[Henry14’s Super Late HHN Hollywood 2018 Review!]

Hello everyone! This is Henry14 here with a review of 2018’s Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood. After the disasterpiece that was 2017, a lot of fans were worried about the future of HHN. Is John Murdy finally retiring? Will Universal allow him to do original concepts again? Was 2017 just a fluke and will the event go back to being awesome? Or was 2016 the fluke and will the event be doomed for all eternity? And most importantly; WILL THE BLACK WALLS COME BACK??? Only one thing was for sure; I couldn’t wait for 2018, mostly because I needed the answers to these questions. As some of you guys know, the lineup got supposedly leaked once again. There were properties like It, The Thing, and AHS Asylum, and I thought it was too good to be true. Well it turns out that it was! We may have finally gotten the classic monsters and little Sam this year, but we have yet another Purge related attraction, a random Halloween sequel that isn’t even canon anymore, and an excuse to sell Blu-Rays of Blumhouse’s two worst films. So it was some good stuff mixed with some not so good stuff. The actual lineup overall was pretty solid on paper, but I was also preparing myself for some disappointing executions. This was my 5th year attending the event, second year I bought the Frequent Fear Pass, and my first time going on opening night. I’m going to rank the mazes from worst to best, talk about the terror tram, and grade the scare zones. So without ado, let’s get right into this!

 

7. The First Purge (*sigh* I miss Krampus)

I absolutely cannot believe that I still to this day have not been to a Purge-less HHN! Like most people, I was not excited for this when it was announced, mostly because it was Purge. But we’ve never seen an actual maze based on the property. Some would argue that we did have a Purge maze at last year’s Blumhouse of Horrors and the Gauntlet of Fear from 2016 but those don’t count. It’s never been under a black tent with trigger scares or special effects or Black Walls. So I was curious to see how this would be pulled off in traditional maze form. I’m not gonna lie, this maze was pretty bad. It started off strong with some solid scares, but on the halfway point it just goes downhill and falls flat. I haven’t seen the new film so I was hoping this house would visually tell its story. I did not understand a single thing! I mean yeah it’s the First annual Purge but who’s that Skeletor guy and what’s his deal? Who was that girl on the swing? What is the deal with all the mannequins? I had so many questions but I refuse to watch anything from the Purge franchise. The concept is interesting but every movie looks like the same exact thing and I don’t wanna waste two hours of my life watching something dull and uninspired. The facade was very cheap and tacky, I’ve seen home haunts that looked better than this. The sets were alright but the amount of Black Walls was insane. There was a long section of them and it was so dark, I didn’t know where the hell I was going. A maze host had to show me which way to go with their light wand. The maze had no proper finale, it was just a bunch railings with scare actors wearing extremely shitty Skeletor masks. In fact I think all the mazes this year ended like that now that I think about it. The First Purge had the potential to be intense and very scary and it does have its cool moments, but unfortunately the end result was totally bland and brought nothing new or game-changing to the table. As much as everyone is tired of seeing this IP, I do not see it going away till a very long time. At times, the lines for this were longer than Stranger Things. STRANGER THINGS! The GP just cannot get enough of the Purge so unfortunately it is highly likely that we will see the Purge again next year. I seriously can’t be the only one hoping that Blumhouse will finally stop making these movies so we can stop seeing it at HHN.

Final Grade: D+

 

6. Blumhouse of Horrors 2 (Still calling this Blumhouse of Horrors goddamn it!) 

I was DEFINITELY NOT looking forward to this one. Unfriended and Truth or Dare are the type of IPs that we ironically talk about being at Horror Nights. Other examples include The Bye Bye Man, The Boy, and Rings. Now I’m legitimately questioning if those movies will ever become mazes. Truth or Dare is just a ridiculously stupid waste of time and while Unfriended isn’t exactly a terrible movie the whole thing takes place in a Skype call. The original ending was the only thing that made me actually want to do that damn maze. To make things worse, this was announced on my birthday! What a fucking way to celebrate it. :’) I’m glad the movie theater facade from last year is the main entrance for this year. The Truth or Dare segment was actually alright. It had neat sets and I especially like the room with the axe-wielding nun and severed limbs everywhere. To be honest I think the film should’ve been as over the top as that scene. When I first saw the derpy faced scare actor I did a double take and asked myself, “Wait the Purge is in this??” It looked like the polite stranger mask from The Purge, so it just goes to show how cheap the masks are. There wasn’t really anything interesting going on from a visual standpoint. Nothing memorable here in Truth or Dare. The Unfriended section was decent. I enjoyed seeing the stoner putting his hand in the blender but when he pulled it out and revealed his skeleton hand it turned me off. Like WTF is this, a cartoon??? The deep throat hair curler death was also cool but the mask for the victim looked so bad! The knife through the eye scene was cool as well but again the bug-eyed mask just killed it for me. Why couldn’t they just have the actor put on an eye prosthetic with a rubber knife glued on it? We barely see the Laura Barns character in the final jump scare of the film. The character in the maze was basically this vampire looking demon chick wearing jeans and a turtleneck sweater. Yup that’s our antagonist everybody! I can see what they were going for with the projector scare at the end but I thought it wasn’t really needed. After the Unfriended portion, you hear the distorted Lobby song again from last year and you think it’s over. But the maze bamboozles the guests and transports them to an original story based on the opening Blumhouse logo. This was my most anticipated part of Blumhouse and I was let down. The only thing about The Girl that reminded me of the logo was a light bulb. I was a little confused about the story, is the girl possessed by the demon or is she the demon’s servant? Or is the demon the devil and is the girl the anti-Christ? The demon itself was the most generic looking demon guy you could ever think of. Red skin, big horns, black robe, they could’ve done so much more with his design. I also didn’t like how this section had the most amount of Black Walls. Only two small rooms and long ass hallways of nothingness in between them. Overall Blumhouse of Horrors 2: Electric Boogaloo was better than its predecessor but it is far from being a favorite of mine.

Final Grade: C+

 

5. Trick R Treat (It’s about damn time!) 

Ever since Trick R Treat was released to home video, fans have been wanting to see the film adapted as a maze. John Murdy said he was gonna wait until a sequel was made so the IP can be relevant again, but he just got tired of waiting and did it anyway! This was a maze 10 years in the making, but did it disappoint? IMO, it didn’t, I thought it was pretty decent. But I’m not gonna lie, after my first walkthrough of TrT I was vastly disappointed with it. Only one scene per story and the rest of it was just Black Walls. But after a few more rounds I started to appreciate the details and theming more and more. The facade was excellent, just like Krampus it gave off this cool fun vibe while hyping people up. This maze had a great first scene, I especially liked the Season Greetings Easter egg. The ghost sheet Sam was cute and the little bastard would always make me jump, even if he was scaring the person in front of me or behind me. I also loved the transitions between every story, not the Black Walls but the titles in glowing orange writing. The Principal had a good number of Black Walls before we saw the exterior to the Wilkins house which looked really cool. It looked like they repurposed the Jonah Hill puking dummy and made him look more like Thurman Murman which I don’t mind. The Principal Wilkins actors were extremely well casted, you could tell they were into their roles. Surprise Party starts off with more railing scares and even more Black Walls and ends with a really cool forest room. The werewolf costumes were awesome and I also loved how they reused the AWIL puppets, it made me remember how close those damn things lunged out at you in that maze. The School Bus Massacre was very epic, the school bus kids were creepy as hell and the quarry set was so grand in size. I am a tad bit disappointed we don’t go inside the bus in its pre-sunken form but at least it made an appearance in the scare zone. I would have to say that Meet Sam was my favorite part of this maze. Mr. Kreeg’s house looked fantastic despite it being in a tent in the Mummy venue. I liked all the nice little details in the staircase and Sam climbing on the ceiling spitting at everyone was also very fun. The bedroom from the film was extremely well replicated in the maze, I loved the flaming jack-o-lantern but it’s an effect that requires you to walk through the house during the night to fully appreciate it. The final scene with the zombie school bus kids was a cool little tableau, but I wished they had a real actor pretending to be one of the dummies. Before the maze ends, we see the title of the movie and get our last dose of Black Walls and boo-hole scares. I don’t think Murdy planned to include the Black Walls when he first wanted to create this maze, his original vision was probably totally different than what we got. So even though the abundance of Black Walls was ridiculous in this particular maze, Trick R Treat still manages to have a lot of fun moments, some great set pieces, and plenty of good scares.

