Pandry

Thank you both for not making me feel like a total HHN leper! I agree with all on the beautiful sets, they are. But I've yet to experience the scares. Not sure if it was posted on here somewhere, but I read that when you see a ghost, a scene follows on how they were killed? Sounds cool. I'm horrible with picking up storylines. I need to check this out further.

I don't know what it is exactly with this house but it just doesn't do it for me. And that's driving me crazy. I've read so many positive reviews on it. A lot of people saying it's one of the best originals ever. I've been through 4 times now. I don't have negative vibes, at all. I'll keep going through it. But I've always loved originals over IPs and, hanging debris aside, I feel like I should love this house. Definitely like the croc scare. And I liked the loose floor boards opening night. That was a surprise in a half. But I knew then and there that it was trouble. Sometimes you have to scratch your head on how they (HHN) would think there wouldn't be a huge risk of injuries to have this originally in there.

I share just about all your sentiments. Curious to see your thoughts as you do more runs. I know my views on certain areas have changed after doing multiple nights.

Pics no worky for me. Anyone else able to see Blazer's? I'll get around to posting some hopefully this weekend.

Take this with a grain of salt, as I always do: but if you're arriving at gates open and see the wait time for this house being uncharacteristically long, it's supposedly on purpose. My friend is in the Vamp '55 zone and, according to him, his stage manager said they post an artificially high AHS wait time at the start to encourage people go to other houses first. The reasoning is that with its location serving as the house most would go into first, this time trick would help move people to other houses and then circle back. HHN up to its Jedi mind tricks again.

I can understand certain peoples feelings towards various attractions, etc. I'd never want to minimize someone's stance and opinion. But if they have issue with what's being presented at these events, don't go. It's just that simple. This country has become so P.C. I didn't read that Knott's article. But most of the past Psychoscarepy and other mental institution houses are themed towards how they were way back in the old days - with some HHN creativity added! I pay a lot of money each year to come to this event and experience effed up she-yat!

I did this house opening night and was like, eh, not bad. Wasn't blown away. But then did it last Thursday and I WAS blown away!! Amazing. That's the best part of being able to do multiple nights - opinions change. It's now moved up to my top 3.

I guess it all depends on what you want to do. With ROF, you have multiple nights. It's so hard to predict flow nowadays. My guess is that AHS will have a decent wait time around 10pm. Maybe head down Hollywood Blvd first and go counterclockwise? You'll hit two good IPs and an original off the bat with Halloween, TOTA and TCM.

Yes, I'd love more cool effects added that aren't necessarily 3D like camouflaged scares they've used in the past. In-Between was amazing and had a lot of this and the X-mas tree type in Penn & Teller seems to be the last I can recall. Lunatics felt so much like Asylum but just different costumes. Both were okay but I felt they had a lot more potential.

I was always under the impression that any type of pics or filming was prohibited in Orlando. For whatever reason, during HHN 24 while near the start of a house, I decided to read the warning sign, list of what's not allowed, etc. It specifically said no "flash" photography of any kind. I then questioned the team member right there as I wanted to take non flash pics and apparently he never read it in full before either. We both went with no pics or filming, regardless of flash, to be safe. I'm then pretty sure last year, just to double check, I read another sign and that one covered all bases about no filming or photography of any kind. We get booze but not filming, you get filming but no booze. Strange coasts we have.

^^ Concur with all of it. Who would've thought? Now they have a ready made excuse for not decorating the archway at the entrance too much - you just walk by it! I must say, given the choice, I'll take walking right on through. It was the best!

