp?) room was cool. Other than those, I can't remember too much. 

Leaky Cauldron

Carnage Returns- I didn't enjoy it much tonight.

The spanish joke wasn't in it. Less fun was made of the other icons (I can't even think of one joke about the other icons from this show).

We'll see how tonight turns out.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

9/19/15

TONIGHT WAS SO MUCH BETTER.

I got in about 7:30.

Caught the Jack show:

Spanish Joke is back, icons jokes are back, and there was a new joke I can't remember it exactly though.

Went to AWIL: Posted 30min, actually like 15. I hadn't done this one before (Last year was my first year) so it was awesome. I really enjoyed the wolves jumping out/popping out.

Last room with the double scare was good, one popping out of the window was awesome.

Went to M&M: Posted 45, actually about 30.

THE BEAR WAS AWESOME!!!!!

The hallway was phenomenal, the gargoyle that gets you from the "outside" was awesome!

My friend got punched in the side by the first female clown in that hallway.

Sexy dancing cause my friend to laugh.

EDDIEE!!

This house was by far my favorite.

We then walked through Icons back and forth for like an hour, pictures with the ones on stages.

Purge: Was pretty good knowing the time constraint. 

AIR GUNS

TWD: Letdown.

Water = stupid. The last room, my friend busted out laughing and then got scared by the final zombie and fell down. I died.

All in all a good night, can't wait for Thursday.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

9/24/15-

Got there around 630ish.

Did RUN; walk on (5 minutes posted wait) It was still light out so I was still able to see where all the scares were, and see all of the scenes. I enjoyed it a little bit more; because I could appreciate it.

Did FVJ: 60 minutes (45 posted) I was got multiple times

Freddy won!

Body Collectors- 40 minute wait: accurate.SO MUCH THAT I DIDNT SEE THE FIRST TIME! HOLY SHIITAKE MUSHROOMS/ It was even better the second time around.

AWIL- Not as good the second time around.

RUN- After dark, much better and I was really able to respect the scares after seeing the environments.

Hung out in Die-In for a while;

Freddy and Jason were out.

Icons was cool. I got hit in the face by the stilt scarewalker's cape thing. It was all up in my mouth. LOL.

Scary Tales was all right.

Psychoscarepy was eh, no scares this time.

Evils Roots was meh.

CLOWNS WERE WITH IT TODAY. One followed me and then got some of the others to follow. I was terrified.

9/25

Insidious was EXCELLENT. I got scared so many times. This is straight up spooky.

Purge: Better than the last time. More intense actors.

TWD: Worse than last time.

9/26

Arrived at 5:15, first in the gate at 6:00.

Walked on M&M JACKS HAVE THEIR WIGS +++ A LOT BETTER.

FVJ was about one minute wait: Freddy won again.

Asylum: I didn't remember HALF OF THESE ROOMS. walk on

RUN: Better. walk on

Asylum: Looked for GATs, didn't see any, paid more attention to the ending. 35 min.

I spent a lotof time in the scarezones: Caught the Storyteller and the Caretaker's kills.

Bill n Ted was better.

9/27

Monsters and Mayhem posted 30, waited like 15.

Run walk on

Body Collectors posted 15, waited 10.

Awil posted 10, walk on.

Body Collectors posted 5, walk on. Saw Jack/Eddie babies. (Staff member walked in front of me(because she was leaving?), kind of ruined the run because she kept hugging the scare actors...)

Body Collectors again cause walk on.

Run walk on, only one through the house. It's so much better when you're the only one/

Insidious (walk on) alone. CREEPY.

The further hallway was so intense, I had my leg "grabbed" a couple times.Possible GAT the coins on the music stand when you enter the house, it played the chord from the movie (I think)

Purge( walk on); last one in the house that night. It was intense when you're the last one.

10/1

Arrived at about 11:15.

M&M posted 45, waited about 30. The

Jack in the Mirror blew me a kiss!

Possible GAT chain/rope thing that you pull and water/air comes out of the wall.

A few of the scareactors were missing from their positions.

AWIL posted 15, waited about 10. The more times I do this house, the worse the runs. The intensity is not there, and only a couple of the puppets landed scares.

FVJ posted 45 minutes, waited about 35.

FINALLY SAW JASON WIN!!! It's much better I think. 