Final Grade: B

 

4. Stranger Things (The Force Awakens of HHN)

I’ve been wanting to see Stranger Things as maze ever since I saw the first season. Sure it isn’t the scariest IP ever, but I thought it would be so cool to go through the Upside Down and see the Demogorgon in person. I was very excited that we were getting a soundstage as a maze location again. I hope they use it again for 2019 but it is probably unlikely since filmmakers need soundstages too, and when it comes to Universal it’s movie studio first and theme park second. Now the reason why I called this maze the Force Awakens of HHN is because when fans first experienced it they really enjoyed it. But after a couple of more experiences and a lot dissecting and deep thinking, they start to find the flaws and dislike more and more. And then there are the hardcore purists that absolutely hated it from the very beginning. As for me, I liked it! The  80s music playing in the queue was nice, it really set up the mood and hyped me up every time. You could never go wrong with Africa by Toto! I actually don’t mind that there’s no facade. If people are that upset about Stranger Things not having a facade, then why is AVP being forgiven? That crashed spaceship is technically inside the maze and not a main entrance because it’s one of the multiple indoor facades in that maze. The sound design work at Horror Nights never seizes to amaze me, and this maze was no exception. I loved how you can hear Mike, Lucas, and Dustin on the walkie talkies and it’s like they’re with you almost guiding you through the maze. The soundtrack sounds great in the show and sounds great in the maze as well. The set design was amazing, I can see why people say that it didn’t feel like a soundstage maze but what they had was still impressive. Now let’s talk about the Demogorgons. The costumes could’ve been better, like way better. The color scheme was off, it looked like the Demogorgons were albino or dehydrated. I also don’t like how they only appear in their open face form, I don’t understand why the makeup department can’t make more than one mask for the same character. Ash from AVED, Jack from Shining, and now the Demogorgon have fallen victim to having only one emotion. The scares were pretty weak in this one but I think it’s because they needed to tone down the scariness since the demographic for this property mostly consists of little tweens. I can understand that but I, like other haunt fans, would’ve enjoyed the scares better if they were more hard-hitting or less predictable and obvious. Now I’m going to say a really unpopular opinion about a certain something in this maze so just bare with me. *inhales*...the Upside Down wasn’t all that bad! Orlando’s Upside Down is obviously a thousand times better but you can’t deny that Hollywood was at least trying their best with their version. They really wanted to try something new and while many people thought the end result was bad, I personally thought it had some cool elements. I wanted the Upside Down to last longer and maybe cooling down the temperature would’ve added to the experience but they did an okay job with what they had. As a maze at Halloween Horror Nights, it definitely had its shortcomings. But as a Stranger Things experience, they completely knocked it out of the park. It could’ve been a lot better but it also could’ve been a lot worse.

Final Grade: B

 

3. Halloween 4 (The Quest For Peace) 

Michael Myers Comes Home was an excellently well-crafted maze and they managed to top it with Hell Comes to Haddonfield! It was kind of a stupid decision to get the rights to the fourth movie of the franchise instead of the newest film. But as long as Michael Myers is at the event, the GP and Horror Nights fans will come and see him no matter what movie it’s based on. The film itself is okay but it wasn’t really maze-worthy so I was curious to see how it would be pulled off. I had mixed emotions on my initial experience. I loved some of the scares and sets but it felt like they ran out of ideas while making this maze and ended it abruptly with Black Walls. I was expecting something along the lines of the last two Halloween mazes, meaning I was expecting exact recreations of the scenes, a lot of amazing scares, and a badass ending. That wasn’t exactly what we got with Halloween 4 but it is definitely not a terrible maze. I liked the Penney’s Diner and Gas Station facade, it was quite large and realistic looking. The garage was pretty cool but why did they get rid of the mechanic’s hanging corpse? I guess it was to make scaring easier for the actor but it’s the little details like that that give these live recreations of any film at HHN an extra layer of awesomeness. The Loomis shootout scene where he confronts Michael is one of my favorite scenes of the movie and seeing it in person was pretty epic. One thing that really bothered me about this maze was that they overdid an effect in there. You have a Michael dummy appear in a Pepper’s ghost effect and a Michael scare actor comes out from the opposite side. It’s a cool gag and all but it got really repetitive and predictable. As for the design of the entire maze, it felt as if John and Chris were making an original maze that took some inspiration from The Return of Michael Myers. Sure they got the shotgun kill, the electrical plant with Bucky, and Jamie’s bedroom but the majority of this maze was basically Michael terrorizing the suburbs of Haddonfield at Halloween night. The scares were great in this one. Some of the Michaels here were ferocious, one of them made a friend of mine run into a wall and another Michael made another one of my friends back all the way up to the previous room. But the scare that got me the most was actually little Jamie hiding under the bed. I noticed her and I thought it was just a nice little detail but she came out and scared the living shit out of me. I am upset that there wasn’t a cool finale to end the maze in a high note, they could’ve easily done something with the last scene of the film with clown Jamie but I guess they didn’t even wanna bother to go into that part of the story. So instead we got...more Black Walls and railing scares. Whoopdee Fucken Doo! Out of all the Halloween mazes I’ve experienced, this is definitely the weakest one. But that doesn’t mean it was bad, it was just pretty underwhelming compared to the 2015 and 2016 mazes. The Halloween 4 maze was still very solid and a strong addition to the 2018 event.

Final Grade: B+

 

2. Poltergeist (Run to the Rapture Vortex Spotlight, Carol Anne!) 

I’ve sometimes wondered what it would be like if Poltergeist was at HHN. I just never thought of it too much because it seemed like it would be pretty difficult to translate into a haunted attraction. But if they did The Exorcist and The Shining...and Unfriended.....and This is the End.......they could pretty much do anything at this point. The film has a lot of spooky moments but to me there wasn’t really anything that screamed Horror Nights. So I was curious to see how they would pull this one off, and it honestly really delivered. Poltergeist surprised the hell outta me and ended up being one of my favorites this year. Just like Stranger Things, the sound design is ten out of ten. The voice actress who played Zelda Rubenstein’s character did a great impression and John Murdy’s daughter as Carol Anne wasn’t bad either. You also got the film’s score accompanying the maze which is great. I was in awe with how accurate the facade looked and the lighting made it even better at night. This maze definitely had the most varied scares out of all the mazes in 2018. You have the projector scare, the under the bed scare, the room full of dummies and actors scare, the giant puppet scare, and of course the boxhole/railing scare. On a side note I think this maze has the most clever use of the projector scare with the ghost claw coming out of the static screen. That room with the dead bodies was terrifying, it reminded so much of the Further scene from 2015’s Insidious maze. The sets were fairly basic, nothing remarkable, but what do you expect when the setting of the film is a house in the suburbs? I noticed that this maze tells the story differently from the movie. First you have Carol Anne talking to the TV people, then there’s the guy ripping his face off, but we then see the tree trying to snatch Robbie. In some ways this doesn’t work for me because it’s not in chronological order but in other ways it does work because it makes sense if your supposedly exploring the Freeling house. It’s kinda hard to explain. You go to a living room, a kitchen, a small bathroom, a bedroom, then you go in a closet, then in the Other Side, then you’re out of the closet and go back to the bedroom, and you eventually get the hell out of the damn house. So it sort of plays out like a paranormal house tour! If the scenes were structured the same way as the film it would take multiple choppy revisits to certain rooms and that would be very repetitive. There was a long ass hallway of nothing but Black Walls that lasted about 30 seconds, not as long as the ones in AVED but still pretty long. The puppets in this maze were fantastic, I think this is the most effects heavy maze since The Exorcist. If you think about it there were only about three rooms that had live actors and the rest of it relied on blackout performers. I loved how over the course of the event the Beast puppeteers got used to their roles and weren’t afraid to have them lunge out pretty close to the guests. However I don’t like that they got rid of the water effects. So if you put that one long section of Black Walls aside, you have yourself an extremely well made maze with a ton of great effects and awesome scares. To end this discussion on the Poltergeist maze I will say this; If you walked through the coffin scene without even flinching, you are a god damn cyborg!

