My apologies to teh group as this was written primarily for `CSw, so my pardon if you don't get some of the people I am talking about, but I put alot of time and effort into this so enjoy;
F.U.B.A.R.’s HHN 18 Reflections of Fear Trip Report and Review
I put off doing a review last year and it never got done, so I figured I better get it done, so here goes.
Michelle and I made our annual pilgrimage down to Universal Orlando to attend Halloween Horror Nights on October 22nd, 23rd, 24th and 26th. Wednesday was by far our best day as the crowds were light and the weather cooperated nicely. Thursday the weather turned (rain and wind) and the crowds started picking up and that meant that first the stilts came off the streets and then all of the streets were pulled entirely and the house lines were all over 45 min- 75 min. Friday and Sunday were much better as the weather stayed decent, but crowds were still heavy. It was so great to see everyone again and to meet many new people. I won’t make this a personal thank you list as I already did that before on another post. You know who you are.
I am going to review and discuss each scare zone in Part 1 and then in part 2 review the houses and briefly discuss the shows I saw. To conclude part 2 I will discuss my thoughts on the overall event. The houses and scare zones will be scored 1-5 skulls. 5 being the best.
A quick word on the entrance to the park, which I feel is pretty important in setting up the event for the guest and to help build anticipation. This year, with Bloody Mary as the icon, we had the whole large LCD mirror playing about a 5 minute montage of Mary speaking of her desires to have to say her name three times and then you would be pulled in through the mirror into her world. Pretty freaky stuff, a little long though and I felt not many guests even payed attention to the video. The smaller mirror paintings around the entrance were nicely done with different pictures of Mary in each. I liked the overall look and the fact that they went for something different than just the medallion like past years. After you do the turnstile thing, you see those mirror guys doing their freaky contortionist-like moves. I thought that the costumes were pretty silly and I don’t know how this related to the event other than the mirrors on their faces. I liked the light up mask with the glowing skull make up though. That was pretty funny. I did not see any scaring going on out here, but I did hear a few stories of people getting chased into stores by these guys. I would have liked to see this happen. One note here, just to be fair; I did not enter the park as a regular guest on any of the nights I attended as we did stay and scream every night. Maybe I did not see this area when it was at it’s peak time each night.
Scare Zones
The Skoolhouse- 5 Skulls
Simply put, the Skoolhouse is my favorite all time scare zone. It may not be heavy on out and out scares, but it has the best classic Halloween imagery ever at Halloween Horror Nights. The creepy Skool kids did an amazing job with their individual personalities. Some of which either had me creeped out or throughly amused. My favorites were the Bunny girl behind the Skoolhouse, who aggressively came at you with her dagger and asked “do you wanna play?” And then the little tiger girl with her knife and dolly. She walked that thing, stuck the knife down it’s neck stump, beat it and cut it up in front of you. It was a show unto itself. Those were my two favs, but each kid was awesome These scareactors perfected the childlike movements that were very convincing. They skipped, jumped up and down, could not stand still and each did little gimmicks when interacting with guests that were truly memorable. The sets were great too as I think the actual Skoolhouse is my favorite structure I have seen at HHN. All of the angles are wrong and the lighting was perfect too. Love that you could walk thru for a mini house experience and then go out to the playground too. The interior of the house in decorated nicely with vintage Halloween decor, children’s clothing and school items. Headmaster Renshaw was intimidating also, yelling; “Get to Class ” or “Skipping School?” What can I say about the cast change. Great use of the bus to switch the kids out. The whole line up and single file into the bus and then the new head master coming out, rapping on the outside of the bus was a nice set up. The first time the lights came on inside the bus to reveal the Skool kids looking out at the guests eerily, I had goose bumps and the whole crowd reacted. A sight to see for sure. Then Renshaw brings them out single file and tells them to go get some brains and off they go scaring, menacing and of course trick or treating. Which brings me to the pumpkin area. You talk about classic Halloween imagery? You gotta be kidding me I could have stood there watching those kids scaring and trick or treating all night amongst those beautiful jack o lanterns with the creepy backwards like chanting and the awesome Bloody Mary name being said three times and then the pumpkins blow out and then slowly getting re-lit. Awesome My favorite area indeed and I got one of the best scares that I have received in recent memory right in this area too. One more note of interest; how cool is that the music playing over by the Skoolhouse is the London Philharmonic playing Pink Floyd’s Another Brick in the Wall?
