Barbaric Derek

Anyone know if Nov. 1 has been added to the Frequent Fear Plus pass?

Some good thoughts going on here. Gotta say I'm not a fan of W.D. but I'll go through it once just based on the "biggest house yet" idea. Although, for those who are saying "no one does it like Universal"... you need to get out to the haunts listed on America Haunts... places like Netherworld will blow your mind. You'll get top notch sets and scares in a maze that literally takes 30 minutes from start to finish. I used to be a HUGE HHN fan from when I started attending in 1993 but once the icons started taking over, my loyalty faded. Having experienced some of these other haunts... I now believe that Universal misses the mark on occasion. Don't get me wrong, I love hanging out all night (from 6 to midnight) due to the atmosphere which you rarely get at other haunts. But pound for pound, you can definitely get a better experience for your money and these almost always are completely original ideas which don't use movie IP. Just my 2 cents.

Hopefully Ghostdude is right... to say "displeased" with a third year of W.D. is putting it lightly.

I've been attending HHN since 1993... if it seems that I am bitter than maybe its because I am. HHN has evolved, as all things do, but not in a good way. I've attended a single year as many as 8 times... this year will not get that privilege. Why should I toss money at something that I enjoy less and less? So I would say to you that you might consider thoughtfully why a long time attendee would post such things. There are positive things in this review... you simply chose not to read them which makes me believe some people will blindly love the event regardless of what Universal does. I am not that kind of fan. As Legacy says "its not strictly their fault". If you've attended in the pre-2000 era then you would have much more experience to base reviews from. Besides, I'm not posting to gain or lose anyone's respect... just venting my 2 cents towards the never ending money machine that HHN has become.

Side Note: To the punk wearing a black and red chainsaw baseball cap who was also wearing a Horror Nights Nightmares t-shirt screaming in my daughters ears in the Walking Dead... You are very lucky that it was my wife who told you to stop. I would have gotten operations to have you escorted out of the house. You are a poor representation of this forum and you should be ashamed of such behavior. Good thing you took her orders to stop... who knows what would have happened if you didn't. I'd like to point out to everyone here that if you're wearing a shirt that advertises an entity then you are being seen as a representative of that entity. I'm sure the admins & owner don't want to be associated with trouble makers who get thrown out of houses.

Here's my 2 cents... We went Saturday 9/21 and got in at 4:30 for the AP event. Immediately, Walking Dead line backed up to 60 minutes so we went to La Llorona first. We then went through W.D. after since the line went down so quickly. By 6, the rest of the park was open to us. Scare actors didn't seem to flow into the streets until 6:45-ish. And it didn't rain on opening weekend! Woo Hoo. Here's my house summary: Evil Dead. 8 out of 10. My favorite house hands down. On two walk throughs we were lucky to get most of the scares. Get effects, sets and actors. La Llorona. 8 out of 10. On our first walk through, we got all the scares but couldn't appreciate the details since it was 5 in the afternoon. On our second walk through, it was 10 at night but we missed a lot of the scares. Go at night and hope your timing is lucky and this will be a tremendous house. American Werewolf in London. 5 out of 10. The sets are great once you get past the first half. The wolves are great if you get to see them. This house is to dark and way to empty. Needs a LOT of improvement. 0 scares on two walk throughs. Disappointed. Havoc Derailed. 5 out of 10. Love the first part while you're "inside the train". Sad that Universal with all its abilities didn't put in a moving floor effect for the derailment. Cast needs to really work on the aggression. Could be a good house with some changes. Resident Evil. 5 out of 10. Love the wide open sets but the costumes and props looked a bit on the cheesy side. Not many scares in this house. Cain in the Woods. 3 out of 10. Met my low expectations. Some props were not "dressed" up with the right amount of blood and gore. Timing was off on many effects (light to sound) and didn't see as many different creatures as I thought I would and this comes from having very low expectations. No scares. Walking Dead. 3 out of 10. Went through this house twice. Neither time did I get a scare and both times I saw poor quality masks & make up. I only give it 3 for the set design. Afterlife. Skipped it. Never liked "3D" gimmick houses and after hearing it being compared non stop to the In Between... meh. I hated In Between so why waste my time. Sacre zone. Yeah, one big scare zone. Take away what very few set pieces are there and you get an entire theme park filled with "Wash, Rinse, Repeat". I have to say that it was cool at first. Some actors have good makeup but some still had the curse from last year with crappy masks with seams that don't blend. It was better than I expected but it was still disappointing to see how Universal has been treating scare zones these last two years. Overeall Event: C- All in all. We enjoyed the night but not due to scares... it was because we got to hang out with friends that we rarely ever get to see. And don't get me started on the so called "merchandise" this year. I'll just say this... to any of you who buy that lame "tastes like" tag line T-shirt, you're just cattle feeding the money machine. Don't ever let me hear you complain about poor merchandise when you buy crap like that. My family won't be attending again this year. The event is not nearly scarey enough to justify spending the money. There are better haunt event & attractions. Universal could really stand to look at its competition and take some notes. The Golden Era of HHN died in 2000. Hoping it'll come back some day.