Final Grade: A-

 

1. Universal Monsters (Take Notes, Dark Universe)

Ever since he saw Frankenstein at the age of 4, John Murdy has been a hardcore fan of the Classic Universal Monster movies. He grew up with characters like the Phantom, Wolfman, Mummy, and of course, Frankenstein’s monster. He considers himself a purist when it comes to those films, his love for the monsters is so big that he has an entire collection room filled with memorabilia and merchandise for everything UCM. It was his lifelong dream to create a maze based on these guys but he was always worried that he would pour all of his heart and soul into it only to have people hate it or say it wasn’t scary. So he waited for the appropriate time to do it...then he did Monsters Remix with Figure, which I think we can all agree was a horrible maze. And in 2018 Murdy announced that he was finally making his biggest dream maze, and I was ecstatic. But it was also revealed that Slash would be involved, and that’s where I started to worry. Luckily I attended Scare LA and saw the HHN panel where I heard some of the tracks he made and I was even more ecstatic! So I absolutely could not wait to see what was in store for Universal Monsters. When I laid my eyes on the facade while waiting in line I thought to myself, “This is gonna be a good one”. But after I finally walked through the whole damn thing on opening night, I came to the conclusion that it wasn’t a good maze...it was a phenomenal one. I LOVED UNIVERSAL MONSTERS!!! Is it the best HHN maze ever created? Not necessarily, but it’s definitely one of the best. The character designs for the modern day versions of the monsters were outstanding. Frankenstein’s monster looked scary but at the same time he looked very sympathetic, which is perfect. The Wolfman was awesome, the Phantom of the Opera was horrifying, the Mummy was creepy, Dracula and his brides were incredible, Renfield was fucking disturbing, Igor was really gross, the Bride of Frankenstein was gorgeous, and the Invisible Man was so beautiful. The set design was gothic as hell, since it was located in Parisian Courtyard I was a little hesitant about the sets but luckily they were incredible, I especially adored the Phantom’s music room and Frankenstein’s laboratory. I also like how they used screen used props from The Scorpion King and used it in the collection room with the Mummy. The scares in Universal Monsters were pretty good, some might argue that it wasn’t scary but I can see why. Murdy was going for a more theatrical experience rather than a trigger scare fest which I honestly don’t mind. It really adds to the atmosphere and whole aesthetic and even the actors clearly understood that. The invisible man is a perfect example but even some of the ones that had trigger pedals were acting instead of scaring. But when they did scare you they were still great, the coolest use of the projector scare goes to this maze. The final scene was everything I wanted and more! On my first walkthrough the We Belong Dead sequence was timed so perfectly and I have never been happier while exiting a maze in all my years of attending HHN. The story seems simple enough, the characters we know and love from the Universal Classic Monster movies have been resurrected in the modern world. A couple of my buddies were a bit confused about the story but I just told them not to think about it too much, this maze was purely made for fun and scares. The music that Slash made was top notch. I loved how every room had its own theme, unlike Clowns 3D where it’s just one big song. I was expecting loud ass electric guitar through the whole thing but it was actually very atmospheric and had a lot of variety. My personal favorite tracks are the main theme which can be heard in the escalators and the Phantom’s theme. While this maze does seem perfect, it really wasn’t. My biggest complaint was that each monster didn’t get equal representation. Frankenstein’s monster definitely appeared the most, as he’s Murdy’s favorite, there was more Phantom than Wolfman, and Dracula’s cameo was a little Easter egg compared to the Invisible Man’s beautifully epic cameo. And where was Gillman? Where were Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hide? And of course, I can’t talk about flaws without mentioning the Black Walls. It’s funny because the thing with this maze was that to me it looked like they wanted to have as little Black Walls as possible. They were so desperate to cover them up they even added stone brick wallpaper in some areas. Looks like Parisian Courtyard will give whatever maze that’ll be located there not one, but two long hallways of Black Walls.(one before the facade and one in the little archway between Mel’s Diner and the cafe.) This would’ve been an A+ maze if it wasn’t for the Black Walls and the monsters not having equal maze presence. But everything else including the sets, monsters, scares, music, and overall experience was perfect! Mr. Murdy, you’ve done the monsters justice. Easily on my top 5 of all time!

Final Grade: A

 

Terror Tram: Dreadtime Storiez

In 2016, Hollywood Harry was born and terrorized the world famous backlot. In 2018, he returned and brought his murderous creature friends to play. Klowntasm in ‘16 was the best Terror Tram in my five years going to HHN but that isn’t really saying much. When it was announced that Koodles the Clown was coming back I was pretty much the only one that wasn’t all that excited but I was still curious to see how different it was from its predecessor. This Tram is actually pretty decent, I would say it’s on par with 2016’s Tram. I enjoyed the video they played in the beginning, I’m really into anthology horror like Creepshow and Tales From the Crypt so the vid was a delight to see. A lot of people say it’s cheesy, but for me I thought it had the right amount of cheese. The Who Let the Dogs Out section was alright, not the best chainsaw brigade but I still like it. I was in tears when I saw the shitload of reused props and gags in the Kill Billiez Inn. Saw, Roanoke, TCM, it was hilarious! I get why they repurposed everything and it does fit the theme but all those props stuck out like a sore thumb. I hope whoever thought that the zig zag line queue next to the Psycho house was a good idea got fired immediately. That area has had serious conga line issues since 2016 and I guess they tried to fix that but it made the situation even worse. They could’ve at least had some more scare actors roaming around interacting with people cuz it was just an awkward long halt to the whole experience. Some of the actors from Scarecrowz Revenge were scary looking but others were wearing masks from the Hell-O-Ween scare zone. The actors in Clowns On A Plane were all sorts of awesome, they really embraced the “clown” of their clown characters. There was one cool effect where a clown pushes a baby stroller around and the baby was able to squirt piss all over everybody. I really hated the shitty unneeded Dubstep that was playing in the background like in 2017. The masks for the characters in the Nightmarez section were very creepy looking but as for the section itself, it was just the same old ‘people getting tortured’ routine we’ve seen a bunch of times. And that concludes Hollywood Harry’s Dreadtime Storiez! It’s almost as if Immortal Masks hit John Murdy up with some of their masks and he was like “Hmmm? Maybe we’ll use them for Terror Tram and let’s also dump some of our old props, masks, and gags in there as well!” That’s basically what it felt like, but I ain’t complaining, to me I think that’s okay. This was a decent tram and it was light years better than Chucky’s Big Cringey Advertisement Extravaganza!