Okay, so, I've never reviewed before. The cheap in the title refers to how this will strictly be a cheap overview. No ratings. No technical aspects. Just what went down, IMO. Mainly I wanted to go on record after two nights and then see how I feel at the end. I think I'm more curious to read this, myself, at the end and see if/how my feelings and experiences have changed. I've been attending yearly since 2004. Always avoided opening night due to crowd fears. Yes, it's HHN after all, the crowded affair it is, and I hate long lines. And thanks to TWD, this is the 4th year we've done express, Love it! But opening night is now jammed with Saturday's not. Hmmm. I'll get this part out of the way: as opening weekend with Fri and Sat are the only times we attend the event with no work the next day, we tend to enjoy the libations the most. Unfortunately, Friday proved too much. We did 3 houses - Halloween, Tombs and TCM. Friday was foggy and unfortunately my review will stick to Saturday, as recollections from Friday are sketchy at best. Saturday we hit everything and drank responsibly... I must say, with security in the garage's hub, and how smoothly it went, I must declare this the best entry into HHN. In fact, it was so bizarre to not see the security apparatus at the gate. Surreal. We went at 8pm each night to get $5 parking. Went to AHS first around 9pm. Posted at 70 min. Express left barely enough time to finish our drinks. LOVED this house. Best of the night. Lines were short enough to feel pulsed. Amazing sets and scares. Can't wait to go back. Stayed true to the show. Loved every bit of it. Next was Ghost Town. Another killer job with the sets. Just beautiful. I thought some of the open areas lacked actors but I've felt this on the first weekend every year. No biggie. As with AHS, the lines were pulsed, not intentionally, no doubt. But even rarer, still, the coordinators inside weren't rushing us. We could go at our own pace. No waving flashlights. Were they all given a lombotomy? Exorcist next. I've only ever seen certain parks of the movie, never in whole. But those with me who have, were raving. I loved it. Room for improvement but it's a must see house. TWD next. I have a blockbuster announcement: My name's not really Matt, I'm Kylo Ren. But the real blockbuster announcement is that I liked this house! Saturday really was the twilight zone. I want this IP gone but doing a best of worked. Had my fave scenes from other years' houses and I even saw many zombies that looked zombie...ish. As in, not wearing a zombie make-up kit purchased from Walmart. Go figure. Next was Lunatics w/Chance. I love Chance and feel short changed. Barely saw her. And I'm not a 3D fan so I left the house nonplussed. If it means a better shot at seeing Chance, I'll keep going back, dammit! Haloween 2 next. Never saw any but the first movie. The house felt a lot like two years ago. And seemed to increase the Myers' count. They were everywhere!! I was just meh, with this house. Tombs of the dangling items next. Still don't know yet on this one. Saw lots of empty boo holes, which, again, I always see opening weekend. Loved the statue/croc scare!! Tried to do TCM next as we were at 12:30a and still had to hit Krampus. Something happened at TCM as the line from the main entrance out to the main queue had no movement. Knowing we could go another night, we bailed. Got to Krampus around 12:55pm after seeing my vampire friend in the vamp zone. So I watched the movie for the first time on Thursday night to get ready. Complex and large characters from the film. Wasn't sure how they'd be recreated. It was so-so. Very nice sets but I didn't see what I hoped to see. Also, not sure if it was due to end of night or exhaustion, but it seemed like an extremely short house. Before I knew it we were exiting. Seemed to just have the same looking character at each scene doing/attempting scares. No scare zones impressed me. I wouldn't call them bad but, well, not sure how to describe them. No real eerie music anywhere. Just Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson blaring. And other non scary soundtracks. I used to love zones over houses. They were so fun and so completely themed and immersed. Haven't felt that in years. It is what it is, I guess. But being in the streets going to each house now feels like a concert/party. I had fun, though and there were some absolutely amazing houses. Can't wait for a return Thursday.

I hit this on Saturday (missed it Friday) and was blown away. I've seen Season 1 and 5 so I knew those. But Saturday was such a less crowded atmosphere than Friday that it was to the point where it seemed like pulsed lines. Had no one in front of us. Timed every scare. Well, not timed, just got them because no one was in front. Amazing sets. The resemblance of the actors to the show characters was great. Some looked so much like GaGa it was uncanny. One part that I was hoping for but then I thought was a missed opportunity: But I was really blown away by this house. And it seemed to go on and on and on.

LOL on the first part. We went Fri and Sat and one of our friends on Sat says "I'll skip that house with all the stuff hanging in my face." The second part of your je ne sais quoi - I've felt that going into this year. Can't really explain it. Had fun last year but left with a blah feeling. I didn't even visit this board once after last year until the end of this past July. Had no interest in what the houses would be in advance. Couldn't have said any of this better myself. When I first enter HHN, literally enter, and have Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson blaring with Chance's voice mixed in (which I, too, thought was Bart Simpson at first), the mood is altered. Maybe it's the new generation of attendees that like it. It must be popular enough where they keep doing it. But now I can't even find a scare zone that gives just some semblance of a classic scare zone. This is what's killing me. I've read Aiello say may times how the original Fright Nights and HHN's were like a big party. I don't know if they just decided to go back to that? But there's plenty of room to accommodate everyone. There wasn't anywhere in the whole street experience that I'd consider "eerie." Some of the zones looked very good. But a little dark ambient music with scary sound effects and lighting makes all the difference.

If only we had Hagrid's umbrella...

I decided to watch the movie last night in preparation. After reading comments and not knowing what's what, that definitely helps. Now I'm interested in seeing how they pull it off.

Happy Opening Night everyone! It's on like Donkey Kong.

"NO SPOILERS." - There. It's now been posted. You're good to go.

And that's why I've always passed on invites to employee preview. So much is being tested. I can wait the extra two days for opening night. I think one of the cool aspects of a FFP is seeing the event evolve as the weeks go by.

I was just thinking the other night of a great combo of jubilation and agony: HHN announces this is the last year of TWD. Followed by an announcement of a new partnership of FTWD starting next year.

And if you want to take out a second mortgage you can go f/1.2. So maybe we'll luck out on the weather. It looked threatening last night but held off. The current 60% rain chance for Friday is basically normal Florida weather. No one has a clue either way. But it's much better than the 100% from two days ago.

Anyone else been following the exceedingly bad weather forecast for the rest of the week and weekend? Preview night could be a washout. I know Central Florida weather can change day to day, but dammit!! Not that I haven't been thoroughly soaked in previous opening nights. It's just that the streets shut down and that makes the house lines that much longer. C'est la vie.

I can't help but have this remind me of Station from Bill & Ted's 2. What's wrong with me?

But...would you buy this one?? Jeremy, is that you wearing the product??

Not to mention I never got my gift I was tirelessly searching you out for.