We Don’t Need No Education~ Bravo Universal. You have achieved utter brilliance with the Skoolhouse
Asylum in Wonderland- 4 Skulls
I was majorly surprised I liked this area as much as I did. There was a lot more scaring going on out here than I expected with high energy levels and the lighting, audio and costuming is incredible. I figured this would be a just more or less a photo op zone that would be cool to walk thru, but we spent quite a bit of time in Wonderland. The entrance toward the front of the park being much better as you see the caterpillar heckling the guests (Cool to see him come down and do some scaring at times too) and the trippy spinning lighting effects. The Red Queen creeped me out a bit as she came at me with her hatchet. The White Rabbit had to have been one of the coolest characters who always had something to say to us. Thanks for the personalized shout outs Treaky. The use of inline skates was a nice effect too as the black and white people ducked and dodged around you. Those guys were pretty funny to with lots of good comments and interactions. What was up with the crying? Not sure what I though about Alice either as she was kind of lame. Liked the tea party with the Mad Hatter and the chef and of course Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. Incredible lighting effects and audio in this zone. Off with her head and the cool Chesire Cat projected onto the tarps. Overall, I have to say I enjoyed AIW enough to give it my second choice. Well done.
American Gothic- 3.5 Skulls
With a small area to work in, these guys and gals sure packed in the scares Unfortunately on two of the four night I was visiting, this area was short handed due to injury, so I really only saw them at their full potential on Wednesday and Sunday. I really liked the tight feel of American Gothic. You had no place to run and hide. Strategically placed set pieces creating a zone ripe for ping pong scares and I saw many of these between the stilts and the ground actors. The Victorian dress and the other period costumes were well done. Lighting and sound affects subtle and yet menacing. Thick fog helped to deliver atmosphere and I saw many guests cringe and slow as it obscured the path ahead. This zone had some of my favorite scare actors in it and I enjoyed seeing them working well together here. The tree stilt walker sure had his amount of scares. And the headless horseman actor was quite impressive and effective. I was surprised to see how gory Uni went for with this one as you could see his brains and all. I heard that they were quite wet and squishy, but I did not get to feel that. Anyway, love him and his lantern and was happy to see the connection to the website pic. Loved the victim rack and how it was used as I saw lots of times with the victim hamming it up and then Brooke would come by and really lay into them. It was really funny Nice to see Rocco and Preacher Greg holding down there end of their street. Overall American Gothic was quite fun and I saw many scares happening in this zone. Well done
Streets of Blood- 3 Skulls
This zone was kind of hit or miss for me as more often or not I saw tons of great startle scares with the gentleman and assistants weaving throughout the crowd. The various citizens of London were also out there ranging from drunks, prostitutes and top hatted jack the ripper-like man. Problem is that with the high volume of guest and actors, you kinda get lost at times. Many occasions I had interactions with some of the victim characters and no scares were coming. I felt that these were missed distract scares and this was more often the case. I loved the wheely shoes on the gentleman as it did give them the illusion of floating. The assistants were aggressive and at times funny. Liked the fog and red lighting and the sound effects and music were fitting and startling at times. Danse Macabre is an awesome music piece and I’m glad to see them use it here. Saw CSW Child out and about on the streets quite a bit, but never really got to see her in the coffin as the Rat Lady. Loved the real gas burning London street lamps For a somewhat small area with little to no props or sets, this zone was pretty good for concentrated scares.