Final Grade: C+

 

Scare Zones:

I enjoy scare zones in the event but they never really scare me. It’s been a couple years since I legitimately jumped or got startled in a scare zone. I am grateful that the frights and scares continue out on the streets but I think they need to go all out, make sure there are as little dead spots as possible. As for 2018, the zones were definitely an improvement from 2017. First you got Hell’s Harvest which is one of my favorites. The chainsaw performers were awesome as always but what I really liked was that each doll creature had their own name (Savage Sammy, Jigsaw Johnny, Lobotomy Larry, Hatchet Hannah, etc.) The whole story is a bit confusing and the lack of decor does not help that. The Bonesy Brothers were a nice new touch and I hope they return in some way or form or at least have some kind of scare zone entertainment like that in 2019. The Trick R Treat scare zone is better than Hell-O-Ween in terms of the aesthetics and decorations, and the return of the fire towers made me really happy. But unfortunately there were so little actors and while they did an awesome job acting their parts, they weren’t scaring everybody. I think the fire towers startled people more than the actors. A lotta people were disappointed with the school bus photo op, I was expecting static dummies so it met my expectations. I knew real performers weren’t gonna be involved. The actors aren’t gonna stop doing their job just to take a quick selfie with a couple of youngsters, this isn’t Orlando! Monster Masquerade was a kickass unofficial finale to a kickass maze. I loved the design for the costumes and masks. The scare actors were on fire, you could tell they had so much fun. The Festival of Fools skeleton dioramas were a bit lazy but the lighting and the incredible soundtrack helped carry this zone. The Toxxic Tunnel was...better than last year. I did like the new masks, even though some of them were from Exterminatorz in 2015, and I did like the blacklight elements. Holidayz in Hell was purely and simply amaze-balls! The characters were so cool, my favorite was the Turkey. Sure there were reused props everywhere but it felt like they were there for a purpose. There were times where I was completely alone in that zone and the scare actors made my experiences so much better. These zones could still use a little more work but Murdy and his crew were definitely taking a step in the right direction.

Hell’s Harvest: B+

Trick R Treat: C 

Monsters Masquerade: B+

Toxxic Tunnel: C-

Holidayz in Hell: A

 

Miscellaneous Thoughts:

This section of the review is dedicated to some complaints, praises, and other random thoughts that I had concerning 2018’s HHN. 

• Enough with the Black Walls, Universal! I doubt they’ll go away anytime soon but this is more like wishful thinking. The higher ups need to give Murdy a boatload of cash so they can make a boatload of cash. The last time the budget was huge was in 2016, and almost every night that year was sold out. And if you’re gonna decrease the budget, then I don’t think increasing the maze count would be a smart move. They should put the maze count back to 7 so they wouldn’t have to worry about the quality of the houses and they would also have to worry less about finding new maze locations when certain attractions are being reconstructed. 

• I really want to see an original maze. The only original I’ve been through was Clowns 3D in 2014 and that was a crappy maze. HHN Hollywood’s mentality is that if the maze isn’t based on a movie or show then people are gonna hate it, but that’s not true at all. If a maze manages to be really fun and scary, people will love it no matter what the story is. Orlando has shown that their original houses can be way better than their IP houses. The best mazes and moments at Hollywood were either original or IPs with original spins to it (La Llorona, Freddy vs Jason’s story, Halloween 1 & 2’s endings, Universal Monsters) I hope Universal will let Murdy do more OGs, the guy’s creative and I wanna see his creativity at its peak!

• They should add more scare zones. Like I said earlier, it would be cool to have as little dead spots as possible. Back then there were up to seven scare zones, now we’re down to 3-5. During the last two nights of HHN, I saw three chainsaw guys just roaming around the park. I hope that was some kind of testing to see if certain areas can be filled with actors. It’d be cool to see something similar to Orlando’s roaming chainsaw clowns. But then again they tested out Harry Potter being open during HHN back in 2016 and now they won’t even acknowledge it anymore. 

• More rides should be open! It’s a good thing that Jurassic World is gonna be quite the crowd eater in 2019, but with the event being more popular now that’s not gonna be enough. Why did they close Minion Mayhem all of a sudden? I know it feels out of place with the rest of the event but so is Simpson’s and Transformers. Let’s hope the rumored Secret Life of Pets attraction is open by 2019 so that could eat more crowds as well. 

• They really really REALLY need to get rid of the Jabbawockeez! If they’re not gonna do that then they should at least add a second show in the Animal Actors stage, another attraction that can eat up crowds. I know there are some people who genuinely like the Jabbawockeez but they’re more out of place than the rides, including Minion Mayhem when it was open. 

• I do appreciate how John Murdy is being more brutally honest when it comes to all the behind the scenes stuff. Whenever someone complains on Twitter about a crappy scene or a Black Wall marathon, he’ll flat out complain too and tell them what the Black Walls were originally supposed to be. I also don’t like how Murdy is pretty much in charge of everything. The big bosses at Universal all count on this one dude to make HHN and that’s not good. He always says he’s writing the treatments, mixing and editing the audio, and adding finishing touches to the mazes. Some people say that he just says all that cuz he’s a self-absorbed prick but other than Chris Williams and the celebrities they work with, nobody else has any creative input on the event. I mean how many more times can we see a hallway filled with body bags or have actors come out of a boo hole? Murdy really loves the event and most of his work does show that, but once he finally retires, I’ll be happy, not because of his absence, but because of the new blood that will bring new innovation to the table. But what Hollywood really needs is a whole team like Orlando’s A&D. 

• There was a lack of smells in the mazes. The only smelly mazes that I can think of were Trick R Treat and Blumhouse. I know some people don’t like them but I think the scents add more to the realism. 

• All the mazes ended very abruptly with Black Walls that had 2-3 actors coming out of boo-holes. That needs to change immediately! Halloween 1 and 2 had awesome endings, the Queen Alien from AVP was phenomenal, even the alternate endings for Freddy vs Jason was a total game changer. But in 2018 there’s just...nothing. I miss cool endings, I miss endings period!

• I took my first HHN survey on opening night. It was an online survey and they asked for my honest opinion, so I told them Universal Monsters was excellent and First Purge was hot trash. I also added that there should be more scare zones and have more theming other than Party City lights and Dubstep. According to these “fan polls”, Jabbawockeez was the highest rated attraction, but I told them that I didn’t even bother to go watch the show. Yeah...I think it’s safe to say these polls are either rigged or biased. 

• They need to come up with new and better scares. One of the reasons why Poltergeist was one of my favorites of 2018 was because of how different every scare felt from each other. It wasn’t the same old “scare actor comes out of a secret door and steps on a pedal that turn on strobe lights and a recorded scream” technique in every room, they managed to make every scare fresh and unexpected. The monster coming out of a hole surrounded by Black Walls gag is getting annoying already, just because it worked well in the Exorcist that doesn’t mean it’ll work well in everything else. 

• And lastly, I wanna say this before I wrap up this review. I feel like everything that I loved about the event when I first started going in 2014 is slowly fading away. Maybe it’s just me getting older but now it feels like HHN is starting to become less of a fun and scary wonderland that didn’t give a single person mercy and more of a soulless and bland product made by a corporation that tries way too hard to please all audiences. But just because I complain about the quality of the event, that doesn’t affect the amazing experiences I have. I always compare HHN to pizza, cuz even at its shittiest it’s still pretty damn good. In fact, I think 2018 was the year I had the most fun in. I met some really cool people and made some awesome new memories. 2016 is still my all time favorite year but I have more memorable moments in 2018. So even though HHN is not always perfect, it is, and always will be, my home away from home. 

