Grimp0nd

Ahhhh thanks JW I didn't realise they actually linked the parks. That clears that up for me a lot. Now I've seen the map I see it's a lot more practical than I thought. I actually hope it is two parks this year now.

Ive never been to a HHN at IOA but if they do the event over two parks isn't that going to mean more dead spaces not just more ground to cover? That is unless they are planning to double the size of the event and attractions. Somehow in this recession I don't see that happening no matter how much money they made out of the WWOHP area. If they did do two parks it would make multiple night attendance a must I think. Concentrating on one park a night maybe? I'd welcome it, just to see the contrast in how it works out but I'm not sure if it's practical. There was a lot of dead space at the back of the park in last years event and that was only a one park event. Add to that the fact they can't use the WWOHP area and the circular layout of IOA I'm just not sure.

Lmao Aaron. I'd like 16 houses over 2 parks with two smoking hot blonde seductress twin icons scantilly clad but somehow I don't think I'm going to get my wish lol.

First of all thanks to W. Wilson for responding to this in a professional and well explained response. I couldn't have put it better myself. Secondly I don't know what got you so worked up there Jeffrey but that was a very naive and inaccurate post as A&D have given no such indication that there will be no movie houses this year. Saw, Wolfman, The Thing, Dracula, Frankenstein, Chucky, Leatherface and Jason from Friday The 13th have all featured in movie based houses in recent years and that's just off the top of my head. They all featured in Orlando too and I've probably missed some. If you are going to post things like that at least get your facts straight or back up your statement with facts. This is a fun wishful thinking thread and there really is no need for that attitude. Enough said!

I totally agree. I feel doing a 100 years of fear next year would take too much explaining to the general public and confuse them right after 100 years of Universal celebration this year. Last year, just before the Horror Nights started one of the A&D guys on a question and answer panel stated that this year would be his favourite Horror Nights ever. I found that odd at the time seeing as they were promoting last years event. I can't help but feel that the 100 years celebration has something to do with that. I think they are going to pull out all the stops this year and better implement the new technology they practiced with last year. It's going to be a good year to be a Halloween Horror Nights fan. I'd like to see some merchandise centred around the classic monsters this year too, maybe shirts.

Ha ha I thought GP was short for Grimp0nd not general public. You are forgiven, although that first round is still on you lol. I don't seriously see them celebrating 100 years of general Universal this year and 100 years of Universal horror next year do you? Makes more sense it being just one year long celebration with events throughout this year with horror nights focusing on the horror legacy. This is just conjecture of course and only time will tell. If they are bringing back Bloodngutz he's going to have to present some theme though lol.

Hey Aaron you're opinion is as important as anyone elses as is J.W.'s. Just let me clarify a couple of things. When I say classic monsters I'm not just referring to Dracula, Frankenstein and the Wolfman although they are quite probably the most famous. I'm talking of the entire legacy Universal was built on like Phantom of the Opera, Creature From The Black Lagoon, Hunchback of Notre Dame, the Mummy etc etc. That's seven rooms of a house right there. I'm talking about celebrating the work of such people as Lon Chaney, Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi (shame on you Aaron for thinking I didn't know about the lesser talked about classics, the first round of drinks this year is on you for that comment lol) and not just concentrating on the big three (although you have to include them). I might be way off base with this idea but I can't help but feel that the 100 year celebration will touch Horror Nights in some way. As long as I have a good time with my great friends I don't really mind what they do lol.

I wouldn't be too down on the classic monsters. I wasn't too excited about them when they announced the Dracula, Frankenstein and Wolfman houses a few years back but they turned out to be some of my favourite houses and overall I think they were pretty well received by the fans. Now I'm not saying they will or should give each classic monster their own house as that would be too much. But one house with scenes from many of the different iconic creatures would be pretty good I think. They got plenty to choose from. Add in the scenes being introduced by H R Bloodbgutz with his wit, charm and insanity and I think you are on to an absolute winner. It kills two birds with one stone, first it adds to the celebration of 100 years of Universal and second it pleases a lot of fans with the return of Bloodngutz. Maybe this time he's transmitting from a hidden location on cable access lol. Wonder who he's torturing this time lol?