Fractured Tales- 2.5 Skulls
I had heard early one that this would be a scare free photo op area and I know that stuff like that has become quite popular with guests, but come on, this is not Disney I was glad to see that there was some pretty good scaring going on here. Nice to see the big scarecrow pumpkins from Harvest of the Souls getting used again at the entrance. Costuming was excellent here with some of my favs being Lil Bo Peep, Samhain Creature, Jack Be Nimble, Little Red Riding Hood, The Big Bad Wolf, the Evil Queen (Cassie Yay)and of course the Pied Piper. Poor Daytona with that damn rat There were so many different characters that it was hard to keep up with them all. Sure the pics were cool, but it was great to see some good scares to. Jessie Reisse was super creepy munching on her sheep and Jack Be Nimble picking at his burns freaking people out. I enjoyed the Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater prop full of body parts too. Too bad they chose to use Kidzone as this zone as it really is a cluster of congestion. It really is just a dead end and not a scare zone per say. With two house queues in the area and people trying to get in line to take pics this was a mess. Too bad really as it did distract from what could have been a good scare zone overall.
Path of the Wicked- 2 Skulls
Oh what could have been. What a missed opportunity. Path of the Wicked should have been great, but it just was not scary. The area used is not all that large and it does not really lend itself to the Oz storyline. Sure you have Shrek there with it’s castle facade and sure you have the funky trees, but overall the area and too straight to be effective. The set pieces were lame and they did not offer much cover for the actors. Oh, how much I wanted to like those monkeys. Cool concept really, but just did not work. Sure it was ok when they were right over you, but they should have made a better effort to make them look more like monkeys. At least the ones on the ground should have looked better. The witch was average at best and the stilt guards were pretty good. Danno paid as some extra attention which was appreciated. Cool costuming there but the Scarecrow looked kinda lame. I felt the Lion was misused and so was the Tin Man. At times he would do this cool frozen act and then suddenly come to life which was pretty cool, but then at other times he would be running around all fast which did not look real or scary at all. Ben as the evil munchkin was awesome. I saw several great scares by him. The music and audio were pretty decent with a general feel of dread as were the special effects with the fire balls and such. Not sure what to think of the monkey screams as I guess they felt they needed some indication to tell guests that those are indeed monkey flying above them. I really feel the lighting was a area that was lacking. I would have liked to see a more vibrant green used to keep up with the feel of the film. I hate to be so harsh as I really wanted to like Path of the Wicked, but just fell flat for me. Not enough scares and a disappointing follow through on the concept.
Roaming Street Scares
Zombies- I was pleasantly surprised to find that I liked the roaming zombies. I am quite harsh normally with the depiction of zombies in modern cinema and get easily annoyed with how silly zombies are used, but I let myself go with what Uni was doing here. At first the whole zombie handler and the orange jump suits seemed to be a joke and then it clicked that was exactly what they were going for. Fun. And it was quite funny to see them do the sexy zombie dance and so on and then attack the crowd. The props were pretty effective too with some of them with hearts and limbs, some with bats and pipes. The make up was also quite good here, but the overall acting was not too consistent of zombies. Some had it down while some were really bad, but mostly aggressive. Overall a pretty fun thing to watch for added roaming scares.
Chainsaws- I only saw the CDT a few time while out and about and felt that what I saw looked kinda lame for the only chainsaws at the event (other than Doomsday). The costumes were terrible for the CDT with the black jump suits and straps and stuff. I would have preferred that they went classic with the aprons and flannel and jeans. Anyway, I’ve never been huge on the chainsaws in the first place but I do get a kick out of watching people run and try and evade them. There always seems to be great scares to watch around the CDT and this year I did not see that many.
Once again I will grade the houses top to bottom using a 1-5 skull scale. 5 being the best. Here we go......