This one still scares me the most, the Jason's are just massive.

Body Collectors posted 5, walk on (12:53). I love this house so much. No lie. The intensity was there the entire time.  

10/2

Monsters and Mayhem

Freddy vs Jason

(Freddy won)

Awil.

10/3

FVJ-

freddy won

BC

TWD-

THE ZOMBIES WERE SPRINTING. THEY WERE FAST. I WASNT READY. IT WAS TERRIFYING.DEFINITELY MOVED UP ON MY LIST.

Purge- Same old, same old.

Monsters- (Mirror Jack = <3)

All of the rides.

10/4

Bill and Ted. Better.

Monsters - (Mirror Jack <3)

Run-

Brazil brought the plague in the first room.

Monsters - (No mirror Jack </3)

Caught the Icon kills!!

• Usher kills a "guest" who sneaks up on stage to take pictures. He beats him to death with a flashlight and then licks the blood spatter.
• Storyteller cuts out a guest's tongue
• Director has the electrocution in the tub kill.
• Caretaker does a "live autopsy" and takes out the guest's heart. He then reached his hand out to me and shook my hand <3
•  

TWD-

FAST ZOMBIES <3

Purge- Same old, same old.

Insidious-

The hallway of the further is creepier and creepier.

Monsters and Mayhem- (Mirror Jack <3)

Now that the event is over;

I went SO MANY more nights this year and just didn't have time to update this.

Everything got consistantly better over the season and I definitely will never forget this year.

25 Years stayed at the top this season, followed closely by Body Collectors and Insidious. FVJ got me so good every time I went through. Purge was intense, TWD was meh, Run was good, and AWIL was underwhelming but good. AIW was really good and was definitely 5th on my list.

HOUSE COUNT:

Total Nights: 25

Monsters and Mayhem: 29

FvJ: 8

BC: 12

RUN: 17

AWiL: 7

Asylum 3D: 5

Insidious: 9

Purge: 8

TWD: 8

B&T: 6

Carnage Returns: 6

Houses.

25 Years of Monsters: sets: 5/5 scares: 5/5 costumes 5/5

probably the Best house of the year. They did a lot and they did it very well. I loved everything they chose (cannot remember disliking anything at all) the scares work well and everything looks beautiful. I almost wish this house would just come back as it is for next year (yeah,  I do. That's how much I like it, just bring it back the way it is lol) I was surprised how well everything fits together. 

Freddy vs. Jason: sets:5/5 scares:5/5 costumes:4/5

A really fun, scary and wild house. The actors are really good at playing their characters, and they look really good in their costumes too (the best ones are Jason. Freddy looks good.... but some of the masks looked a little weird)  they did a good job at capturing both worlds and make it cohesive (Believe it or not, this house does kind of follow the movie faithfully in a way. Not an exact adaptation but it does follow the plot of the movie..... even having the demon freddy in it) I like the Jason actors more just because they feel more intense.

The screens are a little cheesy but I let that pass since everything else is so good.  

Body Collectors: sets 4/5 scares 5/5 costumes 4/5 

Creepy, but not as intense as some of the other houses (Yet that works for its advantage since it makes it feel creepier than the other houses ) The sets are good... but I don't think there is anything that memorable besides the entrance. The gentlemen are very creepy and work well. Can't say too much about the mental patients (I am not sure how many there are, can't really remember any) I do Love the room with the gentleman in red. (overall the house has a sense of dread) 

Insidious: sets:5/5 scares:4/5 costumes: 4/5 

I did not find any of these movies scary so that affected the way I saw this house a little bit. (I don't find anything scary about women in thick make up pointing at you and yelling) The actresses in the house look just like the character from the movie, but again, Can't see what's scary about that. (They do recreate all the ghosts from the movie very well so I do give them praise for making a very good adaptation) They really did a great faithful adaptation of the movies. The other actors are very scary (red demon guy and woman in black) those are really creepy. (the Hallway made me scream which I almost never do so yeah..)  the house is definitely 10 times more scary than the movies ever were. 

The Purge: sets: 2/5 scares:4/5 costumes 2/5 

they did the best they could (with such little notice) so what can you do. yeah the graffiti walls sucks, the black covered walls suck... I am actually surprised  we got such a decent house (all things considered) the actors are doing very well though. This house has a lot of intensity and energy that other houses don't have. That alone makes this NOT the worst house of the event. (A little nitpick... but I was expecting different masks used in the house... I only remember seeing smiling masks and people without any masks. I wish there was more variety with the Purgers.)

