Stumpy

This one was REALLY tough, because there were a lot of cool costumes. It's a toss-up between Fear and his Minions for me, but Fear won by a smidge because his appearance alone was enough to freak me out. Good god, that face. D: Universal did a good job with him, I thought he looked very cool and scary. The Minions were cool too, though I agree with Andrew that the actors were what really made those characters. Honorable mention goes to Esqueleto Muerte - their costumes were gorgeous at night, the colors just popped right out.

That was amazing! Thank you for sharing it.

Not mine, but it was so great I had to post it. Best Fear Revealed video ever: The bit with Fear and the bat at 1:37 is SO cute. "MY bat, go 'way. "

Excellent post! This was a fun year, and I really enjoyed reading about everyone's special moments and scares. I hope more people will come and share their memories on this thread. I would like to share some of my own... I tend to prattle on, so I apologize in advance for the wall 'o text. This was my first Halloween Horror Nights, and it turned out to be everything I dreamed of and more. My friends will tell you that I am the biggest haunted attraction fan they know. I look forward to haunt season more than ANYTHING every year, and I am always searching for the best scares. And as far as HHN goes, I came to Orlando looking for the ultimate scare. I think I can safely say that I found it. Case in point: when I visit a haunt, I am pretty hard to scare. I'm usually at the front of the group, bravely plowing ahead of everyone else, or bringing up the rear because the rest of the group doesn't want to be followed. Prior to visiting HHN, few actors could get more than a jump out of me, none of them could get me to scream, and chainsaws? No reaction at all. And then I went to HHN. Holy crap! I don't know what happened... maybe the other haunts were doing it wrong, or I just got caught up in the energy... but I got scared senseless every single night I attended. Almost every house and scarezone got me to scream, I RAN from numerous scareactors, the same scareactors got multiple scares on me throughout the weekend... it was crazy! My friends would have wondered what had gotten into me. But I loved every minute of it. I had many great scares and memories over the four nights I attended the event, and I wish I could list them all, but here's a few of the best: Not getting many scares in the houses my first night, then going into the scarezones and getting wrecked in every single one of them. The houses were fun, but I liked the scarezones a little more and had my best moments in them. Going through Catacombs alone, what a treat! My first visit was not good, but this time I found out just how scary this house could be if you caught the scares (even worse when they're all directed at you!). After this, I didn't have another bad visit. MrBungle repeatedly scaring the $%^& out of me throughout the weekend. It was so funny because he always caught me, despite my efforts to avoid him. In the same vein, me running from at least four guys with chainsaws, after I posted on this site that chainsaws didn't scare me Lamenting my lack of scares from the Usher on Saturday (10/9), and then not only seeing him in Hallow'd Past my first time through that night, but also getting a scare from Cast A's in Fear Revealed (he actually got me to jump and yell!). Either he got the memo, or luck was on my side. Regardless, my night was made! He was also the last character I saw in Hallow'd Past on my final visit, which made me quite happy. 20 Years of Fear... I got so much "love" in this zone it was almost scary. lol! I always looked forward to my first trip through every night because I always got a warm "welcome" from the warehouse inhabitants. Lots of memories here. Cast B's red haired cheerleader stalking me all night, Army chasing me through the zone a zillion times, Cast B Alice greeting me (yes dear, you truly are craaaazy ), a couple of epic group scares... the list goes on. I had a cute moment with one of the Wolfies on my last night too. This zone was tons of fun, and I hope I see some of the same people next year. In conclusion, I REALLY enjoyed this, it was the most fun I've EVER had in my life. Thank you to everyone who works this event for making my first HHN a very memorable one. I won't be able to come back every year, being out of state sucks like that, but I will definitely be a repeat customer!

Congratulations on Street of the Year! I'm so proud of you all! Thank you so much for all the scares/attention every night I visited, you made me so happy. If any of you are working next year, I will be on the lookout for you. You guys are the best. <3

lol! Jack is hilarious! You have to admit, it took balls for the Usher to try that with the number one icon. *patpats* It's okay Julian, some of us know who the real man is.

Yes, she was at the beginning and the end. I remember seeing her twice too.

I love this one. Wolfman vs. Frankenstein! (Wolfie would totally win)

Well, the thing is... there have already been two years where all the icons got together - Sweet 16 and this one. If every big milestone is going to result in all the icons returning, fans are going to get tired of that really quick. And A&D have said they do not like repeating the same ideas. I will keep my fingers crossed, but I am not optimistic about their fate. Just wondering - have you read the legend of Adaru on LegendaryTruth's Facebook page? It ends with this: "Another wall painting depicts the five men bowing to what is believed to be Adaru the Demon of Fear. Shown standing in flames that lead back to the lantern, Adaru has a hand outstretched from which thorny brambles wrap the five men completely. Blood surrounds them." And then there's this comment by Fear: "Taking my playthings from inside the box, and accepting their willing sacrifice." I'm wondering if, at the end of the event... having served their purpose... the icons will be sacrificed by Fear, and He will start over with new servants (provided LegendaryTruth doesn't come along and whoop his ass, of course ). I totally agree. Fear and his minions were great characters, IMO, and I would love to see them come back to the event someday. But Fear needed to be done up a little bigger. He was great in the media stuff, but his presence in the park wasn't very strong... you could feel it, but it was weak. I almost feel like Jack overshadowed him, and that's bad considering he's supposed to be the "icon of icons".

