EthanH

This past Sunday was my third time at HHN, with 2015 and 2018 being my other two times. I'm a big fan of the lore of HHN and the backstories and know all about the past events so I was thrilled to go this year. #10 - Stranger Things: While I liked season one of Stranger Things just fine, I really didn't care for season two and especially season three, so as you can imagine, I was apprehensive for this house. I was right that this house was nowhere near as good as last year's Stranger Things house. Weak on scares and more so just felt like they were recreating scenes from the show rather than putting you in the show. I guess my general distain for this house also has to do with how insane the lines were when the best houses weren't anywhere as long. I can understand Stranger Things winning house of the year last year, but I'll be fairly bitter if it wins this year. The most positive thing I can say about this house was the set-piece with the school bus, I thought that was genuinely creative and cool. Grade: C #9 - Nightingales: Blood Pit: I did this house twice and I didn't think it was particularly memorable. That being said, I really liked the bird costumes. They were really creepy and probably the creepiest costumes of the event. Grade: B- #8 - Killer Klowns from Outer Space: I watched the movie for the first time the night before I went on Sunday, and the movie was pretty good. The house itself is decent, light on scares but some creepy set pieces. Grade: B- #7 - Us: Similar to Stranger Things, I wasn't a big fan of Us, but I was pleasantly surprised by the house. While I put it in eighth place, there were some excellent set pieces, mainly the other family's fancy loft. I don't remember it being particularly scary. Grade: B #6 - Universal Monsters: Favorite parts of this house were Frankenstein and creature of the Black Lagoon, and that part towards the beginning where the Wolfman runs toward the crowd. Probably the most average house of the night. Grade: B+ #5 - Graveyard Games: I always like when they put extensive backstories in their original houses. The Facebook screen for the queue was nice. The house itself was extremely atmospheric and did not hold back with the scares. The pitch-black room towards the end was genuinely frightening. I can definitely see why this house is considered one of the best from the event. Grade: A- #4 - House of 1000 Corpses: I watched the movie for the first time a few days before the event. I loved the movie and the house was pretty much exactly what I expected it would be. I did the house three times, the second most of any house that night. Good uses of humor. Grade: A #3 - Depths of Fear: The first house I did. During my last two trips, I hit the very first Production Central house first (using express pass) and boy what a mistake that was. Going straight to the back of the park was incredible. I was able to walk on to Depths of Fear without using my express pass and then I was able to do the same thing for House of 1000 Corpses without express! But as for Depths of Fear, I loved the submarine setting. Some of the TV monitors (in the entrance and with the crew drowning) were a bit cheesy but maybe intentionally so. Excellent use of colors in the house. Grade: A
 #2 - Ghostbusters: This house was heavenly. Got to do it twice and it was excellent. Funny and creative. The smell of burning marshmallow was great. The taller props toward the end of the house were beautiful, and I loved the shot of that scene of Sigorney Weaver on the roof above the colorful New York skyline. If this wins House of the Year, I'd be thrilled. Grade: A #1 - Yeti: Terror of the Yukon: I got to do this house six times, the final four of those times being in a row. The sixth and final time was excellent, towards the end of the event where there was nobody behind me and hardly anyone in front of me. And maybe the fact that it was incredibly humid the night I went and such a cold house felt incredible, but Yeti is my favorite house of the night. The use of interior/exteriors of the cabins. The ice caves toward the end. Atmospheric, and certainly scary. Some of the yetis really scared me and had frightening designs. May possibly beat 2015's Jacks Monsters & Mayhem for best house I've ever gone through. Grade: A+ Well, that's it for my 2019 review. This being my third time, I think I can now rank the events that I went to. 2019 was a good year. Compared to 2018, I think that 2019 had higher highs but also lower lows. I think if I had to rank them, I'd go: 2018 > 2019 > 2015