Walking Dead: sets: 3/5 scares 3/5 costumes 2/5

yep, We are all tired, everyone is very tired by now... But... to be honest  This house was scarier (for me) than last years was (I do think it has to do with how dark this house is)

and While The sets are not bad at all... it is just all the same stuff we have already seen before. (Same environments. same woods. same warehouse, same barn... the costumes are all the same, the scares are the same. etc)
And Seeing how this house is getting some of the shortest lines of the event,it might be the last time we see it

I still think Walking Dead could come back next year as ONE of the scarezones, just for old time's sake lol

American Werewolf in London: sets:4/5 scares:2/5 costumes/puppets 5/5

This house is still pretty good... just not as scary (Not as it was before) I Still love those wolves, I love how faithful the sets are... but you can tell people are not getting too scared in this house. For me the wolves are still scary but in all my runs I can tell people are just staring at everything around them an not necessarily getting scares . (The missing actors are definitely noticeable) Having 9 houses is nice and all (and i am glad they brought back one of the Good houses)... but this house just makes me wonder about the future.

(what will they bring back next? what will they repeat?) I was really hoping this was going to be awesome (those wolves are still very impressive to watch) and I was rooting for this to be as glorious as it was. But it just isn't.  
This house now feels more like some kind of museum or show than a house. 

Asylum in Wonderland: sets: 1/5 scares 2/5 costumes:5/5 

great Property...funny characters... in a 3D house full of painted walls and Christmas lights.

Not much else to say about it really (It  just made me wish they had done a regular Alice house instead) The actors are having fun and they do have nice costumes... but It just feels like so much wasted potential.  Nothing about the rooms really says "Alice In Wonderland" to me. (Nothing stands out as actually being "Alice" related besides the Mad Hatter room, the Queen room or the end) So I don't even know how to rate it since it is mainly a regular 3D house that just happens to have some Alice in Wonderland characters inside it.  I give the house a 1 out of 5 and the costumes a 5 out of 5

Run: Blood, Sweat, and Fears: sets 2/5 scares:2/5 costumes 4/5

 The house feels too disjointed ( I do know what the premise is and I do know what's supposed to be happening) but It just didn't really work for me. I think the idea looked better on paper and I am not sure it translated well. The sets are pretty creative but the house wasn't really scary.  It needed to flow better. (I hated the intermission rooms, that felt awful) the translation from room to room is not very good.

not funny enough to be a good comedy house, not scary enough to be a regular house.....It feels like they were trying to have both things going and neither works. (It did not feel like it was taking place in a prison Either, so that's one more thing that wasn't working)

Streets

All Nite Die-In: Double Feature: black and white cast: 5/5  modern cast 3/5  

the zone is definitely too crowded with all the people going by... but I can't help but love this zone. Loved it in 2009, Love it again this year (I love the concept of movie characters out of the screen) really wish the zone was on a bigger street. (sometimes the actors cannot even walk) As for both casts, the Modern cast has more energy and scares more (The black and white cast is less aggressive) But I enjoy seeing the black and white cast a lot more. They have more recognizable characters and I just love the effect the make up creates. it is really cool to see all those B/W characters walking around among the normal crowd.
The modern cast does not have as many memorable characters. (some I didn't even recognize) the vampires, cheerleader, where are those from? (The Purge characters feel out of place) pretty much what I love about the modern cast is Freddy and Jason out in the open. 

 Scary Tales: ScreamPunk: 3/5

very nice costumes, Nice variety of characters. Lack of good props hurts the zone (lack of something hanging in the air)  The characters are very cool but the zone feels incomplete. (it didn't even need to be anything extravagant, Just better use of their budget for multiple props instead of just one) 

They created this One giant prop, but I think it would have been better to have multiple smaller props instead. the one big prop almost feels out of place with the rest of the zone. (this really needed something hanging from above) the actors are great

Evil's Roots: 4/5

I loved what they did here. the zone with the best atmosphere. (much better than the zone last year) great costumes, a lot of fog, good music, really nice props. I loved it.