Of course when you say HP you could mean Harry Potter not H P Lovecraft lmao. If so my bad and I agree lol.

Omg no. Poe house was great but more psychological than Lovecrafts works. You could have a much scarier and jumpier house using his whole Cthulhu mythos and the multitude of races (deep ones, migo, ghouls etc) and gods/great old ones/avatars(Cthulhu, Nyarlathotep, Chaugner Faughn etc) that he created. In fact I'd go as far as to say you could base a whole event of his creations easily and without struggling. Imagine walking round a house that is Innsmouth on the night of the raid against the deep ones or a house that is Ryleh beneath the sea where sleeping Cthulhu wakes from his slumber because the time is right. Maybe a visit to the ghoul invested catacombs beneath a graveyard. The possibilities are almost endless and varied. A Lovecraft house would make an event for me. I like the idea of an end of the world/ Mayan theme too. I think that would be cool. Don't be surprised to see the classic Universal monsters like Dracula, Wolfman and Mummy etc make an appearance this year. I believe Universal are celebrating 100 years this year and they have promised various celebrations of their past movie moments. Horror Nights would be the perfect stage for this in my opinion.

I've had similar thoughts myself. A play on all aspects of 2 as in HHN 22. Two parks, two icons, two little ducks....oh wait that last one is bingo lol. Evil twins would work, a split personality or Jekyl and Hyde type. Anything as long as they actually flesh the icon out this year rather than the very weak last two we've had.

From my four visits this year i can happily and honestly say i never had one problem with house ops. So much so i hardly noticed them in fact other tgan a few guving me welcoming smiles. The only problem i had was at the entrance to the Bill and Ted show and i think Aaron will back me up here as he was with me. We got to the chain drop just at the second she closed it and refused to let us in. Im serious when i say 2 seconds earlier and she'd have let us in it was ridiculous. And no there wasnt anybody else behind us lol. Oh and Aaron, as to the question should you have ground your crotch in the girls ass in front. Simple answer...not unless it was Ashley lol. Sorry guys it's a private joke lol.

Great review, agreed with most of it. The wheelchair guy in Acid Assault was awesome and calf cutting scene in Saws was one of my favorites. I had to laugh when I read what you said about the Beautiful People song in "7". I bet they are still hearing it in their dreams lol

Good review and very entertaining to read. I agree on a lot of things especially the poor icon. One thing though. Nightmaze? Seriously? Did you visit the same one as me? I thought it was awful lol

Thanks for the review. Can't say I agreed with all your views but I'm glad you took the time to voice them. I'll join you in hoping for better scarezones next year as long as the houses don't suffer for it.

Thanks for the review. I love to hear peoples opinions and views. Hope the accident in Grown Evil didn't ruin the event for you.

Yeah the opening Bloodengutz scene was consistently good too. The houses this year were awesome and so many will stay in my memory unlike last year. I struggle to remember any scenes from that one even though I enjoyed it lol

Well I saw evidence of HHN a year before I knew what it was. This was way back, not sure what year it was (I bet some of you guys will). We were vacationing a few months before Halloween and walking around Universal when we noticed them building Norman Bates house behind a fence. We figured it must be a new attraction they were adding and thought nothing more about it. The next year when we returned expecting to be able to walk around it we found it had gone. Confused we asked staff about it and were told it was for their annual Halloween event. It wasn't until years later that I found out just how big the event was when I saw videos etc of Jacks Carnival including Jason, Freddy and Leatherface. It was at that moment I made a promise I would not miss the next one. I kept that promise and have been every year since. Already looking forward to next year!

I like the fact the Orlando HHN is mostly original each year but there are some things I'd like to see return. Nightingales: Would love to see these return in a different setting, there are so many to choose from. Going way back to Roman times might be cool. I think these will definately return. H.R. Bloodengutz: Another character I feel sure will return showcasing more b movies on a different theme. He can never be cancelled as long as his fans remember him. Friday the 13th: Purely because my first event was the year after this one and I'm gutted I missed it. I wanna visit the new Camp Crystal Lake, Jasons gone ..... Right? Although not exactly a sequel please, please, please do a Lovecraft house. The time IS right. Besides I'm not scared I have an Elder Sign. Gulp! I'm a little surprised at the amount of people asking for another Thing house. Everyone in my group found it to be the weakest house and from comments I've read on here the previous one wasn't that popular either. It's a shame because I loved the Carpenter movie.