Despite this being my first year, I know how you feel. My trip has been done for over a week, and I'm still pining to go back. It was so amazing. I just can't believe it's almost over already. I think what tears me up the most is that this year is probably the last year we will see ANY of the icons - save for maybe Fear - ever again. I can find something I like in ALL of them, and I really don't want Uni to kill them off... just lock them away for a few years. But with Jack going around telling the media it's his "final bow", well... I have a bad feeling this is the end. I will miss them all (of course, you know who I'll miss the most).

Ah, 20 Years of Fear... I know I gave you plenty of love in the Appreciation thread, but it bears repeating. This was my favorite scarezone. The warehouse/lantern facade was perfect, and they had so many old props to look at. I was in the Studios during the day on Thursday and I remember wandering around in there for a few minutes, admiring all the stuff. It bugs me that people call this zone "the photo-op zone", like Fear Revealed... they did take a lot of pictures with people, but there was also plenty of scaring going on. I can almost count on one hand the number of times I went through and did not have at least one person come after me, and I went through... probably at least ten times each night. I don't know if it was the HNN shirt, or if they just liked my reactions... probably a combination of both... but I got a TON of attention from both casts. It was crazy. I was followed, threatened, ganged up on, chased... I couldn't believe it. By the end of the weekend, I think the only characters who did not have a go at me were the tree-looking guy on stilts and the Crypt Keeper. By Friday or Saturday night, I even had some of them saying my username, which surprised me... I guess more of them lurk here than I thought. I had some really good scares here too. I posted my favorite one in the Appreciation thread, but there were other moments. Cast B's cheerleader (do correct me if I'm wrong) stalked me several times, and I had some good moments with their Alice. The Sentinel actually chased me out of the zone one night - THAT was scary, I was hauling butt and he had no trouble keeping up with me. And I had a little game I played with the Wolfman... it's called "Stumpy enters the scarezone and Wolfie chases her out". I lost count of how many times we did this. LOL. It was great fun. I loved it, and I always made sure to end every night going through this zone. Of everything I miss about Halloween Horror Nights, this is what I miss the most.

It bugs me that people are constantly calling this "the photo-op zone". Let me assure you, though there is a lot of photo taking going on, this is still very much a scarezone. I saw EVERY single character here, from Jack to Fear's minions, getting scares. By the time the weekend was over, all but two of them had a go at me (between the two Directors, they got me six times!). Fear was very impressive, and I was a bit awestruck watching him. Yes, Universal could've done a little more with him, but I was pleased enough that they at least let him roam around and scare some people. He made an excellent distraction too - the Director, Cindy, and the Usher all got me while I was watching him. Just be careful lingering around him for too long. I caught his attention on Saturday night and he headed right in my direction... I kept backing off and he wouldn't stop following me until I broke down and cowered away from him. He got REALLY close (one more step and his icon pouch thing would've whacked me in the head), and compared to little 5'1" me, he was HUGE... so that freaked me out. D: I really enjoyed watching Fear's minions too. They were very graceful, almost ethereal in their movements, swirling around people like shadows. And they were great at catching people off guard - you'd turn around and find one standing behind you, or leaning over your shoulder, or following alongside you, ever so silently. Sunday night, I had a couple ask me to take their picture with Fear, and as I was doing it a couple of grey fingers suddenly poked into my line of sight and started caressing the picture I'd just taken. I turned to find a minion lurking over my shoulder, I had no idea he/she was even there... I was just like "Oh, hello." LOL Speaking of the minions, some of Fear's interactions with them were really cute. I caught him stroking one on the head, and leading another one around by the hand, prompting a chorus of "Awwww!" from all of us girls watching. ... which promptly turned to screams as Eddie came running at us with his chainsaw. LOL. Good times. Hmm, what else... ah yes, I really liked the way one of the Caretakers was scaring people. It creeped them out big time, but I thought it was cute. He would follow them around, smiling and snapping his scissors, and he honestly looked just like this: : D *snip* : D *snip* : D *snip* I got a kick out of it.

I am not a big chainsaw fan, but I was pleasantly surprised by this zone. It was fun to walk through, and the atmosphere was perfect. One of their barkers was really good, I don't remember what cast he was on, but I think he had some facial hair and was fond of calling us all cockroaches (it wasn't the one with the full beard). I stopped to watch him for a few minutes. Two of our resident Nightmares got some nice scares on me here, particularly C_D, who sent me running into the alley... I ended up alone in there and they were all over me. D: BTW, be careful how close you get to the big machine the barker stands on. You could end up with an unpleasant surprise.

Congratulations CDT, you were the only scareactors I went on the sidewalk to avoid, not because I wanted to skip your zone, but because I was nervous as hell going through it. Of course you wouldn't let that slide, and I was eventually forced to go through it anyway. Got some fantastic scares here, and saw them send numerous people (mostly teen girls) running for their lives. Nice job guys. (also, that scare I got coming out of Hades was priceless)

Fun scarezone. I didn't find it very scary myself, but the people around me seemed to disagree, because they were running all over the place. They did get a few reactions out of me though, especially the zombie on Sunday night that puffed air on the back of my neck - I jumped about a foot in the air. Nice. My only gripe with this zone is that it was very hard to get through when it was busy. There was always a crowd gathered in front of the float for beads, and Universal had stuff set up on the sidewalks, so going around it was difficult. I often had to dodge both scareactors and guests, and I felt bad for getting in the scareactors' way. :/

This was a very spooky scarezone, very dark and foggy. I really liked the costumes, particularly on the Sirens. Like Esqueleto, do not underestimate its scariness - I came through... I think it was Friday or Saturday night, and two or three scareactors made a girl fall right on her butt. It was hilarious, everyone that saw it was cracking up.