 

So that finally concludes my review of 2018. Nowhere near as amazing as 2016 but not as bad as 2017. I would have to say that it’s slightly better than 2015 but just barely inferior to 2014. I attended seven nights this year which is a record for me and I had a lotta fun every night. After the final night of HHN I couldn’t wait to write a review but I was little hesitant as well. It looks like Horror Night Nightmares is becoming more and more dead every year and that kind of depresses me. The Orlando people are still kind of active but on the Hollywood side everyone either migrated to Inside Universal Forums or just completely vanished. As I am writing this review there are over 315 posts for HHN 29 and only 9 posts on HHN 2019. And every time I worked on this review I kept telling myself, “What’s the point, no one is even gonna read this!” If any lifelong HHN fans are reading this, I’m curious to know what you all think about this. Did everyone just get over HHN or is there more to it than that? It’s pretty sad to see the pioneers of HHN just simply not give a shit anymore. But with all that said I’m gonna end this review on a happy note. I had a blast in 2018! I really enjoyed the majority of the mazes and the people I hung out with made my experiences a thousand times better. I am definitely looking forward to next year. 

 

HHN Hollywood 2018 gets an A-!

 

Thank you all very much for reading and I hope you all have a great day!

 

[favorite hhn 18 scenes]

Stranger Things: The Gate with Poppa 

 

Trick R Treat: Meet Sam section 

 

Poltergeist: Coffin Climax

 

The First Purge: The exit!

 

Blumhouse of Horrors II: The Girl room with the moving furniture 

 

Halloween 4: Penney’s Diner scene

 

Universal Monsters: Frankenstein’s Laboratory 

 

[HHNH 2018 Suggestions, Issues, and Improvments]

Stranger Things: Give it a main facade and make the Upside Down longer.

 

Poltergeist: Get rid of those awkwardly long black hallways after the face ripping scene. 

 

Universal Monsters: Give me more Dracula and Gillman.

 

The First Purge: Just burn it to the ground!!

 

Blumhouse of Horrors Part Deux: Choose better and more maze-worthy films and make The Girl section better.

 

Halloween 4: Add an original ending with clown Jamie 

 

Trick R Treat: Get rid of the Black Walls please.

 

Terror Tram: Give Hollywood Harry a maze instead 

[HHN 2018: Halloween 4]

So I watched this last night and it’s a fine flick. Nothing memorable but nothing atrocious either. Since there’s a blackout in Haddonfield in the middle of the movie I’m expecting the maze to have a lot of dark environments which means the scares could be awesome. Looking forward to this one a tad bit more than before.

[Halloween Horror Nights Hollywood 2018 Speculation]

So uh...where’s the discussion thread??

[Halloween Horror Nights 28 Speculation]

40 minutes ago, Nitefly said:

Hello! Just signed up to this forum so I could say... Blumhouse?! Really?? Super not exciting... all of those amazing films from the 80s and the best thing they could come up with is the Purge... again. Such a let down. Think it would be better to have one less house than subject everyone to that much disappointment.

 

edit - I should add I don’t even dislike those films, they are fun in their own way but not in the same league of excitement for a Halloween event as, say, Poltergiest.

 

They can redeem themselves (maybe) by having a classic monsters house or a wicked 80s film... liiiike.... The Thing or Gremlins!

You should be lucky you guys aren’t getting Truth or Dare and Unfriended like Hollywood. 

[HHN 2018: Horrors of Blumhouse: Chapter 2]

This might sound like an overstatement but....

 

This is honestly the most idiotic and most head scratching decision that Universal has ever made, period. 

Such a waste of maze space and even Murdy knows that, that’s why he made an original ending. Definitely my least anticipated! I’m hoping this one will surprise me, but I realistically don’t think it will.

[Halloween Horror Nights Hollywood 2018 Speculation]

You guys thought The First Purge maze was a bad idea, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA! ...it gets so much worse!

[Halloween Horror Nights Hollywood 2018 Speculation]

4 hours ago, Stilesvision said:

Are we gonna see killer klownz from outer space in a maze or scarezone this year since it’s the 30th anniversary?

It’s rumored to be a scare zone and if it does come hopefully the reception is good so we can get a maze in 2019

[HHN 2018: The First Purge]

Haven’t posted in the forums in a while but I just have to get this out of my chest...

 

Why? Just why? I get that it’s never actually been translated as a full maze before, but why didn’t they just do that a long time ago?? It’s honestly such a waste of space right now. Out of all the properties Universal owns, they still allow this crappy franchise to be in the event. “Yeah let’s not let Murdy get his hands on a cult classic about a shapeshifting alien creature from Antarctica and have him do Purge for the sixth time in a row!” I don’t doubt this maze will have an awesome cast, but other than that my expectations haven’t been this low since This Is The End.

[Halloween Horror Nights Hollywood 2018 Speculation]

Looks like we’re saying goodbye to The Thing and It this year. These two IPs got purged for what seems like a while now and our replacements are Poltergeist and, drum roll please...The First Purge.

I wish I was kidding.

Again this has not been confirmed and we should all take this with a grain of salt. For all we know this could be the Conjuring/Leatherface/TOT scenario all over again. If this is true, then I knew the original leaked lineup was too good to last.

[Halloween Horror Nights Hollywood 2018 Speculation]

Once again the lineup has been leaked!

 

Upper Lot:

Waterworld Queue: Stranger Things

Parisian Courtyard: Universal's Classic Monsters

The Walking Dead Attraction

 

Lower Lot:

Revenge of the Mummy Queue: John Carpenter's The Thing

 

Backlot:

Metro Sets: Trick R Treat

747 Queue: Warner Bros' It

FDTD Area: AHS Asylum

 

New Unknown Location: Blumhouse's Halloween

 

Scare Zones:

AHS: Cult

The others are original concepts

 

The terror tram will not be featured this year and there's a 50/50 chance that we might get a new show or not.

 

Even though we are still early in the year and some things could change, I'm honestly really excited. 2018 is very much a Murdy-esque event since he's been wanting to do half of these mazes for a very long time. He's gonna be very passionate about making these houses, which will most likely be some of the best we've seen in years!

[Halloween Horror Nights Hollywood 2018 Speculation]

Haven't posted in a while, so I thought I would predict this year's lineup. 

 

The Conjuring:

This is pretty much a no-brainer at this point, I'm just tired of this franchise not coming to HHN. The arrival of The Conjuring in Horror Nights is long overdue and I wanna see that damn nun in person! 

 

Stranger Things:

It would be such a missed opportunity to not have this TV series featured at the event! I love this show and it has enough material to work with. As much as I loathe the Black Walls of Doom, I'll gladly give the transitions a pass, if utilized correctly (similar to Exorcist and Insidious). 

 

American Horror Story:

If Roanoke can get a solo maze, I think Asylum or Cult can get the same treatment. I've never seen either season but I've heard those are the best ones, I've seen Coven but other than the characters there isn't really much I want to see in a house. 

 

Trick R Treat: 

Just like Conjuring, this property is a no-brainer. I know Murdy wants to wait for the sequel so it won't be irrelevant anymore, but he did This Is The End sooooo... The scare zone in Orlando seemed to be really successful so if it's coming it'll definitely be a shared IP. 

 

Halloween Returns:

Universal loves to promote their properties. The Halloween movie will come out during the event. It's a Blumhouse production. Michael Myers Comes Home was the highest guest rated maze of all time. He's a Titan of Terror. He wasn't present in 2017. This property is practically begging to be a maze this year!

 

Blumhouse 2:

It was well received with the GP last year and there are a lot of Blumhouse films that could be translated into a live attraction. If Purge comes back once again, I will literally quit HHN forever! 

 

Alice Cooper 3:

This could definitely be the Dark Horse maze of 2018's event. Alice Cooper just released a new album and we all know Murdy loves to work with him. I think 2018 will be the year to complete the Shock Rocker's Trilogy

 

Terror Tram: Nightmare on Elm St:

There's a possible leak that NOES is already locked for Orlando and we all know Hollywood just can't get enough of the classics (unfortunately). I feel like a Terror Tram could be a proper send off to the Springwood Slasher, that is if they put actual effort into it this year. 

