Houses

#9 - Ash Vs. Evil Dead - What a horrible, horrible house. No good scares, no good set design, and the Ashes look NOTHING like Ash! Only good thing I have to say is that the comedy was... decent. Final Rating: 2.5/5

#8 - The Horrors of Blumhouse - Meh. Sinister and Purge (especially Purge) are what keep this house from being a good house. If this house had just been a sequel to the 2015 Insidious house, then it probably could've been a really good house. The Insidious section is very strong with good scares and good costumes. Plus the energy of the scareactors are very strong as well in here. Final Rating: 3/5

#7 - American Horror Story - A good house. Cool set design, each section is evenly split, and a couple pretty good scares. But in comparison to the house from 2016, pretty weak. Final Rating: 3.5/5

#6 - Hive - At the beginning, this seemed destined to be the worst house along with THoBH. But the energy of the scareactors really brought this house to life and saved it from being a horrible house. Also some pretty cool sets and nice little details. However, I always wonder if this house could've been right up there with Scarecrow if it had stayed as Conjuring (or if that might've made it even worse). Final Rating: 3.5/5

#5 - Saw: The Games of Jigsaw - I love the Saw series. So when this house was announced, it immediately became my most anticipated. When I went through it, I loved it. Good scares, scenes straight out of the movies, and some cool traps. However, the biggest problem is that the pigs can be quite repetitive, it feels like we're watching the traps more than actually being in them, and... Where was the façade? I was really hoping for the façade to be a giant Billy head with a gaping mouth for you to walk through. Other than that, this house was really good. Final Rating: 4/5

#4 - The Fallen - What a beautiful house. Great set design, really cool costuming and make-up, some pretty good scares, and flying! Only big problem was of how the Angels Vs. Demons concept was dropped at the last second, and we're just watching Demons being Demons. But other than that, a very good house. Final Rating: 4.5/5

#3 - The Shining - Yet another beautiful house. Cool sets, PERFECT casting, and some pretty good scares. Final Rating: 5/5

#2 - Dead Waters - BEAUTIFUL! Great scares, great set design, greatest HHN façade I've seen, and a good sequel to Bayou of Blood. The only problem of course being how short it was. Final Rating: 5/5

#1 - Scarecrow: The Reaping - This is a no-brainer (pun intended). Scarecrow was a TERRIFYING house. Creepy setting, cool concept, fantastic scares, and very good set design. This year, I think Seeds of Extinction is going to rival Scarecrow. Final Rating: 5/5

Houses Overall: 4/5

Scare Zones

#5 - Altars of Horror - I think this one explains itself. Final Rating: 0/5

#4 - Festival of the Deadliest - A genuine fun zone. Cool costumes, BONE, and a cool concept. Final Rating: 3.5/5

#3 - Invasion - A really fun zone. Great interaction with the aliens, an awesome UFO, and nice details with the radio playing. Final Rating: 4.5/5

#2 - Trick 'r Treat - What a beautiful zone. Great costumes, great character interaction, and good scares! Final Rating: 5/5

#1 - The Purge - A fun and interactive zone. The scareactors are so much fun to talk to, and the purge auction is so much fun to take part in! Final Rating: 5/5

Scare Zones Overall: 4/5

Shows

Bill & Ted's Excellent Halloween Adventure - Such a good send-off to this amazing show. Fantastic writing and humor, and Jason returned! Final Rating: 5/5

Academy of Villains: Afterlife - It was disappointing that Irma had to ruin this show. They still did a wonderful job, though. Final Rating: 4/5

Shows Overall: 4.5/5

What an amazing year for HHN.

Final Rating: 4.5/5

In general, I have been going since 23, the Year Of Walking Dead...I think this may be my favorite year yet. This felt like the most balanced year I’ve been to, house wise.

Not saying it’s perfect, I’ll address my complaints throughout the review. 

No shows for this guy. I’d prefer to see the complete AOV show. B&T gets nothing from me as a comedy show at a horror event. I’ll see them both once. They just don’t pull me in. 

Let’s start with what truly makes a year for me, Houses. From worst to best.

HIVE

I give slack because this was Conjuring. Fine, I get it. I give the facade a bit of break as well, because I do like the artwork. I think Purge was more fun in 2015, but it’s all down to different theming so not a fair comparison. It edges out TCM as a little more scary, but could definitely go down below it, because scares are gonna be what makes this house.

Don’t get me wrong, the sets aren’t terrible by any means. They’re just...generic. Nothing pops out as particularly memorable, except the room with the upside down vamps. Scares however, there was a few I liked. Coffin scare, the one eating the girl (Wondering if that’s a Conjuring character by the way), the tall Nosferatu at the end.

Story’s simple. House is abandoned, taken by vampires instead of nature. You go underground after the house section. Not much of a finale. No post-house scare here either. At least it’s lengthy, which is something about every house except Dead Waters. 

Overall: 28 / 41 (Could go either way.)

The Shining

Hmmmm….great facade. Nice finale, fits the story. Sets look nice, scares ok. Something about the whole package….is just not hitting here for some reason.

The sets are nice, but don’t feel nice enough or really stand out. If I didn’t know the scenes, I feel as if I’d be a little confused. Feels like any haunted hotel IMO, and not The Overlook. 

Scares are hit or miss. Room 237 lady’s good, last hedge maze is good. Grady Twins scene is eh, as well as Gold Room. The major axe sequence is super meh IMO. Mirror maze is ok, more annoying than anything. Even the ones good...just feel like they have no impact. I just don’t know. Feels like a tour with interactive elements. The Exorcist felt like a journey. It’s a cool maze, but not...really...impressive.

Also, throw out that one random trippy room right after the hedge maze at the beginning. Seriously, what was that?

Overall: 24 / 41 (Will likely go down, probably should be lower, but I want this to not be Ghost Town.)

The Horrors Of Blumhouse

This maze got kicked like an abused dog Employee Preview. I don’t really see why exactly. Ok, I do see why. Purge & Sinister are short. Strobes never bothered me as much as others, but I get why they hurt the maze for others. 

But the cast does REAL good here. Better than HIVE. They are aggressive and fast. It moves very fast and that makes it feel like the scares keep coming and don’t stop. 

Sinister section was fun for the brief time, Purge was also neat if not obviously Ouija. Insidious is the bulk and I think it went well. Best scares from here, especially the creepy Key Demon. The finale sends people running. 

It won’t ever be in the Top 10 of all or anything, but I think it can be a top “middle” house. 

Overall: 22 / 41 (If the scares keep coming, it could inch a little higher. If they go, it goes lower.)

SAW - Games Of Jigsaw

Didn’t see the 2009 house obviously. I didn’t think this was too bad from that point of view.

I did like that they make a slight effort to include us in the story with the opening spiel at the beginning. Wish they had capitalized on putting us in traps more instead of making us watch stuff. I did think the traps themselves were well done, especially the Angel Trap. 

Scares were OK, the Ticking Room, Bathroom, and Final Room all did good, everything else was hit or miss. 

It’s super fun though for some reason, really long for Shrek, longer than Krampus it actually felt like. I have a guilty pleasure liking for SAW. I saw the last two films in theaters, I’ll probably see Jigsaw in theaters. 

I enjoy it the way it is.

Overall: 20 / 41 (Could go up with more aggression, will likely stay where it is.)

Dead Waters

Best facade of the event, so large. Has scares in it, has stuff under it. It’s awesome, truthfully impressive. The spiel from the Voodoo Queen before you turn the corner makes it even better. It has a great tone. 

The ship portion is fun with the Wharf zombos, the tilt effect, that trick up ramp that was really down actually got me good. Very scare strong. The trek through the marshes is fun, got good scares from the shack.

Finale goes by a little fast for me, so I may need to try and slow down a bit. Did like seeing the Queen again, and the post-house scare from the living voodoo doll was neat.

Main flaw here is it’s a short house, but I felt it made every room count. I felt there was a beginning, middle, and end. It’s basically the HHN version of a really good short story.

Overall: 14 / 41 (Could go up with a super bonkers good run, but its length will probably keep it where it is.)

The Fallen

2nd favorite facade of the event, very large in tone and point. I like this whole theme, though unfortunately it did get hindered by jumpy Universal. Definitely felt some empty spots throughout but not enough to damage the house that much for me. 

Demon designs were very neat, including some that honestly seemed like they pulled out of Hellraiser. They reused a Krampus elf or two in here as well. Some good scares, since I saw a few of the demons get quite close.

The flying scenes make this house though, as someone who didn’t see Gothic. Thought they were both done well, especially the demon that pops down and springs back up, which got me really good. 

Ends sorta abruptly though. That’s my one significant complaint. 

Overall: 11 / 41

Ash Vs. Evil Dead

Best IP-to-house translation I’ve seen, perhaps just outside the Halloween mazes or CITW. 80’s music, one-liners, gore and blood, this is Ash Vs. Evil Dead. The fact they gave this a venue allowing so much space and wide areas was great. 

It’s an adventure of a maze from beginning to end. The trailer, morgue, Brujo shack, I was giddy going through this. It really felt like they wanted to do this IP. Wish there was some more Baal representation, but it’s a minor thing. And yeah, the Bruces look off, but it felt more natural than the Hollywood masks.

And the post-house scene is great and makes up for a lack of a clear finale. Jacksonville, Florida. Hell yeah.

Overall: 10 / 41 (Could go either way. I admit it isn’t the most scare heavy especially with the Ash talking scenes.)

American Horror Story - Volume 2

I….might like this more than last year’s. Biggest thing: last year felt like a character showcase, including liked characters even if they didn’t provide a great scare exactly. This felt like a more scare-focused intense maze. 

Asylum is the bulk. Bloody Face is great, super grotesque. The Dr. Arden scene is cool. The rec room with the Santa mirror effect was nice and effective. The ending bits with the Raspers and Bloody Face with the mirrors was pretty damn intense and got people on the runs I’ve been on so far.

Coven had some very neat stuff for what seemed to be the less scare-packed of the seasons. The Superiors scare was a nice way to kick off. The zombie after the greenhouse hits pretty hard. Nice to have that baby powder smell return. LaLaurie was ok, though I’d say she looked not that accurate. Minotaur was good, Legba’s scare was neat, though I wish we got a scene in his hell domain. 

Roanoke goes by the fastest but gets a different character in every scene. Polks, Pigman, The Nurses, Scathhath, Butcher. I liked all the scenes and I do think it was the best flowing of the sections, starting with the more underground scenes and then taking us into the house. 

Overall, another very great AHS maze by Universal. Definitely feel like there is more care and faithfulness in the AHS mazes than any TWD. 

Overall: 7 / 41

Scarecrow - The Reaping

This maze, man. Facade isn’t the most grand, but I think the most ominous. The dead corn, slow turning windmill, old tunes playing. The maze hits right from the start and doesn't stop. The first two scenes are right out of Tomb, but I think done more effectively (The drop panel scare having an actor to help with it).

I would say they also go a little wider here than Tomb, which help in creating memorable scene. The broken house, the mini-cornfield, the crow horde. The finale is the most effective use of that mirror effect, it’s compounded by everything that came before it.

The scarecrows get more and more grotesque over the maze, until the beastly one right before the finale. Super cool characters here. My fears of this being very generic were not founded, thank goodness. 

Overall: 3 / 41 (Tied with Tomb, will need some more runs to determine if it stick as much as Tomb did.)

Scarezones

All in one section just to make this quicker. 

Altars of Horror has good actors who appear to be mostly into their characters (especially Grady Twins),. But they have no setting to work with. And for a “selfie zone”, some actors seem too desperate to not take photos or jump out of them as quick as they can. 

The Purge is a fine zone. Aggressive actors, less chainsaws here than last time which I like. The new shows are more interactive than 24, so they did good there. BOY, is there too much Purge though. For a year where there’s nothing about the franchise to advertise. 

INVASION is fun. Love the designs here. Had some fun interactions with these guys including them messing with me trying to take pictures of the UFO. Saw them all crowd around a baby in a stroller for a chunk of time and poke at it, which was hilarious. Not the scariest, but I like the tone here.

TrT has the best ambiance, glad to see the pumpkins back. Honestly those pumpkins are a better photo op than the AoH actors. Shockingly faithful to the movie, all the characters felt in tone, including the old man character (his name doesn't come to me right now) who called a bunch of girls ugly and told them to get away from his door. The puking kid’s also a cool addition.

Festival was ok, got some stuff here Sunday. Cool designs, hoping they can amp it up next weekend since they got flame towers on Sunday. Some cool scareactors here, including Bone and the stiltwomen. 

I want to see Bill and Ted, but only because it's the last one. My brother and my best man from my wedding have both given it positive reviews with no spoilers. I figure it's probably a Greatest Hits and they may've pulled a half hour of successful jokes out of the 20+ years of shows. And then, like, added Pennywise, probably. 

Did I mention that I think Bill and Ted is ridiculous and bad? 

I haven't seen the Dancing show either because I couldn't possibly care less. Sorrynotsorry. I didn't buy a FFP + Express to see #*$(#&$(* dancing. I never did, not the past too-many-to-make-me-not-feel-old years. 

Have you ever noticed how there are tons of conflicting and stupidly-worded (sometimes) ways to say you are apathetic? "I could care less" "I couldnt care less" etc. etc. etc. 

Yeah, I care more about that grammatical mix of idioms than I do about Dancing. Sorry, weird white mask Jabberwocks or weird... idk, anything else. Are they even different people? It's like they just change clothes and do the same show every year. 

That said, this seemed to be a theme this year.

What's new?

I don't know. It's only been ten years or so that I've been Frequenting HHN... But I haven't seen the severed head gag from Ash and .... No wait I'll think of something else that's new. Let's go through!

I'll go through in the way that I go through the park. If you come in at 6:00 (on the clock face, that is), then go counter-clockwise, AHS is a tolerable line. That's how I've done it every night. 

Almost every night. And almost like that.

Either way we definitely always skip the first scare zone, even if we walk right the hell through it.

The front-facing scarezone - the literal FIRST THING people see from the gate - is full of Stuff From Elsewhere In The Park???

This is clearly a legal-nonsense scarezone to me. It's like they had something planned, then had to cancel that morning. It looks to me like when those characters come off shift in the house, they have to go out to that SZ. They're tired, they're beat up, they're running on fumes, and ... You know what? Since I always go right instead of straight, I am too when I see them. 

It makes for great Awful Pictures! 

As I type this, it is almost Legit Cold (aka, anything below 55F) . . . And one of the main reasons we do HHN is because it's fun to walk through The World as the environment (aka "outside") moves from "Completely Intolerable" to "Okay." 

I have mostly been soaked in sweat and had actively-forming blisters on my feet this year at HHN. It's been miserable. I feel like the people in that first scarezone feel the same way, and thats more horrifying than anything in the world.

So, That Scarezone (I refuse to learn any of the names of the SZs this year) :   D---- ......... Just above an F because at least the scareactors are as miserable as I am with the whole thing by that point.  

But that's not how we roll.

You don't do ten years of FFP and start with the house labelled A on the map. 

No, you start with SAW!! 

Unless you're me, who has gone through SAW one time. I give that house a 78.69234% ....... because I've been through it once and it was ok. But one time isn't enough to rate. The GATs, I'm told, actually DO in fact do things . . . . .  I went through in the middle of a group of However Many . . . . And they didn't. 

But who cares? SAW UGAIZ! Grade: 91.8732% 

Really though, most nights . . . . . 

Most nights, my friends . . . . They started with the one thing I will miss from this year, and that is . . . . A Journey To Jacksonville.

It's paradise.

Everybody else in the world besides Bruce Campbell (maybe) disagrees with me about that being the funniest #(%*&#% thing in the universe. 

There's DEFINITELY another Me on the writing staff for Ash vs Evil Dead, because Ash thinking Jacksonville is paradise is . . . . . Perfect.

And I friggin' love this house. 

I'm an Adult. I've been to HHN a zillion times with my FFP. So much so that I'm concealing my identity here. And this is perhaps my favorite house ever.

Why?

Because nobody is trying to "Scare" me. 

I'm sorry, but if you're on these forums and you still get scared by people who jump out in masks  - be they scarecrows, vampires, or my butt - you are a self-flagellating wuss. 

The rest of us who go to HHN frequently ... We go to appreciate other things. And Ash is the most Fun house I've ever been in. 

Heckskin (or whatever you Christian Americans say) . . .  Just the Jacksonville scene at the end. . . .  I'd willingly buy the wife and I the FFP+Express again just for that. HE MADE IT, YOU GUYS!

Yeah there's stuff in the house from the second season...

And yeah, every single person who isn't either me or married to me didn't "get" this house AT ALL ...

And yeah the house is corny as hell, but that's by design!

All of it!

All of it is by design!

And ... having been the only person in ANY party I've visited with (believe it or not, some people think it's cool to hang out with me) . .... to think this house was even "good". ..... I care naught. 

And the less I care the better it gets. You'd understand if you watched the show. But you don't. 

Well maybe YOU do since you're into that stuff . . . but . . . Nobody else is watching friggin Ash Vs Evil Dead on the friggin Starz network. 

I didn't either - did you? I don't even think I get Starz. I've checked more than once. There's an answer to this question, and I could get it by pushing a few buttons right now on a remote control but, see, the thing is..  I don't care. 

AvED . . . Is a perfect representation of the spirit of the show, and in ten years of Seriously Going to HHN . . . This may be my favorite house ever.

It's definitely my favorite house this year.

I recognize that I may be alone in this. . . . I've got a Crew of Four! . . . .  Only my wife gets it . . . . Even all the people we've brought with us . . . they don't get it. 

Of COURSE they don't. I swear there's no mention of Jacksonville but my dumb self, I get to the end where Ash is FINALLY in Jacksonville and I want to cheer!!!! 

It brings a tear to my eye. Because I realized that the story is out of order for a reason. You think Ash can put any of those rooms in the correct chronological order?

You think he cares enough to try???

So, my official review of Ash vs Evil Dead? 100%. The best HHN house I've ever been through. The only drawback is the stupid startlescare where the one guy jumps out in the bathroom ranting about AshySlashy. But Eff that guy (sorry that guy - I think you're on these forums.... it's nothing personal).

This house is FUN.

NONE OF THE OTHER ONES ARE. EVER. 

I always say there's one joke house a year (meetz?) and one "for real this could be scary" house (dead exposure?). The joke house is usually kinda fun but - much like the show - the Ash house is ............................ Heck (lol at writing clean) ................ Just ......... Cool. 

And even though they try to avoid it, maybe subvert it (the show certainly does), there's a story to this house.

'Cept, thing is, Ash isn't the protagonist. You are. And you're just going through this stuff, trying to get to Jacksonville.

Nobody but the other three people who watch the show and have lived in FL and been to Jacksonville get that fully.

Take it from a Floridonian, people from Better Places  (aka, not Florida) - Jacksonville SUCKS!!!!!!

Thinking of Jville as paradise is like imagining the best parcel delivery system as Pigeon! 

I friggin' love this house. 

.............

Did I already review the Saw house? It took a couple visits to see it, since for some reason it doesn't factor into the pre-ordained "go counterclockwise, IDIOT" plan . . .  

JK. My full Saw review is above.

-------

Stripper SZ

Look, here's the thing . . . . All of you (insert dehumanizing word for girls) are (insert something else horrible, as much as you want).

But I don't take my wife to strip clubs. I've actually never been in one myself, and I'm closer to "40" than to "carded"

I ................. 

They play "Orion" there sometimes. Or they used to. I don't know. 

But I'm old enough to know that song......................... bawwwww (ts ts ts ts ts) baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa (ts ts ts ts ts ts) .......... etc. You get it.

Or you friggin don't and you just hear it as another set of noises to rub your Junk on things to. 

Grade? LOL are we still doin' that?

--------

Next set!

Next set is the scarecrow house and the ..... "vampire?" house

Scarecrows.................. they eff people right the eff up .......... who have never been to HHN. OMG its amazing!

Hive................................they eff people right the eff up...........who have never been to HHN.  OMG its amazing!

What, are those too similar?

Okay, person who DEFINITELY isnt on HHN's ............... team. Yes. Yes they are too similar

It's a little upsetting that they take their loyals for granted. The "punters" as they are called in the uk... they come in and......whatever. Everything is terrifying and new.

The locals??? LOL!! Screw us!

Here's a secret - HHN is literally the only reason I'm living in Orlando.

My first wedding anniversary is next Tuesday.

To rephrase, Someone agreed to marry me on Halloween. 

HHN plays deep into our relationship. 

And my life! I'm wearing a HHN shirt right now by kinda-coincidence.

I say kinda because .. Like..... Most of our clothes are HHN.

They ........ they....... in the past, see......... they...........c....car....................nevermind. Back to the review.

Scarecrows? House gets a B because I was bored but I convinced my brother to look up for crows and he got Pooped on.

Hive? LoL it woulda sucked even if the Conjuring didn't drop out.