Scary Tales- Once Upon A Nightmare- 5 Skulls
Oh how I wish I could do Scary Tales again. What a beautiful house it was. I am stunned that they were able to produce such an incredibly detailed house in the parade building. It was true sound stage quality stuff here. Let’s start with the facade. I had some doubts that Uni could pull off this facade as I had seen some pics of it online early. I was glad to see that they did some plant and vine dressings on the gingerbread house-like exterior. Overall I felt that they were not going for realism here, but more of a “right out of a children’s book” feel. It did have a one dimensional drawing look to it and it worked well to create the fantasy world we were about to walk into.
I really liked the fact that a storyline was used here as the first area depicted the Scribes writing the stories that we about to walk through in human blood. I felt the Scribes were pretty creepy and well done. The red silk stretching out along the walls to the areas ahead. The shear volume of detail in each room was amazing. My jaw was on the floor when I came to the castle scene with Repunzal hanging out of the tower window. The trolls coming at me through the walls and of course the fact that you must part and walk through Repunzal’s hair to step thru to exit this area. Very cool design here. The Alice in Wonderland room was sensory overload with the incessant sound of the clock and the flashing lights. The poor white rabbit being disemboweled by Alice as she maniacally said “He was late ” The Mad Hatter coming at you again and again. Nicely done room Onward to the Hansel and Gretel room with the beautiful oven and the heat they emitted. The smell of cinnamon and candy. Unfortunately I never heard the “let us out ” coming from the ovens or got the smell of burning flesh. I’m sure they were there, maybe it should have been more obvious as this area was always dead when I went through. Maybe have a witch in there? The Wizard of Oz corn field was fun with the bouncy feel it had. Just genius design with the corn stalks leading to the ceiling that was in fact a bungy type netting. It gave great animation and action to the room. It also gave interaction for the guests here as they felt one with their environment. The Scarecrow and the Tin Man lurking amongst the corn, poor Dorothy tied to a stake with her brains hanging out the back of here head. Was that lil ol Toto squashed on the wall as I left the room? Again, another great room Man, what can you say about the Goldilocks and the 3 Bears room? That was so intense to walk in and see the two slaughtered bears on the table with the bowls of porridge and the three overalls of the wall. Seeing all this detail you get distracted and then comes the immense 8 foot monstrous bear from behind you That roar was deafening and had me pick up my pace to the next room. I liked the smaller areas too with Cinderella in the rack getting her foot cut off. Nice to see the accuracy of the source material her. Little Red Riding hood in her sultry costume sharpening her ax. Where is Grandma? Oh, look at the wolf slaughtered in the bed and Grandma coming out of the Wolf’s entrails. Loved the effect and the sound too. Snow White was somewhat lost here as I saw some video of the prop cut in half and a live actor online, but never saw it when I went through. The hall of mirrors was very effective with strobe lights and the individual Queens reaching through to get you. It helped to set up the end scene too withe Queen standing high above you and her Scribes enveloping you as you try and exit. We got some really good ping pong scares here. Loved the return of the red silk depicting the blood spilt from the stories.
