giant4203

Favorite house of the event so far...me and my friend went through here alone early in the evening and it was fantastic...extremely creepy atmosphere and great cast who got a scare out of me in every room. BRAVO!

So updates: Havoc, energy is way up!!! Keep it up! Now havoc is at a 7/10. Rocky Horror is just fantastic. It's the must see show this year! 10/10 Bill and Ted, not a great year but not an awful year. The bashes at Disney were the funniest thing. Dancing is spot on...love the opening number with the Horror Icon ladies...most creative costumes since the story book characters back in 2007. 6/10 Also, favorite house is officially American Werewolf...continues to make me jump all over the place every time I go through

The energy in here on Sunday night was fantastic! Keep this energy and pump it up even more! this was the most improved house I saw last night

I almost pulled a Liz and crawled out of the room! teeheehee

So here's my review after the Employee preview and the first weekend of the event: Before I get to the houses, I would like to say this year is a HUGE improvement over last year. I only used my frequent fear 4 times last year, because well, it was an awful event. The last night I was there I took a survey, and surprisingly, everything I addressed in the survey, was fixed/worked on this year. I saw far fewer masks (which I think are a cheap cop out when makeup will suffice 80% of the time, houses seemed well staffed (for the most part), official street scare zones were back. This year just felt a lot more cohesive and put together. Still, they are using too many outside IP's, however they are really good this year (for the most part). Now to the reviews. Resident Evil: As a fan of the game, I was really excited for this one, and they gave it a good show. My personal wish was I wish they would have used RE4 as their basis, but that's just me and I don't factor that into any enjoyment of the house. Creative use of scenes, some very creative scares. Costumes were well done. The house felt like it was in complete chaos (like it should have). The pause room was cool, however I kind of wish they worked in the use of live actors in a different position, making it so the room can pause and unpause for good scare opportunities. 7/10 Havoc: The original Havoc was one of my favorite houses of all time, so I was excited to see this house. It's a good house, just not as intense as I feel like it should be. Partially, it's because many of the actors aren't able to get up close and personal. Also, many in the casts don't have that crazy DoW energy level yet that makes Havoc amazing. I know keeping that kind of energy is extremely hard, but it has to be there or the house doesn't work. Hopefully my ranking of this house will improve with the run. 5/10 The Walking Dead: This house was a huge improvement over last year, but that's not hard to accomplish. Great sets in here, felt a lot more like The Walking Dead this time around. Didn't receive any scares in here. They didn't allow for good hiding spots for the actors most of the time. This is another house that has to ramp up the energy. 5/10 La Llorna: This house is beautiful. Creative scares in here for many of the actors. Need to dial down the fog in the transition room...felt like I was drowning in fog fluid. All in all, great ghost house. I hope every year they do an Urban Legend house like this. 8/10 Afterlife: I do love 3D houses, and this one I think is one of the best 3D houses they've done in a while. Very disorienting, good scares. Had to take my glasses off halfway through just so I could see where I was going (and so the actors had an opportunity to scare me. 7/10 Evil Dead: So, this house was amazing. The sets were amazing (I love the buildup of the first three rooms...the pages to the logo to the main room with him reading from the Necronomicon. GREAT scares in here. Felt like I was in the movie. Makeup/prosthetics were incredible. The raining blood scene, the actor coming out there gave me the best scare of my life. They SOLD the performance of the abomination. I have never actually been terrified in a house before, until now. In that moment I felt like if I promised to be a better person God would strike him down and have a cupcake waiting for me at the exit of the house to help me feel better LOL. BRAVO to you, sir/madam (came out of there right before 11 on Saturday. If anyone knows this person, pass along my gratitude). That one scare made this my favorite house of the run, and perhaps of all time. 10/10 Cabin in the Woods: Another great house, sets were spot on. Scares coming at you from everywhere. Costumes were spot on. I wish there were more actors in the elevator scene (did I miss a big to do in the elevator lobby?) The final few rooms going by the broken elevators was an amazing, intense way to end the house. 9/10 American Werewolf in London: Words cannot express how much I love this house. Perfect movie to house transfer. The puppets were MINDBLOWING (and caused me to hit walls/jump over my friend at several points). Great visuals and effects in here. You can tell this was A&D's baby this year. Fantastic house. One of the best Horror Nights has ever seen. 10/10 So rankings as of now: 1. American Werewolf (Tie) 1. Evil Dead (tie) 3. Cabin in the Woods 4. La Llorna 5. Resident Evil 6. Afterlife 7. Havoc 8. Walking Dead Extremely solid event this year. Didn't get to experience much of the streets, but what I saw, I really liked (added more ambiance/cohesiveness to the event) Loved the Walker Bomb

Most likely the actors didn't fit them well or they couldn't breathe in them. My experience with Universal, they tend to make their masks/prosthetics on the small side, some with inadequate breathing holes.