So here's the thing . . . .  I'm not a casual viewer ..  .  I haven't been, for a long time.. But ....

The other thing is.  . . I've been watching the event descend in quality. Not a bit - A LOT! 

SSssoo......... no icons anymore and no Real Drinks at the bar.....and........ see, thing is, that.. They............. you know, like, "They" ?........ dgaf about you. It's all money.

Soooooooooooooooooooooo you do the walking dead 100 years in a row util ppl cry out like Mugatu, saying they're the SAME HOUSE.

Okay, well, what about the Purge?

THE FRIGGIN PURGE OMG

WHO CARESSSSSSSSs

The Purge is in THREE places this year: Blumhouse, the Purge "scare" zone, and the stupid I-know-the-name-but-its-terrible scarezone at the front of the park. 

AND SCREW THAT

That............................. Is where I land on the Blumhouse house. It's clear to me that things got messed up with the contract. Again. Contracts with that studio got Effed at the last minute last year, and "the purge" is just like... people........in masks..with knives.......................... 

And the Blumhouse house?

it's terrible. 

Seriously, you say what movie it is on the wall? 

Well...... Dear Blumhouse -

1- Everybody pronounces it "bloom" - stfu with "blum, rhymes with plum"

2- a corner hallway isnt allowed to be advertised as a....................... anything

3- every single thing youve done has been better than this house

What the F was next........

I guess it must've been the other two "original" houses that used the voodoo queen and .......... idk, all of hhn xx? 

or, ykknow, "Dead Water" and "Fallen" or ........ whatever........

Does the first scareactor in Dead Water get constantly hit? I've been through several times in several states of drunkenness . . . . Luckily I was sober the first time through, so I knew to hold myself up against the crooked floor . . . Else that SOB wouldve gotten hit in the face by accident. Because of COURSE if youre right handed you put your hand to the right.................................

RIGHT into that persons face. 

And then, what, AHS and The Shining?

idk. They were ok. That's my entire review of both. Collectively. 

Overall?

Wifey says that they fired somebody who cared and hired someone who sucks. 

I agree. That's how this year looks to me.

We have the FFP but I think overall we'll only go 6 times this year. Because it's garbage. 

Last year I'm pretty sure we went more than 15 times. It was harder to count .. . .

For 25? We basically lived there. I'm wearing a shirt from it. My wife's asleep and she's wearing a shirt from it. Both obviously complete coincidence as I write my review of this year.

Summary of my review of this year? 61% 

You didn't fail, but you came REEEEEEEEEEEally close............... 

Only because stupid loyalists like me will still go. All the people I've taken with me.... And talked into getting express passes (this event is useless nonsense without it) ....................... give it an F. Not one of them will go again. Just like last year. Except a different group of people.

Uni couldn't give two S or an F about any of this. Yet they still try to grab me to survey me. 

LOL........................ 

People ask me about HHN and i ask if theyve seen ash vs evil dead.

If they have, I tell them it's worth visiting... on a Wednesday.

If they haven't ......... I tell them to wait until next year (hopefully) when they (hopefully) have an icon or something or (hopefully) have some kind of cohesion to the event.

But this year?

My takeaway is a bunch of forgettable houses, a square commemorative cup that is split in half so it can't be stacked, a sh---y straw in that cup, and a complete waste of money. 

But that's okay, right?

Right??

I mean . . . .even Metallica had a Poo album, right?

So HHNs allowed to have an off year, right?

Well........ This is the only place I can say this and be understood........ But wifey and I only live in Orlando because of HHN.

And we're now actively looking to move. 

Because we're over it. There's five more days or whatever that our FFP works . .  . .. . But neither of us want to go, any of those days.

It commits the Cardinal Sin of Horror.

It's boring.

 Maybe we've just been too many times. But we know where every single one of the scareactors are, and there is no more "scare" - there is only "startle" ......

Possible responses to this, if any .......... "So stop going" .......... Answer ....... "uh, we will"........... 

"Youre really negative"   ......... "no."

"ash v evil dead was nonsense"   "RIGHT?? Jacksonville rules!!!!!!"

"---" (that's the typed out sound of nobody reading or responding) .................. "-----"

Man. Jacksonville awaits. 

Also, the alien scarezone sounded AWESOME but its the second worst scarezone i've seen in too-many-years.........The first being the effing scarezone THiS YEAR that is just..... people on C shift dinner break. 

I'd complain to Uni but....... nah.

Overall, I give the event 4/5 stars.

Had a great time this year.

House Reviews

#1 American Horror Story Volume 2 

This house was just a joy to go through every time. I'm a huge fan of the show and it was done so well this year, with so many creative and different scares and great set design, loved the facade as well and the creative uses of smells (although I always felt hungry at the end ) the main reason this is above scarecrow is because I felt this had more soul and spirit than scarecrow, and aren't souls and spirits what halloween's all about?

#2 Scarecrow: The Reaping 

Definitely the scariest house this year, this is just a damn great original house. An original idea with great atmosphere and a fucking badass facade. Although it was an original house, it manages to create a memorable ass icon! pig boi scares the shit out of me with his dope ass ripping noises, although I'm not sure how original this character is, as there are at least 3 other pig men at the event. The costume design and atmosphere matched with some badass sounds really make this the spookiest, although I have two criticisms. While it scared the shit out of me, I had absolutely NO idea what was going on in the so called "crow attack" room, I just assumed it was air cannons galore and it really confused me. Also the final room sucks.

#3 Saw: The Games of Jigsaw

It seems like most people really didn't like this one, but I had a great time every time I went through. While it wasn't the most creative house of all time, with generic oh look its a hole wow the pig came out, some of the scares were really well crafted, like how the guy from the first movie would come out on your right, sending you across the bathroom to the left, then the pig fucker comes out with his knife from the left! really gets ya bouncin. I loved fucking with my friends with the GATs. Another thing I got from this house that I didn't really expect was a really nice atmosphere. I've never seen a Saw film all the way through, and while it doesn't have a facade, the house immediately has some kinda cool atmosphere with the puppet coming down menacingly towards you, and then the laughs getting louder and louder. While the people being tortured weren't at all scary to me, it really built a cool feeling that you were in a torture maze, and you were the audience for some really insane stuff, a la hair pulling. Another highlight for the event was my friend getting sooo spooked by the last pig, he threw me at my friend and out of the house. (edit: I watched all the saw movies and jigsaw and it made me love this house even more, like oml the pound of flesh trap was actually like physically the way it was in the movie, still don't get why people dislike this one so much.)

#4 The Fallen

I'll admit that on my first run I hated this house. I thought it was a waste of space. However, after further runs, I noticed some really damn creative scares that has just been mistimed before. A guy sticks his hand through a corpse, a guy coughs, then you turn the corner and he vomits on you, and people fuckin fly. OK just to make it clear tho, Busch Gardens does the bungee scares WAY better than that one. This house has a fucking dope ass hellish atmosphere, with my second favorite facade of the event. I also really appreciate the costume design, especially the blacksmith demons, that's probably the closest thing I'll ever get to DOOM. Really cool ideas in this house, just not always executed on time by the actors.

#5 The Hive 

Didn't have the highest expectations for this house, that was confirmed mentally by the fucking trading card on the front of the tent and no scares for the opening rooms, but after I went through it, it completely surpassed my expectations of what a vampire house could be. The makeup is so dope! I can't stop admiring the prosthetic work on some of the actors, with their colored contacts. Mostly stupid scares consisting of a guy just coming around a corner, but a couple really creative ideas including the triple scare and the bad fucking ass Nosferatu sequence. The actors really made this house for me, and I had the pleasure of going through it at a slow time with just my mom and me, got to spook her on every scare. The reason it's lower than the Fallen is it doesn't have as cool of an atmosphere and has mostly dumb scares. Also, you can definitely tell it had to be changed last minute, with no facade and some rooms with no scares, a really shitty last scare and uhhh a dark room with lights for the last room?

#6 Dead Waters

With the best facade I've ever seen, (I didn't do exorcist last year though) and some cool opening scares, it really gets you pumped up for a good ass time. Sadly, I feel it kinda lets down on the scares while being really charming and beautiful. It has a couple empty hallways that break up the action, and -ugh- a couple of the opening costumes are so obviously reused masks from last years' Dead Man's Wharf scarezone. Another one with mostly unoriginal scares, it does have a cool forest sequence that scares the shit out of me every time I go through it. This house is my favorite house to look at, would love to do a tour of it without actors.

#7 The Shining

This was definitely my most anticipated house as the Kubrick film is probably my fav horror film, but damn. damn damn damn. They really kinda fucked up. Ok so the first time I went through this house and I saw the hedge maze I was like "oh fuck yes," went through the first few hallways like, ok... that was cool I guess? but as soon as I stepped in the lobby, all of my fears about this movie kicked back in, and Jack swinging his axe at me made my scream like I don't often scream in these houses. After that, everything fucking got me soooo good because it was like living a nightmare. When I saw the bear rush back into its boo-hole in front of me I screamed to my friends "OH MY GOD DID YOU GUYS SEE THAT? THE BEAR THE BEAR!!!!," and it came out and scared the living shit out of me. I came out of the house thinking this was the best house I had ever been in. Sadly, on further runs, it became apparent to me that it was not. Okay, so first, it doesn't fit the movie very well at all. I liked the Hollywood interpretation of all the pages and I don't know why we couldn't had at least SOME interpretation of Jack's madness, as it is such a huge part of the story. The scares aren't very creative, with hallways people walk out of and swing axes from, with one exception being the gold room scene, which I LOVE. I just wish they could've made a house about one of the most unique horror movies of all time more than just simple boo-holes. The atmosphere is pretty cool though, just needs less LED screens overlayed on top of paintings, two too many.

#8 The Horrors of Blumhouse

This was one I watched a LOT of movies for. Alas, I feel it was a waste, as this house had quite a bit of - not even scares - dummies? from the new Insidious. I actually enjoyed the Sinister sequence, although it could've been more fleshed out I thought it was well done and the first room has a cool atmosphere. the Purge section is ass, and I would have MUCH more wanted that ouija thing, then I wouldn't have watched that shitty purge movie. However, once you get to insidious, it actually gets pretty cool, with a dope bride in black jump and a really fuckin scary hallway involving a demon and a little girl. THE LIPSTICK FACE DEMON'S WORKSHOP IS SO COOL, really enjoyed that scare, followed by a lil reference to Chapter 2 with the "dont you dare." After this however, it kinda goes to shit, with a stupid curtain room, a really stupid and confusing electric chair room, and finishing off with an alright hallway clusterfuck that I mistimed on so many times despite going through this house consecutively multiple times. Very few creative scares, and rare but when present awesome atmosphere. Where's Insidious 3? Where's Creep? Where's Get Out? Where's a quick little jump into silence with the Hush dude spookin ya? wasted potential, hoping for a better volume 2. At least the cast was good in my experience.

#9 Ash vs Evil Dead 

*sigh* my 2nd most anticipated house, this really wasn't great. The Cast had energy, they tried, and the house is decent, just it doesn't stack up the the rest of this year's lineup. Ok Ash's lines suck, making stupid jokes only middle schoolers would think are edgy. The scares are surprisingly barren, with seemingly endless empty hallways. However, when the scares actually happen, they're generic boo-holes. Also prevalent in this house is just screaming people? not scary. The Deadites are cool when they are around though. My absolute favorite thing about this house, and the reason I came to it multiple times at all is that fucking amazing feeling of going from a cool severed head scare, to a chill point where you can admire that you're going in the fucking cabin, Ash popping out and all. That makes this house amazing for me, as I'm a huge Evil Dead fan. Also love the shed scene. At the end there's a stupid hallway of endless random creatures from Evil Dead, with a henrietta I didn't realize was henrietta until talking about it with a friend. CMON HOLLYWOOD GOT A FULL ON EVIL DEAD 2 BASEMENT SCENE WITH ACTUAL HENRIETTA LOOKING HENRIETTA AND LOOOONG NECK HENRIETTA. that pisses me off and puts this house at the bottom of my list. Do an OG "The Evil Dead" house tho pleaseeee hhn I will love you forever.

Scare Zone Reviews

#1 The Purge

WAIT I GET IT, Purge has been done so many times at this event that people are getting sick of it! I understand, I really dislike unoriginality, but I got two things out of this scarezone that I don't think I got as well at any of the other zones: atmosphere, and fun. Holy shit, like I get that it's mainly because this is in NY and has all the space, but it really legitimately feels like you're in the situation of the films, this giant ass truck driving around, cars all fucked up and lit up, really cool shit. The executions are pretty lame to watch, but walking through the zone with it just casually going on feels so macabre and awesome. The cast in this zone was super fun as well, they were runnin around, standing still bein creepy and all that, and I love the survivor people that pretty much look like real people so they can go under your radar until they're screaming in your face, I'll admit I got scared good a few times by them. Because this zone has so much space, it gives the opportunity to have better atmosphere, and they don't have to be dicks about pictures because they don't have recognizable characters at the front of the fucking park, looking at YOU Altars of Horror. And if y'all really hate the Purge so much, just look at it this way: when they have popular movies at the park, more people come because "omg I love twd" "omg that purge movie was the best" so they come and give Uni their money, which lets us get higher budget houses for the shit that we care about. Put up with a purger to get a dope ass facade for an original, that type of thing.

#2 Festival of the Deadliest

Meh. This was meh. The costumes were pretty cool, but eh. A couple actors were going at it, but others, meh. I felt it was just kinda piles of bones all around, so didn't really get any atmosphere, and the stripper poles, what? why? I have this above Altars because I felt the cast was better and it had more space to have cool shit like stilt walkers. I had what I think was my favorite moment of this year in this zone, alright here goes: My group had just gotten out of AvED and wanted to go on ahs one last time, but as we check our phones it was 7 minutes to closing. We decided to book it and ran as fast as we physically could through Trick 'r Treat, pretty low energy in there, meh. As soon as we get into the festival, however, my friend passed me up and ran way ahead of me. What then ensued was magical. As it was minutes to close, there was no one but us and the actors in the zone, and they saw us coming. Bones was up on stilts and the sight of just him and the other stilt walkers threateningly staring at me as I ran toward them felt like I was in a movie. Bones thrust his scythe at my friend, who dodged to the right and took off, and then swung it down at me, I don't know how he didn't hit me, I was going so fast. I was getting tired and slowed down a bit. Bad idea. A jock looking type with a skeleton face came up to me with a knife and my instincts kicked in. I ran as fast as my legs could carry me, and when I looked behind me, he was matching me speed, swinging his knife at me. I don't know what I did to deserve this cinematic experience, but it was amazing. We did make it to AHS for another run btw .

#3 Altars of Horror

Yeeeeaaaah this was as I've heard it described, "tired actors on break from the houses," but it was still really cool to see these recognizable characters at the front of the park, welcoming you. There was no sets, but still had a cool atmosphere with the costumes alone. Got some good scares in here, and had a nice moment where I ran away from the Sinister guy and he peeked his head around a corner and did the shhhh thing, good shit. The main issue with this one for me was the location. It's so small! idk if there's ever been a really good scarezone here because its so dang small. Also if you're gonna have recognizable characters at the front of the damn park, people are gonna try to take pictures. Just don't put this zone at the front of the park, put it in hollywood where we could have actual original sets. Too late now I suppose.

#4 Trick 'r Treat

uhhh people are gonna be mad at me, but uhhh nope. did not like this one bit. Atmosphere was fine, but having most of it fenced off kinda defeats the purpose. Costumes were true to the movie, this whole zone was, but that doesn't mean they looked cool or were scary. Really, shakers? I'm just not scared of literal children with maracas.

#5 Invasion!

noooooo I was excited at this one! I like alien shit and thought it would be cool. Too little space, though. They made the UFO too big and then had it fenced off by obvious fence, lame. The costumes were alright but I wish I couldn't see the eyes of the green guys, and the other too were too immobile to get scares. They had the survivors in here, too, but because of less space and maybe other factors, I never saw them scare one person. Would like to see this tried again with a house maybe, love the concept.

Show Revi-SIKE!

#0 SECRET OPTION CLOWNS

idk why they still call this a roaming horde, they just stay in this same place the whole night but DAMN, I love this zone. Cast was the best anywhere in the park, creative scares from bushes, Fantastic costumes, a FUCKING CIRCLE OF CHAINSAWS THAT ALL GO OFF AT ONCE. C'mon use some of that purge money and give the "roaming" horde some set pieces, it's a great space with tons of scare potential. Best zone of the year award baby!

Show Reviews for real

#1 Academy of Villains: Afterlife

never seen it, but looks like fun and brings people away from the houses mwahaha

#2 Bill and Ted's Excellent Halloween Adventure: The Farewell Tour

actually saw this one, and it was unfunny, awkward, and terrible. I love the source material and the concept, but universal comedy is not my thing, good riddance.

Overall a great year with great houses, and good zones, I'm glad this is the first year I've gone more than once, I barely remember 26 at all but I have so many memories of this year, here's to SIlence of the Lambs at 28!

 Then the second night happened which my boyfriend started attending and he has never been to HHN before and I began seeing everything through his eyes again. The tricks all worked wonderfully, everything was fresh again. The barker on the Purge bus was hilarious again, the obvious spots of where actors hide became hidden again, and just everything worked because I had the fresh eyes with me. I fell in love with the event all over again but throughout the remainder of the event I was always wondering what would have happened if I didn't have my boyfriend come? It's complicated....and makes me truly wonder how and where the event will truly evolve onward. Not even in a IP vs original or do we have an icon manner just staying fresh. I had the wonderful privilege of attending Knott's Scary Farm and something about the houses feels fresh to me in a way HHN didn't. I still have every intention of attending HHN Orlando for many more years and don't get me wrong still had tons of fun even the first night and truly no one can do what HHN Orlando does, it is one of the best events. Especially this year the houses was probably one of the strongest line ups in a long time with all of them being similar in quality. Also I understand there are only so many ways to scare people in the capacity of the conga line and maybe I am being to harsh but just saying my thoughts. I guess 9 years of HHN there is bound to be deja vu but I want to see how this amazing event that I love and care for so deeply can avoid it. Seriously once my boyfriend arrived and he got the scares so well and the environments immersed him so I was able to see again and it was one of the strongest years ever. 

Don't need to give the houses a numerical or alphabetical rating as I already said they were all great and that was one of the beauties of this year was I was constantly changing my ranking of the houses in my head.  The only consistent ranking I had was Hive was always the worst for both me and my boyfriend easily. It was weak.

Anyways that should be enough to start a discussion if anyone would like for now and can discuss more from there. Let me know what you all think. 

Houses (ranked from least favorite to favorite)

9.) Horrors of Blumhouse-

I saw Sinister a few years back but have never watched any Purge or Insidious movies which could be why I didn't really care for this house. As many have noted, Blumhouse featured the Sinister and Purge sections rather quickly compared to the Insidious portion. I don't think this is why the house suffered, though. I found it pretty scary at times and they worked with what they had, there just weren't any memorable or ooo and ahh moments in it. I only went through Horrors of Blumhouse once, and that was really enough for me.

Facade: 2 (When I went, they didn't have the projections yet)

Set Design: 3 

Make-up / Costumes: 3.5

Scariness: 3.5

Immersiveness: 2.5

8.) Ash vs. Evil Dead-

I've never seen the show or anything pertaining to Evil Dead so just like Blumhouse, it could be why I wasn't blown away by this house. I only went through once but I wish I would've gone through at least another time. From what I recall, there were some funny moments, the sets were cool, and I got a few scares. 

Facade: 4

Set Design: 4

Make-up / Costumes: 3

Scariness: 2.5

Immersiveness: 3

7.) Saw: The Games of Jigsaw-

As a fan of the Saw movies, I thought this was a cool house. Walking in and hearing the audio how we are part of the game was a good touch. Lots of recognizable scenes from the movies and I got a decent amount of scares the two times I went through this house. I'm disappointed after reading about the interactive button things that were apparently in the house. Definitely would have made the house a little more worthwhile if I could've found/clicked them. Personally, I really liked this house, especially the recreation of the bathroom scene. By no means is this one of my least favorites because of where it's ranked on my list. The other houses were all just so strong that I placed this one here. 

Facade: 0

Set Design: 3.5

Make-up / Costumes: 2.5

Scariness: 4

Immersiveness: 4

6.) Scarecrow: The Reaping

I know, I know. I'm sure you just whispered "wtf" to yourself seeing where I ranked this house. I went through Scarecrow twice and my expectations were through the friggen roof because of how people hyped this house. I wanted to love this house. I truly wanted to feel what everyone else did with it, but sadly, I didn't. To begin, I am an easy victim to scare. Very easy. Even if I know it's coming, I'll still jump back, duck, or scream if I'm the one getting scared in a house. With that being said, I really just wasn't that scared in this house. I may have jumped a little a few times but there was never a stand out scare. I I loved walking up to Scarecrow and through it because of the facade, design, dripping of bird poop, and mirror room. The scares just weren't there for me and I really don't understand why. Maybe the two times I went through there was a cast change happening. Maybe I wasn't targeted for scares like others. I don't know what it was that I didn't experience what others did in Scarecrow. Tomb of the Ancients was my favorite house last year and I thought Scarecrow would have been at the top of my list this year. But it wasn't, and I'm sad about it.