Icons: 5/5

one of the best zones (And yes, that's because of the stages and the icons) I loved the sets, this is a good sequel to the Icons zone of 2010. I love seeing characters from past years and I love how the Icons each have kills. The only one little nitpick I have is that I saw too many 7 characters around, Maybe I am mistaken but I think I saw 4. overall this zone is a lot of fun, and it can get scary. 

Psychoscareapy - Unleashed: 2/5

The zone feels kind of empty (Im not talking about props) it just feels spread out and not as full as the Purge felt. I am not sure why but it feels like it is lacking something. 

The actors are having a lot of fun in here, but I don't think Psychoscareapy works as a zone. The patients are not scary out in the open (Nor are they really that interesting) They act the part very well, but it is just not that great without the sets that a Psychoscareapy house would have. The idea for the zone sounded good on paper but I don't think it works as well as they hoped. (The music in this zone totally fits the theme, but it makes it feel even less scary) That was something Else I noticed, the Music kind of kills any change of the zone being scary. 

Clown Chainsaws: 4/5

they don't have any props, they are basically a horde, but they are a lot of fun! That Springfield area was always empty (even before they made it into Springfield) so it was really great to finally see a lot of actors around this part of the park. (that was something that had always bothered me about this area) but having actors here really does make a difference (for the better) and they fit with the cartoony look of the area. this was a very pleasant surprise. they are killing it. very happy and i hope they get to come back. 

My group brought the Rush of Fear ticket again this year since we knew we could attend up to three nights (9/24-9/26). I'll break our experience into the three different visits:

9/24
 

We did not get into HHN till 10pm, we just wanted to give ourselves a sneak peek at what the weekend had in store. We decided to venture through the scarezones:
 

Steampunk Scary Tales (5/10): while it was fun to figure out which character each actor was portraying, this area was not really scary.
 

Icons (7/10): It was cool to see the icons again after their hiatus, but this area seems to just be photo ops instead of scares. The box sets looked really cool but I would have liked ones that allowed more crowd interaction. This also felt really similar to Fear Revealed setup from XX.
 

PsychoScareapy Unleashed (8/10) - Full of scare-actors and I felt it really captured the block party atmosphere, got a few scares in here. Great job!
 

Evil's Roots (10/10) - my favorite scare zone this year, costumes were great and many scare actors teamed up to get double scares. Lots of fun.
 

All Night Die In (9/10) - I dug the collection of classic monsters in this area, would have been a 10 but I felt the decorations and set pieces were oddly placed I never got the feeling I was at a drive in.
 

We ate dinner at Finnegan's, awesome! Afterwards we decided to do one house.
 

American Werewolf in London (7/10) - This was my favorite house two years ago, but I was a little disappointed that it was pretty much the same exact layout and scares as the 2013 version. It's cool that folks who missed out get to experience this, but I guess I was looking for more variety. It's still a great looking house. WAIT TIME: 20mins

9/25
 

Arrived at 6pm, used the hotel guest entrance and went past the first few houses and started our night with...
 

Freddy Vs. Jason (8/10) - I thought the sets and actors in this house did a great job. Since it was still daylight out my eyes didn't really adjust fully till halfway though but I could still see all the detail. 1428 Elm Street looked great, the Freddy scenes were awesome! I'm a pretty tall guy but some of the Jasons were bigger than me LOL I saw most of the fight sequences and in the end it was Jason who won. WAIT TIME: 15mins
 

By the time, FvsJ was finished it was raining outside so we high tailed it to through the exit and walked right on Body Collectors.
 

Body Collectors (8/10) - Anytime the Body Collectors are involved it's usually a good time, glad to see it continuing this year. The entrance into the house was really cool, seeing Shadybrook Asylum made me really excited. The scares were good and the return of the spinal operation was nice. The ending just seemed kinda thrown together and covered with strobe. WAIT TIME: walked right in!!
 

We took a break to get drinks, use the bathroom, etc. Once it got darker we headed through Evil's Roots (awesome again!) and checked out the Walking Dead house:

 

Walking Dead (5/10) - I've done every Walking Dead house since they've brought them on board and I have to say it's really getting stale. In their defense, I have not watched the 5th season so I probably have no idea what's supposed to be happening. Also I understand that this house is way for Uni to draw in more crowds, but I'm just saying if the wait was longer I'd probably would have just skipped it. More walkers, less living, more of the same. How about a walking dead house were the crowd represent the walkers WAIT TIME: 15mins
 

Walked out of the WD exit (man that is a long walk!) and on to...

