Sledge

So now that the event has started, what was this in reference to?

Blood by My Chemical Romance is the in The Carnage Returns.

My favorite review so far! Spoilers don't bother me and just make me more excited, so I loved what you included in your review. Thanks!

And he's on the Tervis tumbler too. Lame!

Ditto. The movie ruined the song for me more than the other way around. I can't hear this song anymore without getting a bit creeped out.

Um, is that Bloody Mary on the shirt on the left?

Must be Midway of the Bizarre then.

I don't mind AWIL coming back simply because we have an extra house this year, and I feel like that will help with crowds some. Had we only had 8, as usual, I'd feel a bit ripped off. But I wouldn't mind if we had 1 "greatest hits" house each year going forward, so long as we had 9 or 10 houses total. As soon as we have 8 house with a repeat house, I'll be sounding the alarms and crying 'bullshit'.

Collectors. Not Snatchers. That's a totally different animal.

What? Noooooo. Shocking. It's people like you that make things difficult for every other new person that actually has legitimate information. Aren't there rules in place about how old you have to be to be on here?

This is amazing. I was waiting for this backpeddling all month. lol

Yes, we will have 9 houses.

Very well said.

Wow, how ever did you come up with those. Inside sources?

Am I interpreting that correctly? Are there really rumors that we could be losing 4 houses in the future? Would that be an event with only 4 houses? Surely, I'm missing something.

Great videos. Thanks for sharing. Now I'll go watch them all and pick out the best bits to show them. lol

This will be my 9th consecutive year at HHN and we are traveling from Fort Worth with three HHN virgins. They are excited, but aside from the stories we have told them, they have no idea what to expect. They love the local haunts here in DFW, but I know better and find them to be disappointing since my wife and I are spoiled by HHN. We're Horror Nights snobs and want to get our friends excited for what we'll see on our vacation. We've been getting together every few weekends to plan the vacation and talk about HHN and Universal in general. I have been trying to find pictures or walkthrough videos of previous year's houses, but haven't been able to find much that actually shows the inside of the house. So I turn to the experts... If y'all were showing first timers what HHN really is all about, what pictures, videos, or even articles would you show them to get them excited for what they will experience? I'd like to bookmark some to show at our next planning party.

Zombiegeddon had a Z.A.P. training video. The rest that I saw all had the same very lengthy video showing off pictures and videos from other years events. They were well done and entertaining.