Facade: 4.5

Set Design: 4.5

Make-up / Costumes: 4

Scariness: 2

Immersiveness: 4.5

5.) The Fallen

Walking into The Fallen has a wow factor. The facade looks very much like a run down, destroyed cathedral. Make-up was great, the flying scares were incredible, and the sets were designed very, very well. The house is marketed completely wrong, however, as many have said before. There are no angels versus demons. This is not a good versus evil house. This is simply evil and more evil. I was expecting battles between angels and fallen angels, but that's not what we got. It was a tremendous house either way, I just wish there would have been the good vs evil aspect they said there was going to be. I guess I just didn't like the whole hell thing, which is why it is so high up on the list even though the rankings are higher than most.

Facade: 4.5

Set Design: 4.5

Make-up / Costumes: 5

Scariness: 5

Immersiveness: 4.5

4.) The Shining

What a cool house. I'm a big fan of the movie and I think they did a good job representing the big scenes from it in this house. Whether it be the bathroom scene, the Gold Room, the hedge maze with the snow effect, or the blood elevator, there was just so much to love about The Shining. I got good scares, the sets were awesome, the Jack Nicholson masks were well done, and I screamed then laughed when that bear popped out at me. I get it couldn't of been done where the house was located, but imagine if we got an Overlook Hotel facade? Probably would have been my second or first favorite house. 

Facade: 3

Set Design: 5

Make-up / Costumes: 4

Scariness: 4

Immersiveness: 5

3.) American Horror Story: Volume 2

I've watched Asylum and Roanoke but never bothered with Coven. I went through this house three times and something that really stood out to me about this year's AHS wasn't actually in the house. I loved how they made you wait in that second, dark queue before the walk through begins. The loud, and I mean loud, music that they play really prepares you for what's ahead. I don't believe any house is like this and I totally think they all should be. You can't ignore the music. You can barely talk to the person next to you because of how loud it is. Before getting into the other houses, you walk through a queue with some background music and then go right into it. Most of the time when I'm in line for a house, I kind of forget what I'm doing. I look at my phone or talk to who I'm with. I often neglect that I'm going into a haunted house because of the wait time. This might just be me, but I'm sure others reach the end of a line and are like, "Oh man. Am I'm mentally prepared for this?" This house and even last years does a great job of reminding you that you are about to step into something crazy and scary. And, indeed, it is crazy and scary. The Asylum facade was awesome, the make-up and costumes were great, the scares were very good and the Santa/mirror one was unique, the sets were pretty much identical to the shows, and the smells were nonstop. I like when smells are added to a house, but my goodness, that one rooms smell was horrific. Each time I walked through I actually told the girl in that cage or whatever it was that I was sorry she had to sit in this room all night. I could barely stand the stench walking through it for all of what, 10 seconds? No matter, as an American Horror Story fan, I thought this was an amazing house and representation of the show. That last pig got me good on my first walk through. 

Facade: 4

Set Design: 5

Make-up / Costumes: 5

Scariness: 5

Immersiveness: 5

2.) The Hive

My top two houses are originals and I love that. Universal is king when it comes to themeing and creating immersive and realistic experiences for guests and The Hive was one of those highlights this year. The Hive was the first house I went to this year. I did stay and scream in Springfield and purposely picked this as my first house because I wasn't expecting much from it. I thought I was gonna go through with my low expectations and be done with it for the year just to say I did it, but I was very pleasantly surprised. I enjoyed The Hive a lot. It was scary, it was dark, it was immersive, and it was long. I remember saying to myself the first out of four runs I did through The Hive, "is this thing ever going to end? Get me the hell out of here," (in a good way, of course). I loved the hanging vampires, the sets, the black lights, and the house as a whole. 

Facade: 2 

Set Design: 4.5 (If there weren't two dead infants in a crib, this would be a 5.)

Make-up / Costumes: 5

Scariness: 5

Immersiveness: 4.5

1.) Dead Waters

Dead Waters is an amazing, amazing, house. Coming around that corner and seeing the sunken ship really took my breath away the first time and the other three times I went through. The music that plays before entering the ship is perfect and I actually loved that there were scare actors outside of the ship. They capitalized on scaring people in the last place you would anticipate getting scared. I thought it was smart and didn't take away from the facade one bit. I loved that they used a mask from last year's Dead Man's Wharf scare zone in the crooked hallway. I loved how the floors really messed with you, either being sideways or on a decline to really make you feel like you were inside of a shipwrecked boat. The rooms and sets were beautiful in this house and it really made you feel like you were in these so called "Dead Waters". It's only flaw, and I don't know if I can even count it as a flaw, is that it is somewhat short. One extra room would have made this house even more incredible but this house still won my heart as #1 this year. 

Facade: 5 

Set Design: 5

Make-up / Costumes: 5

Scariness: 5

Immersiveness: 5

Scare zones (ranked from least favorite to favorite)

5.) Altars of Horror

Meh. Literally no design or sets whatsoever in the streets, just those big signs advertising the IP's. The scare actors did their jobs and were trying to scare people when they weren't busy taking pictures with park guests.

4.) Festival of the Deadliest

I walked through this zone a few times, and it wasn't a bad zone. It wasn't good, though, either. Nothing really stood out to me. The scare actors were doing their best to scare people from what I saw and unfortunately I never saw Bone. 

3.) Invasion! 

This was a very cool and fun zone. It wasn't scary, but the aliens, other scare actors, and crash landed UFO made this an awesome zone to walk through. 

2.) The Purge

The Purge scare zone was very big and very scary. Like Saw, this is a little too realistic. There are no zombies, aliens, or vampires. No, it's just plain human beings like me and you killing for pleasure. I didn't mention this earlier but even though I like the Saw movies, the torture scenes make me extremely uncomfortable. I watch the Saw movies for the interesting twists and turns in the story, not for the gory and gruesome stuff. I haven't seen any of The Purge movies, but the zone made me feel uncomfortable because of how real it feels. It gets the job done as a legit scare zone and not some photo op. The actors and auction show are terrifying. The guys on the motorcycles were getting so close to people and I just did not feel safe in that zone. One night that I went it rained really hard then stopped. It was still drizzling a bit and I thought I was safe to walk through The Purge because usually the scare actors don't stay out in the rain. Of course, I was wrong and a woman who had make-up that looked like blood on her face came right up in my face with this look of terror and sadness and fear and it scared the shit out of me. To me, that was the scariest thing I saw the entire event. It's too real. I hated this zone, but I ranked it so high because it was most certainly a scare zone. 

1.) Trick r' Treat

Trick r' Treat was a big highlight of this year's HHN because it was absolutely gorgeous and it had this awesome ambiance when you stepped into the scare zone. The puking kid, the kids with their bags that made the loud noise, and the multiple Sam's were all so accurate to the movie. This one had to be seen in person to really be appreciated. Pictures of it look incredible, but they don't do it justice. 

Shows

Bill & Ted's Excellent Halloween Adventure-

Sadly, I can't really appreciate the last year of Bill & Ted's because last year was the first time I've ever seen the show. Last year, I thought the show was awful. This year, on the other hand, was funny, entertaining, and heartwarming. I wish I had gone to HHN in years past so I could appreciate this final showing and I hope someday it comes back for a fun and triumphant return.

Academy of Villains (Irma Edition)-

It sucks that the AoV stage got messed up by the hurricane and they couldn't perform the original show they had probably slaved over rehearsing for. This was not a bad show in the least. There were a lot of awesome moments, but it felt incomplete. I loved AoV last year and I have hope that they will be back next year to give us a show that isn't as condensed and is even stronger than HHN 26. 

Food and Drinks

I never got to eat any donuts on a stick, pizza fries, or any other unique food offerings at HHN this year. I did try that double wall cup drink, though. It was good, I guess. I liked the orange side more than the purple side. I didn't get a buzz off of it so gets a thumbs down from me. I only got it the one time. Even though it wasn't a specialty drink specifically for HHN, I got a few Dufftoberfest's the nights I visited and they were excellent. It's a tasty and smooth fall beer. 

Overall thoughts

Houses- I can't say that any of the houses were necessarily bad. I would gladly do Blumhouse and Ash again and give them another shot. I'm sure if I could do Scarecrow again, I'd see what everyone has ranted and raved about. The IP houses were all good design wise, especially Shining and AHS. The original houses were even better than the IP's and I hope that because of Dead Waters, they set a new standard for what the facade of a house should look like from now on.

Scare zones- Other than Trick r' Treat and Invasion, I could care less about the other scare zones. Next year I hope Universal pulls out all the stops to make them stand out more than this year.

Shows- Bill & Ted was emotional, and Academy of Villains still put on a good show with the troubles they faced with their stage. Interesting to think what will be in Bill & Ted's place next year and if AoV will return...

Event as a whole- I loved HHN 27. I had a great time each night and I wish I could come back for the closing weekend. I would give Halloween Horror Nights 27 a 4/5 as one cohesive event and I can't wait to see what Universal has in store for HHN 28.

I say All Points Review because ... Well, I'm considering all data points I have, including what I thought, what wifey thought, what friends and family thought, and what I've heard elsewhere, either here or in the park from people wandering around. Oh, and the UTH tour. 

I'm going to list stuff in the way we do them for our Grand Slam route. Don't walk into the park and go straight. I've done a stupid amount of nerd-calc on this. 

Oh, other note: We had FFP + Express, and everybody who went to see it with us had Express as well. 

First, Houses.
----------------------------
SAW
----------------------------
We saw this house once. I just list it here becuase we only did a full Grand Slam once this year. 

I don't have a legit reason we never did this house beyond wanting to get to Jacksonville as soon as possible and just... Not circling back. 

Last year, Krampus was here, and that was my favorite house of the year so we'd frequently circle back at the end to go see that, but that never happened this year. We started that One Grand Slam with Saw.

I ... Don't know what to say. Common Consensus seems to be that this was exactly what people thought it would be, which is about the same as the consensus for reviews of every Saw movie right? I mean, I'm going to see Jigsaw this weekend (I think), but I don't expect to be surprised... 

There's another couple wifey and I tend to go with pretty frequently, and I'm pretty sure they went every night on the FFP (or tried to). If they didn't do every night, they were close. That'd be my friend Butt-Head and his wife Beavis (definitely their real names).

This was Butt-Head's HOTY. That gives it a lot of weight that it may or may not deserve. 

UTH Tour Guide said this house was left off the tour because it was just a bunch of the same thing. I felt exactly the same on my way through. Sure there were GATs and that's fun but ... I ... Don't ... Think ... They did anything? 

Score: 4/10 with Butt-Head, 2/10 with me+UTH guide, SCORE UNKNOWN otherwise (not enough data) 

----------------------------
ASH VS EVIL DEAD
----------------------------
House of the Year for me, hands down. I MADE IT TO JACKSONVILLE!

UTH guide said this was left off the tour because "Nobody watches the show." Indeed, none of the people wifey and I went with watched the show. 

We did. It was still largely nonsense. Out of order, mixed between season 1 and 2, etc. etc. etc.

In a word, absolutely perfect. If it were HHN Mexico, I'd give it two churros up. Now, that's not a racist thing - that's just a great dessert. 

Everything I say is now peppered with quotes from Ash Vs. Evil Dead, which I've learned is indistinguishible from nonsense. 

God I love this house.

Only thing is (and Uni is aware of this) ... The line is STUPID. It's the same thing in and out! That's because of construction for Fast and Furious. 

Side note: THAT'S GOING TO BE .......... B....... Be. That's going to be. It will be. 

Score: 10/10, nobody else's opinion matters because I don't have time. Jacksonville awaits. 

(Side-side secret note: Pssst... If you haven't watched this show... WATCH THIS SHOW. ESPECIALLY if you are a Florida Person who knows about Jacksonville and ... how .... Uh... Kinda shit it is?) 

----------------------------
SCARECROW
----------------------------
The facade of this house is amazing. 

I enjoy the fact that they planted real corn outside, then just stopped watering it a while before HHN. Mostly because I doubleplus enjoy the fact that the last time they did that in 2004 there was also a hurricane.

There's apparently a progression in this house, but I didn't really get it. The story is that the 1920s dust bowl in the US had people farming land but basically ruining it in the process, so ... Nature.... got mad and.. Sent... Scarecrows. Yes that's the official story. 

A little ridiculous.

Nearly everybody seems to think this is the scariest house of the year. Which brings me to a side note . . . And this is a Serious Note that People May Want To Consider ...

Last year I had LASIK surgery toward the end of July. At HHN, I was completely disoriented in every room where there were strobe lights. It was especially bad when it was red and blue, like cop lights (they had those in Ash but no points deducted because JACKSONVILLE)... 

That was fine; I could just put my hand on my wife's shoulder and she could lead me through whatever room. There were two other things, though, that remained a problem.

First, mirror rooms. They're supposed to be disorienting, but having been through one before and after the LASIK, I can attest that I can't do these rooms. 

Side note within side note: I get "scared" between 0-2 times in the year. I don't count noises making me jump, but if I did, it'd still be <5, even if we go 15 times. So when I say "I can't do these rooms," I don't mean they freak me out. I mean I need to literally close my eyes and have my wife blindly lead me through, even on the UTH tour (the mirror room in the Shining). So even with the lights on. 

Second, dark rooms. This is maybe a little bit of a stretch, but have you ever seen a dvd on a super high-res (yet still cheap) television, when the scene goes dark? And you can see like .. Pixellation? Like different levels of non-gradiated blackness? That's how dark rooms look to me now. 

That said, I do get Scared sometimes at HHN legitimately. Not "scared" where a scareactor "gets me," like I mentioned above, but where I am legitimately in fear for my safety. If there was a real Wet room in this house, I wouldn't go into it more than once. It's too dark and I lose my footing too quick.

It's entirely from LASIK.

Other changes since LASIK?

That damn fog. I remember reading a while back that they use two kinds of fog at HHN depending whether it needed to go up or down, or catch light, or what. One of them used to mess my eyes up when I'd wear contacts. It'd last for days. Now they both do. My eyes are still messed up today from seeing fog last night. That stuff just gets in your eyes and it's super bad for you. By the end of the night the moon was really blurry and I was getting starbursts off every light I saw, exactly as if I were wearing contacts that got somehow ... Dirty..

The above is the reason I'm posting this to the world. Because I had questions about it myself, and I didn't see any good answers. 

Note that my results are not typical. I had a rough recovery from LASIK. It happens. Some people DO legitimately go back to work the next day - that's not a lie. I can attest to it because I've seen it personally. That didn't happen for me. Feel free to contact me if you want to know more. 

This house was legitimately frightening for me because I was For Real worried about my safety at points the first time around. If there was a wet room, I was going to fall, no doubt. It's like I've heard SCUBA divers describe when they get turned around and don't know which way Up is, except I can't blow bubbles to figure it out. 

And let me tell you something . . . ACTUALLY being FOR REAL scared at HHN... Is not fun, at all. The only thing that kept me going that first time was actually the scarecrows popping out putting an interruption in the pattern (I'm told divers have this experience too in deep waters where it's dark). 

Score: 9/10 with all sources considered (and on the second+ time), 1/10 if you can't see

Side-Score for LASIK: 11/10. I regret nothing. When the moon isn't blurry because my eyes are covered in weird fog, I can see grey shapes on it. I didn't know that the moon was visible as anything but a white circle from earth before that. Seriously. 

I drive down Orange Avenue past the theater (Is that the Beacham...?) where there's a marquee outside. I can see the depth on the letters now. 

The depth on the letters. 

----------------------------
HIVE
----------------------------
I'm not going to lie; this just clearly seemed like a contract-caused modified version of The Conjuring, like how the Purge house a few years back was clearly just the house from Scream, but modified because of contract stuff. 

Still, it was okay. 

That... That's really all. With the lights on you can see how much detail and hard work went into every inch of the place, but that's the case for every house I've ever been in. 

Thing is, whatever you can say about the event (I clearly thought this year was sub-par) or the marketing (not even close to previous years) or whatever else . . . The people building these houses are pouring their hearts into it. 

It's the ONE THING that drives them. And it shows. It absolutely shows. 

This house is awesome. 

The facade, as much as my UTH tour guide tried to make it sound like it was a legit thing, like "they wanted to make it look like a VHS tape from the 80s and show you there were vampires so you knew what you were getting into" ... Come on. This was thrown together.

Still pretty effective.

Score: 5/10 in the dark, 9/10 in the light 
----------------------------
BLUMHOUSE
----------------------------
LOL. 

No, seriously. LOL. 

What is this? 

A general comment about this year: why are there so many houses that are a mashup of several things?

Specific comment about this house: Aside from that, and aside from literally telling you on the walls which movies you were in (YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE TO DO THAT - THAT MEANS IT'S NOT APPARENT! REDESIGN!), there was a bunch of stuff from Insidious 4.

Yeah, those of you paying attention ... Know ... That... Insidious 4 isn't out yet.

Even our UTH tour guide didn't know much. She wasn't withholding. She just didn't know. So what message does that send on a tour, when the tour guide is guessing just as much as you?

No. Just no. Insidious has never worked for others (I thought the creepy scene with the smiling family from the first one was cool) ... But every single person I went with was sick of The Purge by this point, and they hadn't seen the other TWO (TWO!) places in the park where the Purge exists front and center. 

Score: 1/10 in the dark, 3/10 in the light (the first room out of Sinister was cool - they had a copy of the book he wrote and everything)
----------------------------
DEAD WATERS
----------------------------
This was awesome.

It had an awesome facade and an awesome interior.
 
I do feel like it may have blwon the budget on the facade and rested a litle bit too much on how aweseome it was.

And the scareactor at the very beginning when you look at the facade? Apparently he "gets" lots of people. I didn't like that. They put SO much work into that damn sinking ship - let people enjoy it without making loud noises at them. There's just .. Tons of ... Stuff... I don't know even where to begin. There were mirrors on the floor to make it look like water, the ship sinking clearly put you in a disoriented state, and you even knew WHERE YOU WERE when you walked in.

I expected this house to be like Garbage Gold Gulch from last year (I hated that stupid house). But even after I'd been through it once - when my expectations were no longer through the floor - it was still awesome, and it was STILL awesome with the lights on. Only complaint is that it felt short. Wifey's only additional complaint was that the scarification mask on the voodoo (hoodoo, I guess) queen was super-fake-looking, but I always got her hand in my face when I was walking in the room, which I thought was awesome.

Also awesome is that everything in that room is made of pieces of the ship. I noticed that in the dark. And then confirmed it in the light. I love when I can SEE THINGS in the houses at night. 

This also makes a wonderful counter to its neighbor. This house is defintiely a water house. There's even a room that uses the rubber flooring they use in rooms where you get wet, but there's 0 water in the house.

I wonder how the guy in the tilted hallway didn't get people falling on him constantly and I'm surprised he was still there at the end of the event, because I myself almost fell right into him and I was sober! 

This house is awesome. Only complaint is that it felt too short, but I felt like it was meant as a companion to Fallen. 

Only reason this doesn't beat out Ash for my HotY is that the boat sank before it got to Jacksonville. 

Score: 10. Just 10. Cut it any way you want. 
----------------------------
FALLEN
----------------------------
As mentioned above, this is an awesome bookend to Dead End. This is definitely a fire house, where Dead Water is ... a .. Water.. House.. OHHHH! "DEAD WATER!" I GET IT NOW!!

The official story of this house is that it's good vs. evil, but it's mostly just Hell. Wifey says they couldn't just outright say that because of potentially offending religious people.

But the official story is that this is good vs. evil. LOL where was the good? Nah. 

When we went through on UTH, we learned that all the rooms were different, but it didn't seem like that going through during the event. Just seemed like hell. 

And, like I mentioned above, I think it's meant as a companion to Dead Waters. Both felt super short.

But the END of this house, oh man! With the people flying overhead and toward you and falling down on you and ... Phew. Intense. The one guy falling straight down off the beam above you is one of the best effects I've seen at HHN, and even after seeing how it was done and having it explained to me, I have no idea how it was done.

Score: 7/10 in the dark. 8/10 in the light. Last rooms, though, with the track effects? 10/10, light or dark. 
----------------------------
SHINING
----------------------------
This was the last 15 mins of The Shining. 

On the first night, this was the only house we did. We got our FFPs Will Call, but the Will Call kiosk said "GFY! Wait in line!" so even though we were there at 6, we didn't get in until 8, and by then we were pissed off and just did this house because it was the one I was most excited to see. Because I had no idea how they'd do it.

Make it the last 15 mins; that's how. 