 

The Purge (7/10) - Since it was totally dark at this time, my group really got an eyefull of the detail. The guy out front did a marvelous job with providing a mini show (victim included!). Before reading some of forums, I was unaware of that this was supposed to be Scream, which makes sense why the first few rooms seemed so out of play. (also the weird blonde flying in the window), but all in all I think the scare actors did a great job while purging. WAIT TIME: 20mins.
 

Since we exited right near Insidious we decided to jump in line, the wait time was listed at 45mins:

 

Insidious (9/10) - The wait for this one was pretty brutal, but for some reason this location is always a long wait, but it was worth it! The sets looked just like the movies. Also, the dark hallway scare was great!! I thought all the actors looked great and got many scares on my group. WAIT TIME: 75mins
 

The park was getting pretty busy at this point but we wanted to hit another house

 

Monsters and Mayhem: 25 Years (10/10) - My favorite house this year, from beginning to end I thought it was awesome. It was fun going through all the scenes from the past, but what was the Christmas room supposed to be? I remember PsychoScareapy: Home for the Holidays and HR Blood N Gutz but between the music and design I couldn't pin point what they were shooting for, maybe a homage to both? I didn't see the Director or Storyteller (aside from being pictured on the Scream House wall) during our walk through. Probably my favorite house of the last few years. Eddie and Meety Meat were awesome!! WAIT TIME: 50mins.
 

At this point we decided to call it a night.  

9/26
 

For this night we splurged and brought express passes so we could experience some our favorite houses again.
 

Got into the park earlier, we went through RUN during the daylight (saving our express pass for later), but my review is based on our later RUN walk through (which was much better at night). We decided to catch the first showing of Bill & Ted.

 

Bill & Ted's Show (8/10) - I enjoyed this year's show, but I also enjoy this show every year, although I heard a bunch of complaints from other guests while exiting the theater. I guess I don't go in with big expectations and enjoy the show for what it is, not trying to compare it to the last 14 versions I've seen. I got most of the jokes, although I'm not completely up to date on all things pop culture, but I thought the nods to the older shows were great. I was hoping for montage of clips from the show's past but the fail videos were alright.

 

Run (6/10) - Much better at night and I liked the Running Man/Warriors vibe but I felt the house could have been better. I could be wrong but I think the original RUN had multiple paths you could take. I get why they can't do that anymore due to larger crowds, but the older houses just seemed more stripped down and scary, today everything has to be flashy and look cool. I remember feeling the same when they did RUN in 2006, I guess the original just holds a special place in my mind. WAIT TIME: 25mins posted (Express Pass - 5 min)
 

Carnage Returns (6/10) - The stage and special effects looked nice. Jack and Chance looked cool, but I didn't like all the music and extra dancing. Also, why was this a 20 minute show? I guess I got bored of just standing around (getting old lol), also I thought all the extra foul language made it more juvenile rather than more "adult". Just to make sure I wasn't losing my mind I re-watched "The Arrival" from HHN 16 on YouTube and it was only 7 minutes long and included 4 character deaths. So far from what I read everyone is really loving this show but I wasn't really a fan, but I'd say the majority of my dislike is due to it's length. 

 

Asylum in Wonderland (6/10) - This house was really detailed on the inside and looked nice, but I didn't get a single scare. To me it came off as more a demented fun house. The ending was a neat transition, also caught the big death scene at the exit. It was fun but I would have been really disappointed if I had waited the posted 60 minutes for this house. WAIT TIME: 60mins (Express Pass: 10min)
 

We went and did all our favorites from the night before and Monsters and Mayhem is still the best house this year in my opinion. Insidious is close second, and I wouldn't say there are any bad houses this year. I'd give the full event an 8/10, it was a good time.
 

PROS: More houses, interesting scare zones, Rush of Fear is the best way to get the most bang for your buck. The specialty drink was pretty tasty, but the cinnamon gave me a bit of a stomach ache after the 3rd drink. Lines never got insanely long (75 min plus).
 

Hope everyone enjoyed my review!