Agreed. Didn't mean to stray from the thread topic... just never get to converse about that sort of thing outside of work!

Not to be technical... well okay, to be technical... I've been a precast drafter for 9 years and I now draft the items used to lift, handle, brace and connect concrete construction. The basic formula for precast is calculated at pounds per cubic foot. Of course, the mix design & curing have much bearing on the final weight of the product. Some designs are as light as 120 where heavier designs reach 150 (pounds per cubic foot of concrete). Using the average of 140lbs/ft3, if you have a piece of architectural precast concrete that is 6" x 6" x 6" (a cube) it will weigh approximately 17.5 pounds! Imagine a 6" thick, 8 foot wide x 10 foot tall wall panel... it'd be around 5,600 pounds (2.8 tons). Not something you want to lean on unless its properly braced or anchored! (and that's a small panel)

Many thanks to all the scare actors who give it their full effort. I can't say all scare actors as some were either out of steam of just not in the zone. Many thanks to the beast who got a girl to toss a milk shake fresh outta Mel's into her own face! That was completely priceless! And more power to those who have to suffer in masks this year... can't imagine how hot it gets...

I'm glad to see that Universal has FINALLY tried some different merchandise. I'm wowed but some of it but not all... that's okay though... I love the pins, shirts and vinyl fig. And Shalisa is going bonkers over the shirts. But why is it that the women's shirts which have less material and printed images go for more than the full t-shirt? hmmm

Shalisa & I are going opening night, Sept. 28th, Oct. 12th & 26th. There may be more nights that we get to attend but if so, they'll be "on the fly/last minute notice" kind of thing.

I'd like to see a house shirt with a picture on the front instead of words. I love the shirts from the 90's that just have a big image on the front and "I Survived" with the year on the back. And when are we ever gonna see a scare zone shirt... obviously not this year. D'oh!

Here's a short but interesting article from the Sentinel about this year's HHN... http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/features_orlando/2012/08/universal-studios-full-halloween-horror-nights-lineup-revealed.html " “There are some physical realities out there that we have to adjust and accommodate,” Timon said. “It encouraged us to do stuff with the scare actors that we haven’t done in our program before.” The mobile nature of the scare zones will translate into less seasonal decor in the park during regular hours. “The technical team will scramble like mad between the time we close day park and go to Halloween Horror Nights and get décor in place,” Timon said. "

1. Silent Hill (because I've always been a gamer) 2. House of Horror's (grew up on the classics) 3. Walking Dead (its loads of zombies) 4. Gothic (dig the look of what I've seen so far) 5. Dead End (nothing wrong with creepy houses) 6. Alice Cooper (meh) And I'm not looking forward to P&T at all

I've been attending HHN for a while now (since 1993) and I have to admit that I've heard the "whole park is a scare zone" bit before and in my opinion, it never met the hype. I'm not against change but not at the cost of the smbience of Halloween or at the cost of good scares. My beef with HHN lately has been the "over marketing"... using icons or ideas just to sell tickets rather than focusing on the event itself. Yeah, yeah, they have to make their profit but I think we can all agree that they acheive that every year. I'm very disappointed in how things have been leaked/revealed this year but that's not to say that I don't look forward to going this year as I still very much do. Here's to hoping for some great street scares.