It's been four years since I logged on to this site. I'm returning to HHN on Sunday for my third HHN experience (my first being in 2015 and my second being in 2018). I realized I posted a review for 2015, but I didn't post one last year for 2018, so I figured since I enjoyed 2018's event marginally more than 2015's, I should do an extremely late review. I did rank the houses the night after I went last year, and this is based on that. 10. The Horrors of Blumhouse. I remember enjoying the Happy Death Day section of the house a great deal, even though I never saw this movie. I haven't seen The Purge either, but I'm more familiar with that concept, and I don't think it was as bad as 2015's Purge house, but I'm glad The Purge isn't returning for 2019. Grade: B- 9. Dead Exposure: Patient Zero. This is a house that I wish I could've gotten a behind the scenes tour of because I could tell it was extremely detailed. I also love how much care they took in the backstory, as they do with all their best houses. However, with the flashing lights and constant darkness, I couldn't absorb the scenery. It did make up for that in scares, however. Grade: B 8. Stranger Things. I'll admit, I'm not the biggest Stranger Things fan either. I liked season one a lot (which is what this house was based on), but seasons two and three... that's a different story. This was the first house I did the night I went (boy, what a mistake that was. Even with fast pass). As for the house itself, it was extremely scenic. It was kind of strange that they didn't combine seasons one and two, like they're doing seasons two and three this year, considering season two had already been out for a year when this house came out. I'm more worried about 2019's house. I hear it's not as good as 2018's, and I only liked 2018's just fine. Grade: B 7. Poltergeist. From what I can tell, this is generally considered to be the best house of the event. I'm not the biggest fan of the movie, but I remember the house was perfectly fine, I just like the other houses more. Definitely one of the scarier houses. Grade: B 6. Halloween 4. I don't think I've ever seen Halloween 4 in particular, but I'm pretty sure I saw the original Halloween, so I wasn't particularly lost during this house. For a house in the Shrek theater, it was far more enjoyable than 2015's Asylum in Wonderland. Grade: B+ 5. Scary Tales. In all honesty, I can't remember a damn thing about this house. The perils of writing a review more than a year after I did the event. I only did the house once. I think I remember something about Hansel and Gretel? This must have been a good house, because I had this fifth in my ranking when I ranked them the day after. But I like giving advantages to the original idea houses. So more Scary Tales! Grade: B+? 4. Slaughter Sinema. This is where the houses take a huge uptick in quality. I had the fast pass and decided to wait in the regular line just so I could do the house again later in the night. So I ended up having the longest wait time with this house at nearly 40 minutes. I adore the idea they had of going into a different B-movie with a poster alluding to what you're about to enter. Genius idea. Grade: A 3. Trick 'R Treat. I didn't see the movie prior to doing the house, but I did watch it a few days after. I loved the movie, and I loved the house even though I didn't see the movie. It's such a wonderfully halloween house, going through a neighborhood with pumpkins everywhere and all that. This house perhaps had my favorite set decor of all the houses. Grade: A 2. Carnival Graveyard. I think I did this house twice? Maybe once. But I loved it and thought it competed admirably with my number one. I love carnivals around halloween, and doing a spooky metal circus a la Carnival of Carnage was a great choice. Probably the scariest house of the event. Grade: A 1. Seeds of Extinction. Not a whole lot of praise for this house, which is shocking. I loved it. It's the only house in the history of HHN that I got to do more than twice. Four times! And two of those times were in a row when the park was nearly closing. Maybe it was just because I absorbed more detail and absorbed the surroundings enough, but I adored the backstory and the incredible amount of detail they applied to the settings. The airplane above surprised me every time. The titled walkway was great. The costumes were creative, unique, and blended beautifully with the surroundings. I have a feeling that Depths of Fear for 2019 will be the most similar to this house, so I'll keep my eyes peeled for that one. Grade: A+

I would really like to see if they could bring Leave It To Cleaver back like they did Run this year.

Is there a reason they stopped doing Halloween Horror Nights in Islands of Adventure after 2005?

