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Tales from the Shop An explosion at a comic book store causes comic book characters to escape from their comics, now let the Crypt Keeper be your guide to the horror in comic books. Franchises being represented: Fullmetal Alchemist (The Homunculi, and Shou Tucker), DC (Joker, and Scarecrow) Death Note (Ryuk will be seen hiding in a few rooms and will have the final room dedicated to him, along with scareactors having heart attacks) Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, Tales from the crypt Location: Shrek 4D Theatre, or Carnage

Okay here it goes. Went to HHN on Sunday the 30th. Had express pass and was able to get to all the mazes and scare zones. Only did each maze once, so my review will be based on what I saw and didn't see. Overall had a great time as always. I did feel like it was definitely more crowded this year than last and the distance needed to walk from each maze to the next was quite exhausting (especially the exit from Seeds of Extinction and Trick r' Treat.) By the end of the night we were all pretty beat. Also, I read a few reviews saying the security in each maze was toned down a bit? Not the case this time for me. There was a staff member around every corner it seemed on this night. A few rushing us through as usual. I know they need to be there but I hate when they ruin the scene by waving their arms and telling you to move it... Anyway, here's my take on the event. Mazes from best to worst: 1.) Poltergeist: This maze blew me away. I'm ashamed to admit I've never seen the movie before, but from what I gather this house hit the nail on the head. The facade to start the maze was spectacular and the use of animatronics, puppets and scare actors was perfect. The way they made it feel colder in some parts as well as rain was great. In my opinion this was the best IP for sure and my top maze of the event this year. Perfect mix of amazing sets, thrills and scares. 2.) Stranger Things: What can I say that hasn't already been said. This maze was great. Scare factor wise it won't knock your socks off, but what a job they did to make you feel like you were right in the show. The casting was perfect (I thought Hopper was spot on as well as the actresses playing Winona Ryder's character) and the way they made you feel like you were in the upside down was just great. Amazing set designs effects and the Demogorgon costumes were great . I put this 1b to Poltergeist this year. 3.) Seeds of Extinction: Great maze. The way the actors blended in with the sets was so good. I liked the use of the little hand puppets as well. There was one particular costume in this one that stood out to me as one of the best in the event. Really well done and definitely scared me a few times 4.) Scary Tales: I really enjoyed this one. The facade with the witch at the beginning was great and the different takes on the classic tales was very well done. Really liked the Humpty Dumty , Goldilocks and Repunzel scenes especially. Also had a great scare at the end that made my brothers girlfriend jump out of her shoes. 5.) Dead Exposure: Was hard to see in this maze, but the scare factor was definitely at the highest in this one. Scare actors coming from every direction and because of the lighting you couldn't see too far ahead to spoil it. Awesome costumes and effects in this one. 6.) Halloween 4: I am very biased when it comes to anything Halloween, but it was good. I didn't have the best run through for this one (not sure if there was a casting change or not) but I really liked how they captured the movie so well. Unfortunately I missed out on the Jaime actress and the red neck, but overall they did a good job. I still enjoyed H2 better, but it was a solid maze. 7.) Slaughter Cinema: Fun maze. Really enjoyed the detail they put in the sets in this one. The different B movies were really cool to see and walk through. Decent scares in this one as well. 8.) Trick R' Treat: May be an unpopular opinion, but I base my reviews on scare factor as well and I just didn't think this as scary. I don't find Sam to be scary at all honestly (he's more of a cute doll in my opinion) but the set designs in this one were perfect. The sights and smells were amazing and the casting was again spot on. Beautiful maze overall just not that scary . 9.) Carnival Graveyard: See above. Great sets, few scares, but nothing that really jumped out to me. The one thing I did really like was the scares near the end with the mirrors. They did get me on that one a couple times. 10.) Blumhouse: Dud.. I will admit I had no expectations going into this one. I didn't like either movie to be honest, but I was not going to skip any maze. I can admit that the HDD portion was actually pretty good. They did a great job incorporating the movie to the maze. Purge was a waste of time. Didn't scare me once and just felt like it was thrown together. The scare actors even seemed a bit out ofi t as well. Scare Zones: Walked through all of the zones but honestly didn't spend a lot of time in any of them. In no particular order: 1.) Chucky: Walked through at the end of the night and chucky wasn't on stage. Saw some videos and it looks decent. 2.) Killer Klowns: Fine for what it is, a selfie zone. Nothing scary about it 3.) Vamp 85: Fun zone. Again, nothing too scary about it, but definitely cool 4.) Twisted Traditions: Seems like a watered down TRT. Cool visuals and costumes though 5.) The Harvest: Boring. Another photo op with the big pumpkin guys on stilts. 6.) Chainsaw dudes: Always fun to watch Overall I enjoyed almost all of the mazes. They really did do a great job this year with all of them. I can take or leave the scare zones. They're fun for what they are. Very fun year though.

