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Sometimes, a prop is just a prop.

I really hope that HHN doesn't mirror current societal trends of toning it down because everyone is offended by everything. If I could tell Aiello one thing for this year, I'd say GO WAY OVER THE TOP.

From years past it seems like employee preview for the streets is never all that positive or a true reflection of the final product, def wait until opening weekend or possibly second weekend for those usually

Same rules, different year. 1. Opinions can change over the course of the event, since all elements may not have been working, nor cast changes been smooth. 2. These are my OPINIONS. Take them for what their worth. I'm one to focus on the aesthetics and storytelling, more than the scares, so that is a major part of the equation when grading. 3. There may be spoilers, but I will do my best to hide those. Grading is listed from least favorite to favorite with individual grades for 1. Aesthetics 2. Scares 3. "Wow" factor. Sometimes the grades won't add up to what you would think would be an average final grade, but that's because there were other factors involved. First, there before grading there are some superlatives I'd like to hand out: Biggest Disappointment: Nightingales: Blood Pit Biggest Surprise: House of 1000 Corpses Best Use of Space: Depths of Fear & Killer Klowns From Outer Space Most Likely to be a Full Fledged Attraction After HHN: Ghostbusters Creepiest Atmosphere: Graveyard Games A few notes: 1. You can tell the money went into the houses once again and that's a damn good thing. 2. Lots of reused costumes and props, which is great for saving money, but if you're a fan, it shows. 3. Grandiose set pieces and large puppets are the name of the game this year. They're really starting to go BIG. 4. Facade strength is almost in no way tied to the level of awesomeness of the houses this year. They made an interesting move by showing a lackluster facade on some houses, but then the first scene is fantastic. Without further ado: 10 - Nightingales: Blood Pits: I think this may be one of the biggest disappointments for me, really ever, but only because the anticipation was so high for me and it fell so low. To be fair, this house needs a redo and it needs to be put in a soundstage to provide full potential. Those expecting Roman ruins and a grand atmosphere will be sorely disappointed. This story follows the underbelly of the gladiator arenas and while it states that for the description, it being HHN, I thought we'd get some surprises. There are a few neat scares, but otherwise, it's a dud(so far). Aesthetics - D Scares - C- "Wow" Factor - D 09 - US This landed on my list, about where I thought. While you think the material might make for a solid house, the scares don't play well and it's just not scary. This would land last on my list if I hadn't had such high hopes for Nightingales. They really should have swapped this house location with Nightingales, because what they did with it, could have easily fit in a tent. Aesthetics - D Scares - D "Wow" Factor - D 08 - Universal Monsters Universal Monsters was very high on my list as well. The house isn't bad by any means, but it again, did not meet the expectations I had for it. There were some really cool scares and the costumes were great, but since the films are set in sprawling European landscapes, this house didn't feel as big to me as it should have. Also, if you're expecting the classic look for the monsters, you won't get it, save for one. Aesthetics - C Scares - C- "Wow" Factor - C- 07 - House of 1000 Corpses Well, well, well....sometimes going in with zero expectations is a good thing. This house is the best house they've had in that trailer in a long time. I absolutely despise the film, because in my OPINION, it's total torture porn garbage with very little storytelling. However, the house is like walking through the film and it's a lot of fun! This is one of those attractions where it should just be a 3 minute walkthrough instead of a full fledged movie. They stayed true to the movie, the costumes were spot on, the scareactors were great and the sets were fantastic. If you like the source material, you're going to love this one. That being said, me hating the source material, the grade obviously suffers. Aesthetics - B- Scares - C "Wow" Factor - B- 06 - Stranger Things 2 Better than last year, but not by much. I'm going to be totally honest here and say that, completely unexpectedly, the Season 3 portion of this house, saves it from being last on my list. SPOILER ALERT: The season 2 portion feels like someone complained that there was no sign of the upside down in the first house, so they shoved a bunch of tunnels in this one with horrible puppet dogs to make it feel scary. This part goes on far too long. The rest of Season 2 has a lot of Demodog statues and really bad mannequins...seriously...wtf is this.... Ok, back to our regularly scheduled programming. Season 3 completely saves this house and I really hope they pick up where they left off, next year, although they may have showed their hand too soon and raised the expectations too high if they're going to do a full fledged season 3 house. The puppets are big, the sets are big, everything is big. Bravo on the turnaround, but not enough to keep this house from being in the middle of the pack. I'm giving this house two separate grades based on season. Aesthetics - Season 2 - D- / Season 3 - B+ Scares - Season 2 - D- / Season 3 - C- "Wow" Factor - Season 2 - D - / Season 3 - B+ 05 - Yeti: Terror of the Yukon A&D put a lot of love into this one. It's cold (I was told it wouldn't be) and very atmospheric. That being said, it's not "scary." Some of the Yetis look more like trolls and their heads were facing up when attempting to scare us, so it was kind of silly feeling. Although they did a great job with the aesthetics, I think this house reminds me of what they did with AoV(smaller stage = better). It was great as its own surprise scene in Slaughterhouse Sinema, but a full blown house with a giant budget doesn't necessarily yield a better product. Howeva....this house is beautiful. The snow, the cabins, the forest, caves, it's all very well done and I'm excited to see the house improve over time. Aesthetics - A- Scares - C "Wow" Factor - B- 04 - Graveyard Games Another beautiful house. Very interesting choices here when it comes to the selfie cameras(I'll say no more) and some of the technology used. This house, to me, is tied with Depths of Fear when it comes to the scariness. I don't usually get scared in these houses, but there were definitely some unsettling scenes in this house. A&D put a lot of love into this one, once again. The only thing I didn't like was that it felt like there were very similar scenes and costumes to Poltergeist, but overall, it was solid! Aesthetics - A- Scares - B- "Wow" Factor - B- 03 - Killer Klowns from Outer Space They dun done it again. HOW MUCH SPACE DO THEY HAVE TO WORK WITH IN THE SHREK QUEUE?! I mean really? Personally, this felt as big as a soundstage house. I was extremely impressed with what they had to work with. The film is no cinematic masterpiece, and honestly, it is really bad. But this house is so much fun! I didn't think it would be better than the scarezone, but I was very wrong. Nailed it! I'm not scared of clowns, so the scares are not great IMO, but the rest of it is solid. I rate it higher than Graveyard simply because of its "little engine that could" factor. Aesthetics - A- Scares - D "Wow" Factor - B+ 02 - Depths of Fear Great design, great costumes, great atmosphere...wow. Claustrophobia feels right in a tent house, so unlike its neighbor, this house was perfectly cast in its location. You really feel like you're aboard a sinking mining rig and that you need to escape. Even though the intent is for it to feel claustrophobic, this house still feels very big. The sets are wonderful, the scares are spot on and loud, they did a very good job with this one. Aesthetics - A Scares - B "Wow" Factor - A 01 - Ghostbusters I'm going to do my best to not hype this, but it's just too difficult. Ghostbusters is this year's Poltergeist, American Werewolf In London, Lightning Gulch, whatever you want to call it. My jaw was literally dropped throughout most of it. You feel like you're walking through the scenes of Ghostbusters and it's so much fun! Spoiler alert: Holy Stay Puffed Marshmellow Man! Holy Zul! HOLY CRAP on capturing Slimer with the Proton Packs!!!! I can't wait to go through this house again and again. There are so many surprises, it's grandiose, it's everything you would want from a regular daytime attraction that looks like it was created by Universal Creative. In fact, just leave it there as a new walkthrough show. The only gripe I have is that it was entirely too short. I want more!!! Aesthetics - A+ Scares - C- "Wow" Factor - A+ The scarezones weren't all fully operational when I went through them, so I'll do a separate post at another time. If you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer in any comments below.