 

There's no way that this year can get any worse than 2017 with this lineup!

[Henry14's HHN Hollywood 2017 Review/Rant!!]

On 11/9/2017 at 9:58 AM, fvcking cvnt said:

um great review and all but how DARE you use the lord and savior figure's name in vain

Well hey man if you like Figure that's fine. It's your opinion and while I strongly disagree with it I respect it! LMAO

[Henry14's HHN Hollywood 2017 Review/Rant!!]

Hello ladies and gentlemen! This is Henry14 with yet another review for Halloween Horror Nights. Now before we start the actual review I just want to say a couple words about my thoughts on the lineup when it was first leaked. It mostly consisted of IPs that we've seen before and I was not completely on board with it. But I tried to be as optimistic as possible, bought the Frequent Fear Pass, and tried to walk into the event with an open mind. Just like my previous reviews I will rank the mazes from worst to best, grade the scare zones and discuss the terror tram. Without further ado, let's get right into this shall we?!!

 

8. SAW: The Games of Jigsaw aka SAW: The Reused Set Pieces and Props of John Murdy 

I'm not very much of a big fan of the Saw franchise because the movies never interest me at all. I've never been in the Game Over version of Saw from 2009 so I got to see these live action recreations of the infamous traps for the first time year. And I gotta say...this maze was garbage. I didn't even get my first scare in my first run through of the maze until half way through it. And it doesn't help that all the scares from this house are from Piggy Guy. The sets are fine...I guess, but there was nothing memorable except for the Jigsaw trap with the giant blades coming right at you. The traps are cool to look at but why are they so tame? This is Saw, the franchise that helped invent the torture porn subgenre, and there's barely any blood in this maze! Like...WHAT?! Another thing that also bothered me in SAW was how loud it was. I mean I'm used to loud audio in haunted attractions, but this maze was just too loud! I came out of that maze with my ear ringing at one point, it wasn't even funny. The one thing I can give this house props to is that it made me gag. That shit smell in the bathroom was so disgusting! It smelled so much that it made the room warmer. I haven't gagged like that since the puke stench in Clowns 3D. So although it has cool looking traps, everything else from the scares, to the sets, to the atmosphere, and even to the scare actors, failed in every single way. It was obvious John Murdy developed this house with absolutely no passion and The Games of Jigsaw was incredibly bland and fell really flat.

Final Grade: D-

 

7. The Walking Dead Attraction aka A Year-round Daytime Attraction Better Than SAW 

Yup. SAW was that bad.

NEXT!

 

6. Ash vs Evil Dead aka John Murdy vs Starz(Spoiler Alert: Starz won unfortunately) 

The Evil Dead maze based on the remake was considered to be one of the most disappointing mazes in HHN Hollywood. When Ash vs Evil Dead was announced, people were excited...only to be disappointed again. I've only seen the pilot episode of the show and I liked it. So I was pumped up yet I also had no idea what to expect. My first run through was definitely the worst. I literally walked out of that maze saying, "That's it??? That's it?" So I walked in it again and my experience has gotten better but that didn't help how bad it was. Before I talk about it's many flaws, I'm gonna talk about the things that were actually kinda groovy. The facade was simple yet effective and Ash's trailer was nicely designed and decorated. When this maze had actual sets, they were actually great and kinda detailed. The masks and costumes from the deadites also looked quite good and the Henrietta puppet isn't that bad either. The best aspect about this house was the scares, they hit unexpectedly hard and I got a few good jumps from it. Now let's talk about what wasn't so groovy about AVED. I was surprised with the lack of gore this maze had. Just like Saw, this property is known for its blood and guts flying everywhere and they're not gonna have at least one water squirt effect. This house also wasn't very funny, although it did have at least some charm, I still felt like the property wasn't done justice. I don't mind the Bruce Campbell masks because no one can play Ash Williams as well as Bruce fucking Campbell, but I just don't like how he has only one facial expression: the "I'm supposedly in battle cuz I'm fighting deadites but I'm really in a constipated state because I ate $35 worth of Taco Bell" face. And just like Saw, this maze wasn't made with much passion. John Murdy and Chris Williams both love the Evil Dead franchise, so why wasn't this made with love? Starz was probably the problem! I'm one of the people that believes in the theory that this house was supposed to be based on the original Raimi films but Starz forced them to make it like the TV series. If that is true, then it clearly shows. If it had some comedy, a few extra scenes, and more gore, Ash vs Evil Dead could've easily been one of the best mazes of the event. But unfortunately the end result was incredibly underwhelming and it doesn't have the fun vibe the show has. 

Final Grade: D+

 

5. Insidious: Beyond the Further aka Insidious: Boredom in the Further 

Insidious: Return to the Further is my all time favorite HHN maze and no other maze has managed to be as scary. When Insidious was officially announced I was excited but at the same time I was skeptical because I was worried that Beyond won't be close as terrifying as Return. So I walked in this maze and wouldn't you know it...it was an IT house this whole time!!! Those stubborn people that we doubted were right all along!!! Murdy purposely got the rights to Insidious: The Last Key just so he could fool everyone by releasing key art and making a fake facade!!! The whole thing was just one big GAZEBO!..................In case you haven't figured it out I'm only joking. Anyways on to my thoughts to the actual maze: I was a bit disappointed. It wasn't horrible but it was sort of boring. I really didn't want to call an Insidious maze boring but unfortunately that's exactly what it was. When I stepped into Beyond the Further I didn't feel any suspense or dread that I felt in the previous incarnation. I really hate to admit this, but most of the scares in this house were weak. The weakest ones are from the films we've seen in the 2015 version. Absolutely no triggers and I don't understand why they didn't create scenes from the franchise they've never done before. They just played it safe and did the same ole stuff and thangs from its predecessors. But aside from the problems I mentioned, there were a lot of things I appreciated in this house. The sets from the new film look really good, including the facade and the doomsday bunker. The designs for the new chapter 4 characters are also creepy looking, especially the Key Demon who looks fucking terrifying. My favorite scene is the ending of course because that's where I got scared the most. My final run through was the best and the actors got me so good in those final scares. So overall, Beyond the Further wasn't as great as Return as expected. But some of the scares, sets, and costumes were excellent enough to not make me regret ever walking in this house.

Final Grade: C

 

4. The Horrors of Blumhouse aka I don't care what Murdy calls it, I'm still calling the Blumhouse of Horrors:

I thought the Purge scare zones and gauntlet was a proper send off to the franchise. But nooooooooo, Murdy and Jason Blum want to milk this property dry! Sinister isn't really relevant anymore but at least fans requested it at one point and it's not as irrelevant as This is the End. *shivers* And Happy Death Day...uhh...at least it didn't bomb at the box office. So I stepped into the world of Comcast---uh I mean Jason Blum---with low expectations. And I gotta say, I was pleasantly surprised by this house. The Purge section was just a weaker and not as memorable version of the Gauntlet of Fear with a weird hallway of hanging corpses. Then we go inside a movie theater showing two other Blumhouse films, Happy Death Day and Sinister. The transtions for each film were somewhat acceptable but it could've been pulled off much better. The Happy Death segment was okay. Not good, not bad, just okay. There were a couple of good scares and some sets were actually nice but I really didn't feel like I was invested in it. I felt like it was just a living trailer and not a haunted attraction. The Sinister section was by far the best section in this maze. The costumes were great and the sets were very well detailed. I just don't like how there was more of the shitty sequel than there was the actually good first film. The Baghuuls got me really good, except for that one static dummy that reaches out at you. Finally we are transported back to the world of the Purge I guess and Big Daddy had a machine gun but thanks to that Las Vegas fucker he just reaches out with a machete. The only redeeming quality about the ending was the distorted Let's Go To The Lobby song. The biggest positive I can give to Blumhouse of Horrors is the cast. They were always on fire every time I walked in that maze. They all really gave a 101% on this slightly below average house. Although it had some questionable design choices and its bland moments, the scare actors' costumes and stellar talent really made Blumhouse of Horrors somewhat enjoyable.