One of the most detailed houses in HHN history in my mind. Incredible costumes, sets, lighting, sound effects and acting. For a third generation house, this takes the cake. Bravo David Hughes and Uni Creative
Body Collectors-Collections of the Past- 4 1/2 Skulls
Aside from the ridiculously long walk to get to the house, I really enjoyed the sequel to one of my all time favs, Body Collectors. Once you finally arrive to the sound stage, you enter White Chapel and Mitre Square. I was not sure what to think about the Body Collectors departing from the world set up in HHN15 and Terra Cruentas only to enter our world in a Victorian Jack the Ripper era London, but I was game. The set at the start of the house was so detailed and the lighting perfect. You felt that you were entering the back alleys of London with the thick, slow moving fog clinging to the ground, the cart off to the right and the actress coming from the left warning you to not proceed. As you go forth you entry the tight alley and then the darkness just takes you. I have to be honest here as I felt that this is the one mistake Uni made with this house. The lighting levels in the interior sets were just much too low. I know the level of detail in this house as I have seen the walk thru video. I felt I only saw maybe 25% of the actual detail. A shame really as it would have been even more of an experience to soak up all of the rich detail. I wonder what I missed from the actors too as many of the people I know who worked in this house said that guests could not even see them and did not react to the scares. It had been discussed while I was there that this was because of the sunlight and that your eyes needed to adjust. I can see some of that affecting the lighting, but I went thru at night and on cloudy days and had the same experience. Anyway, enough with that. Onward into the world of the Body Collectors and the twisting London alleys. One of the things that I really liked was the overall feel of the sets and how I felt to be in a city. As I came around one corned I saw a woman in peril in a window. Then a gentleman appeared behind her and slit her throat. This was one of the best timed gags I ever seen and it worked beautifully. What also worked was the distraction element for as we watched the woman getting killed another gentleman came from the left side and got Michelle good. She ended up on my back she was so scared. Good stuff. Another thing that this version of Body Collectors did right was keep up the level of gore as the original. The gags just kept coming such as the leg sawing room and the segmented body on the rack slowing being pulled apart. Then of course the follow up spine ripping scene. Nice job I felt that some of the rooms were not used to their full potential such as the theater and definitely the end room, which I will get to later. I liked the distraction of the fake gentleman in the seats of the theater scene, but I never felt a good scare coming from anywhere there. There were plenty of area that should have been used to poke out from, but I just never saw much happening. Loved the Roddy and Aiello Barbershop with the ultra gory prop body sitting in the chair. Poor guys head was just hanging on by a thread and those knives sticking through him. Wow It was fun that it was all a huge Sweeney Todd homage. The staircase scene with the gentleman at the top, however obvious, seemed to be quite effective as I saw many scares coming as the assistant came from the right side on the bottom. The problem with the end room was that it had too much fog and there was no ping pongs happening here like there should have been. I recall the ending of the original and we were ping pong half to death with those air hoses. It was the perfect ending to a great house and this time it fell flat. Too bad as it had great potential. Body Collectors-Collections of the Past may have beat the original in sets, gags and effects, but it was not as effective with the scares and overall feeling of dread. Loved the gentleman once again and I thought that the assistants were awesome Great house overall, but too bad some areas were not used properly and that the lighting issues were there.
The Hallows- 4 Skulls
I was very excited when I heard that Uni was doing a house about the origins of Halloween. Even more so with it being done with a Pagan twist. Of course it is not too accurate with the whole Samhain, lord of the underworld angle, but cool none the less. Again, I felt that the lighting in this house was way too dark. I may have a tough time recalling particular rooms and scenes in this house because of it. I did get the overall feeling that they were going for and that is why this one got such a high mark from me. The Jack O Lanterns, while did not at the level of the ones in the Skool house, were still very cool. The witches stirring their cauldrons cackling as you strolled by (hi Spath and Squeek ). The crypt with it’s very high sarcophagus and eerie lighting was a nice touch. I think I saw that actor get someone every time including me the first time through. The new masks of the pumpkin head guys were cool with the bones coming out on the cheeks. But the most effective part was definitely the end room with the Samhain guys. Those costumes rock And the fenced off room were they patrolled about threw my sense of direction off and the cool voice effects were well done. I wish I got to see The Hallow some more as I don’t recall much detail. One thing I do recall is the overwhelming smell of dirt and earth. Nice touch I just feel that this house was very effective and gave better scares than I expected. Maybe we will see a return of the Hallows another year. Please brighten up those lighting levels so I can see some of that detail.