HHN XX merchandise: Esquelo Muerte Probably the best scarezone of the night that wasn't a glorified photo-op. The look and feel of this zone was really awesome, but the music needs a change. The music should have been something more mariachi-ish and less generic horror. The costumes were awesome, the sets look great when glowing, and there is TONS of fog. A The Coven Very cool scarezone with lots of witches running around. I didn't expect to see the "good guys" being burned though, which was awesome! I'm still not sure of the giant crystal in the center though -- which changes colors and looks very awesome. B Fear Revealed As you can see from the pictures, this scarezone was more of a photo-op and less of an actual scarezone. Eddie was the only one I saw running around and trying to scare people. We got lucky and found Jack as we were posing with his "set". He was able to take a quick picture for us before running away as a line started to form. So that answers that question, NO, the icons will not be confined to their "sets" as a backdrop for photos. Aside from Jack, I didn't see any of the icons go into their "sets". Fear was HUGE but didn't do a whole lot but stand there and sway. He had these creepy little "lanternettes" that stood around the base of him and slithered back and forth (think of Bloody Mary's mirror faced people!). Fear also had little "daggers?" with the icons faces on them. A HHN: 20 Years of Fear This was a great little scarezone. Some characters I never thought I'd see again were here (Crypt Keeper, Mary Shaw, Queen of Hearts, etc.). There are also lots of cool props to see... including a Ghostbusters prop. A Saws n' Steam Very cool scarezone with awesome costumes and so much fog that it was nearly impossible to see two feet in front of you. The "stage" area was interesting and had a victim being strung up, and we were expecting a micro-show, but we didn't see anything ever happen. B Zombiegras Worst scarezone of the night. Nothing was going on. Very boring. Too well lit. The parade float was given a slight make-over, but it was extremely subtle compared to what they should have done with it. C Zombiegeddon This was surprisingly the best house of the night! We all went in expecting this to be terrible and we were totally surprised. When you enter you'll find lots of weapons on the wall and a member of Z.A.P. standing next to a zombie who has a collar around his neck, which I assume is "taming him". The next scene you go into is a nursery, where a zombie baby actually lunges forward towards you and hits the glass it is behind! There was one scene where we heard a car speeding towards us and saw the bright headlights, only to hear a huge car crash a moment later. Unfortunately we had already turned the corner and was unable to see the outcome. A Legendary Truth: The Wyandot Estate The facade was exactly what you are picturing, plus a Legendary Truth van parked outside to the left with video monitors attached. The first scene has a table set up with a Legendary Truth member looking over monitors (see picture below). Other than the first scene, we saw no reference to Legendary Truth for the rest of the house. We would have liked to see victims. There is an awesome effect where you walk down a hallway and the "wallpaper" to your left is actually a scrim that when lit up from behind will reveal a ghost (on skates) gliding by. We weren't too thrilled with the corny neon masks that the ghosts were wearing. We were also expecting some Paranormal Activity tributes/rip-offs, but never got it. Storyteller makes an appearance here. Look for her straight ahead through the broken wood, right before you turn a corner to your right. There was one great scene in the living room that has the "subliminal Exorcist devil" pop up twice on the wall, and then a "ghost" popping out at you. B Psychoscareapy: Echoes of Shadybrook We were a bit disappointed with this one and they are going to have to step it up. I enjoyed Home for the Holidays so much more than this one. This just felt like a very, very generic haunted house to us. We didn't get the impression that these were ghosts, as they looked like every other very of "crazies" that we've seen before. Towards the beginning there is a "ghost" with scissors shoved into her eye. That sent an awesome tone, as I was expecting more gross-out costumes, but sadly, there wasn't anything too creative. The best scene in the house is one where you travel down a corridor with jail cells on both sides. You will see a constant row of about 20 pairs of hands gripping the cell bars. Some of them are props, some of them are real hands that will reach for you. There is another particular part in the house where there is a random, and very noticeable red button on the wall, press it and a scene lights up through the window next to it. I only got a quick glimpse of it, but it looked like Jack in a straight jacket? I do not recall any smells inside of this house. There facade was the usual Shadybrook set, and to the left side was a ladder hanging over the wall, perhaps for some of the escapies that got loose to run wild in Home for the Holidays. I don't see how this house could get much better, as it wasn't the scareactors that were bad, it was the generic, run of the mill Haunted House feel that made it boring. C Hades: The Gates of Ruin This one was just okay. There were some neat costumes, but none of us ever saw anything that resembled what we imagined would have been Hades. There isn't much I can remember about this house, which must mean something. What I can remember is we all came out feeling "Eh, whatever." There was a strange smell through the first half of the house, though I'm not sure what it was supposed to be since it smelt almost dirt-like (like the Hallow a few years back). The sets and costumes we did see looked awesome so i has potential to get better. C Havoc: Dogs of War I went in expecting this to be the worst house of the event, but it wasn't even close. It was a great house, though at times redundant. I do not understand why the made the cast shave their heads, as it didn't add anything to the overall enjoyment of the house, most of it wasn't even very noticeable, and masks or bald-caps would have been just as useful. Like The Spawning last year, most of the house seems to look identical, but it isn't too bad and we had a good time in here. B Horror Nights: The Hallow'd Past The first minute of the house had absolutely nothing to scare you. You first walk in and see the warehouse with shelves of props (imagine walking through the prop warehouse at Disney's Hollywood Studios's backlot tour, but with dark orange lighting). You'll see Chucky dolls, Thing props, and at one point we even saw the Goldilocks bear from Scary Tales. Once you turn a few corners, you will then enter a spinning tunnel which has the icons faces on the side. You are then taken to past memorable scenes, most of which were from the last few years and still semi-fresh in our minds. The Alice eating White Rabbit scene was in there, recreated almost exactly as before. The spine ripping Body Collectors scene (also from two years ago was there), but looked slightly different. Treaks and Foons had their own little scene. What was either Frightanic or Ship of Screams (never did either) had a scene where you were at the helm and looking out the ships windows which showed a cloudy, stormy night. Awesome! There was also two rooms from Dead Exposure, which was honestly much more than there needed to be. Overall, awesome house. A Bill & Ted's Excellent Halloween Adventure Absolute dog shit. Honestly, PLEASE do not waste your time here unless you have plenty of extra time to kill. This has been the worst of any show I've seen in the last four years, which is a shame because last year's was amazing. There was so much missed potential here. No Avatar, Inception, Nightmare on Elm Street remake, Alice in Wonderland, Karate Kid, Clash of the Titans, Winnebago Man, Parana, Step it Up 3D, Scott Pilgrim, Tooth Fairy, Cop Out, Predators, Robin Hood, Prince of Persia, Jonah Hex, The Other Guys, The Expendables, or Machete! What it did have: Richard Head (fictional Producer), Justin Bieber (awesome look alike), The Situation, Snooki, Edward (awesome look alike), Jacob, Bella, The Count from Sesame Street, Sorcerer's Apprentice Nic Cage, Tom Cruise, Mel Gibson, Hit Girl, Dr. Evil (seriously), Mr. T, the kid from Last Airbender, MacGruber, Joonice from SNL (YES!), Dr. Who, the Smoke Monster from Lost, the Hide Yo' Kids/"we gon' find you" homeboy (in pre-show video announcements), Lindsay Lohan, Resident Evil, drunk Iron Man, Pecker the Cowboy doll and I'm sure I'm forgetting some. D We didn't get around to Orfanage or Catacombs, but will do them on Friday.