The house ... I don't know. I can't write a non-boring review on this. It's exactly what it was supposed to be. It totally delivered. That... That's that.

Score: 9/10 in the dark and the light 
----------------------------
AHS
----------------------------
Same as the previous review, I don't know how to not-boringly review this. It was a bit of a muddled mess, but whatever. It was doing too much at once, and I don't know how they're going to continue this franchise next year. I think they should do one season at a time. 

They recreated scenes EXAAAAAAACTLY. 

But they also used stuff from the promo materials... So while I'll award Points for the creepiness of girls floating with their faces in the wall, those points are offset by the fact that the image is from promos. 

And . . 

.... Nope, nothing more useful to say.

Score: 7/10 in the dark, 8/10 in the lights

So, overall, the houses ... I don't know. My scale is skewed positive. Really I'd cut them in half to my own subjective feelings. Maybe after so many years I'm just kind of ... Over it? I know where every "scare" is now, and so does my wife, as do Beavis and Butt-head. It gets repetitive.

And like... Seeing Hive and Scarecrow next to each other like that... It's just a creepy environment and people in masks. 

Makes me think of that South Park where there's a trailer for a movie that's like "They need to stop the ... Aliens.. or..government.. Or.. zombies... Or.. whatever! F YOU!"

And... Scarezones, which I am renaming:
----------------------------
OMG METALLICA AND ... STRIPPERS.. AND... STILTWALKERS?
----------------------------
Metallica! 

I'm not rating scarezones. If they weren't Trick R Treat, they sucked.

And just having the worst scarezone of all time means I can't rate them. 

Anyway this SZ was............

.......

Was.

That's it.

----------------------------
YOUR NAME IS THURMAN MERMAN? ............ JESUS
----------------------------
Trick R Treat is awesome. Most people haven't seen it though, so they probably just thought this was a bunch of pumpkins in the trees.

We learned on the UTH tour that all 350 pumpkins were hand-carved, and that the hurricane took out nearly none of them.

Yet it destroyed the stage for the dancing-in-the-middle-of-the-park show. 

This was the best SZ of the year, but it's nothing new at all. Not even in the same location. 

..... And Thurman Merman is here, so... cool. 

If you don't get that reference... I advise you to find out.

----------------------------
FRIGGIN CHAINSAW CLOWN MONSTER SIMPSONS WHATEVER
----------------------------
OH MY GOD WHY DO PEOPLE STILL LIKE THIS?

CHAINSAWS! JUST LOUD NOISE! THAT'S ALL IT IS!

Yet every time I walk through here, I hear someone at the beginning and the end say "this is my favorite part of the park!" 

I .. Don't get it.

On opening night one of them came up to wifey and said "chainsaw noise." Like, out loud, in words. 

It was just as effective.

Time to let this one go the way of The Walking Dead, Bill And Ted, and other annoying nonsense, in my opinion. But I recognize I'm alone.

----------------------------
APPROXIMATELY 2 METERS OF ALIENS WHO WANT TO RUIN YOUR PICTURES
----------------------------
I think my title here says it all.

This is the SZ with the pix you're allowed to take that will actually show up.

YEAH THAT'S RIGHT - They told me I'm not allowed to use flash photography in the scarezones this year. Not just the houses.

I completely disobeyed that once that guy was gone. 

But you didn't need flash here. Yet the stupid aliend would walk up and interrupt your pictures.

Look I get being in character and like ...ohhhhh aliens don't know what cameras are but....Come on. Don't screw with someone aiming a camera. 

One of these guys walked into me. Waited next to me til I had focus, then checked me like a shitty hockey army man. I have the effed-up picture to prove it.

This scarezone needed ..... A lot of things. Let's leave it as that. 

----------------------------
SERIOUSLY, THIS AGAIN? (Purge Edition)
----------------------------
Seriously, the Purge again?

----------------------------
SERIOUSLY, THIS AGAIN? (Definite Cost-cutting Measure Edition)
----------------------------
Seriously, this scarezone is just "Stuff from elsewhere in the park?" 

Just .. Like ... cast C (Or D where applicable I guess) ? 

And they won't stop and take pix?

And they won't leave you alone if you're on the sidewalk looking in (this is the one and only cardinal sin for SZ scareactors, in my opinion - leave people alone if they're on the sidewalk or benches)?

Score: -1,000,000 

It's the only one I'm scoring. Because such a low number would break the curve and make all the other SZs score invalid numbers. 

Without this, though, I'd give the Purge SZ a -1,000,000

..................

BUT THE PURGE IS HERE TOO!

AND IN THE STUPID PURGE SZ!

AND IN THE BLUMHOUSEHOUSEHOUSE!

DOES THAT SCARE ANYBODY?????????????????????

/end that specific rant

And finally, the shows:
----------------------------
DANCING
----------------------------
We accidentally fell upon this. 

We walked away when they went from "Paint it Black" to "Tootsie Roll" because. .. That was enough of that.

I will, however, give these guys a lot of credit for adapting their show. Apparently what we saw that night was the EIGTH iteration of that show...... So, despite the unfortunate musical choice, that's impressive.

----------------------------
WILLIAM THEODORE OR SOMETHING
----------------------------
Oh is it the last year of Bill and Ted?

Did they finally sit down and think "Wait, are Bill and Ted still relevant in 2017" ?

I hated this stupid show every other time I saw it (YOU GAVE KURT COBAIN THE WRONG GUITAR) and only saw it by force.

We realized we didn't see it yet when we went last night, but took one look at the line and just said....................... Nope. 

Plus, nearly everybody thinks this is as much of a farewell show as they believed Michael Jordan wouldn't come back.

Is that reference too old?

Bill and Ted is older.

<3 the movies..... But this show was stupid, for 20 years. Just like "Oh look I'm in a John McCain Mask" "Oh look I'm a dancing Joker" "Oh look Sarah Palin was a thing" and I'm sitting in the audience like THAT WAS THREE YEARS AGO.

But I (and everybody in every party I've ever been in) am the only one who feels that way so nevermind.

Other Stray Thoughts:
----------------------------
IT SERIOUSLY SAYS "BAR"
----------------------------
No, but seriously. The bars don't serve real drinks, whatever, but did you have to punctuate it (literally) with bony hands around it saying "bar" as you serve up that sugary crap in the useless half-cups with the stupid straws that most people just threw on the ground? Don't ... Uh.. Don't do that next year. 

I can tell you with Alleged Almost Certainty that all you accomplished by not selling liquor at the bars was having people pre-load and get drunk in the garage. 

I don't want to walk into HHN drunk. That's supposed to happen in the park

----------------------------
NO PHOTOGRAPHY? LOL
----------------------------
Seriously, no photography in the scarezones? Plus the limited photography in the UTH tour? 

Seriously?

FFP+Express+UTH for two people is enough effing money for us to be allowed to take pix. 

I took all the pix I wanted in the park as soon as the guy who told me not to was out of sight. UTH tour was a little different because I had a lens cap. 

But seriously, does Uni know how much of the people showing up are just there to take pix? 

Every time I've had to choose between HHN or UTH, I chose UTH. Why? Pix. 

Now? 

LOL. 

----------------------------
MERCH
----------------------------
The merch was cool this year. There was a ton of it. 

They clearly split the 'houses on the back' shirt into two things this year so kinda forced people to buy more than one but ...

I don't know. Capitalism.

... Yes. Capitalism. That's my summary in a word. Every year there's a new Eff You it seems. No pix! No drinks! No this no that no blah blah blah! 

Last year they told one of the people I was with that he was in a non-smoking area, but allowed to vape. And then later in a different place that he was allowed to smoke but not vape. It seemed like they were just screwing with him. 

Why don't the Capitalists just step out of the way and let the Artists make and share their Art? 

HHN is awesome, generally speaking, but they've got one more shot. This year was strike two with the "F You You'll Buy The Tix Anyway You Morons" nonsense. They underestimate their core audience....

I went again this year .... 

If I get the same bad taste in my mouth next year, there won't be another.

And you know what? That breaks my heart. Because so much stuff goes into HHN. So much work, so much care, so much artistry .. And to have to miss it because of ancillary nonsense... 

...

That's the true horror, innit?

This year my Orlando trip was 100% HHN-centric.  Went 4 nights in a row - 9/21-9/24.  Did all houses at least once each per night except for the Friday when three houses lost power...

In addition to the house reviews, I'll briefly talk about the Express queue for each, because Express holders are getting stuck with some long built in waits.

On my grading scale, 

A = Outstanding.  Headliner attraction.

B = Good or above average.  Its existence makes the event better.

C = Average or below average.

D = Brings nothing new to the event.  Not memorable.

F = Its existence makes the event worse

Scarecrow the Reaping  A++

Anticipation level before going: Low to moderate.  While I was intrigued by the dustbowl time period, I was concerned it would be too much like Tomb last year, which I thought was good but not great.

Scarecrow was by far the best of 2017.  It told a story from start to finish, and did not let up from the moment you walk in to the moment you leave.  What I appreciated most was the utter lack of blank hallways, yet excellent transitions from environment to environment.  Unlike Tomb which was the same environment throughout, Scarecrow keeps transitioning between outside and inside.  Both casts were outstanding.  Mirrors were extensively used at HHN this year, and I was completely fooled by the vast cornfield effect at the end.  After the crow poop room, entering what appeared to be a cornfield made me think that this was a HUGE house for a tent.  As may know, I take great effort to listen to people as I walk the park, trying to get a feel for others perceptions.  ANY time I heard people talking about Scarecrow, it was always positive; I didn't hear a single negative comment.  I heard a lot of people saying it was their favorite and the scariest.

This house was NOT part of the UTH tour.  Unable to conduct a tour in such a cramped space.

Express queue: Scan-to-merge queue is 10 minutes.  Merges with standby immediately before house entrance, which means a theoretical walk on for Express

The Fallen  A+

Anticipation level before going: Uber high.  The perception on the board that Universal made last minute changes to "remove angels" had me really concerned.  As did the notion that the house was a tour of hell.  So let's start with that - I do NOT think there was any editing of this house.  I got no feel that there was, nor did I feel anyone I spoke to was feeding me some false narrative.  I think that "Angels vs Demons" was a misconception from the start around here.  Nor are we on a tour of hell...

The concept is that we are stumbling into the eternal battle between good (the Eternals) and evil (the fallen), and the Fallen are winning.  Because evil is winning, we don't see very much of the Eternals but when we do see them, they are not happy.  Although these Eternals may have (small) wings the angelic analogy stops there.  They wear armor, wield swords, and otherwise look human.  The Fallen are definitely demonic looking and also wear armor.  No gargoyle representation.  The facade definitely looks like a desecrated cathedral in ruins.  Pay attention to the stained glass you see at the start - anyone else get a strong vibe of the 2010 Lantern?  Sure felt like it to me.  Just sayin'.  A good amount of the story is told by listening to the background sounds.  You will hear battle horns and clashing of swords and shields .  A few rooms later that is replaced by the wails of the Eternals.  After the scene where an Eternal has his wings ripped off, people who loved the Catacombs will love the next room, where sick and diseased Eternals cough on you.  While I won't give away any spoilers here, be aware there are THREE stunt sequences at the very end - bang, bang, bang.  Almost impossible to see all three on any pass.  I will simply describe them as Hurl, Fly, Plank.  In my 8-10 times through I only saw Fly one time.  Hurl and Plank are fantastic stunts; you have never seen Plank before.  So make sure you go enough times to catch all three.  While The Fallen stands on it's own, if I had to describe it, I would say it was a mashup of Gothic and Hades, with a sprinkle of Dracula Untold.

Express queue: Scan-to-merge queue is 5 minutes.  10 minute queue after merge with standby.

Dead Waters   A

Anticipation level before going: High.  Loved the idea that a scarezone icon would get her own house.  Facade is best ever at HHN by a longshot.  House detail is best ever at HHN by a longshot.  Tells a cohesive story.  Good varying environments.  Scare intensity is so so.  Abrupt ending, which takes away from an otherwise very good house.  House seems too short, probably because facade eats up 15% of the space.  I know this house is at the top of the list of many, and were it not for a lackluster ending and the fact that Scarecrow and Fallen are just that good, it would be there for me.

Express queue: Scan-to-merge queue is 10 minutes.  Merge with standby is immediately before entering soundstage, yet everyone is forced into a 10-15 minute queue in a black hallway before the facade.  The spaced used in that hallway could have been used to provide a better ending.

The Shining   B+

Anticipation level before going: Low.  Every major scene from the movie is in the house - except for Hallorann's death, which still sticks with me to this day.  I was young enough when I saw the movie that that scene was iconic to me.  Twins were super creepy; impossible to see their entire scare and spiel in one pass.  Surprised they did the shower scare, but was effective.  Shelley Duvall actresses looked EXACTLY like Duvall.  Nicholson forehead appliances looked great.  Elevator scene was much better than I expected.  I didn't much care for the bear <gasp> or the mirror maze.  I thought A&D did a bit of a cop-out by using the same technique they used for Exorcist - that is, set a section of the house in the mind of a character in the movie.  Last year was Exorcist as seen through the mind of Regan, and this year it was as seen through the minds of Jack and Wendy Torrance.  There comes a point where "through the mind" means "we couldn't think of another way to do this".

My problem with the house is that if you didn't see the movie you would have NO IDEA what is going on or why.  There are lots of IP houses that can stand on their own with no need for prior viewing: TCM, F13, Krampus, even Exorcist.  Some just cannot, and I think The Shining is one of those.  If you had never known the plot, you'd think that Jack Torrance was some escaped convict killing people.

They did the movie justice, but this is an example of why I think IP gets in the way too often.

Express queue: Scan-to-merge queue is 10-15 minutes.  Merge is immediately before facade.

HIVE  B+

Anticipation level before going: Super LOW.  Whenever a house concept is changed at the last minute, my hopes are very low.  But I think they pulled off a solid one here.  And I LOVED that an original took the place of an IP.  I feel as if this concept was one of many sitting in their TBD files, and not one they threw together at the last minute.  They probably have several ideas sitting on the sidelines that are centered around a wrecked residence.  And wrecking the Conjuring house they certainly did.  On the other hand, the lack of any facade sucks; I really hope they can build SOMETHING before October...   80's synth horror music doesn't do a good job of setting you up for what is inside.  The storyline is not well done; we needed a facade of a condemned house and maybe a newspaper clipping about the missing owners.  This can all be fixed in a few days if Creative gets the go ahead.  But unlike The Shining, where you are totally lost if you didn't see the movie, this is obviously a vampire house and certainly not a bunch of random rooms.  I really enjoyed the intensity of the scareactors.  The UV eyes were super scary; I was really offput when one guy stopped what he was doing and just stared at me.  I don't see this house getting a lot of love from the public.  The wait times on Hive are always low while Scarecrow next door are very long.  If they added a real facade and set up the story better, I'd give this an A-.  Even in retrospect, I'd prefer this house over Conjuring.

Express queue:  Scan is at merge point.  Once merged, there is a 5 min wait.

Ash Vs Evil Dead   B-

Anticipation level before going: High.  This was a rare IP I was looking forward to.  Every single episode is full of house-worthy stuff, and we got pretty much what I expected.  Was delighted to see the huge area outdoors even though it is not technically a facade.  The music and previews pumped people up for this one; even if you never saw a single episode, you knew what to expect after watching the preview.  There was zero storyline to speak of - just one random blood soaked scene after another.  Which was kind of a problem, since the house was really little more than a live version of the previews you spent 15 minutes watching.  In some cases, the previews were better than the live stuff because the live scenes seemed static compared to the previews.  Some stuff just didn't work, like the "I''m in the butt" gag.  Had you not seen that episode, it was just stupid because the prop just looked terrible.  Likewise the kill in the bathroom stall was not working that weekend.  The stall was encased in plexiglass so clearly something big was supposed to take place... For Ash lovers, the house was an easter egg hunt.  For everyone else, it was probably so-so and not scary.  Case in point, the puppet and Jacksonville scenes at the end.  They really aren't talked about in the preview, so people may think WTF.

Ash has the LONGEST walk - longer than any house I can remember.  I paced it out and from ET to queue, through house, and back to ET is over 1/4 mile.

This house was NOT part of the UTH tour.  Very surprised the far-too-dark HIVE got on the tour instead of this.

Express queue:  Scan-to-merge point is 5 minutes.  Once merged, there is a 5 min wait.  

AHS Asylum     B-

AHS Coven       C

AHS Roanoke   C

Anticipation level before going: High.  I really liked last year's AHS, but thought this one was ok at best.  I'd forgotten most of the Asylum season, but this brought a lot back.  I think it was the best part of the house.  The mirror scare in the rumpus room was my favorite use of mirrors in a long time.  That scareactor simply appears out of nowhere.  Coven and Roanoke were unfortunately pretty weak in this house.  I got very little out of it.  I think one thing that made last year's AHS so memorable was that area in the middle of the house where you transition to Freakshow and see that HUGE room with the carnival wagons.  I really love it when A&D have a huge open room in the middle of a house as in Ghost Town or even Dead Waters.  Heck, even Resident Evil was memorable for that.  Without the video transitions, I think many people wouldn't have had any idea when they changed seasons in this house.  Roanoke and Coven were character driven seasons, yet the more memorable characters seemed to be missing.  Instead we got more pig heads....again.  And for the record, I still don't think we will see Asylum in Hollywood for some time.  I'm firmly of the opinion that Universal Hollywood doesn't want to go near an insane asylum theme anytime soon considering what happened at Knotts.

Express queue:  Scan is at merge point.  Once merged, there is a freaking 20+ minute wait before you get to the facade.  You are stuck in a huge switchback queue in a black room that is partially lit, listening to music from AHS.  They could have at least shown scenes or opening credit animation for each season in this room.  It is COMPLETELY unacceptable to tell someone who shelled out $9-$12 for an Express into that house that they have a mandatory 20+ minute wait.

Saw  D

Anticipation level before going: Very low, and they didn't even live up to that.  We did not need another Saw house.  We did not need a third house in the same year to feature scareactors with pig heads.  The GAT buttons were the best part of the house.  Nothing else brought anything new to the table.  The final room was supposed to be a sneak preview of a new Saw trap, but the trailer showed far more than this static scene did.  Further, they have ops stationed just outside of the house, in direct line of sight as you enter this final room.   How can ANY sense of danger or being in a trap when you see people in no danger standing calmly just outside of the room, staring at you?   The only thing that keeps me from giving a lower grade here is the GATs.  Speaking of which, I found 4 buttons, but only three seem to do anything.  First button is small and NOT lit.  It is very early in the house on your left on the wall.  Pushing it did nothing.  Other buttons are about 2 inches in diameter.  Second one is NOT lit, on left just before the Pig room.  It's just above a large metal can.  Pushing it causes an effect in the can.  Third button is lit and is on your left.  Easy to miss.  Causes an effect aimed at you.  Fourth button is lit and is near the end on your right.  Easiest to see.  Pressing it causes an effect to someone ahead of you.  Want to play a game?  Find the buttons.  It's the only fun you will have in this house.

This house was NOT part of the UTH tour.  No love lost there. 

Express queue:  Scan-to-merge is 10 minutes wait.  Merge point is at the house entrance.

Blumhouse of Blah   F

Anticipation level before going: Higher than Saw.  Utter waste of time.  Zero redeeming qualities.  Not a one.  Made Chance's house last year look like Gothic.  Sinister was one room and a hallway.  Purge was one room and a hallway.  The rest of the house was all Insidious.  One room each for 1, 2, 3.  The rest was all Chapter 4.  Since none of us have any idea what Chapter 4 is about, of course it makes no sense.  Tells no story.  I complained that Hive told no story either, so why am I picking on Blumhouse for doing the same?  Because for 3 movies we have been told what the Further is and what to expect when we are in it.  Apparently Chapter 4 changes the story, because we end up in some very long green hallways where nothing happens.  There is no explanation as to why the Further is now swamp-like. And I gotta say it comes off like a JayCee haunt.  It was that bad.  I actually skipped this house on two of my nights.  Jason Blum cannot possibly be happy with this result.  If he is, he has no idea what the hell he is doing anymore.  This is in the bottom 5 HHN houses I've ever been to.  And I've been to Disorentorium and Cold Blind Terror....  Not trying to be dramatic or unfair - this is after 5 times through the house - both casts - once with lights on.  I can't think of a way of saving it.

This house WAS part of the UTH tour, and it was a complete waste of time, as the tour guide was not allowed to talk about what was going on in Insidious 4 section, and they didn't know, either.  So instead, we got a HUGE spiel about the backstory of The Purge and Sinister, each of which had one room and one hallway.  This house should have been replaced by Ash for the tour.