Interstellar Terror- 3 ½ Skulls
Detail is surely something I saw in this house. The facade was simply amazing as you begin your journey on the USS Columbus 1492. It had the whole Event Horizon/ Aliens feel down perfectly with the exhaust ports smoking. Nice touch having Michael Roddy on video playing ship’s captain and each video showing his descent into madness. The level of detail to the sets was incredible with all the little ship schematics and lights, namely the creative teams names being incorporated into the ship’s diagnostics. Aiello lubricators down to 12%, funny stuff The gag with the crewman getting electrocuted was neat as the noise and lights were effective. Too bad the gag were a bungy actor gets blown out of the airlock was not working while I was at HHN. Apparently every actor that did that gig hurt his back. Too bad as it seemed to be a nice effect. The bridge scene playing the Roddy video again was a nice set and I saw lots of scares happening. Fried Bananas Wolf you rock Got a kick out of one room that had dish washing crates hung onto the walls. Guess someone thought that they looked futuristic. They are pretty common to me in my line of work as a food service director. LOL Anyway, the bridge that falls with the mirror effect of the spaceman floating outside was cool as I liked the effect last year in Dead Silence. The vortex effect was nice to see and very fitting here. I had not seen one in a while other than the lame one in Psycho 2 years ago. I always challenge myself to go through the vortex with out holding the rails. Fun times I am sad to say that I did not get the point of the vortex and the fact that on the other end it was supposed to be that the ship was now upside down. I can’t believe I did not notice all of the writing and sets being upside down from that point forward in the house. Noticed that on the walk thru video. Nice touch though. I’ll blame it on the beer. Lol The last scene with the artifact was kind of lame as it fell flat. No real scares at all. I gotta say that the Event Horizon edge was not present and the whole crazy crew feel only came thru lightly. Overall the look of the house, the gags and effect (visual and sound) were excellent. Some of the best I have seen. For a spaceship house it gets high marks for execution. For scares, not so much.
Creatures- 3 Skulls
Ah the Butchered Buck I wondered what they were going to be able to do with this one in a sound stage. The facade of the Butchered Buck was visually very nicely done. The front of the bar with the well out front and the ATV, the tentacles coming out of the well and the dog of the grill, pretty neat. I recall the first time through someone saying “what is that a possum?” and then I heard , “no I think it is a lamb” and then the scareactor behind the ATV jumped up and says “that my dog lucky ” Boy he got some good scares as no one saw him. Around the side and into the bar we go. WOW Great set dressing as this really did look like a real bar. We got plenty of attention from the rednecks in this section such as Colin and CD. The hallway of doors was not used too effectively as I don’t think I saw any actors or props. I had heard the stories about how communication broke down between the construction team and the crew making the creatures and that none of the creatures could fit in the house. Too bad as this house would have been much higher on my list. The ones I did see were ol one eye coming through the wall and of course the thing dog-like prop toward the end. I liked the body in the bed with the web all over it and the web dressing further on. Too bad we never got to see the producer of these webs. It all had a “The Mist” feel to it. My favorite part was seeing Finner’s bro each time through yelling that there were too many wolves and of course that would be the set up for Finner, who got me on multiple occasions when I turned the corner to a great snarl. Great energy in this house and overall it was a lot of fun. It will unfortunately go down as a “what if” house though and that is just too bad. I did have fun each and every time through the Butchered Buck, but again too many dark spots.
Dead Exposure- 2 ½ Skulls
This one was slightly better than expected. I had heard the concept and it sounded hit or miss. I had heard also that it was big on scares and unfortunately I did not feel this. The facade was kind of lame compared to the others this year and I will easily say the worst of the bunch. Interesting that the photographer had a connection to the Skool House being from Carey Ohio. Anyone know the significance? Anyway, the office room in the opening sets up the story and frankly I always hate these houses with actors running around a room warning you to not go forward. It had the same feel of the detective from Dead Silence. It just kind of annoys me, but it did pay off later in the finally. The concept of the flashing of the camera illuminating the zombies worked pretty effectively. The whole black light effect again, nice touch. The overall layout of the house was forgettable aside from the body room. That room had me a bit apprehensive moving forward and that means that it worked for me. Nice job there The bathroom scene, what was that? Aside from those rooms I can’t recall any more The final room being back in the photographers office with all the zombies feasting on him was a nice conclusion. I felt that the effects worked on some level, but not 100%. The costuming decent, but the sets were awful. That is what killed this one for me. The unmemorable factor was the house itself. Too bad as I hoped for a house to break the Deadtropolis zombie house curse. Nice use of the sound effects from the website here.