Final Grade: C+

 

3. American Horror Story: Roanoke aka AHS's Horror Story: Their Ratings

Some fans were glad that this year's AHS maze is based off one season but others would've liked to see three seasons again. I think it was very wise for the team to do only one season. One thing I didn't about last year's maze was that it had a lot of missed opportunities because each season has so material to work with and giving Roanoke a solo maze really fixed that problem. The facade, just like last year, was garbage but after that the rest of this maze was definitely superior to the 2016 one. It had great environments, horrifying character designs, and excellent hard-hitting scares. It's everything I ever I wanted in an AHS house. Although this was one of the better mazes this year, it does have its flaws. The scares can be quite repetitive and there isn't much of a variety of characters. There are a shitload of characters in Roanoke and all we got were the Butcher, Piggy Dude, Polk family, the twisty Asian girls, and the nurses. There were some victims in distress but I personally wish there were more of them. I was also disappointed with the surprise ending, John Murdy overhyped the hell out of it at ScareLA and on Twitter. And what did we get? A dark room with tall tree people. I mean it's creative...sorta. Despite its weak ending and lack of different characters, AHS Roanoke was definitely one of the better houses of 2017 and absolutely scarier than the 2016 version.

Final Grade: A-

 

2. The Shining aka The SCREENing

Just like the Exorcist, the Shining is a celebrated horror film that fans have been wanting for years but it's actually really difficult to translate into a maze. John Murdy finally got the rights to the horror property brought to us by the two men who's initials are S.K.(if the maze was King's Shining it would've been based on that boring mini-series) The Shining is a fantastic maze and a wonderful love letter to Stanley Kubrick's film. Everything from the sets to the scares were really great and they nailed the overall tone of the movie. Even though the house was built in the Mummy venue, it still manages to be decorated as hell and it really deserved to be visited more than once to catch all the little details. All the rooms were great and some of the creative choices are pulled off well, such as the All Work and No Play room, Room 237, the Gold Room and the hallway leading to it, the Here's Johnny room, and the snowy hedge maze facade. They managed to put everything from the film in this maze from the ceiling lights to the iconic carpet. They even included the Blowjob Bear! The Jack Nicholson masks were surprisingly good-looking and of course the Here's Johnny scene was amazing. I only found one major flaw and two minor ones. Let's start with the minor. First of all, why did Jack Torrance get mad so quickly? Murdy kept saying that the film itself was a slow burn so why didn't he do that with the maze? The load was blowed too soon and the first scare was from an axe-wielding Jack. I mean there's a projection after the Redrum door to show his descent to madness but we can't just stand around watching him slowly go insane, we have to keep walking.  Secondly, why wasn't Jack Nicholson's original dialogue used in the audio? I noticed they did the same thing with Orlando's house, but unlike hiring someone to do a cartoony parody of Nicholson Hollywood has John Murdy reading aloud the lines from the movie. Now it's time for the major flaw of this house: the blood elevator. John Murdy has kept tweeting stuff like, "Time to add blood in the elevator scene" "It involves lots and lots of blood" "OMG We're Adding So Much Blood!" "SO MUCH BLOOD!!!" "You Can Never Have Too Much In This Scene!!" And what did we get??? A giant TV screen showing clips of the movie. *cue Curb Your Enthusiasm theme*  WTF?? The Blood Elevator is one of the most iconic images in the Shining, if not, one of the most iconic images in the horror genre! And John Murdy thinks it's acceptable to recreate it in a live experience using a giant fucking screen?!?!? I guess we've all should've seen this coming, knowing Universal's love for screens. So other than that god forsaken elevator screen, the rest of Stanley Kubrick's The Shining does the original film justice with its amazing set pieces and atmosphere.

Final Grade: A-

 

1. Titans of Terror aka Killers of Conjuring Replacement 

When the lineup was first leaked, I was really looking foward to "The Big Chill" but shit happens and now we're left with "Uber Fan". I loved Freddy vs Jason and Blood Brothers last year so I was curious to see what this maze had in store. The best way I can describe this maze is that this is a horror fan's wet nightmare. I love the original concept and the facade was very heartwarming in a way. I want to live in little Tobe's bedroom! LOL! A lot of people aren't big fans of the 'rapture' transitions but I don't mind them at all. The Freddy segment was hands down the best one in this house. Sure a lot of HHN veterans were probably triggered with all the reused props and set pieces but I personally liked seeing them in person. The missing children posters were very creative and so was the way the Freddy Snake was used this year. Jason Voorhees is my favorite Titan and I was a little disappointed with his section of the maze. The scares were good and some of the sets were cool but I felt like they could have done a lot better. And why was Jason in his remake form? Did they run out of FVJ Jason costumes because of the terror tram? IDK man, as a Jason fanboy I was a tad bit bitter. Leatherface's segment was good and it was cool to see grandpa and ChopTop make their return. "GRANDPA! GRANDPA! GRANDPA!" There was only one scare in this section but the chainsaw blade sliding through the doors really gave off a TCM vibe. The face peel was also neat and I have a funny story about that scene. Leatherface was wearing the victim's face upside down and when I told him he went all berserk on me! I expected a three scare ending but I also expected more and it could have been handled a lot better. Overall, Titans of Terror takes the place of being the best maze this year because it was created with a lot of passion and the experience of walking in it was always fun.

Final Grade: A-

 

Titans of Terror Tram: Hosted by Chucky aka Titans of Terror Tram: Chucky's lame excuse to promote his new movie

I was very curious to see Chucky's involvement in the Terror Tram and I thought this could actually be better than Eli Roth's Klowngasm or whatever it was called. I was wrong. This was hands down the worst terror tram I've ever experienced. In the intro video it explains that Chucky has learned a new curse and now anybody can be Chucky. But it didn't explain why the other Titans were there. Did they bust a Hollywood Harry and stayed in the Hollywood hills after HHN 2016 was over? Whatever! Anyway we see 6 foot tall Chuckies with chainsaws and one normal Chucky reciting his voodoo spell. We then head to the Crystal Lake Motel and see camp counselors getting killed by the notorious Jason Voorhees. This was the only good part of the entire tram and I felt like the character of Jason Voorhees was done more justice here than in the maze. It's Jason doing what he does best in all his bloody glory. The only thing that kills the whole mood are the maze hosts yelling, "KEEP IT MOVING PEOPLE! LET'S GO!!!" in a very rude tone. WTF dudes? Then we head over to a crashed airplane with multiple Freddy Kruegers roaming everywhere. This is the point of the tram where I got confused. So are we in a dream now or what? If I was supposed to be in a nightmare, that would explain the Dubstep playing in the background. Our final destination was at the Sawyer Meats Rendering Plant where we see innocent people getting slaughtered by the cannibal family. "PEEL THAT PIG AND SLICE HIM THICK!" This part of the tram was the exact same thing from the maze. The ending video most definitely is in my most cringey HHN moments list. All this time Chucky joined the titans of terror just so he can promote his film Cult of Chucky. I wish I was kidding. This was a thing. This actually happened. And I thought the Walking Dead Terror Tram was just one big commercial. Ummm...I don't have anything else to say about the tram. It was a dumpster fire. I'm not giving this an F because of the Friday the 13th section but other than that, it's cancer.

Final Grade: D

 

Scare Zones:

The scare zones last year were great, but this year was a big letdown. Barely any actors, little to no decor, lack of energy, and just overall bad! 