I was thinking the same thing! Hahaha!!! They will only last the first few weeks in the beginning

Surprised how quiet it is after employee preview....and whatever has been talked about seems very lukewarm....I mean not bad but nothing as raving as the immediate reviews were of last year.

Overall did you enjoy this year more then previous years?

Oh okay cool !! The guy was a vamp last year and he was very close to me because of the vibe of that zone, going to the extent of growling in my ear. I’m kind of just like...yikes about that. I love adult energy in general, just not around him because I know his history, I guess. I know next to nothing about Rob Zombie’s music because metal isn’t really my thing. Do you know of specific songs I should check out as a little bit of HHN prep so I can understand elements of the zone?

Gogo dancers.

In honor of HHN fast approaching, I stopped by my college town's theme park to get the whole Zombieland experience. Almost all of the movie was filmed in Georgia, and "Pacific Playland" exists in Valdosta, GA. It's literally five miles from my apartment but it's lowkey overpriced so I don't go often, but it was so so so fun!! Pictured are the main entrance, the shop where Tallahassee finally found his box of Twinkies, and Wichita and Little Rock's drop tower. In the movie it's the "Blast Off," but at the time it was known as the Firecracker. It's since been re-themed to be the "Blazer Blast Off," representing our university and possibly paying homage to ZL. Fun fact: while talking to my supervisor at work about this, he shared that many of the zombie extras in the park were university students. Their makeup was applied in our Fine Arts complex and they hung around campus for a bit before their time to go on set started. It was apparently a sight!!

Employee Preview night. Dish it, people!

See you Friday and Saturday!

So Dorian is pretty much out of Flagler County, and it was mostly uneventful here, thank goodness. And even better, it did not ruin my HHN plans!! See you all on Friday.

For the most part, yes. There have been a few where Hollywood did them better - La Llorona, Exorcist, Halloween 2, and TCM way back in 2007. But HOTC was a fun one, and I think Orlando will do a great job.

Yeah, and I'm wondering what was up with it since it lead to nowhere.

The ticket window that said "I'm back," or something similar.

Lol with strobe lights like the Yeti on everest haha.

Just store mannequins hahaha standing still

I wonder if the rob zombie zone will have the go go dancers removed eventually

Take care FL peeps... but lets face it, you guys are used to this shit! Also does anyone feel a little bummed that TWD and The Purge arent in the cards this year? LOL ME EITHER!!!!!!!!!!!