Reflections of Fear- 2 Skulls
Well, the majority of people have this at the very bottom, but this does not get my worst vote as you will see in my Doomsday review. Reflections was indeed a poor house and for many reasons. The facade felt right with the outside of Dr. Mary Agana’s office with the word’s “Bloody Mary” spray painted over the institutions motto. The vines overgrown over the sign showing that this is the current day location. The opening office scene was nicely done with the decrepit office and the slick vision of Bloody Mary in the mirror. That gave me hope Well, shortly there after, it became clear that is was going to be scene after scene of an uneffective Bloody Mary coming at you again and again with a few patients and young Marys and silly looking doctors thrown in for good measure. The helper doctors reminded me for some reason of the ones from House On Haunted Hill. The sets were ok, forgettable, but ok and the costumes fitting. The sound effects were actually quite nice with the recordings of Mary inter-spliced with screams and the malfunctioning tape recorder. The website sounds were very much present. There just were not any scares here and that is the main reason this house failed. Too bad as Mary was a cool and scary icon and this, as an icon house deserved better. I can see why Creatures was in a sound stage and as I mentioned before it was too bad that it did not get the treatment it deserved, but it would have been ok in the Jaws queue. Reflections of Fear did not seem to work here and it hurt the overall feel. It turned out to be one of the lamest houses I have been in at HHN in a while. Sorry Mary : (
Doomsday- 2 Skulls
It kills me that I have to diss this house like I am about to as I know a ton of people who worked there butts off in this house, but I have to be honest. The main reason I did not like Doomsday is because I feel that it was a serious mistake to make it the basis for a house in the first place. Did the film really have enough horror elements in it to warrant a HHN maze? I don’t think so and I saw this one at the theater and again on DVD. I like director Neil Marshall’s work (especially The Descent) and thought Doomsday was a cool homage to the likes of Road Warrior, Escape From New York with a slight spin of 28 Days later virus action too. So I do know the source material, but I think that it is not HHN material and this was a major miscue to have it there. This is for a few reasons. Namely because of the things that made the movie could not even be done in a house setting such as the action (gunfights, car races and hand to hand combat). Sure the main thing that was attempted to be conveyed in the maze was a hostile environment. I am sorry to say, but that failed too. I tried to get past the fact that I did not think it should be a house well before I got to Orlando, but it solidified my thoughts after I went through my first time. I pity the people who did not see the film and went through this mess. The varying sets would have made no sense to them. I will say the facade was nicely done and I got the virus raged city sets and the medieval castle too. The post apocalyptic sets with the Sol’s punks were the best, but really did we really need to finish with the stage scene with the CAN CAN? I always thought the main reason to do a haunted maze was to scare people, not create a place were people want to dance. Also, the human BBQ scene has so small in scale and not even close to being memorable like it should have. You have a scene that has some horror in it and it was lame. Sorry for being so negative, but I have not left a house at HHN with a more thumbs down feeling ever. It was just done for all the wrong reasons. I get the feeling that some exec went to creative and said that there has to be a movie based house and there ya go. If that is true, execs, stay out of it and let the creative team do their thing Simply put, Doomsday should never have been made a HHN house Sorry if I hurt anyone’s feelings who was close to this house, I know it was not your fault and I know that you all worked your ass off.
