foREVer56

Absolutely. I don't care what properties they decide to make. If it's lacking the heart that this year lacks, it's going to feel off. My spec: 1. AHS (obvi) 2. TWD (Unless they decide on doing the year round attraction, this year's house was well enough received that higher ups will not see a need to ax it yet.) 3. James Blum movie (Either Insidious 4 or Conjuring. Murdy's got a thing for him it seems, and Insidious has been received exceptionally on both coasts. Either would draw a large crowd, and has potential to be very scary. Personally, I'd rather Conjuring.) 4. 70's Classic 5. Either Chucky or SAW (They keep selling Chucky merch so I feel like that's coming at some point. SAW is coming back next year and is still well known enough that it could draw a crowd. I would love to see them redeem themselves after 2009's missed opportunity. I would hope they put it in an environment with A/C this time ) 6. Classic movie chosen by A&D (I'd love something Evil Dead related, but this could be anything.) 7. sequel to an original (Would love to FINALLY have a Nightingales sequel.) 8. Original 9. 3D house ( I honestly wouldn't mind if they kept doing this as a cost effective way to have a 9th house. Just give me new layouts every year with great scares and I won't mind the same, mundane neon 3D walls every year. Or, if they would like to be creative again, take inspiration from The In-Between and break the stereotype that all 3D houses are cheesy and not scary. I know they have it in them.) Shows: 1. B&T 2. AoV, or some other dance show. Both coasts have proven this is a success. 3. Vamped up Horror Makeup Show (Most cost effective way to add a 3rd show: higher nighttime actors, change the show up a bit, make gorier/edgier, and boom. Takes an extra few hundred people off the streets, raises capacity, raises event value.) Zones: Some form of apocalypse in NY 4 others. Zones are normally original so you can't guess what themes they decide to do. I love the hordes in designated areas, but it would be nice to have a year devoid of chainsaws. Does EVERY horde have to have them?

Nailed it. Nothing outside of Chance (and I mean eeeverything Chance) is generally considered bad this year, however nothing else seems to be considered above adequate. Some will argue that's due to this event following up a big anniversary. However, 2011 followed a smaller but still big anniversary and a sort of "return to form" with all originals and some big concepts returning (Scareapy, Cindy, etc), and it's still widely considered one of the best house lineups ever. So I do not agree with that argument. This year feels like it's missing something that makes it special and unique for me. Although I can pick a definitive favorite: Tomb of the Ancients. Love the feel of the house, great costumes and masks, and my first few runthroughs of that house were some of the scariest I've ever had at HHN. Although as the event has gone on and the scare factor has worn off, I don't love returning the same way I loved revisiting Monsters and Mayhem, or 13's AWiL/Cabin/Evil Dead, or basically all of 2011, even when the scares wore off.

More confident in my rankings now: 1. Tomb of the Ancients 2. Krampus 3. Halloween II 4. The Walking Dead 5. Texas Chainsaw Massacre 6. American Horror Story 7. Ghost Town 8. Exorcist 9. Lunatic's Playground

I did this house twice opening weekend. I've gone back to the event 7 times since. I have yet to go back in here. This is literally the first time I've done that in my 6 years of doing the event more than once, and this is the first year I have express. That's not to say this is the worst house of all time, but that it is indeed a bad house that has been done poorly before. EVERYWHERE. Alice last year was partially a standard black-walls-with-neon 3D house, but not entirely, and it still worked incredibly well. Great costumes, new, interesting ideas, and even a few good scares. This house has none of the above, and both times I did the house I was completely alone. Reused some of the worst parts of Afterlife, which was just as bad of a house, and didn't add anything new to the concept. There isn't a thing about Chance this year that I like. Hell, I go as far as saying she's more annoying than anything, especially her interruptions in the music all over the park. I expected nothing from this house, and it still let me down.