Speak for yourself the walks were still killer but I think the quality of the houses made it just a little less bad.

41? You're still a pup. I'll show you crotchety... We ought to start a "Those damned kids" thread. Makes you wonder what the kids 30 years from now will be doing to piss off the kids of today: "You and your neural implants! Back in MY day we had to HOLD a phone and actually use our fingers to talk on it. Someday I'll teach you about these things we had called STRAWS and LIGHT BULBS."

Houses: Stranger Things – 8.5 They did a great job with this house. Very detailed and my gawd these Demogorgons! Every room was right on. I even like the Evil Dead-esque title wall. Very fun house and the guy I saw playing Hopper might have actually been Hopper. Love seeing this franchise with the characters too! Fun house! Carnival Graveyard: Rust In Pieces – 10/10 I’m in love with this house. Literally everything about it was incredible. The façade was incredible (common theme this year), it was huge and right away you know there is going to be a lot to look at! I love junk yards and all things abandoned so this was right up my alley. Lots of little Easter eggs to look for and at least one guest activated button in there. This set was so well done. It simply just looks awesome! The actors all looked great and the energy was always high. Also had a first in a house… I got yelled at for stopping. Lol Scary Tales: Deadly Ever After - 9.5/10 Another STRING and original house! Damn this one was epic too! The facade was incredible with the Wicked Witch flying around and threatening the guests! All the rooms were awesome, all the costumes were on point.... and the twists on all the fairy tales worked for me. Took a couple times to get the jist of it but it clicked and was great! With the exception of never seeing a Mermaid. Am I the only one? Really fun house. Loved everything about it! Poltergeist – 8.5 I think a fair comparison to this house would be the Exorcist house. Which I also loved. This house was great. The facade was cool (“You son of a bitch!”) but out of the 4 times I went through I only got rained on twice. Lots of good scares and the rooms with the TV worked great. The demon was cool as hell and used well. And the clown…. The clown that haunted my dreams as a young whippersnapper…. Really well used! This was used in 3 houses but the actors with the puppets on them like they are being attacked is a great gag. Works great! Very fun, nostalgic house! The Horrors of Blumhouse – 1/10 I went into this house knowing it was going to suck and I was not disappointed. HDD was a fun movie but doesn’t translate into a house at all. Like not even remotely. And The Purge, The First Purge…. This whole franchise shows how much Hollywood (the industry) sucks. Its just bad. It’s the new TWD at HHN now. Just stop using it. Was this a last second replacement house? It definitely felt like it. Did this house once and that was enough for meeeee! Slaughter Sinema – 10/10 I have a soft spot in my heart for the Drive-In as a grew up with one a mile from my house. I also have a soft spot for shitty b-movies. Like Carnival Graveyard I loved everything about this house. Everything. The intros playing were great. I like the format of the movie poster, then the room. It is awesome. Lots of good scares. AND I got to see something Ive been asking for YEARS…. A Bigfoot/Yeti… and there were 3!!!! Well done! Dead Exposure: Patient Zero – 6/10 Pretty fun house. Those monkeys were fantastic! Great use of the Dead Exposure effect. If you went through already you know the subway car scene is an old trick but done perfectly. But, alas, zombies, again. I know its probably just me, but I'm burned out on zombies. But still gets points for the scenery. The subway, the catacombs. All really great stuff. I also got BLASTED every time I went in the front gate wit the fog machine, I mean, the decontamination machine Seeds of Extinction – 8/10 This FAR exceeded my expectations! From the early announcement I thought “meh”. But this house was really great. The scares weren’t the greatest, hell even the