Shows
Bill and Ted’s Excellent Halloween Adventure
I think many of you know that I am not a huge fan of the B&T show, but enjoy the movie humor and respect the genius that is Mike Aiello. I wanted to see the show due to the fact that it is an election year and a, excellent summer movie year on top of it. I had heard some less than stellar views regarding this year’s show and heard that it dies midway through. Maybe because I went in with low expectations or maybe it was all of the movie humor, but I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. The opening Obama/McCain/ Palin stuff was what I expected and not wicked funny. The Juno parts ok, the There Will Be Blood stuff completed unexpected and funny, the Speedracer parts also fun (Especially the Predator humping Speed), could have done without the Sex and the City girls, the Indiana Jones stuff was a riot, Sweeney Tod, whatever ,Hellboy cool, the Joker was great and on and on. I liked it in general as I thought that it was pretty funny and smart. The dancing has never done much for me, but I can see that it is done right. The costumes and overall casting was right on the mark. Seeing B&T again made me realize why it is a HNN staple. It is good, not so clean fun. Good job overall.
Brian Brushwood
We had the chance to hit the magic show and I did so knowing that it was a short show. Overall, I thought that it was somewhat lame with none of the risky magic I expected. I thought that it could have been themed a bit more for a Halloween event too. Sure you had the whole EVP cell phone stuff and they worked Bloody Mary in there and you had Mr Happy Pants, but overall not the greatest magic show I’ve ever seen.
Rocky Horror Picture Show, A Tribute
I did not see the show as I am not a fan, but from what I could tell it was well received and a fan fav. The pics I have seen of it online look to be perfect in casting, costuming and lighting. Top notch Universal live entertainment.
Misc
Text Messaging Games and The Legendary Truth Mystery Game
I did not take part in either of these interactive events, but I think Uni has the right idea including this type of content. People seemed to really get into it and it did not affect the guests that did not want to take part. It just adds more to the overall HHN experience. I commend Universal for doing this.
Overall Event Summary
Halloween Horror Nights 18 Reflections of Fear will go down in my books as a stellar overall event. It had a kick ass icon in Bloody Mary, a great build up on the website that conveyed over into the event seamlessly. It had the best scare zone ever in my mind in the Skool House and Pumpkin Patch. It had 2 of the best houses ever in Scary Tales and Body Collectors. And it had a fully realized theme. I may not be the best year ever, but close to it. I am so happy that Universal listened to the fans and brought back scare zones in force this year. It is great that Uni has started doing the online surveys and the fact that they are so all-encompassing, makes me feel like I have a say and that they are listening. The return of the scare zones is proof. The houses were again top notch and the shows decent. I would like to thank everyone associated with HHN from Michael Roddy, Rick Spencer, TJ Mannarino, David Hughes, Kim Grommel, Mike Aiello, Ray Kiem and the rest of the creative team down to the scareactors, ASMs, Fearciliatators and everyone involved. Excellent work again this year. You are truly incredible people who deserve all the respect in the world for your commitment and hard work. Moving forward I would like to see Universal fix the lighting issues in the houses and move to more of a less linear approach to the mazes. I very seldom feel like I am lost or ever in any danger of getting lost in houses at HHN. This dread should automatically be a factor in a haunted maze. Try some split paths or some form of “maze” creation. Go with less startle scares and more atmosphere creepiness and work in the startle scares. I feel that we are going for more gag effects and less acting. Also, do something with R&S and the Nazi-like use of the flash lights. It totally distracts the guest from the illusions that you work so hard to achieve. Overall it was great stuff this year, but I hope Uni strives to still be the best overall, not just in overall attendance and revenue. Also, bring back the behind the scenes tour. It was a big disappointment not being able to see some of the houses with the lights on and also the Q&A with the creative team. Sure I got the meet many of the team in my journeys around the park, which was great, but the tour is something I look forward to. I thank you if you are still reading as it was a great year to review. Let me know your feelings as this is just my opinions and I really enjoy discussing all things HHN with fellow fans.
Until HHN19
Cheers
F.U.B.A.R.