Please let us know once it's complete. I'd love a copy of your HHN 21 book. The photos I have seen of yours are awesome so I can imagine how good the collection is going to be.

While making a DVD may be a little more expensive than making a t shirt they are a movie studio. They could handle it all without outside sources. If anyone can do it they can

I agree I'm all for a dvd and a coffee table book, I'd buy both. Those ideas appeal to me more than shot glasses etc. They would be the perfect companions to the event. It's just I can't believe that those ideas haven't come up when they get their heads together planning the event merchandise so there must be some reason they are against it. Whatever those reasons are I'm sure there are ways to solve the potential problems they see. Come on Universal give it a try next year and see how it works out!

I'd also pay for that DVD of the houses and event. I don't think they will however as I think they are worried about giving other companies a quality platform with ideas to work from. They may also think some might just buy the DVD and not go to the event and they would be worried about losing money on food, drink and merchandising. It's a shame as I say as I'd definately buy it as a memento to aid my weak memory lol. I buy DVDs from other parks like Seaworld and Disney whenever they are available so why not here.

Thanks Teach. I still enjoyed Forsaken just not as much as I thought I might. As for HHN 22 I'm looking forward to the speculation too, bring it on!

Ok this is a little late (blame only doing the last week of the event and having to wait til i got back to England to write this) but i figure better late than never. This is as much to remind myself in the future of my thoughts as it is to share them with everyone so here goes. My overall view was this was a better event than last year and i enjoyed my four visits a lot. I thought the houses this year were all good and the most well designed and detailed of any year i've done so far (the last four if you were wondering) although some of the scarezones were sorely lacking in scares and atmosphere. I'll concentrate first on the houses giving them a mark out of 10. The Forsaken Prior to the event this was one of my most anticipated houses and was the first house i visited this year. I don't know whether it was because of my high expectations or the weeks of looking forward to HHN but the first time i visited this house i came out a little dissapointed. In my experience when you look forward to something so much it's hard for it to live up to expectations so maybe that was it. That doesn't mean i thought it was a bad house, far from it. The sets of the fort and ship were immersive and really well done. The scares were a bit lacking and the glowing green eyes (while cool) on the dead sailors didn't help because you mostly saw them coming. In that respect i really felt bad for the scareactors because they really tried. The screen with the dead sailors leaving the ship and coming towards the fort was a nice idea but could have been more more effective i think (maybe a practice run for next year?). RATING 7 The In Between This was the second house i visited and in contrast i wasn't that excited about this one before i got in it. Having never experienced a 3D house before i really didn't know what to expect but i was pleasantly surprised. This house blew me away and took me out of my comfort zone. It's hard to prepare for a scare when you don't have any depth perception or any idea if a scareactor is real or a prop. The tunnel combined with 3D effects had me totally disorientated from the start and was awesome. I found it impossible to walk through it without holding on to the rails, top marks Universal. Other rooms like the string room and the laser room were original and memorable if not that scary and will probably stick in my memory for quite some time. Is it wrong i want a laser room in my house lol? RATING 9 Nevermore The Madness Of Poe Quoth the grimp0nd....give me more. Great sets, great actors and some very consistant scares. A special shout out goes to the scareactor who jumps out holding Poe's severed head, you got me more than once. Some very memorable scenes in this one like the room with the masked dancers and the room with the with the ravens. Very enjoyable throughout. RATING 8 Saws n Steam Into The Machine I again wasn't expecting much from a Jaws queue house. This broke the curse for me. Once again great sets and enthusiastic scareactors. Some very good scenes including the waterfall scene and the one where the guy is carving the face down victims leg off. Gory but very well done. RATING 8 H.R. Bloodengutz Presents Holidays Of Horror I think i told everyone before the event that this was the only house i wasn't at all interested in. How could i enjoy a comedy house? How wrong was i? Although i didn't really get any scares in here (ok the Feaster Bunny got me once) i was always entertained. My congratulations to the excellent H.R. Bloodengutz himself in the opening room who was not only funny and entertaining but played the role beautifully. Our group (Myself, Tweedle, Source and Aaron) always took the time to talk to him and were never dissapointed. I think we all thought he'd have made a better icon than the desperately dissapointing Lady Luck and i hope to see him get another house next year. I also thought the reaction from the Leprachauns to us shouting Lucky Charms was pretty funny, thanks for playing along guys. RATING 8 The Thing Love the movie, couldn't wait to experience the house, i was a little dissapointed. It seemed a little empty and devoid of scares. It did deliver on the sets and the animatronics were very interesting if not scary. I did feel as though i was walking through the real station so that was a success but it really needed more variation of scareactors and more of them. I still enjoyed this house but it could have been so much more. RATING 6 Nightingales Blood Prey Awesome! It really felt like a world war trench. I think the concept of the Nightingales is brilliant and i really want to see them back in another setting. They are just so evil lol. I loved the idea that it was as important to look up as it was to look forward in this house and could fully believe that there was a war going on beyond the lip of the trench. A very memorable house. RATING 8 Winters Night The Haunting Of Hawthorn Cemetery I had a hard time deciding whether this or In Between was my favorite house of the year so in the end i going to call it a tie. The snow effect at the start instantly set the scene, it was just a bit frustrating that half the time it didn't work. From then on in the atmosphere was amazing and creepy. Liked the weeping angel (as i'm a Dr Who fan) and each and every scareactor seemed interesting. The peephole to the miniature scene was an obvious distraction but you just had to look anyway. Glad i did. Got a good scare there. Every area of this house was creepy and i loved it, i was constantly on edge and the scares were consistant. It was awesome. RATING 9 Scarezones Im not going to review each zone seperately as this review is dragging on long enough already but here is a brief overview of my thoughts on them. Most of the scarezones this year (with the exception of 7 and Acid Assault) were too small. Grown Evil was pretty to look at and the costumes were very good but the zone was too small. Canyon Of Dark Souls was a nice idea, the fog very effective but the zone was too small to be effective. Nightmaze was also small but that was the least of its problems. This area was almost a total waste of space. On all but one visit i never saw a gate move, never got a scare and was never entertained. On one occasion we actully saw two disinterested scareactors in this zone off to the side chatting to each other. This was the worst scarezone i've ever experienced i'm sad to say. When this zone was first revealed i, like many thought it sounded cool. But the more i thought about the logistics of pulling this off the more i feared it was not going to work. I'm unhappy to say that this seemed the case. Such a shame. Your Luck Has Run Out, another tiny zone was fairly weak too. It relied on the beautiful up high Lady Lucks to distract while the beastly ones on the ground jumping out of the shadows for the scare. This unfortunately like the icon herself was a bit two dimensional. Really dissapointed with the concept and use of the icon this year it seemed almost like an after thought. The zones wern't all bad though. 7 was very well done, a decent size and well populated. The ladies on the stage all played their roles well and really seemed into what they were doing. The minions were enthusiastic and busy while the costumes were great also. I can't really fault this zone. Acid Assault was another good zone. The projections were not that good up close but from a distance were awesome. This is another effect that i can't help feeling they were testing for next year. The scareactors and costumes again excelled here. This is what i expect from a zone with good use of street props to sell the area too. A special mention to the scareactor in the wheelchair, you were bloody awesome and i couldn't believe how fast you moved. The shows Bill And Ted - I'd heard some bad reviews of this and was expecting the worst. I was pleasantly surprised and i found i enjoyed and understood most of it (sometimes it's hard for a Brit to get all the jokes based on American pop culture) which helps. Definately better than last years and the final show of the year was certainly worth catching. Chow stole the show for me. Death Drums - Yawn. Drummers and dancers. Seriously? This is supposed to be at least equal to shows such as Brian Brushwood? Not for me. It came over as a cost cutting exercise to me and not original at all. Universal if you are listening please, please, please don't bring this back. So in closing i'd say Halloween Horror Nights 21 was pretty damn good. The scarezones may have been weak but the houses more than made up for them. Maybe next year we'll get both awesome or am i being greedy lol? Had a fantastic time, with some great people and got my face on the group photo on the last night too. Not bad, not bad at all.