creatures weren’t the greatest…. But the scenery was really, really awesome! From the pay phones, to the nursery, to the damn Cessna!!!!! What a great house of weeds, wind and rain! So good! Well done! Trick r Treat – 9/10 Right when you walk in and see Sam to the left in the fog and walk into the house… the fun starts! Love the disappearing Sam atop the stairs was awesome. And do I need to tell you how happy I was to see the AWIL puppet? Albeit a little modified but it was still awesome! Love love love the final room. That was so good with the half bus. Really great house with some good scares, but that scenery was f**king spot on. As were the smells! Halloween 4: Return of Michael Myers – 6/10 Look there is Mike over there! And over there! And over there! LOL Fun house. Admittedly I had to re-watch the movie before the event to even remember most of this film. Glad I did. Made the story line more enjoyable. Now Michael Meyers is the icon. Rarely do you see anything outside of a few scenes in the original that you would recognize with zero context. Now I will never complain about a Halloween house. Ever. But I think its time to tackle another franchise. Scare Zones: The Harvest – 4/10 It gets 4 bc of some bad ass characters with long arms and some good mood to it. Not much to this zone other than to introduce the IPs for the year. Still fun but nothing exemplary about it. But it worked to get the HHN juices flowing if you steadied straight once entering the gates. If you needed help getting said juices flowing. Probably not an issue in this group! Vamp 85: New Years Eve – 7/10 Great energy, great scaractors, great prop pieces, etc. Really fun zone. The actors seemed to love it. Awesome costumes with all the 80’s celebrities. Countdown was on and the news crew was excellent. I got some great video ad pics in this zone without disturbing anyone. Good stuff! Killer Klowns From Outer Space – 6/10 Admittedly not a big fan of the film or franchise…. BUT…. Really fun zone. Costumes were AWESOME! The combo smoke/bubble machine was a cool trick! Nothing but smiles in this zone and I loved what they did with the projector on the whole line of buildings with the stripes. Very cool zone! Twisted Tradition – 7/10 Now this is consistently my fav stretch for a scare zone. I love all the pumpkins and the traditional themes Uni has been putting over there. But this year seemed to fall kinda flat. I still enjoyed it but it was pretty monotone. Pretty much a carryover form Trick r Treat there last year with less things to look at. I will say my fav costume of the year was the guy on stilts that was the illuminates skeleton thingy. Bad ass effect and design! Still my favo scare zone. Even though it didn’t pop like in the past its still soooooo good! Revenge of Chucky – 6/10 Fun zone! Loved all the toys! Especially the barrel of monkeys (wear your rain coat!) and the ventriloquist dummy! My only complaint…. Whoever was voicing for Chucky (sorry if you read this) was terrible. I find it hard to believe they couldn’t find someone with a little more wit and personality to do this. I'm sure it wasn’t easy doing that for hours on end and I'm sure PC Nazis were on guard ready to pounce as soon as you made fun of the wrong thing. But I felt that part was kinda weak. Still fun though! Merchandise - 9/10 Lots of good stuff to buy. I would have liked a dedicated coffee mug to the entire event but no a big deal. I bought that scare zone tshirt too! First time in HHN history I bought a tshirt that actually fits me. I'm 6’5” and like 230…. Shirts always were too short or not enough room in the shoulders or the sleeves were like a wizards. This one fits perfectly. Might pick up a few on ebay to have around for years to come! LOL All kinds of good stuff! And yes Uni…. You got me. I bought that vibrating skull just to get the other lanyard you tricky f**kers!!!! Hahaha! Overall I had a great 4 nights at HHN28. Houses are so good anymore when the concept is right. Its just a great time! I've said it on here before and I’ll always say it… If you’re lucky enough to be at HHN, you are lucky enough!