Express queue:  Scan-to-merge is 5 minutes wait.  After merge is another 5 minutes wait

Shows:

AOV - Afterlife   B-

The show I saw was highly abbreviated because Irma had destroyed main stage.  But what I saw told no story nor did it even fit into HHN theme like last year.  It was just dance numbers.  WAY better than Jabbocrappeeeez, but still just dance numbers.  Some of music the same as last year.  I was blown away last year; hoping that the full show is much better than this.  I have faith in these guys.

Bill & Ted   A

"In time, everything will be alright".  Was very hard not to shed tears during this show; I failed miserably.  B&T was absolutely a reason I fly out every year from Los Angeles.  Some years it was great, some years it stunk.  But every year it was fun.  Every. Single. Year.   As I grew older I found myself understanding fewer of the references, but the younger crowds did.  I don't for a split second buy the notion that they are removing it because kids don't relate to Bill & Ted.  I don't recall a single year where kids were not stomping their feet and clapping their hands when B&T hit the stage.  Shit, my kids grew up not knowing who E.T. was, and they STILL couldn't pick out Fievel in a police lineup.  B&T has been a staple and it deserves to remain one.  Maybe it's really being removed because Fear Factor stage is going away.  Let's say that is the case.  I gotta believe there are other venues that would work.  What about a soundstage?  If it can house a wrestling show, it can house B&T.  And what the hell do they plan to replace this with?  I mean seriously?  It cannot possibly be another "skew pop culture" show.  Academy of Villains is good, but they cannot be a headliner at HHN.  Bill and Ted was a full scale production show.  Even disregarding the B&T characters, that is a huge thing to replace.  So I'm totally lost here as to how they proceed.  I mean, trust me - you guys don't want a Jabbawockeez show.  

So I'm thinking - if Universal is playing a "let's see what happens until we have a new stage", the only thing I can come up with is they bring back icons next year and give them an AOV size stage to put on a "Carnival of Carnage" type show.  I mean people have a tough time complaining about icons.  And one of the biggest complaints about Chance was the lack of a show for her.  So maybe they create an icon show and see if people are still pining for B&T.   Other than that, you want a replacement for real?  Get Penn & Teller.  Have them go on hiatus from their multi-million dollar Vegas contract and do a full show.  Ain't gonna happen, but it would take that level of show to replace B&T.   Bottom line is I think they are going to get REAMED on the surveys this year for cancelling B&T and no matter what they do they will get reamed next year.  I'd ream them but no one asked me to take a survey on any of the four nights I went.  So maybe they bring back B&T for another farewell tour and that becomes a new theme for them.  I'd be cool with that.  But one thing is for sure.  If we don't see them back by 2019, they are gone forever, or until B&T 3 finally gets made.  

So, I mentioned that there were some references I did not follow.  Please help me out here...  

1) During Death's "Dance with the Reaper" song, WHO was the guy in the black and orange suit supposed to be?  I'm thinking some Asian viral video guy, but I'm drawing a blank.

2) When the 20 year old McDonald's dipping sauce was mentioned, WHO was the guy with the Statue of Liberty crown who came out and disappeared into the porta-pottie supposed to be?

The audience went wild when both of these guys appeared, but I got nothing...

I had a #3, but figured out they parodied the Backback dancer (who I only learned about from the Google search).

Scarezones:

Purge  A-  

Excellent zone.  Purge works so well as a scarezone.  Not as a house.

Trick R Treat    B-    

People seem to be so much more into this IP than I am.  Was a pretty good movie, but not a house that HHN needs.  I feel the same about the scarezone.  Plus, it has become one of four Photo-ops.

Invasion     B-    

I had high hopes for this, but maybe I was missing some good stuff.  It LOOKS beautiful.  It just was so static.  And another ptoto-op

Altars of Horror D   

Yet another photo op.  I didn't find it amazing to have characters from the houses running around the streets.  Did nothing for me.

Festval of the Deadliest   F  

Ugh.  I mean really UGH.  I enjoy seeing pole dancers as much as the next guy, but there was nothing going on at this zone except for a huge photo op.  They have done such great things in this area in the past.  Hero to zero.

Overall  B+

The original houses saved this year, because the IP was average.  And let's think about the IP for a moment.  This year we had only ONE standalone IP house - The Shining.  If you want to understand it, your investment is 90 minutes.  Hell, you could get in line and stream it on Netflix while you wait to go in.  The other IPs are quite a bit more costly in prep time: 

Ash - 20 30-minute episodes (15 hours)

AHS - 36 episodes across 3 seasons (24 hours)

Blumhouse - 8 movies (16 hours)

Saw - 7 movies (14 hours)

That's asking a lot from haunt customers.  Now, obviously you don't need to watch more than a couple of episodes to understand, say, Ash, and Saw is pretty self explanatory, but you either watch every season of AHS to understand it or it's a bunch of random stuff.

But we got three wonderful Originals, and the fourth was not bad at all.  Shining was good and the rest of the IP were ok, except for two of them that sucked.  Hard.  7 out of 9 houses ranging from good to outstanding is not bad in my book.  To me, the best year for houses is still 2011 followed closely by 2010.  This year is better than average, but barely.

I cannot hold Irma against AOV, but unless I see another fantastic show from them, I don't know if they can consistently churn out goodness.

If B&T had not been here this year, I'd be looking at a B- to C+....

UTH Tour   F (just lowered from D as I think about all the things we could not photograph)

For those taking the UTH tour, things are only a tiny bit better than last year.    In every single house - EVEN THE ORIGINALS - pictures are not allowed in some areas.  In IP houses, there were VERY few places where photos were allowed.  It truly seemed random.  But to restrict in some areas of the original houses?  Really?   

For example, in Shining you could only take pictures of the facade and in the bathroom.  In AHS you could not photograph the Chen puppet, but were free to photograph other things in the room.  In The Fallen, there were a lot of areas where we were not allowed to photograph (WE COULDN'T EVEN TAKE A PICTURE OF THE FRICKIN' FACADE, but Universal could put several up on their website!!!).  In Hive you could not photograph at all in the nursery or in the attic.  REALLY?  Supposedly this was because dead children were depicted in those rooms -- just like in La Llorona where we were allowed to take pictures of the drowned kids.  Yeah, that's consistent.  Oh, and in Blumhouse you were not even permitted to THINK about Sinister, Purge, or Insidious.  Maybe I'm not recalling that last one right...  If they are going to censor content in the original houses, just stop offering the damned tour.  This is why we can't have nice things.

Food     D

Drink    B

Where the hell do you get chicken tenders anymore?  I couldn't find anyplace other than Springfield.  There used to be at least two stands.  The Pizza Fries would be forgettable, had I not been burping them back up every hour.  I did like the mini donuts (very overpriced) and the Bavarian pretzel.  But, man, if you wanted anything resembling a real meal, you had to go to a restaurant with a very long wait.  Missing seemed to be carts selling: loaded nachos, cheesesteak, chicken wings/fingers, etc, etc.  It was so convenient in the past.  Food was a step backwards this year.

I saw a LOT of bars, and true, they only sold the featured drink (where they wave a bottle of alcohol over a bucket of orange juice and call it a mixed drink).

However, there were PLENTY of vending carts selling beer.

I never really knew the bars sold real booze, so that being absent meant nothing to me.

Also true that there was no more jello shot girls.  Instead people had the same blood bag carts, with popcorn but with buckets hanging from them.  I did not see a lot of people buying popcorn...

So for me, the drink situation was a non-issue. 

And for the record, I saw JUST as many obnoxious drunk men and ugly ass drunk women at the end of the night as when alcohol was readily available.  

When will women understand how unattractive they are when they are drunk?  I guess the same time men understand what assholes they are when they are drunk.

I still wouldn't mind it if the event became dry, but I don't see that happening.

I'm looking forward to see what Hollywood has done with The Shining, Ash, and AHS.  I expect Hollywood to have a completely different take on The Shining (their Exorcist was much better than Orlando's).  I think I will end up liking Hollywood's AHS because they will have a full house to use for one season.  I don't have high hopes for Saw, although I'm intrigued by the whole "you are in the trap" thing.  And I cannot imagine Hollywood screwing up Blumhouse any more than Orlando did.  But then again, Hollywood has two opportunities to do so.

Finally, it was nice to meet up with Cloves and his wife.  We went through Dead Waters together and then I went off on my own because I had Express.  I hope you two enjoyed B&T.  

The Shining: This was one of the houses I would've been okay with skipping. The movie has never really done a whole lot for me and the house didn't either. The only part I thought was great was the Gold Room. That scare was timed perfectly for me as I was in the center of the room when the lights went out so both scareactors lunged directly towards me. The sets were well done, but it just wasn't my cup of tea. 6/10 

AHS: I was incredibly excited for this one and while I did think it was good, I think last year's was better. But I also think that mostly has to do with the fact that seasons 1, 4, and 5 have scarier monsters than 2, 3, and 6. I loved the entrance into Asylum and all of the sets. And that mirror scare in the Asylum section is one of the best ones I've ever seen. I was disappointed in the Roanoke section because I thought that was the scariest season they've done and it seemed like HHN left out some of the best parts. Still a good house though. 8/10 

Dead Waters: This house is BEAUTIFUL. I would've loved to have done a behind the scenes tour of this one. The swamp monster scares were great and I loved the Voodoo dolls. My only criticism is I thought they could've done more with the Voodoo Queen. I was really hoping to see her sacrifice scene in this house. 9/10 

Saw: Meh. This was my least favorite house. It felt very repetitive. I liked the Billy doll riding his bike down towards you and the bathroom scene at the end but that was about it. 6/10

The Fallen: The first time I went through this house I wasn't super impressed but I found out the second go around that it was because of bad timing. The second time I got all the scares, including 2 of the bungee scares at the end. We got the bungee scare where the scareactor flies towards you (which caused me to scream "YESSSS" and then apologize for the inappropriate response) and the planking scare but the only reason we got that one is because I saw him drop down on the group in front of us and then return upright and I looked up at him and said "do it again!" so he did. The facade for that house was great too. 7/10

Blumhouse: Also known as "Insidious house with a few characters that got lost". I really wish there was more Sinister in this house, or the entire house was Sinister. It honestly felt like they started making an Insidious house and ran out of ideas halfway through so they threw Sinister and Purge in there. This entire house felt like an afterthought. Both times I went through this house it was well timed though. 7/10

Scarecrow: My favorite house of the year. I loved everything about this house and had good timing both runs. The real corn stalks was an amazing touch. The crows pooping on you was a gross touch, but I thought it was appropriate for the house. These scareactors were tall (or at least taller than me) and really got in my face. 10/10

Hive: I expected a bit more from this one. It wasn't as scary as I thought it would be but it was still a good house. Thankfully, it was already dark out before I went in so I was able to see everything pretty well. I liked the random buzzing noises throughout the house. 7/10

Ash vs. Evil Dead: I've never seen the show so I didn't know what to expect/wasn't expecting a whole lot but I really enjoyed it. This house was the most fun to walk through. I got a few good scares from it as well as a few laughs. It was an overall good time and made me want to watch the show. 8/10

AoV: I was so sad that it was still a modified version, but even then it was still great. I can't wait to see the full version online. 

Bill & Ted: it was alright. Last year was my first year ever seeing it so it didn't have the nostalgia for me, but it was still fun. I feel like Bill & Ted deserved a better send off. The ending seemed very underwhelming. It was my boyfriend's first time seeing it and he really enjoyed it. However, as he was telling me how much he liked it, a guy in front of us turned around and kept telling him how shitty the show was and how it was the worst one they've ever done. I explained to the guy that it was the first one he had ever seen and the dude got really condescending and continued to shit all over it. Not cool, and if that was one of you guys, shame on you. Let people enjoy what they want to enjoy. The condescending fanboy act is really old and unnecessary. 

Altars of Horror: This felt like an after thought zone. There wasn't even any good set pieces. My friend did get a really great photo of me and Bughuul though. 

Purge: I didn't think I would enjoy this scarezone as much as I did. I think the amount of scareactors helped. 

Invasion: Yeah this one did nothing for me. I'm not a big sci-fi fan so maybe that's why but it just seemed out of place. 

Festival of the Deadliest: the costumes were great and I'm a fan of the rattle scares so this one was ok. I didn't understand why there were stripper poles all over the zone but whatever. 

Chainsaw Clowns: this scarezone has been done to death, but the scareactors were a lot of fun. We took a break in the area and just people watched and it was very entertaining. Some of our favorite scareactor interactions came from the clowns. 

Trick R Treat: I could honestly live in this scarezone. It was SO BEAITIFUL. It was so classic Halloween and perfect. I'm actually glad this was a scarezone and not a house because it allowed me to really look at everything. I will forever be obsessed with those pumpkin lanterns. 

Happy Halloween Horror Nights everyone! And welcome to Killswitch’s yearly review.  Not really too much to start off with this year. So far I’m really enjoying this year, there isn’t a bad scarezone or house this year. I know there were a few hiccups with marketing and that monster Irma but huge props to Universal for going all out this year.  And without further ado we are going to go into my house reviews for the year.

We’re going to do things a little different this year because all the houses are pretty good this year I’m not going to go through my usual route, this year let’s separate the houses into tiers.

Tier 1: The Good

SAW: The Games of Jigsaw- I was looking forward to this one as I love the SAW movies, and it had to better than the one back in 2009. There were lots of scares to be had and was significantly more intense than the previous maze.  Lots of  show scenes so if you only do it once you’ll probably miss a lot. A few things that I didn’t particularly care for were how much was going on in one room. Multiple traps on both sides of the room makes you miss a lot. Also the GAT’s this year were super cheesy and unimpressive.  Overall it was a major improvement from the 09 maze and am glad they brought it back. This year I will give saw a 7 out of  10.

Ash vs Evil Dead: This house is probably the weakest of the year in a very strong year. I really liked the concept and show’s humor is right down my alley and I was laughing more in this house than being scared. They have some really cool and unique gags and set pieces in the house as well.  I really enjoyed the soundtrack and the finale as well. The house wasn’t as gory as I had expected, comparing it to the show and there was way to much empty space where there could have been scares. I’ll give Ash a 6 out of 10.

Blumhouse of Horrors:  This was probably the hardest house to judge mostly because the flow is a bit odd.  I didn’t like that 2 movies get a total of 3.5 rooms and the rest of the house is another movie. Sinister especially deserved a lot more space in this house. The Insidious room’s however are fantastic and proved that they could have done another unique Insidious house all on its own.  I would’ve like more movies included like Hush and Get Out. The scares were pretty good especially as you got deeper into the house.  All in all it wasn’t a bad house but Blumhouse needs to thank Insidious for its ranking of a 6.5 out of 10.

Tier 2: The Better

Hive:  I really like this house, but I can understand why people don’t.  I really like how this how tells a story and gets crazier and crazier as you go into the house.  The lack of lights make the house  carier and pushes you through. There are lots of scare chances but nothing crazy unique. I loved the costumes and the intensity of the actors. The sets weren’t the best and lack of façade brings it down a little. Overall I like this house and has lots of room for improvement. I give Hive an 7.5 out of 10.

American Horror Story Vol. 2: I had really high expectations for this one especially with how well last years was done and my favorite season is Asylum. It is a very well done house, really stoked that the majority of the house was Asylum. There a lots of scares to be had and the scareactors are really aggressive.  I really liked the use of smells in this house and it really makes a difference compared to other houses. A really solid house overall I’ll give it an 8 out of 10.

The Shining; This is the house I was most skeptical about, being that it is a film that still creeps me out to this day. I have to say the Shining did not disappoint. It’s a really in depth house and covers all the important parts from the movie.  While its not the scariest house at the event, it has lots of cool stuff to look at.  I really love the bar scene and going through the hedge maze. The only disappointment is the elevator scene, which I probably had way to high of hopes for. I really look forward to this maze every night. The Shining gets a 8.5 out of 10

Tier 3: The Best

Scarecrow: This is by far the most intense house of the year. It uses a lot of scares that haven’t been used in a few years. The intensity and frequency of scares of this house is unreal. There are also a lot of unique scares and scenes in this one as well.  I don’t’ really want to spoil a whole lot so we’ll leave Scarecrow as a 9 out of 10.

The Fallen:  I love this house,  this is a house with an amazing combination of everything. Great scares, beautiful sets,  unique scenes. This house is solid all the way through, and the final 3  or 4 rooms really make this house. The façade for this one is great too. The Fallen also receives a 9 out of 10.

Dead Waters: Way to prove me wrong Universal, at the beginning of the event I was super skeptical about this house. Im not a huge fan of Voodoo themed things when it comes to haunted attractions but this house was phenominal. From the façade to the finale this house goes all out. The sets are amazing with so much to look at, which amplify the scares even further. All the scareactors do a great job brining their characters to life. I can’t say enough good things about this house. Even so much so that this house has cracked my top 5 of all time. Well done Universal 10 out of 10.

On to the scarezones:

Festival of the Deadliest: This is an odd scarezone to me, the sets are really cool, the scares are there and the costumes are great. However, I just don’t get it. It doesn’t convey a story like the other zones. Also lighting needs to be improved in this zone.

Scares and costumes really save this zones rating of a 3.5 out of 5.

Trick R Treat: What a beautiful zone, they did a great job with the overall ambiance of the zone. The scares here are okay but the actors do a good job with what they are supposed to do . Also they people who play Sam do a wonderful job. 4 out of 5

Invasion! This is straight up a fun zone. The acting is great. Scares aren’t particularly there but it is a quite good zone. 3.5 out of 5.

The Purge: Despite popular opinion this is such as good zone. Lots of scareactors, the most ive seen in quite some time, intense scares,  and lots to look at. Very good job with this. 4.5 out of 5.

Altars of Horror: This is really a throw away zone, not a whole lot of scaring going on,  mostly a photo op zone so meh.  2.5 out of 5.

House Rankings

1. Dead Waters

2. Scarecrow

3. The Fallen

4. The Shining

5.  AHS

6. Hive

7. SAW

8.  Blumhouse

9. Ash vs Evil Dead

Scareszone Ranknings:

1. The Purge

2. Trick R Treat

3. Invasion!

4. Festival of the Deadliest

5. Altars of Horror

Last but not least a quick review of the shows:

Bill and Ted was great for the farewell tour. Lots of laughs and always love when they do live singing. Thank you Bill and Ted for providing years of laughs and memories.

Academy of Villains was very good considering the issues they’ve had with the hurricane.

Thank you to all who have read and made it through the whole review.  If any one has any questions, comments, or concerns, please feel free to leave a comment J

Killswitch

By far the worst weather we’ve had on any trip…including when we were down during a Hurricane a few years ago.  Thursday was 93 with a real feel of 102…but there was no HHN that day (thanks Microsoft).  Friday the rain held off until 6pm.  Did the S&S at Finnegan’s and left and went straight to The Shining.  Halfway through the neverending maze in the concert queue it started drizzling.  Then raining.  Then POURING…right about when the line stopped moving.  Stood there with zero shelter for a good 10 minutes.  Sat was the worst day and after the Friday fiasco, didn’t even go until 11pm and stayed until closing.  Did both shows that night and a couple houses.  Sunday, that they were forecasting to be the worst day, was actually the best and the only time we really saw all the scareactors (though a lot seemed to be missing from the IP zone).

Overall Event:  8/10

Houses rated a solid 10.  Blumhouse was the only one my group didn’t care for.  The facades, where they had them, were amazing.  Both shows were solid.  The real weakspot was unfortunately the Scare Zones.  I’ve been on record often saying I prefer the Scare Zones to the Houses…but this year they were horrible.  The Purge was probably the best in terms of atmosphere and scares.  Trick R Treat was the best to walk through but had pretty much zero scares.  Their directions seemed to be to walk directly at people and turn away at the last second without so much as lunging at them or screaming or anything.  Invasion looked great and the costumes/masks were great….but they just paced around.  The only person doing anything was the soldier by the sandbags.  

100% Spoiler Free Rankings (may update this review in a week or two after I’ve had more time to think about it).

Houses

1. Scarecrow – Amazing house with the best scares and cast in the whole event.
2. Dead Waters – Pretty much any other year, this would be #1 without a doubt.  JAWDROPPING FACADE
3. Ash vs Evil Dead – Love the movies, love the show, loved the house.  The one “can’t believe they did it!” gag was great…except the time we went through and there was nobody in it.   Those who have already gone through it can imagine how weird that looked.
4. The Shining – Looked great, low on scares.  Twins were amazing though.
5. Hive – The actors BROUGHT it.  They really need to get BLACK ear plugs though…nothing like shining black lights on people with neon orange earplugs.  First time that a smell effect actually felt right and helped with immersion. 
6. AHS – I hadn’t seen any of these seasons so I wasn’t all that impressed.  I blame myself for that.  There were a couple good scares.
7. The Fallen – The disappointment of the event in my mind.  Came in with sky high hopes and it was a huge let down.  Lots of eye candy sets…but just boring.  The coolest creatures were just there to do their thing and not even try to scare.
8. Saw – Same problems as the first time…it’s all about timing.
9. Horrors of Blumhouse – Other than The Purge I haven’t seen any of the movies from this house.  Did nothing for me.