Hell-O-Ween: C-

Toxic Tunnel: D-

Urban Inferno: B+

 

Jabbawockeez: 

Haven't seen them this year, don't care

Final Grade: N/A

 

So that's HHN 2017 and...I have no words. I want to say this in the least harshest way possible, so here I go...

 

...this year SUUUUUUUUUUCCCCKKED!!!

 

WHAT IN THE ABSOLUTE FUCK HAPPENED THIS YEAR? THEY REALLY DROPPED THE BALL AND PHONED IT IN! ONLY 3 GOOD MAZES THIS YEAR AND EVERYTHING ELSE INCLUDING THE TRAM AND ZONES RANGED FROM MEH TO HOT TRASH! IT ALMOST FELT AS IF JOHN MURDY AND CHRIS WILLIAMS TRIED TO PURPOSELY MAKE 2017 THE EVENT'S WORST YEAR AND THEY DID THEIR JOB PERFECTLY! 

 

Okay...let me calm down for a second. I understand there were budget cuts this year and they weren't allowed to do anything big or take big risks this year. So they played it safe with IPs they already done and reused a ton props and I totally understand. But they could've at least put a little more effort. This year was the first year I bought a Frequent Fear Pass and I'm gonna be brutally honest and say it wasn't worth it and that's due to the lack of energy from most of the scare actors, the lack of passion for most of the mazes, the constant repetitive boo holes and drop panels, and of course...

 

...I didn't want to talk about this since it's been talked about millions of times in every other god damn review but I need to get this outta my chest...

 

...the black walls.

 

Why?

 

WHY?!

 

WWHHHYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?!?!??!

 

Just because it worked well in the Exorcist, that doesn't mean it's gonna work as well in every single maze! My biggest HHN pet peeve is dark blank transition hallways! The reason why we all loved 2016 so much was because the sets were outstanding and the movie quality set pieces are what separate HHN from all the other California haunts! But you know what's not movie quality?? BLACK WOOD WITH HANGING STRINGS! Again I understand that the budget was cut but that doesn't mean the houses should be half-assed! Every single maze had those black walls. And I'm not exaggerating! Every. Single. Maze! SAW? You betcha! The Shining? Why of course! Blumhouse of Horrors? Yes indeed! Ash vs Evil Dead? That whole maze was practically one big black hallway!!! Every single maze had at least two plain black rooms and it annoyed the shit out of me, it wasn't even funny! Black walls are the scum of HHN and mostly every single fellow Horror Nights fan feels the same way!

 

If this is John Murdy's last year, I'll be extremely happy because this creative director is losing his creativity! Pretty soon we'll be seeing Eli Roth's My Little Pony: Reign of the Black Wallz 3D Music by Figure! And John Murdy will say, "Oh we really wanted to take a risk this year so we started looking for properties that are the exact opposite of horror!! We're also glad to bring back 3D to our event because it gives us the opportunity to reuse our props!! I also have the pleasure to let my brother in horror Eli Roth to kiss my ass once again!! And since the dark walls worked so well in the Exorcist we decided to make the whole maze one giant black hallway with ponys everywhere! And Figure will score the music for this haunted attraction since our young rabid fan base loves their music!! Now who wants to hear a story of me scaring guests in the Halloween maze?!?!?" In the near future John Murdy will eventually have his brain become like poop and make us pay our left kidney to walk through practically nothing. John, if you're reading this then please do us all a favor and give us great haunted attractions unlike anything we've ever seen before! If you truly care about the fans than prove it!!!

 

HHN Hollywood 2017 gets a C-

 

I'm done here. Thanks for reading everybody and I hope you all a wonderful day!

 

[Halloween Horror Nights Hollywood 2018 Speculation]

If Halloween Returns does come to HHN 2018 it's either gonna be part of a possible Horrors of Blumhouse Vol. 2 house or have it's own solo maze like Insidious.

Trick r Treat is a no brainer as this point! If it comes it's definitely gonna be a shared IP.

I know Stephen King doesn't want his books featured in haunts, but after the success of the Shining in HHN and the Neibolt House Attraction in Hollywood I don't think an IT maze is entirely impossible.

I think after what happened behind the scenes this year(TOT replacing Conjuring, Evil Dead being changed into the Starz TV show, etc.) I think John Murdy has finally learned that he needs to make original mazes again so he won't have to worry about losing the rights to certain IPs.

The Thing seems also likely this year since Murdy has a "classic horror movie" streak(The Exorcist, The Shining).

In my honest opinion I think this year's AHS maze will feature Coven and Cult cuz it's obvious that John really wants to do Asylum justice by giving it a solo maze in the future.

 

Here's a bunch of other IPs and OG concepts that I personally want to see in 2018:

Stranger Things

Killer Klowns from Outer Space(I wouldn't mind seeing this in 3D)

The Conjuring

Evil Dead: Dead by Dawn

Army of Darkness

A Living Dead maze based on any of George A. Romero's films

Original Hollywood Harry Maze

Classic Universal Monsters Mashup

The Return of La Llarona 

The final installment of the Alice Cooper trilogy

Original Urban Inferno maze 

 

I also suggest better scare zone decor with more scare actors, make the strobe lights and Dubstep tunnel a maze location if possible, have more variety with the scares, and please please please...No. More. Black Walls!

[HHN 2017 Speculation]

I have a theory! Chucky will be part of the terror tram and will invade the backlot once again. But this year he's not alone. He brought some friends with him, the Titans of Terror. Freddy, Jason, Michael and Leatherface are back and the infamous Good Guy doll is the one pulling the strings. I'm not sure if Universal is allowed to have the big four and Chucky in one attraction at the same time but it could be a possibility. As for the Uber Fan maze, I guess we'll just have to wait and see what it is until the announcement is made.

[HHN 2017: Ash vs Evil Dead]

Although I am a little disappointed that it's not based on the original films, I am excited to see Ash Williams in all his groovy glory! I've only seen the pilot episode of the series but from what I've seen it looks awesome! I should also prepare myself for all the water spray effects in every corner of this maze.

[HHN 2017 Speculation]

Does anyone else find it odd that there might be two houses that have more than one IP in each one(one contains old school horror and the other contains new school horror)? And they're both on the upper lot as well. If that were the case maybe the New York entrance scare zone should include a bunch of iconic horror movie characters, similar to the All Nite Die-In scare zone from HHN 25. 

[HHN 2017 Speculation]

Meh! I'm just waiting for the Writers Block announcement.

[HHN 2017 Speculation]

I don't doubt if Murdy uses the Ghoulz French street scare zone from the 2014 voting thing. They've already used Mask-A-Raid and Corpz so they might as well just use the last remaining zone.

[HHN 2017 Speculation]

This is just upsetting to me. I really wanted to come face to face with Valek. I mean The Thing is a great film, but I'm afraid they're gonna disrespect the property by rushing everything in the last minute. A house based on a John Carpenter classic should be crafted masterfully and should take its time, not like The Saw is the Law. Or else it'll be a house that's just there with little effort put into it. Oh well, at least we're seeing more old school horror in the lineup.

[HHN 2017: The Shining]

This house will be amazing! I have a feeling this'll be one of the best mazes in years. Unlike the Exorcist, the Shining has more characters and sets to work with and it's one of the greatest films in the horror genre. I can't wait to see how they're gonna pull off the iconic scenes, especially the blood elevator. I just have two concerns: 1) Fake looking Jack Nicholson masks and 2) Halloween 2015 hedge wallpaper being used for the hedge maze. Other than that, I'm pretty excited and I'm definitely looking forward to the next announcement.

[HHN 2017 Speculation]

I just have one thing to say...

 

 

It's about FUCKING TIME!!

[HHN 2017 Speculation]

Michael Myers has been on the terror tram in HHN 2009. There was a whole sheet maze dedicated to him right next to the Psycho house. So there could be a possibility the sheet maze will make its return this year.