I've done this house 8 times at this point, and watched Murder House, enough of Freak Show to recognize the scenes/characters, but not Hotel. And while by no means is the house bad, I can't say I favor it as much as many seem to. Scenically, it is of course very well done. I have my issues with scene choice, but that's not a knock on the impeccable attention to detail, layout, length, and costumes/makeup. The choice to start in the basement of the Murder House rather than building a full facade for the house was a neat idea I think. There are some decent scares, including the Pig bathroom, the build up to Freak Show scene, the guy with the mustache within the tent (no idea what his name is haha), the second twisty, the first hallway of Hotel, and the first appearance of Angela Basset's character in Hotel. However, those are the only parts of the house I fully enjoy. The choice to make damn near every scare timed to a WAY too frequent audio cue that gives the actors no room to really perform effective scares really deters the scare factor of the house. For instance, the maids. You stand in that hallway for at most 15 seconds, but that's still enough time to see that whole scene a solid 3+ times. It's very tiring and makes the scene annoying rather than scary, imo (This is a major complaint I have about nearly all of the houses this year). Also, the audio cues that were chosen are very peculiar choices. Yes, they demonstrate scenes from the show and that's cool, but it seems storytelling was chosen in favor of scare factor in this house, and that's a choice I don't agree with. "I'll soak them in ammonia to refresh these things" is the weirdest audio cue I've ever heard in a haunted house. Having the finale be a blank room with 2 Twitsys and mirrors is probably the dumbest decision made in this house. I understand why they would choose to end with the most well known character, but THAT's the best you could come up with? Comes off as lazy to me. Unmemorable opening and ending scene makes the house suffer even greater. I wouldn't rank it as the worst house this year, as I do still enjoy what they built. It's just not what I was anticipating, so I can't help being a little dissapointed. I fully believe we will see AHS again next year, and will still look forward to seeing how they handle Asylum, Coven (The season I've wanted in a house since it debuted), and Roanoke (which is very promising so far. MEEEEAT).

I have to echo Cody's analysis. I loved the last 3 years under Jason Horne, but his 2012 show was BAD, and this one might be even worse. Sure, the last few years had incredibly loose plots, but they were still somewhat there and had an actual conflict and resolution. This year's show literally ignores the plot the ENTIRE TIME. It doesn't even give the villain a real plan or motive, and it's never resolved. I could get over the bad plot, as this is a sketch show. If the jokes and references are good, I'll get over it. But they're not. At. All. Half the show isn't even in the form of jokes. It literally just brings up stuff from the past year of pop culture with no real point, then moves on to the next one. AND PEOPLE STILL LAUGHED. So much of the show is not funny and usually downright annoying (They used Elsa from 2014 just as the freaking Chewbacca Mom? Really???). The actress that plays Hillary Clinton does her SO well and is the one part of the show I really like. The rest, including the decent opening and awful finale, is something I have no intentions of seeing again. The finale uses a remix of that bullshit "Damn, Daniel" stunt from those 2 kids on Snapchat a few months back. That alone should tell you how bad this show is. The Sex Tail joke is something I enjoy hearing every year, as it's always brought up differently and I still find it funny. This year it's just thrown in for the fuck of it at the last second, and it made it dumb. Overall rating: -50/10

In between the Transformers Meet and Greet and the Shrek gift shop, same place as Asylum last year. I really enjoy the feel of this house. Some decent scares, great sets, great atmosphere. My only real complaints are the lack of a better snowmen section, and a moving Krampus. The latter may happen at some point, but I'm honestly shocked there's no Krampus animatronic or costume. Hollywood's is filled with them.

THIS. I would have to assume a big part of the reason why we keep getting uninspired neon walled 3D houses is budgeting, but if they pulled off the In-Between, they could do WAY more. I like P&T and Asylum quite a bit, but Afterlife is one of the worst houses they've done, and this one isn't very good either. In-Between is the only 3D house I've ever seen at any event that I consider excellent.