This was my first time at HHN and I had an absolute blast. Luckily I had the express pass; I don't think I would've been able to handle doing it without one. I was surprised at how much I got scared during this. I thought I'd be like a blank wall walking through all the houses, but I probably got scared (jump scared, I mean) like 25 or 30 times in total. Using the express pass on all the houses (except Run and Body Collectors), I was able to get done with everything in three hours, which made me realize I should probably be more selective of what I use my express pass on. But for my first time, I think I picked a good year to go to since (from what I've heard) the general consensus seems to be that this year is the best of the last three or four years. I'll try to post whatever photos I took on the pictures area of the site. Houses (in order of least favorite to favorite) 9. The Purge. I've never seen the film but I know the premise. I can only remember a few parts, however. If I remember correctly, they went a little overboard with the flashing lights in this house. Grade: C 8. The Walking Dead. This one was probably less scary than the purge, but I do think that they were more creative in this house than the purge. (Also, a scare actor got me twice before the house even started). Grade: C 7. Asylum in Wonderland. This was a very creative house. I thought that the facade with the comic book was interesting. The part with the knights in the black and white checkered room was my favorite part. It wasn't very scary, though. I almost fell over in the tunnel thingy. Grade: B- 6. American Werewolf in London. I saw the movie a few years ago, but my memory was a bit hazy so a lot of things seemed out place, but I remembered some of it. The entrance with the bar was great and the part with the car and the dead body through the window was really good. Grade: B 5. Run. I was most looking forward to this house, but (even knowing the premise) I was very lost going through this house... the first time. Luckily I had done the regular line the first time so I can use my express later in the night when it got more crowded. The second time, I started to pay more attention to everything that was going on and enjoyed it a lot more. (Being a Willy Wonka fan, it was nice seeing they used the Candyman song in the Candy room) Grade: A- 4. Freddy vs Jason. This house really surprised me. Before going, I thought that this was going to be ranked a lot lower considering I'm not a fan of the Friday the 13th series and I only liked the original Nightmare on Elm Street. But this was very well done. I made the mistake of using my express pass when the line was only TEN MINUTES, so I'm pretty angry at myself. The scare actors got me a lot in this one. Grade: A- 3. Insidious. This house was by far the creepiest, especially the hallway part. With express, I only waited in line for about 5 minutes (with the majority of those 5 minutes just walking towards the front of the line). A friend of mine, who didn't have express, waited three hours and ended up only having time do this house. Grade: A 2. Body Collectors. The facade and the entire house was beautiful. Besides Run, this was the only house I did twice. The second time (around 1:00 AM on Saturday morning), there was a delay and the line just stopped, inside the house, for like 25 minutes. I was so disappointed that I was paused in line at the black curtains right before I could see the facade. By any chance, does anyone know what caused this delay? Grade: A 1. Jack's 25 Years of Monsters and Mayhem. This was the first house I did and I loved it; It'll always have a special place in my heart. I did this one first because I read in an article that made for a good recap house of the previous 25 years and was great for first timers. Even though this is my first year, I have been following HHN since 2011, so I was able to identify some parts of this house. My favorite part was the Screamhouse part, with the Caretaker (who's my favorite icon) and Cindy. Like Freddy vs Jason, I was so disappointed I used my express pass because I wanted to do it again but by that time, the line had gone up to an hour. Grade: A+ Scare zones (in order of least favorite to favorite): N/A. All-Nite Die In. To be fair, I barely spent any time in this one so I'm going to refrain from grading and ranking it. I did see photos online and I thought going in the black and white costumes was very creative. Grade: N/A 4. Scary Tales. I liked that gear thing with the steampunk balloons on top with the dead bodies hanging on the side of it. The costumes (as bloody fairytale characters) were nice. It was a bit underwhelming though. Grade: B- 3. Evil's Roots. The scare actors were on fire in this one. The decorations were beautiful too. Grade: A- 2. HHN - Icons. I probably spent the most time in this scare zone. There was an enormous amount of creativity and detail that went into those floats the icons sat on. I was able to see (and record) an usher, director, and caretaker kill. I wish I could've seen the storyteller do one; I'll probably have to look online for that. Grade: A- 1. Psychoscareapy Unleashed. This scare zone had the most clear plot: Escaped Mental Patients. I thought that the frightened trick or treaters was a nice touch. There was also an enormous amount of detail in this one too. I liked how the individual New York buildings had basic Halloween decorations on them as if someone actually lived there. The crashed bus was a great idea too, as well as the pumpkin carver and the apple bobber and that third thing with the person and the microphone (I wasn't exactly sure what she was doing). Grade: A I didn't do any of the shows because I saw Jack's show on YouTube about a month ago and heard that Bill & Ted wasn't worth it. Overall, I had a fantastic time for my first time and I am looking forward to going next year.

This, in a couple weeks, will be my first time going to Halloween Horror Nights in Orlando and I am very excited because I’ve been wanting to go for six years but couldn’t find time. I know all about the icons and the prior events so I’m especially excited that I will be going on a year where Jack is back (as well as Psychoscareapy). I do have a some questions if anyone would be so kind as to answer them. 1) The only two houses I am dead-set on going to are Run and Body Collectors. I’m open to any other houses. To those who’ve went, which are the best ones? 2) How good are the scare zones? Which ones are the best? 3) Do they serve food and if so, is it any good? 4) Are the lines for the rides long? 5) Are the HHN Express Passes worth it? Do they make much of a different? I will be going on a Friday (which I hear is the worst night to go on). 6) Do they sell HHN apparel and merchandise at the hotels?