Zones

1. Trick R Treat – Looked amazing.  Should have not bothered with having Scareactors in it.  Would have been just as good without any actors as they didn’t add anything…should have added the actors to the Alters of Horror zone.
2. Invasion! – Thought it was just as good as last year’s zone here, but was even more cramped and no real scares to be had at all.
3. The Purge – Worked just as well as before, the one stage was boring, but the rest was entertaining.
4. Clowns in Springfield (and front of the park…ran into a couple there) – Same old same old.  They bring it.
5. Alters of Horror – Where were all the scareactors?  And can we stop calling it a selfie / photo op zone?  It’s like they were explicitly told NOT to allow pictures.  Also, we went through this and never saw the Twins or the Bear if they were actually there.  Pablo just kept doing the same “scare” over and over. 
6. Festival of the Deadliest – had a lot of stages to be used…but scareactors were NEVER on them.  Only saw the antler chicks one night before it got dark...never saw them at night.  I blame the weather for that.

Shows

1. Academy of Villains – Was just awesome.  Hope that the stage fiasco means they’ll be back next year with the full show.  The painting was awesome. 
2. Bill and Ted’s – Was OK.  I’ve said it before, I’m getting too old to get all the references.  My breakdown would be 25% were hilarious, 50% I didn’t really get, and 25% I understood but didn’t really care about.  They seemed like they upped the cursing and lewdness a bit which is great.  This might be the tiniest of tiny spoilers:  They never got in the phonebooth!  They used to get in and out a few times a show.  That really stood out.
    

Unmasking the Horror Tour:  0/10

First time in the past 10 years I didn't do the tour.  The photo bullshit means I won't be doing it ever again.  If seeing Deep Waters' facade didn't make me relent, nothing will.  I'm not paying $150 after taxes for Story Time.  Already spent $300 for 3 nights (once again, thanks Microsoft) so not paying half that again to get to look at the houses with lights on and have arbitrary rules about what you can and can't take pictures of.

Houses:

The Shinning – 4/5

Great house. Lots of great moments from the movie captured really nicely. They also did a good job of giving a maze that “big empty” feeling that the movie had. Pretty impressive. Loved the Jack masked and the girls playing Wendy were fantastic too. Very fun house that I went through 4 times in 3 nights!

Saw: The Games of Jigsaw – 3/5

I will prefaced this with I’m not a huge fan of the SAW franchise. First one was really good, 2 was ok, the rest are steaming piles of garbage. With that said this house was still pretty fun. Lots to look at and LOTS of buttons to push! If you get a chance hit the button above the 55 gallon drum and watch the people behind you jump! Also lots of pig masks, which I think are pretty cool!

American Horror Story: Volume 2 – 4/5

Once again a really well done house. Lots of good scares and they did a great job of picking really cool scenes from those seasons. I'm a fan of the show so I knew what I was seeing in every room. Well done!

Horrors of Blumhouse – 4/5

Fun house! I haven’t seen Sinister, only seen the first Insidious and I hate the Purge so I went in with low expectation and was pleasantly surprised. Great scares, cool costumes, high energy. Even the Purge guys great. Everytime I went through it the tall guy in there would run up to me to let me know he was taller than I was. I’m 6’5” so it doesn’t happen too often. My wife yells “Shit he’s bigger than you!” I know honey, he also threatened me with a knife, keep moving! LOL Cool house all around!

Ash vs Evil Dead – 3/5

I hate to give it 3 stars bc I love the franchise, I love Ash (I often get told I look just like him), I love the show…. But it just didn’t have the energy I was expecting, maybe I went in with too high expectations. They guys playing Bruce did a great job though! The one in front of the cabin was hilarious! I also like the kegs at the end, I kept yelling “Jacksonville!!!!” Still a great house!

Dead Water – 5/5

Ok the façade to this maze will go down in HHN history as the GOAT façade. Fucking BEAUTIFUL. There is no other way to describe it. Visually this house was a 7/5. Saw a VooDoo queen, the boat Captain and even Samuel Clemens! This house took me back to the Forsaken for many reasons. Man what a good house. This is what makes HHN the best! An original house that is just insanely good.

The Fallen – 4/5

First off…. Great costumes, great scenery, great scares, great everything. This house would the definition of HHN. The only reason I gave it a 4 and not a 5 is bc I had no idea what the hell was going on. I like monsters and fire and brimstone and all that shit but I couldn’t follow any kind of story. Maybe its not really THAT important but they billed this as good vs evil, light vs dark, etc…. oh well. It was a SICK house. I love every minute I was in there!

Scarecrow the Reaping – 5/5

This house had it all. The scarecrows were so boss. I live in central IL. Im in a kinda populated area but there are old farm houses like this all over the place within a few miles of me. SO I was really looking forward to this house. The house looked great! The last room was a great touch too… SPOILER ALERT! It’s a shitty room LOL

Hive – 5/5

LOVED this house. Totally creepy. The Nosferatu-esque vamps were right on. Very feral and scary as hell. The house was visually gorgeous too. From the boarded up windows to the piles of dirt in the corners (I imagine from them digging into the earth for their caskets?). Also the second house to display a couple dead kids LOL. I actually enjoyed this house the most out of all the houses. Now my only complaint is that the power went out on the 22^nd as we were about to go into this house so I missed it my first night. Whoever tripped on the extension cord you owe me 3 houses!!!!

Scare Zones:

The Purge – 3/5

I hate these movies, but it does make a fun scare zone. I got some cool pics.

Trick ‘r Treat – 5/5

LOVED LOVED LOVED. This is what Halloween is all about. orange lights, pumpkins and monsters! I walked through this so many times. Absolutely gorgeous scare zone and the scaractors seemed to be having a blast too. If they made CP look like that every year you wouldn’t hear me complain…

Festival of the Deadliest – 4/5

I have no idea what the hell was going on in this SZ but with monsters and pole dancers…. Well its hard to complain. Fun scare zone with some REALLY good scaractors. One dude in particular (black dude about 5’5”) was on point! We sat and watched him scare the shit out of so many people. Well done sir!

Invasion! – 5/5

Perfect throw back to the old day of 50’s Sci-Fi/Horror! What a great set! It always seems a little tight in that area but it worked for this. Aliens seemed to be having a good time too.

Altars or Horror – 2/5

Basically a photo op. I get it. Cool to see character running around and I really like the huge signs they used!

Shows:

Bill and Ted – 5/5

Man it really sucks that this is it for them. HHN won’t be the same wthout this show. I was legit bummed leaving the show knowing I wasn’t going to see another one. Was a good send off and I hope they replace it with something half as fun. Oh and my god those female dancers. My god….

Academy of Villains – no score. Didn’t watch it once.

So that’s that! Another year in the books (our 10^th) and it was a VERY strong year. Best year house-wise since HHN 21. Maybe even better! Merch was cool and I got to eat at my favorite restaurant on the planet Monsters Café. Thanks to all the actors and behind the scenes folks for putting on another great event! See you next year!!!!

There are some spoilers...nothing crazy...but just wanted to give a heads up.

Let's get into it, shall we.

Scarezones: Overall, much more impressed by this year than previous years.

Festival of the Deadliest - I'm going to cut this one some slack because I saw their set design back stage, so it was just scareactors. However, I have no idea what they're going for here. They played some dark rock songs and it looked like they were trying to go for a sleeker version of Demon Cantina. This has been our favorite zone to hang out in and watch scares, but we may be spending more time in Altars of Horror for that.

Altars of Horror - It was cool to see the IP characters up close and personal, but they definitely need some props in here. It's also very evident this year more than ever, that Universal has gone all-in when it comes to the advertising side. Some of the banners are tacky and remind me of Six Flags, but it's definitely an improvement over last year.

The Purge - Biggest scarezone surprise of the night for me. I don't really like anything Purge related, but the scareactors and the atmosphere get it done here. Much better, in my opinion, than that Mad Max looking zone we had last year. I don't even remember what it was called.

Invasion - Supremely disappointed. Odd scares, odd costumes, odd atmosphere. Last year, albeit small and cramped, this was my favorite scarezone. Here's hoping they up just about everything.

Trick r' Treat - This is the most aesthetically pleasing this area has looked in a long time. Photographs galore. The scares weren't there last night but WOW does it look nice.

Houses: Overall, it was a decent night. This is going to be more from an aesthetic standpoint from the look of the house and the makeup/effects unless there were some real standouts with scareactors(which...there WERE). I realize things change, some casts have on/off nights, some effects change, etc. but this is just what I saw. Here's my list from worst to first:

The Shining: Full disclosure: This film is my favorite of all time, so this review may be skewed a little. Good. God. Was this a disappointment. The scareactors were doing their best to work with what they had(horrible receding hairlines and makeup) in this house, but oh my what a turd. I'm sorry, but WOW. The Shining is GRANDIOSE! I thought Shining + Soundstage would equal GRANDIOSE! None of that need apply. Everything felt cramped and forced and not what you would expect out of a Shining house. First off...uhhhh...WHERE IS THE EXTERIOR OF THE OVERLOOK HOTEL?! They had a HUGE opportunity here to really give it that chilling factor. And based on what I saw from one house later in the night, you can't tell me it's not possible to do. That being said, the ballroom is a micro version from the film, but still very well executed and they have the effect in here where it's a more relaxed vibe, the light goes out, back on, and all hell breaks loose. I still find joy in that. The elevator blood scene was pretty poor, however, it is spot on to the way I thought they would do it, but with less space...which you have a TON of in a soundstage. Ugh. I've had houses grow on me over the course of the event(Frankenstein) and I'm truly hoping that happens with this one.

Saw: The Games of Jigsaw: This would actually be listed as my worst house had I not had such high expectations for The Shining. There's really not much to say. There are traps. We're not being put into the traps, we're just watching other people experience the traps with actually very little fear if they're going to get out. The props they use don't even come close to their face or remotely look like they're going to do any damage to the scareactor. Now, the scareactors, again, did a solid job of making it work, but I didn't have too big of expectations to begin with. The one cool scene I liked was the bathroom from the first film. They did an awesome job with the space they had, but overall, I wasn't impressed.

Ash Vs. Evil Dead: We were REALLY looking forward to this one and it was just ok. They left out some of the best quotes and best scenes from the show! It wasn't as funny or gory as I thought it was going to be, but it was...meh. They include the cabin, which is awesome...but meh. I'm sure they'll amp it up when everyone finds their groove(no pun intended).

The Fallen: Spoiler alert: This one is not a battle of Angels vs. Demons. It's just hell. Want to know why they removed(yes removed) the angels? Because an exec thought it was too violent toward religion. So...like I said....it's just hell..sometimes on earth? The soundtrack is pretty awesome, but it's mostly just demons munching dead remains and poppping out to get you, throughout. Again, a PERFECT opportunity to make things GRANDIOSE!! Soundstage! Hell! Nope. Although, we are getting on the right track with design here. There are some very cool effects, the makeup is great and the bungy demon is a badass. The scareactors have an opportunity to make things great  and it could end up being one of the top houses. I just fully believe they got shafted with what they have to work with from a story standpoint and it's not really A&D's fault.

Hive: The lack of a true facade for this one is understandable considering we lost The Conjuring, however, that immediately throws you off. They need to do something with that. As far as scares go, this, so far, is the Tomb of the Ancients of last year. The makeup is PHENOMENAL and the scares are even better. These guys really buy into the story and man do they go all out. The design is ok, but again, the scareactors are what will make or break this house on any given night.

Scarecrow: The Reaping: Besides the fact they clearly used a lot of Texas Chainsaw props from last year, they did a VERY good job with the space they had. The makeup and masks, again, are really solid and that's definitely a consistency I've seen across the board with this year(minus The Shining). They have a couple of pretty cool effects in here, including a scene where you feel like you're being bombarded by crows and then somehow they made me feel like I was in an actual cornfield for another scene, although you know you're not. I truly believe the tent house scareactors are maybe the best of the best because A&D knows they can pick up where they lack as far as design and the space they're able to use, because they're in mid-event form already.

And for my last review, I want to warn any of those who are afraid to get on any hype train and feel disappointed because someone built something up too much for you. I'm about to pour hype ALL OVER DEAD WATERS.

Dead Waters: OH MY F***ING GOOD LORDY D:SLIJHNSE:E:UHEO#*IH:FDJ:ELKFJE:LK!!!!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

Unfreakingbelievable....If you can't tell by my The Forsaken avatar, when it comes to HHN, I'm a huge fan of crashed boats. I don't know why, but same thing with Dead Man's Wharf last year. This house has THE BEST facade I've ever scene at an HHN event. Period, end of story. The design inside is up there with THE BEST I've ever seen at an HHN event. They poured SO much love into this house and it is evident around every corner. From the swampy forest, to the paddle boat, to the sacrificing rooms, everything is just freaking amazing. The scareactors don't even need to be on point for this house to be awesome, in fact, I think they could run this house WITHOUT scareactors and it would still be the best(so far). This point of view is coming from someone who, again, is more into the design, story and aesthetics of the houses, than the scares. Full disclosure, I actually got choked up a couple of times walking through because of some throwbacks to the Forsaken, but mostly I just FELT. THE. LOVE. This house takes an event dripping with a corporate feel, and transports you into the world of voodoo and mystery. The one and ONLY complaint I have is that IT'S TOO SHORT! I feel like I can visit this house every night of the event and it will never bore me.

On that note, I'm looking forward to finishing the other two houses and seeing B&T and AoV this year. It's going to be a solid, not great, but not horrible year.

Ringwraith out.

Major disclaimer: Hurricane Irma really messed up HHN prep this year from what I've heard, not so much in terms of things being damaged, but because of all the rehearsals that were cancelled and man-hours lost over the weekend we were closed. Thanks to that and the shift from having this night be for TMs AND their invited guests to strictly TM-only, with full-blown 'this is a dress rehearsal' communication just about everywhere in the park, I can't make a complete judgement as everything is still finishing up. I will probably do a full review with ratings/rankings about halfway through the season. 

That said: For all the complaining we did, the worries we had, the upset we experienced with the marketing and presentation of this event this year, the moment I was in the park, soaking in the atmosphere, everything just melted away. HHN is incredible every year and this year is no exception. It felt SO good to have it back. So 10/10 for the feels.

I do want to mention merch this year as I think they did two things right this time around: Firstly, everything with the skull motif still has a unique vibe to each piece as opposed to last year where it was all ‘Buy Chance’s Face on a Shirt! Buy Chance’s Face on a MUG!!!!’. Also, the Bill and Ted’s merch makes my heart happy (and my wallet empty).

My one caveat: I’m a big girl. Probably just a little bit chubbier than Chance. In any reasonable sizing range I’m about a 1X. I was very excited to see a nice, feminine tunic with the main skull motif in the shop in sizes up to a 2X. So I bought the 2X and went to change into it...and it’s TINY. Luckily I can sew, so I’ll be taking my seam ripper to it and letting it out but be warned, ladies of a certain dimension. Pretty much everything ‘women’s’ is really ‘junior’s’ sizing. Boo.

Food and Bev were knockouts. I especially love the new Mini Donuts. I did manage to buy my blinky cup with some Liquid Fear and it’s a 9/10 (losing a point because for some reason it was WEAK on the alcohol this year, and a small part of me hopes that’s just because they didn’t want us TMs getting wasted).

Anyway, here’s what you all came for!

Shows:

-Bill and Ted's was...excellent! I won't spoil too much, but if you're a long-time fan, prepare for some waterworks. There are several moments where you just feel the love that's been poured into this Farewell Tour. The show as a whole had some slow moments and it all feels about the same quality as last year, which seems to pale in comparison to many previous shows. If you love B&T, you're gonna love it. If you're lukewarm, you might not. But I think we can all agree it will be missed. 

-Academy of Villains were NOT performing yesterday as their stage is still being rebuilt at this moment. It was all taken down in prep for the hurricane. We will have to make our judgement tomorrow.

Zones:

-Festival of the Deadliest was a shell of what it will be due to hurricane reasons. I have a feeling that even with the complete setup tomorrow it will not be as active/interesting as Vamp was last year. Probably closer to 25's zone in this area with no large props in the middle of the road, though I'm unsure if any of the small stages will attract those crowds. 

-Invasion! is up there for my favourite zone. It’s got so much great stuff packed into it and I can only hope it isn’t a bottleneck most nights. The SAs will make this zone as much as the costumes/sets will and I’m sure once everyone is in the groove of their area this will be many people’s favourite.

-The Purge kind of just feels like last year with less cool costumes and props, BUT the SAs here are KILLING it already. Really happy with their interactions. Looking forward to spending more time here.

-Trick R’ Treat looks incredible at night, as expected. The SAs seem to be figuring out their roles but there was really not that much interaction as we passed through, despite the zone being fairly empty. I was expecting a lot more but I think it will improve.

-Altars of Horror is just...such a waste of a zone. I don’t know if there’s any more additions planned (like the stages for FOTD), but either way it really is just a Selfie/Photo Zone. And the SAs were definitely trained for that. They seemed more willing to pose for a photo than they were to go for a scare. The zone itself is dreadfully empty with just those advertisement-like signs for all the IPs. I’m hoping on busier nights it will seem less empty as people hang out here. Probably the only redeeming quality at this point were the Grady Twins walking hand in hand up and down the road. They look creepy as hell!

Houses:

-Saw, The Shining, and Blumhouse are the 3 I’ve skipped for now. I am waiting until Friday in hopes that media get the chance to film so I can judge the creep factor before I go.

-AHS is our Ubermaze this year but I hate to say it...it felt LONG this time around. Last year’s seasons were so different in theming and color palette that you almost felt like the house was really 3 different ones back-to-back. This year’s 3 are so similar that it feels like one long, long walkthrough, with just a small hint of transition between the seasons. I went into both years having watched 1 out of 3 seasons, so I wasn’t going in totally blind but I’m guessing if I’d watched all 6 it might have been more enjoyable. The SAs in here are really promising though (I’m told they had minimal rehearsal due to hurricane).

-Ash vs. Evil Dead both scared the shit out of me and left me grinning like a maniac by the end. It’s gonna be at the top of my list all season if they keep it up. Granted, I’ve never seen the show, but I know the premise and I’ve seen some clips. Die-hard fans may have gripes with some of the scenes/missing scenes, but the ones that stand out will make you point and laugh and give A&D major kudos.

-Scarecrow is INTENSE. Out of the 6 houses I fit in, it was the most challenging. Combo of atmosphere, tight corridors, costumes/set creepiness, and frequency of scares makes up the intensity. My partner came out of the house and immediately said ‘THIS is what an original is supposed to be like!’. It’s quite detailed but you don’t have much time to notice a lot of it.

-Hive had me rolling my eyes at the non-facade, and I’m not sure how I feel about it yet. About  halfway through there was a vampire who looked decidedly like Nosferatu and seeing that changed my entire perspective. I need to go back and pay more attention to the details. I left this one with several scares but really no sense of what the hell I’d just seen, lol.

-Dead Waters? Dead. Waters. God, it’s incredible. This needs to be on my lights-on tour. I want to just steep in there and soak in the atmosphere. Good shit. Good. Shit. SAs are getting into the groove in here as well and I expect improvement over the season. Seeing the Voodoo Queen made me want to jump for joy. She’s gorgeous.

-The Fallen, with the cuts mentioned by Ringwraith, seemed half-empty for obvious reasons. There’s so much story missing now. But the bungee SAs are incredible, so this is on my list for several re-dos to see them again.

Anyway, to sum last night up: 10/10, really. The love that A&D puts into this event makes up for all the negatives. Things are going to improve for sure, but I left the park last night feeling rejuvenated in a way that nothing else really makes me feel. I will be around most nights so check the meetup and member photo threads if you’d like to hang out!

Just a quick disclaimer: haven't read anybody else's thoughts on this year's event so excuse any overlap.

THE WALKING DEAD'S reign of terror is finally over------------------------

THE SHINING: I was surprised they made a more than tolerable house with the material given; which doesn't exactly leave much room for what one thinks would work in a haunted attraction. Kudos to UNI for making it happen. My only real gripe is its sense of scale, by that I mean, its lack of it. Wish the halls and rooms (particularly the "gold room") were much bigger. But this is minor.

7/10

THE FALLEN: Great, grand scale piece of work. A lot harkened to GOTHIC a few years back (what with all the flying scarectors) also reminded me of HADES, but this is a very different version of hell, closer to that of HELLRAISER.

8/10

DEAD WATERS: The belle of the ball. That facade, wow! Love the seamless transition between the sunken steamboat, the swamp and the village. Really feels like you are traveling to these places on foot. Usually houses jump from one scene to the other without any coherency (THE SHINING this year had a tendency to do that), this dream-like aesthetic doesn't bother me but it is refreshing to see something that closely resembles reality. Over heard somebody complain that the Voodoo Queen is barely seen, I personally didn't care. I am looking at overall atmosphere for these and this has it in spades. Beautiful house. 