Will surely change as the event goes on, but based off first impressions: 1. Tomb of the Ancients (this one won't change. Consistently good runs, SCARY, pretty cool set wise, awesome costumes. Top 20 house for sure) 2-7: Halloween II Ghost Town The Exorcist Krampus American Horror Story Texas Chain Saw Massacre All 6 are great houses, just missing *something* to make them truly excellent, memorable houses. Too hard to rank them as of now, all show great potential. 8. The Walking Dead (this may actually move up the list should it outperfom the others scare wise. Really solid for once, and I honestly enjoyed seeing the sets of year's past again.) 9. Lunatic's Playground

inb4 criticalanalysis says how crappy the merch is .......just so I can say it first. I wasn't a fan of the exact same picture of Jack on every piece of icon merch last year, but at least it wasn't a horrible rendering of him. That's a bed depiction of Chance, and yet again EVERYTHING has the exact same picture. I can't justify spending 50-100+ on merch that all lack creativity or uniqueness. I will purchase MAYBE the hat, but if the IP merch is what I think it is (generic AHS, same TWD crap, same Halloween shirt as the last 2 years, hopefully either an Exorcist or Krampus shirt), and there's not much else, Uni just saved my wallet a good amount of cash

1. Tomb of the Ancients (I have a really good feeling about this one. And I really love the theme) 2. AHS (FINALLY. I stopped watching midway through Freak Show but I've wanted this maze based on characters and aesthetics alone since it debuted. Incredibly excited to finally see it come to fruition) 3. Ghost Town (I've always wanted to see this, Vampyr, Deadtropolis and Hellgate from 04. I'm finally getting the chance to do an updated version of one of those this year) 4. The Exorcist (Legitimately creeped me out, great movie, and I'm very curious about how they'll tackle their abstract approach to this property) 5. Krampus (This is gonna be hella fun. The Cabin in the Woods of this year is what I'm anticipating) 6. Texas Chain Saw Massacre (Loved 07's house and I know how much Mike and the gang love this movie. The southern gothic aesthetic should be very cool. I'm anticipating a strong house with this one) 7. Halloween II (2014's was obviously amazing, and again Mike and the gang love this series, so I would anticipate them delivering with this IP yet again) 8. Lunatic's Playground (This is going to either really surprise me or really disappoint me. Asylum last year was a very solid 3D house, but I would like to see more originality with this one. The theme has a lot of potential. I just hope they use it to it's fullest extent. Being in a new location should be interesting) ------------------------------------ 9. TWD (Best of the past 4 houses likely means I won't hate the house, as it will only be the scenes I actually enjoyed from the TWD houses. It likely also means I will do this house only when I bring 1 time attendees, because I have no desire to see those select scenes 10+ times over the course of the event, as I've likely seen all of them 10+ times already. Only house I'm not excited for, as usual)

Likely they announce both coasts' houses tomorrow, and Murdy just goes in depth about it at Sunday's panel. He never said they were ANNOUNCING a maze that day, just presenting on one. That'll leave one more to go. I say within 2 weeks we'll know the identity of our megahouse. I'm ready to hear info on the zones/originals/second show.

My guesses for the houses featured on this year's tours (assuming they don't change around like last year): Exorcist Megahouse (unless copyright issue. Then Cobweb) Ghost Town Krampus Halloween II TCM Chance likely won't have much to look at if it's your typical 3D house, TWD is unnecessary, and IMO they'll do the other 5 IPs and the most visually appealing original versus 4 IPS and 2 originals, and I'm anticipating Ghost Town being the more aesthetically pleasing original. Should the megahouse actually be AHS and there's a copyright issue, then it'll be the other 4 IPs and Ghost Town/Cobweb.

This is my best guess as well. It seems the plot they're building TCM on in Hollywood just started going up recently, while all other maze locations started construction quite some time ago. If it turns out we are indeed sharing Krampus and AHS, then it seems like they lost The Conjuring (if they ever had it), for whatever reason.

Coming from a straight male, the best part of FDTD for me were the 3 main guys (Barker outside and the brothers [who's name escapes me]in the finale). The house was really lacking overall for me, but I still had fun in it. But yeah, no point in bringing that back.