I don't know if it's anyone on here...but if anyone works in Evil Dead, last scene outside the cabin scared the absolute 7 hells out of me...best scare I've ever had in my life....BRAVO!

So not wanting to post a review yet, but major improvement on last year. My favorite of the 4 I went through was American Werewolf...one if the absolute BEST houses I've seen at the event. Streets are a major improvement from last year. The event as a whole is a huge improvement from last year. Can't wait to see Resident evil, evil dead, havoc and cabin in the woods.

I'm 6'7 i attempted...not very comfortable lol

So the time of year has come where I step out of the shadows... Initial reaction: Much better than I heard in other reviews. A fun HHN, but certainly not the best. Let's get to it. House of Horrors: I really like the visuals in this house. I know we saw it in Dead Exposure, however I thought it really worked for the properties. My main complaint (and was a common complaint throughout the houses) was that there wasn't much creativity of hiding the scares. Also, as others have said, the house was too dark. Several scares were ruined because I couldn't see the scare. Also, my height made it hard for me to experience the tunnel. The actors seemed to be giving it their all. though 3/5 Alice Cooper: I'm a big fan of Alice, and I did love this house. Got a great scare near the stained glass window. Some scare opportunities were missed due to actors lingering. Hopefully they improve this over the event. 4/5 Penn and Teller: Had fun in here...didn't receive a single scare though. The light room gave me a headache and made me a bit nauseous. I enjoyed the control room. Loved the creative costumes. 3/5 The Walking Dead: I was really excited for this one. It started out great, a few good scare opportunities, but then they became a little too predictable. They became predictable, and started getting a lot of stare downs (which I hate). Some also need to watch a little more of the show to get the movements of the zombies down. Things got better in the barn. The end going through the fences, was that supposed to be part of the house? I saw actors staring at the line out of holes in the fence. I was confused. If it's the end of the house, then make it epic! 3/5 Gothic: One of my favorites of the night. The scares were on point. The sets were beautiful. Loved looking down into the cathedral and going to the roof. One of my favorites of all time. 5/5 Silent Hill: I was really excited for this house. Absolutely beautiful house. I wish Pyramid Head was given more of a scare opportunity. I saw one nurse who had the movements down perfectly. Have all of them study the movements. Hope to see some improvements here 3/5 Dead End: I think this was my favorite of the night. This is the ghost house I have always wanted to see. Great effects, beautiful sets. great scares. Waited over an hour for this, and I was not disappointed. Bravo! 5/5 Streets: Barely saw anyone to make a judgement. Only one thing comes to mind so far: more actors should have been hired to pull off the magnitude that they wanted to do. So, it was a good Horror Nights, not amazing. Kinda felt thrown together and there was no clear focus. Didn't get a chance to see Bill and Ted. It'll be interesting to see how things evolve.

@March, Interesting read, Scaring with a chainsaw is an interesting thing. Honestly it's either hit or miss with them, some people are absolutely terrified and will run around screaming away, leaving the actor and people around laughing uncontrollably, or they aren't very scared of them, if at all. The trick is teamwork and the ability to improvise and read people. Approaching someone with a chainsaw, you can tell what kind of a reaction you may get, and if they don't look scared you gotta get creative. Can be as simple as setting up a distraction for a fellow actor to using them as distraction for you to go after someone else. Several of my favorite things to do...grab a fellow saw and play a game with the guest called "lets turn you into a torso" which usually resulted in the group scattering like roaches, or the entire party laughing hysterically...another one, very simple, wait behind a guest who's completely stopped paying attention to turn around rev the saw and charge...that little move put people on the floor repeatedly and caused many pissers/criers...granted I do have an advantage of my size, but it's more than just walking around revving it at people...it's a delicate art form These two are only examples, but you never know how inspiration will hit The incident you described, kinda lazy scaring...no reaction gets me moving on to the next group

Aye me too ...I was offered the role in that house but had to turn it down because I was cast in a production of Rent which I couldn't turn down

Just a thing I noticed that really bugged me...I stood and watched several nights at the end of sting alley and I saw tons of missed opportunities that the actor could have taken the scare to epic levels, but most of the time, it fell short. Sorry, just my observation.