9/10

ASH VERSUS EVIL DEAD: Ran through this once during a cast change. Not a great experience because of its emptiness but I saw enough to know I wouldn't have liked it any better a second or third time so the fiance and I scratched it off our "re-do list".

4/10

THE HIVE: Towards the end of the night (and plenty before that) this was constantly empty, so that went a long way towards my sympathy. Pretty standard "jump and boo" fare but the makeup was excellent and you can't beat that minimal wait time. Went on this a lot! Also, nice seeing stilt walkers in what is usually considered a small venue; the tent houses. One could say there were two Stephen King houses this year as THE HIVE resembled SALEM'S LOT (Count Barlow is based on Orlock, I know, I know).

The last room, with the beady eyes, was eerie the first time. On repeat walk throughs one wishes there was a last good scare.

7/10

SCARECROW, THE REAPENING: Tight, dark and intense. Hands down the jewel of the crown this year as far as "scary" goes. It was best going in half blind, as I was my initial time in, due to my eyes not adjusting to the dim interiors after stepping out of the bright sun. Lost a lot when going in again with my sight but there was nice details to catch. The crow filled poop silo was a nice touch, as was the fluttering feathers room that followed. And the finale was disorienting and really cool; think the finale of UNIVERSAL'S HOUSE OF HORROR maze from 2012 and you'll get the idea.

This gets my rare 10/10  rating because it not only fully realized the subject matter (killer scarecrows) but surpassed it.

SAW: Deliberately didn't go on this. We're not fans of the series so we didn't want to waste our time.

NO RATING

AMERICAN HORROR STORY VOLUME 2: Meh. If you liked last year's you'll like this one. Just a series of stuff spanning three seasons. I really liked the intro room of COVEN with the floating hooded figures, otherwise I didn't care for this much. Was hoping for the Roanoke segment to be more like the house from 2014 but the AHS Roanoke didn't have the scale that had.

4/10

BLUMHOUSE: Wasn't expecting too much from this (considering that, outside of the first INSIDIOUS, Blumhouse just doesn't have good enough material; does anybody really like SINISTER?) but was pleasantly surprised. As expected, The INSIDIOUS scenes are good. Everything else leaves a lot to be desired but they tried with PURGE (foyer/hanging scene was nice), SINISTER was the total after thought. Just had Bejeweled, or whatever, pop out randomly . What was the electric chair victim from? I don't remember that from any of these movies.

6/10

SCARE ZONES:

TRICK R TREAT: Nice change of pace for central park; a section usually regulated for dark, vine stricken scare zones. This year was brightly lit and nicely decorated. Would have been nice to have the option of going trick or treating yourself.

9/10

THE PURGE: Another dystopian theme for the NYC area. Don't care about the series, so I didn't care about this. The best I can say is a lot of effort was put into it and it seems to fully realize the subject matter. 

5/10

FESTIVAL OF THE DEADLIEST: Strippers and human sacrifices ...yeah, sure, why not? 

6/10

INVASION: Wasn't allowed to be all that consuming of an experience. Too small a venue (which has always been a problem in the San Fran area) and the staff were hastily huddling guests out as quickly as they possible could (they were more visibly aggressive than they had been in the past all over the park for some reason). And speaking of aggression, did the taller aliens get more violent as the night went on? Early in the evening they are just sort've observing. Later on their clothes were smattered in blood and they were lunging at us.

6/10

ALTARS OF HORROR: Not good. Hardly any attempt at immersion. Just costumed actors and a few totems advertising the houses. Clearly a money saver.

Was nice to hear Alice Cooper's "Be My Lover".

2/10

SHOWS

BILL AND TED FAREWELL: Never watched the show before now. We rested our blistered feet to watch a Saturday 11:15 showing.

Glad I never wasted my time before.

3/10

OVERVIEW:

The scare zones were the weakest link this year. Outside of TRICK R TREAT they were all a far cry from the high water mark of 2008 and none had the risk factor of 2011.

Overall the event was a success, one that greatly benefitted from having more original houses than what has usually been permitted in recent years (4 original houses! instead of the usual 2 or 3) and, lo and behold, they were all good! Three of them being Really good! And one of those three arguably being the best thing the event has ever produced for as long as I've been coming (12 years total, 10, of which, have been consecutive). The absence of the obligatory 3-D house was also a major plus. I always just consider 3-D houses a loss of space.

Along with Bill and Ted, this will probably be my last year for some time. It's nice to report that the recently hobbling Horror Nights made a pretty good stab at returning to its former glory. And I'm happy to say it took out a big meaty chunk.

8.7/10 -maybe even higher.

So, on September 22, 2017, there was a whole slew of issues that affected HHN. While the props for the scarezones were finally up after all of that Irma aftermath garbage, many houses were shutting down over the course of the night. I'll write my review in a somewhat-chronological order just so i can write about all the crap that went down with the event. While most of it didn't affect me greatly, I still feel the need to detail it all since it became a bit of a shit show. 

Park Entrance:

I still don't completely know what happened here. My gf and I arrived an hour early to stand in the line, but one confused series of events later lead me to entering it that hour early through the Annual Passholder line. We were lead to the three houses in the back; Scarecrow, Hive, and Blumhouse. Beyond just being able to hit these houses an hour before other guests, this proved to be an enormous stroke of luck for later tonight. So first, we went into

Hive:

First house was a walk-on. Nice. It was a slight shame that it was so early, since even wearing sunglasses before entering it was hard to see. However, I did enjoy what I saw there. I liked just how destroyed the house we were in had become, and the vampires with glowing eyes were very intimidating. Thats... about all I can say about it. It was kinda hard to see, and what we did see didn't leave much of an impression for the most part. Still, overall I did Like it

Scarecrow:

We walked right onto this house two times in a row. I see where the hype came from for this house; we managed to actually see both casts, since we saw them going through the change as we started to walk in the second time and man, both casts nailed it. The scarecrows were huge, and very quick and in-your-face. The intensity of the scares reminded me of the first Halloween house we had here; they were that good. There were some really creative scares and boo holes, and the costumes were great. I never knew scarecrow designs could get as grotesque as some of the ones i saw inches from my face. Also, that crow scene was terrifying. That level of chaos happening was crazy for a hhn house, and it definitely spooked me. Finally, the mirror effect at the end was completely lost on us because the daylight coming through the end made the mirrors plenty visible. We intended on coming back later with our express passes, but for reasons I'll get into later, that would never happen. Still, overall I'd say I Loved this house both times. 

Blumhouse:

My gf and I decided to get this one over with since soon the GP would start pouring in, and we might as well take advantage of the early admission while we could. Posted wait was 25 minutes so we used express since we didn't have high hopes for this house. Turned out to be a 5 min wait, we still didn't care. This house was not very good. Starting with Sinister, the first Baghoul (sorry i spelled it wrong but i can't be arsed to spell it right) got my gf pretty good and was pretty creepy afterwards, just standing there. After the fifth time of the same character doing the exact same thing, we got bored of it. Thankfully next was the Purge area, which was okay. The actors gave it a good amount of energy which was nice, but it was way too short. Especially considering the next area for Insidious was huge, and man. This was just one big clusterfuck. We were just confused about what was going on more than anything else, and barely saw any actors go for scares. The last room with all the colorful paint on the walls was less confusing than this section, although the green paint room did hurt our eyes a good bit. While we did get some spooks from the Purge area and tbe very first Baghoul, and the actors at the end did try, overall we still felt Underwhelmed by the house. 

Invasion!:

We arrived here exactly at 6:30, so the actors were all out and everything. The first time we went through the aliens were mostly just posing for selfies which sucked. However, we came back near the end of the event and found a bench to sit on, and then it was great. The aliens were all great, playing around with their roles to both comedic and scary effects. Some highlights included being surrounded on the bench by all the aliens before an army guy showed up, yelled at them, then got chased by them. Then there was the time when the army guy pointed at my shirt (it was AvP from a couple years ago) and whispered something into my ear which sadly I didn't catch, sorry to the actor bc my hearing isnt the best ;-;

The sets in here were pretty neat, and the weird tone made it fun to watch. We Liked it a Lot.

The Purge:

I didn't at all like the other two years this scarezone was around. The actors were bland and pretty boring. The ambiance kinda sucked, and there wasn't much in the way of props. Basically,it felt like mediocre scareactors filled the NYC area in the same way the roaming hordes of some previous years would fill parts of the park. I can very happily say that none of that holds true for this year. With three purge movies under Uni's belt, there was plenty of variety in the costumes and masks. Some of the masks even looked really cool (you know the ones). There was a good amount of large props all over, and two stages for things to happen on. There was a third stage that never saw use and idk if it was supposed to have things happen on it, but it was tucked in a corner so it was no bother. What really made this zone was the actors. They were so full of violent energy, and they were constantly going for people. It finally felt like we were in the Purge, and not just a zone with some people that happened to have weapons. We first went here when the park was just opening, and every single scareactor got my and/or my gf really well. We went to the guy standing on a car with the woodchipper. He comically motioned us slightly to the right of where we were standing, only to get the first blast of "blood" from the chipper. The second time we were here for long we just sat on some steps and watched the chaos unfold. This scarezone rocked, and I LOVED it.

Tribute Store:

I'll keep this brief. The store was very well-decorated, and had lots of great merch. Unlike last year, it felt like the shelves were kept stocked throughout the night. The clerks at the desk moved quickly to make even the longest of lines go pretty quickly, and they were friendly. Great store experience, I recommend anyone interested stop by at some point.

The Fallen:

While in the queue for this house both times we went, once very early and another time around... 10:30? there was signs of the event not running so smoothly. The first time, people in the queue were talking about The Shining house. Apparently, in the first few minutes of the park having been open, the house was closed twice for two incidents. One of these included a fire from what I heard. The second time we went through, we were stopped right before going in for about 15 minutes as they did some maintenance. My guess is that they fixed the flying parts of the house, since the first run-through they didn't work and it was disappointing. On the topic of the first run, it was okay. The sets here work fine and the actors did a decent performance. Again, the lack of flying actors kinda killed the whole end parts. They event lit up the actors who could even be many feet away as they tried to scare us, but since they were way off in the distance it only further highlighted the fact that they didn't work. That was most of what I came out of the house with the first run-through. The second could not have been more different. The actors were ferocious, some visual effects in the house were working right which really made it feel way more intimidating, and the flying actors. I thought their role would be lame like the "flying" gargoyle in Gothic, but I could not have been more wrong. All of a sudden I turned to a side and saw a HUGE demon flying very close to my face, and that startled me a heck of a lot. The second overhead flier got the person right in front of me, and man this effect was pulled off super well. This run of the house left the biggest impression on me, and I Liked it a lot.

Next would be Dead Waters, but I'm saving it for the end for a couple reasons. Trust me, it will make sense.

The Food:

We got really hungry after Dead Waters, and I hadn't even eaten at all that day. We kinda skipped past Trick r Treat in order to get our bellies full bc we were just that hungry. Over the course of the event, I had gotten quite a bit of food-y items.

• The pizza fries were delicious, albeit a lil overpriced for the amount you got.
• The non-alcoholic Candy Corn frozen drink was very delicious, and I don't even usually like a lot of candy corn. The taste was just a bit more subtle, which worked well
• The non-alcoholic Smores drink however was a different story. All I tasted was the chocolate syrup, which became too much after a bit.
• The powerade was $4 which is absurd but man, when I got this at 11:00 PM it was a blessing. 
• Lastly, the giant pink frosted sprinkle donut from Springfield. After the pizza fries and candy corn drink i was too full to eat much of it, so I carried it through the rest of the houses (I just now finished it oops) and holy crap. This made such a huge difference in how the event went for me. I'll be bringing this thing up plenty with some of my reviews after here

Clowns take Springfield:

This wasn't even a scarezone in the traditional sense but it was my favorite scarezone. We saw this zone as we were eating (eating and talking made this last a while) and this was the most fun I'd ever had with a scarezone. We saw both casts bc halfway through eating there was a cast change, and both casts were beyond outstanding. Every single clown did their own clown-like thing, and it was a blast to watch everything happened. I could go on and on about each scareactor's interactions, but this belongs in the Scareactor Appreciation thread. I've never seen such amazing acting by whole casts, and it was hands-down the best people-watching area of the event. I fucking ADORED it.

Ash vs Evil Dead:

This house always gets the shortest waits for many reasons, so we did this in the middle of the night with a 20 minute wait. We were very fortunate to have hit this house when we did, because we may have been some of the last people to go through this that night. Keep in mind this is the first house I hit with my donut box in hand, and it made the interactions so much more memorable. Anyways, the facade itself was awesome to see. I fell in love with Ash's Delta over the course of the series, and it was awesome to see it in it's possessed form outside the demolition derby. It felt like there was love put into the facade, which is a feeling that carried on throughout the whole house. So many scenes were faithfully recreated, and I had so much fun going through it. I had a couple Ashes gesture at my donut wanting a bite, and even one of the demon children went and grabbed at my box! The scares were there, the humor was there, and the only complaint I have is that one scene is too large with two repeating scares happening, and it had the same two voice clips play the whole time. The repetition in that room grew old very quickly, but gladly it didn't ruin the whole house. If you like the show, you'll like the house. And since I loved the show, I loved this house.

Trick 'r Treat:

I loved this movie so much so I was looking forward to this zone. Sadly, it didn't deliver completely. The whole area looked way more beautiful than any scarezone I had seen in this area prior, with the pumpkins all over, nice lighting, and all the decorations. They did very well to incorporate so many scenes into one street. The costumes were amazing, especially for the Sams. However, the actors themselves lacked energy. They just kinda meandered around and I would occasionally see the Snow White werewolfgo for a spook here, or a trick-or-treater pop out there. The Sams were on point, one of them being very adorable and even at one point standing in the scrap area exactly where he did in the movie and waved at guests while they took pictures. That was awesome to see. Beaten-up Sam went for quite a few scares himself. However, we went through this zone a bunch of times and the scareactors hardly did anything. This was a pretty big let down. Still, all things considered I did still Like it a bit.

Festival of the Deadliest:

Whatever effect Irma had on this zone before was gone. The actors were good, the sets were all there and they looked neat, and there was just a whole lot going on. It really did feel like what the title says it is; a macabre party full of beings from the underworld. However, that concept itself is just kinda meh. The costumes looked nice and all but it just felt kind of generic. I give props to the scareactors for doing their jobs really nicely, and the ambiance and props were there. However, I was still underwhelmed by this on concept alone :T

Altars of Horror:

Speaking of a concept that wasn't my favorite to start. I had no hopes for this house and it lived up to that. I did get one scare from the twins from the Shining which really caught me off guard, since every video I've seen of them prior just had them walking around eerily. I really really liked that scare, especially since I was just saying their "wanna play?" quotes right before they broke out of their cycle to lunge at me and yell "WANNA PLAY?". It felt personal, and not like it was just any other scare. Kudos to them. Everything else was lame. My complaints are the same as everyone else's, so I'm just going to move on. Sucked.

Before I begin the review of the next house, in this queue is when I heard the bad news. The area of the park that had the clowns, Scarecrow, Hive, AvED, and I think also Blumhouse and B&T had lost its power. This was huge. It was the middle of the event and only Blumhouse and B&T got its power back, if they had even lost it at all. I wanted to use my express for the other three houses, but never got the chance. This was a very minor issue compared to what I imagine so many other people went through that night. It never came back on for most of those houses, and Universal handled the entire situation very poorly. When people asked about it or wanted some form of compensation for not being able to experience so much of the event, Universal's Guest Relations closed up and on social media they were all just asked to contact the support desk. I understand that shit happens, but the way that Uni failed to respond to it with any sort of decency was inexcusable. This ruined so many people's nights, and the only thing that Uni did was they told people to call customer support. Their handling of this whole thing was god awful, and Uni should be ashamed.

The Shining:

Now, the original movie didn't do much for me. On top of this I saw fans of the movie were pretty disappointed more often than not with this house, so I thought it wouldn't be that great. I was wrong. Sure, not everything was absolutely perfectly represented. Sure, the facade wasn't the outside of the hotel. However, this house was still really great. There was a lot of mirrors used here, and every use of it did something different and these effects were pulled off really well. The paintings turning into The Shining (the psychic thing in the movie, not the movie itself) was neat. The blood elevator was pulled off amazingly well. The way the Jacks in the finale would get more and more desperate sounding and have more snow on them was such a cool touch. I could go on and on about how well I thought this house was pulled off. Instead, I'll just leave it with my opinion of this house which is that I Loved it. This was one of the best IP houses I had gone through.

Oh, and the furry guy and this one other guy in the same crazy room both attacked my donut. That was fun.

AHS:

I don't like this show. I've tried it many times, but never like it. I want to like it, but I just... don't. This house kinda reflects that. From the standpoint of someone who hadn't seen all of what was shown here, it just looked like a bunch of random horror scenes happened. The first room in Coven with the super duper tall girls freaked me out, as did the baby powder room. The very first room in Asylum with those creepy white nun things had one of them reach allll the way down at my donut after i started clutching it around them. Aside from those few things, I didn't care for it. It wasn't scary to me nor did most of it impress me. This house was also underwhelming.

Saw:

The alternate title for this house is "Loud Screams: The House". That's all I got out of it. None of the people in traps looked like they were in pain, more that they were mildly worried or bothered. It was light on scares. The layout sucked, just bringing us from trap to trap in a showcase of the traps. I did like some aspects of these movies, and do consider myself somewhat of a fan. That didn't help anything at all. This house really, really sucked.

The bathroom scene was kinda neat though I guess and the guy chained to a wall begged for my donut which was funny.

Dead Waters:

Finally, we reach this house. I wanted to save this for last because the second and third times, both right at the end of the event, were spectacular. The first time I went through I got to appreciate the sets but not much else, since the actors weren't all on point just yet and for the most part didn't some out anywhere near me. The last two or three rooms was different, and I got scare after scare which mostly made up for it. However, I didn't really get to appreciate all that went into this masterpiece until the end of the night. First off, it was a gorgeous house with so much scenic variety. Unlike AHS which also had different scenes, these all flowed into one another extremely well. Starting with the facade, there were two scareactors hidden extremely well which both got me the third time I went through. The facade itself is out of this world, with mirrors for water being a cool little detail. There's too many cool details to touch on in this house but that mirrors-as-swamp-water effect was one I felt I needed to touch on since the way it was pulled off was superb. Over the course of three runs, I got every single scare and they got me good. From actors popping out from seemingly nowhere, to others blending in with similar-looking props, to that one under the crate of chickens that made me scream for the first time in all my years of going to HHN. The ambiance of each room was set extremely well. The boat rooms with their slanted floors made it extremely unnerving. The whole entire finale staring with the first appearance of the Bayou of Blood's Voodoo Queen was just so intense. This was easily my house of the year, since everything about it was perfect. I wouldn't change a thing. I Completely Adored this house.

Also, tons of actors interacted with my donut in different ways here. One actor in particular was huge, but he popped out and just leaned waaaay down to get his face in my donut. This was hilarious and also frightening, since he was such an intimidating figure. I'll probably shout him out in the appreciation thread since he was amazing.

Overall, I had an amazing time at this event. Sure, some parts of it were lackluster. Sure, not everything lived up to my expectations. The only thing that put a huge damper on the event was the blackout and the way Uni didn't seem to care at all for their guests during this time. Despite all of that, I Loved my night here. The good parts were just so damn good that it outweighs the negative. The clowns especially provided constant entertainment in that area, and they were all unique and mixed up their scares so it never got old. I wish I had the money and time to go again this year, it was so good. Make sure that if you want adonut, to bring it through the houses. I didn't touch on just how many times it made a difference in the houses, but it really did shake things up. It made for some unique and fun interactions! And finally, my rankings:

Scarezones:

1. Clowns in Springfield (screw you, it counts to me :p)

2. The Purge

3. Invasion!

4. Trick 'r Treat

5. Festival of the Deadliest

Should be Eliminated: Altars of Horror (would've been even lower if it wasn't for the twins having such a good scare)

Houses:

1. Dead Waters

2. The Shining

3. Ash vs. Evil Dead

4. Scarecrows

5. The Fallen

6. The Hive

7. AHS

8. Blumhouse of Horrors

9. Saw

some SPOILERS

Let's start by saying that this is a really really good year. Solid, strong year (Might be one of the best yearssince 2011) great houses, AMAZING original houses, and really excellent zones. This year got a lot right. Makes me happy for the future. 

Houses -

1) Scarecrow: The Reaping - Awesome entrance.  the sets felt very similar to Tomb of the ancients (same vines hanging and everything) . there were times in the house that I felt a "Dejavu" from that house, the claustrophobia definitely feels the same, as well as the darkness. The crow room is really cool 

the scarecrows are aggressive and scary. Great creepy skull like costumes.   The only problem I kinda had was that it was too dark in some parts and all the hanging ropes made it hard to appreciate the house because i was worried of those hitting my face. I was not a fan of those hanging branches  in Tomb of the Ancients and i don't like them this year. 