Okay decided to wait until the end of the month to do this, so here we go. Overall impression: This was a really great year. Great themes on the houses and each and every one were absolutely beautiful in its own way. Biggest gripe: What was the point of having Lady Luck if they're not going to utilize her or the theme to the fullest? If they didn't want to use a central character for marketing, that's fine, but she just felt like an afterthought. The Forsaken: Well done house, lots of scare opportunities in here. The actors did their best with what they could, however I wish they would have been able to turn their eyes off in certain places to not give their location away. They probably would have gotten a lot more successful scares if they did. 3/5 The In-Between: In my opinion, best 3-D house Universal has ever put on. Great scares in here, nice and disorienting which the casts took full advantage of. Got lots of good jumps in here 4/5 Nevermore: I may have done a little dance when they announced this house.The sets in here were AMAZING. Several really good scares in here, but I was hoping for more good scares, but there were some areas (like Tell Tale Heart) That were too easy to see coming 4/5 Saws 'n Steam: Was nice to see they brought my old stomping grounds into a house Great house, great scare moments. Some of the casting was a little weird though...they had some boilers that were the body type of machinists and vice versa. But they were working their scares so it was neither here nor there 5/5 H.R. Bloodngutz: Omg this house was hysterical (especially Thanksgiving with the "turkey") Well designed house and scares in here were pretty good, and the concept for some of the rooms were amazing...Arbor Day hehe 4/5 The Thing: This house scared me the most. I will right here admit I almost was crawling out of this one. Amazing prosthetics in here, and was glad to see some of the non-thing actors actually acting. There were a couple of people that were just standing there not looking overly concerned that these creatures were coming at them wanting to eat them. Fortunately this was only a few people. Looked just like the movie and the scares were good...sometimes a little too good LOL 5/5 Nightingales: Great sets and great energy from the casts. Tons of good scares in here, masks/prosthetics were really good and creepy. These ladies (and gentlemen) brought it! 5/5 Winter's Night: Probably the most beautiful house I've ever seen at HHN. The facade with the lanterns and the snow and even snow falling, it was absolutely gorgeous. There were a few actors in here that were a little lack luster, but for the most part the actors were on. Some scare points were a little too predictable, so didn't get scared much in this house, but loved walking through it just admiring how amazing it looks hehe 4/5 Okay, so my order of favorites 1. Nightingales 2. The Thing 3. Saws 'n Steam 4. Nevermore 5. Winter's Night 6. H.R. Bloodngutz 7. The In-Between 8. The Forsaken Wow that was a tough list. I have never given out this many good ratings on houses, because they are all excellent. All the casts should be proud of the product they delivered this year. Now, onto the scarezones: 7: I really love this scarezone, mainly because of the casts. Great theme but the casts really brought it to life. I loved going through here in the daytime, and then at night it just became insanity. I loved the music selection here too 5/5 Grown Evil: Amazing scarezone, absolutely hauntingly beautiful at night. Actors were great in here and knew how to use the fog to their advantage. Got the first scare I've ever gotten on a street in here! 5/5 Canyon of Dark Souls: Great actors, but what is that set? Wish the actors had more to work with in here, because it looked like it was thrown together at the last minute. 3/5 Nightmaze: Same problem as Canyon...was this thrown in at the last minute? The actors were doing their best with what they had, but once again, seemed like an afterthought 3/5 Your Luck Has Run Out: Oh THERE'S Lady Luck...I thought they forgot all about her at the event. Nice little scare zone, but the chainsaws needed to learn how to scare with the saws. I saw so many missed opportunities that these folks had to really scare the crap outta someone (.....Liz) and they didn't take it. (Yes I am very critical of saw work...if you get a saw, you need to learn how to scare with it) 3/5 Acid Assault: Clever use of the 3-D Projections really brought the theme together. Actors were high energy and intense in here...saw multiple guests running away from an actor only to be scared by more. GREAT TEAM WORK in here. 5/5 Okay, time for Scare Zone rankings: 1. Grown Evil 2. 7 3. Acid Assault 4. Canyon of Dark Souls 5. Nightmaze 6. Your Luck Has Run Out Once again, actors, you did fantastically for the most part (It took me 15 minutes to figure out how to fill those top 3 spots) Bill and Ted: YAY!!!! It was actually great this year! Nice to see new life breathed into it...though I must say Mr. Chow stole the show Death Drums: Okay show, good energy and dancing. The techno show should not exist at all. I was hoping that this show would have a much rawer, tribal sound with the percussion leading the way; however it got drowned out a lot by the music. Make this a big tribal type sound (if that makes sense)

I'll be there at 6