 2) Dead Waters - the house is short but to me it kind of made sense that it was short because the budget must have gone to the incredible sets. you get something and take something away, Incredible big sets-shorter house. I noticed the house is basically inhabited by zombies. This is basically a zombie house judging from all the corpse looking costumes (voodoo zombies I guess) 

Very strong use of disorienting effects ( from the weird floors to the tilted rooms) I almost fell down the first time i did it.  I really like the lighting in the house as well. the house has the right amount of light so you can see everything. 

3) The Hive - this was supposed to be The Conjuring, I can honestly fully say i am Happy that conjuring got replaced... very happy actually. I don't think this house would have been as good as the Conjuring. (The house looks like a mansion that has been destroyed by a storm or something) this house is full of all kinds of stuff like books and toys and trash. Really cool sets.

This is one of my favorite uses of vampires at HHN. They look like Nosferatu creatures which I really really loved. (I have never liked when they just have fangs and nothing else) Some look like real bats, Both are really great. There are some really strong scares in this house, The vampire bodies hanging upside down is a really awesome prop to see.
what got me the most about this house was the loud hissing. the speakers are really loud and the hissing is very very creepy. There were a couple of times that it felt like someone was behind me hissing in my ear. 
the ending is a dark room full of vampire glowing eyes. While this is a really really stressful and scary kind of ending, there is no actor in the last room (That I know of) if they had an actor in this room it would have been the scariest thing ever. 

4) Ash vs Evil Dead - pretty faithful to the show and sets are very well made. The house is not that scary but the great thing for me was the guys playing Ash (I know people say they dont look like Ash) but for me they did a great job and I really liked them. you see the demons from the show and they look pretty good. 

I noticed that it has a lot more from season 1 than season 2 which kind of makes sense. I have to say that the house made of the Evil Dead remake was much better for me as a representation of the evil Dead Franchise. That one had much better scares, better sets and better characters (I KNOW that movie had nothing to do with Ash or the older evil dead movies) I am just thinking that it is kind of funny how the remake house felt more true to evil dead than this house.I did not feel the terror or gore that I expected from an evil dead house with this house. I Know the show has humor elements but the show has a lot of gore and scary moments that were not present in the house. The house does well to represent the show but it never gets to the level of fear and terror that the remake house got so well. this house is kind of tame compared to the older movies and show. 

5) SAW - this is a hit or miss. if you hit the traps at the correct time then the house is okay but if you miss the traps then the house is not the best. This is for fans only basically. I think they did a good job with using the small space they have in Shrek and some rooms look straight up from the movie and I think the house got some stuff better done than in 2009. The smaller corridors and the fact that sunlight cant go into the building makes it better than 2009. it feels like a slicker version of the 2009 house. I think the bathroom scene was better depicted here than in 2009. 

6) The Shining - it is funny how this one has better sets than Exorcist and has more to work with yet I think Exorcist was a much stronger house and a more memorable house. This one has more characters and more variety in the rooms and more ways to scare you (Exorcist just had black hallways and the same bed room over and over)  yet I remember being scared of exorcist much more and having better memories of that house. I know the event just started but this house was  not the greatest. (I think anticipation and hype hurt this house) the sets looked good but the scares were not as great. Maybe I am just not scared of Jack Nicholson or the twins... I can't recall getting scared in this house actually. (the elevator blood effect was kind of funny, made me feel like a giant lol) 

7) The Fallen - I Love this house, I Really Love this house a lot. (Probably one of my favorite houses) And I don't think it needed to have angels added, The house is gory enough on its own. There is enough carnage and tortured bodies that the house works well as Hell itself. Having the mutilated props be angels wouldn't really make the house any better. As Hell it works very well, In Fact I think it works better this way because we are taken on a trip to hell itself and the house becomes a kind of sister to the HELLRAISER movies (some props and some rooms felt taken straight from the hellraiser franchise) This house also reminded me a little bit of the Silent Hill 3 video game, some aspects of this house felt similar to some parts of the game. 
The costumes are very creepy, the actors are doing a great job as demons. the sets are really dark and immersive (This house reminds me of the Hades HHN house as well) the lighting on this house is great too, the house is dark but lit enough that you can see everything. The flying demons were awesome. 
the ending of the house is really creepy and tense, the lights dim and you can't see the actors but then they go bright again and the actors get you really good.

8) American Horror Story - not much to say really, it has really big sets. they pay a lot of attention to the show and it translates very well to the house, But I feel like the house last year was much more scary and it had cooler characters. The house last year scared me a lot more and had some really awesome rooms, I really loved the one last year but I dont love this one as much. 
Asylum is pretty cool and scary, and has the best scares. Coven was not as good and the characters in here are not that cool or scary. Roanoke just feels like a rehash of the Roanoke HHN house from before (ironically enough) and it wasn't that interesting or scary. So the only part that I really loved was Asylum and that was the part with the coolest characters and also the scariest. 

9) Blumhouse - kinda lame, a lot of wasted opportunity and space. The house feels like nothing but hallways and more hallways. Sinister gets one cool room but like two hallways. Purge gets more hallways. Most of insidious is black hallways. it just wasn't that good. this was nowhere near as great as the Insidious house from before. even the Insidious parts were kinda bad. The house ends with more hallways lol (in green for some reason) 

Zones - 

1) The Purge - Awesome as always. actors are doing great, set pieces are really cool. There is an actor on top of a car that has a hose that throws water at people (I really liked that) the motorcycles are back, the truck is back, I really really loved that the Christmas light car and the Candy bar girls are in this zone, that was the highlight of purge 3 and I am very happy it made it to the zone. I love the fact that they have the bear lol. For some reason it doesn't feel like it has as many actors as the previous zone had but it is still great 

2) Trick 'r Treat- it kinda makes me sad that this movie was not a house instead. The zone is great of course, but the movie had SO much that would have translated so well into a great house. 
I would have preferred  a Trick R treat house instead of SAW of Blumhouse any day. The movie is just filled with things that would translate perfectly to HHN as a house. Don't get me wrong i am very happy that we get a zone, but i just really hope next year they make it a house. 

The zone is beautiful, the doors are really cool to see and almost every character from the movie is in the zone. I LOVE that we get to see Sam as a prop 4 times and we get to see 2 actors playing sam, I was afraid there would only be props alone. Seeing sam walking around the one was one of the highlights of the night. This also might be the best use of the jack o lanterns in the trees. the zone is so great. 

Invasion - pretty funky zone, the spaceship set is incredible (You can get some amazing pics here ) and the alien costumes are pretty cool. has a nice retro vibe. the aliens are not too aggressive but that's okay. They act more like curious scientists. It is a different kind of zone in that regard. has more of a sci fi event kind of vibe so I don't mind that it is not an aggressive zone. 

Altars of Horror - kind of a bare zone, I expected some stages like last year or better props.  I really don't understand why they didn't try to add a theater screen like zones in the past. could have just been a white sheet and a projector... didn't need to be big or anything. they could have made this into a little version of All Night Die In...

The banners kind of make me think of six flags or something. the actors are doing a good job and the characters look cool, but this zone is missing stuff (I know the zone cannot have a lot but it feels too bare) I think the idea to have the movie characters in the  street is cool but i wish Ash from Evil dead was outside. I also wish more characters from Insidious were in the street instead of purge characters. I wish the Lipstick-Face Demon and the key finger demon were in the street. I would have LOVED to see the Lipstick-Face Demon in the street actually. 

I wish some of the other characters from Evil dead show were in the street as well, the street feels kinda bare of characters as well. this is a pretty weird zone, almost feels like a horde zone (like the clowns)  to be honest. This is basically just a "horde" zone because Honestly those banners for me don't count as real set pieces.

Festival of the deadliest - This zone is basically a metalhead's wildest dream come true. This zone is just basically an iron maiden album cover come to life. The props, the skulls, the horns, the fire, the red light, the music... even the demon girls  dancing on poles. Literally Metal head heaven lol. The zone is better at night with the red lighting. much more effective in what they were trying to do. (more than the other zones, the other zones work well in daylight as well) This zone is long but it feels like they used the space well with the smaller stages and the actors spaced out, feels like a more complete zone than previous zones done in this area. I really really love the music in this zone and love the costumes. probably my favorite zone of the year. 

this zone is so much better than the vampire one last year. 

Clown zone Springfield - these guys are really great, i am always happy when i see them scaring people. They are really wild and play around a lot. There is never a dull moment in this area. 

they are funny and scary, I also love how they play around with people. These guys are a lot of fun to watch. Im really glad they are back 

Even with some of the shortcomings I mentioned in the review, this is one of the strongest years HHN has had in the past 7 years. I can't believe there is not one house or one zone that i really disliked. everything seems great this year. 

BUT GRIME! YOU MEAN TO TELL ME YOU ACTUALLY LIKED X HOUSE/STREET OVER Y HOUSE/STREET? WHY SHOULD ANYBODY TAKE YOUR REVIEWS SERIOUSLY!? HAHAHAHAHAAKAFADSFJLKAJFL

Neat. The cool thing about humans is that we're all different and prefer different things. If you don't like the house/street/whatever, then don't do it. I like it for my own reasons and will continue to do so. Be your own person 

So, I haven't had an internet connection at home for a week due to Irma somehow getting a power surge through the coax line on my 1500VA 900W UPS/battery backup and frying my brand new $300 DOCSIS 3.1 modem. Still pissed about that. Also mildly impressed. But mostly pissed. So, since I'm typing this up at work while I await my RMA, I'm going to make it short. Like, very short. Easily digestible reviews. I also may have been intoxicated and don't remember every single detail. Reviews will also be done in the order of my favorite to least favorite.

Let's begin!

Houses -

1) Scarecrow: The Reaping - Loved every second of this house. I dig scarecrows. Scarecrow might be my favorite Batman villain. But my favorite thing here is the room with all of the crows overhead. IMMEDIATELY followed by the room where the crows are "attacking" or just flying around idk. But it's super cool and whoever came up with that idea did a great job. Very well executed.

2) Dead Waters - Might be my favorite facade of all time. Good scares, I liked the costumes, but the set was beautiful. I really want to walk through this one every night just to admire the set design.

3) The Hive - I was skeptical about this because oooo vampires. But it felt grittier. I also really enjoyed the sets here. A couple good scare points I wasn't expecting. I'd really like to see the costumes in better detail up close.

4) Ash vs Evil Dead - I haven't seen the show, but I have seen all of the other Evil Dead stuff. While I may not have recognized the scenes, it felt like there was enough stuff here from the other movies that I recognized. The Ash actors were still getting their groove, but I liked the lines they had and it felt just campy enough to get a passing grade.

5) The Fallen - I love the theme, but it fell short in almost every aspect. I need to go through it a few more times, but the conflict between heaven and hell is so broad and there's so much cool shit you can do (just rip off content from the Diablo franchise by Blizzard Entertainment) but I feel like it was just missed completely.

6) SAW - I like SAW, and traps, but this house felt empty. I don't think I've ever had a house in the Shrek queue that I really enjoyed. Maybe I was expecting something to the level of SAW from 2009 but nothing really stood out. Flat and uninspired is the only thing I can think of here.

7) The Shining - Oh boy I don't even want to get into this one. Easily my most anticipated house, and probably one of the biggest reasons I purchased a FFP+ this year. The Shining is probably my favorite horror film of all time. I love the grandiose scale, the psychological thrill, the shaping of Jack Torrance throughout the film. This house had so much potential and opportunity to play with perspective, so many cool scenes to walk through. And what do I remember from the house? Walking through an endless hallway of doors with axe holes in them, and little recognizable pieces from the movie just thrown up on the wall with seemingly no rhyme or reason. It's like they just grabbed a handful of stuff from a bucket containing The Shining references and just threw it all over the place as they walked through. God damnit I was sad when I left this one.

8) American Horror Story - Haven't seen AHS, so that's my own fault. The Roanoke set was cool. Not much to say here. Would probably most definitely rank higher if I was familiar with the content. But for those unfamiliar, it just goes from one scene abruptly into the next with no cohesion and makes little sense. Just seems like it's there to make people go "OH I RECOGNIZE THAT!".

9) Blumhouse - Not really a fan of Blumhouse stuff in general. Had no scares here, everything was predictable. Maybe it was just our set, but the one thing I was anticipating was aggressive scareactors and everything we got was extremely lackluster. Actors seemed bored. Again, might have just been tired (it was 11pm on Sunday and I understand the first weekend can be rough, especially to newcomers) but I'll definitely be giving it several more tries in the coming weeks.

Zones - 

1) The Purge - After my above review of Blumhouse, who'd have thought? The actors are lively, New York works as a great set for this type of zone, and the costumes and props are great. I also like that there's plenty of room to stay on the side, out of the way. And the lighting is good enough for photos, but not overwhelming. Keep it up guys and gals.

2) Trick 'r Treat - Easily the most ambient and beautiful of the zones. This is my must-watch movie of the season, and I watch it every year. I love the costumes, I love the interactions, I love the props and lights and everything. Bravo to the designers here. The only reason I rank it lower than The Purge is because it's much more difficult to hang out in. To no fault of the zone, I just like being able to be out of the way and watch people get scared. Every time I hang out in this area year after year I always just feel like I'm in the way. A+ though, keep it up.

3) Invasion! - I love love love this zone and especially the costumes. My only problem is that there needs to be more aggressive scareactors mixed in with the elegant beautiful ones. I've seen a few, but it just feels too stagnant. And the couple of times I've been through here the actors are almost all taking selfies with guests. I know it's hard for actors (especially in slower more relaxed roles) to get away from cameras, but maybe coordinators could me more aggressive about it? Idk, it looked like a photo op for everybody.

4) Altars of Horror - Needs more props. Felt barren, as if the whole area was simply an afterthought. Only walked through once but wasn't impressed. Honestly just felt like they took whatever amalgamation of leftover ideas they had and went "ehhhh, yeah. just toss it there I guess". Will have to come back.

5) Festival of the Deadliest - See "Altars of Horror"

Misc - 

Bill & Ted's Excellent Halloween Adventure - Honestly, felt weak for a farewell show. I got the references and stuff, and the jokes were alright, but I feel like the could've gone all out. More actors, more fireworks, balls to the wall. Cmon guys, you're losing one of your most iconic shows this year. Go all out. It felt just like any other years show. The montage at the end was neat and felt really good, but the show itself was pretty disappointing for a farewell tour.

Academy of Villains: Afterlife - Haven't seen it. Heard good things. Now that I've done all the houses I'll probably do it next weekend.

Das it.

Scarecrows: Mixed bag. On the one hand, as just a House going through it for myself, it was great! It was terrifying (I've never in my life seen scarier scarecrows in ANY media), well- decorated and immersive, I lost count of how many times I screamed in this maze. However, one thing tainted it just a little; In addition to obviously experiencing it for myself, I was also in a sense scouting it out for my girlfriend, who will likely be coming to HHN later in the event. She was very excited for this particular House, but a problem is that she has night- blindness (i.e. in 'Tomb of the Ancients' last year, it was so dark that she literally could barely see a thing the entire House), so I went through the House to see if there would be enough lighting for her to enjoy it when she comes. I don't think there is, it's a little too dark, especially considering the way it goes pitch- black at one point near the end. Still, I liked it well enough myself.

BlumHouse: AWESOME! It was better than I thought it would be. It felt so immersive, like I really was in each of those films. It was also a House of well- done contrasts: For most of the House, the movies are clearly separated, with you being able to see the writing that indicates what film you're about to enter. In the end, though, it seems like they blend together, with the final room having baddies from all those films attacking you at once, and it works out great!
 

The Fallen: On the one hand, it was a scary House. The demons looked great, and there were some good scares throughout it. Plus, of course, the "Flying" parts were incredible! The only thing was, there didn't seem to be much of a story to it: You're going through I guess a cathedral, and demons are attacking you. That's it. Still, nice enough House.

The Shining: LOVED IT! Right away, when entering the hedge maze and hearing the magnificent opening- credits music, I knew it was going to be great, and so it was! So many classic scenes handled perfectly (Especially the scenes with the twins and the "Elevator doors" scene that had me so curious how they'd do it), and so many characters included. It truly felt like stumbling through the Overlook Hotel! Also, my g/f will be happy to know that, other than the Hall of Mirrors part, the lighting was good too. Literally the only thing I'd have done differently was that I might have liked if there was a segment showing Halloran's death (Since it's clearly based around the movie, rather than the book in which Halloran survives). His death scene was so sudden/ surprising and so brutal it left a big impact and would have been perfect for a section of the House. Other than that, though, absolute gold!

Dead Waters: Another amazing House! Even just the opening with us making our way through the swamp to get to the riverboat, everything was so beautiful and detailed. The interior was great, too! The characters looked great, the environments looked amazing and so immersive, just a great House in every sense!

The SZ's were really good, too. The only minor issue was that with many of them, the Scareactors weren't very active in scaring people that I saw (Other than the "Roaming Hordes" clowns).
"Invasion,' though, looked great, 'Purge' had a lot going for it, and as a 'Trick 'r Treat' fan, I of course loved that Zone as much as I thought I would!
My favorite Scareactor interaction was in the 'Trick 'r Treat' zone; I was checking out and taking a picture of the "Scarecrow" with Emma's head on it, when the "Battle- Damaged" Sam walked up to it and started excitedly pointing to it! I said with a smile, "Admiring your handiwork, Sam?", and he vigorously nodded! I thought that was so cute/ funny, and in character for Sam!
So, an awesome opening night. I can't wait to go back!

I went opening night by myself and haven't read other reviews so my opinion has not been swayed. I went through all houses and scare zones except SAW and Blumhouse which i will update when i go back next weekend! 

Some spoilers!

SCAREZONES: 

The only one worth mentioning was Trick r' treat which was fantastic. Also the chainsaw clowns were awesome but they aren't a listed scare zone? Others were alright. Invasion costumes were too campy for me.  Better than some years before. I happy camper 7/10 

HOUSES:

EXPECTED TOP 3

1.Dead Waters

2. Shining

3. Fallen

TOP 3 

1. Scarecrow

2. AHS

3. Ash vs. Evil Dead

Ill go in order of the website

THE SHINING 5/10

Seriously no hotel exterior. Im not fully disappointed. The actors did great and had cool hideouts and costumes, but I'm a Scenery > Scares kinda guy and i expected a better facade and massive feel to this. I think they took to many notes from the Exorcist (Which worked well and i fooking loved). The repeat of the doors is eh. This house just didn't slap. Not many rooms stood out. Just wallpaper and hedges. Ill have to go through a few more times, maybe i was just tired being this was the second to last house i did.  

SAW 

Didn't get a chance to go through. I have super high hopes for this. I assume this is where all the gore is at because the rest of the event left me wanting bloodier scenes 

AMERICAN HORROR STORY 9/10

Slaps! Just when i was questioning this year! This was the last one i went through. They provided a cool facade nice use of projectors and tv's to introduce the seasons and though they didnt do all the scene i wanted to see they made a badass haunted house. Scary, Scenic and fun for fans of the series. (and a 20 minute wait [not including the second line lol]) 

HORRORS OF BLUMHOUSE 

Missed it (was originally planning on saving for return visit). Low expectations

ASH VS. THE EVIL DEAD 8/10

Now off the bat it was cool (nice party/fun vibe). Love the fire effect outside. The actors pull off the look and feel well. Every room felt like a live show. I wasn't crazy about it at first but its like one of those movies you watch and don't love immediately and then the next day find yourself thinking about it. Driving home i realized how much i liked this house and just like the show the gore made it stand out. Its no "Leave it to Cleaver" though, but Cool Coolington is happy  :-)

DEAD WATERS 7/10

This was my most anticipated! The scenery was there. The facade was super duper sick. The tilted floor was sick but i expected more blood/ sacrifice. It felt short. The costumes just were just not that cray. Also the mirrors were not well concealed and the swamp floor was way too obviously a rubber mat. Maybe i missed something here. Will have to revisit

FALLEN 4/10

I still didn't understand the theme before going in which is why i was like hell yeah this is gunna blow my mind. I left still not knowing the theme. Like i guess i get the hell, fallen angel thing. The costumes were cool but the atmosphere was weird to me. I liked Hades better. Should have been Gothicombs. 

SCARECROW 10/10

Kilt it! The scenery. The facade. The costumes. Not cheesy like i expected. Actually scared me. Im a sucker for the drop panel paintings. Huge assortment of HHN iconic effects (Pitch black room, Mirror Corn field etc) Everything flowed. I wub this one <3 

THE HIVE 5/10

Did anyone else keep running into things! Not terrible. I figured this would be the "eh good enough" house and was hoping to be wrong but it was the "eh good enough" house. Nothing too memorable.