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Mine (Jake's) Employee Preview Review.

Jakemeister

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Jakemeister

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Being awesome like I am, last night I was able to make it to Halloween Horror Nights, for Employee Preview. I had the opportunity to go with about a million people and my text logs and my Facebook are proof but I decided I would go with my mom and my sister. I knew they would let me be the leaders so I could definitely do everything the way I wanted and probably get all the houses done. (spoiler alert: I did).

I really need to stress that this was employee preview because I am a harsh critic (it comes with being a film buff). So some of this might even be better come Friday when all the actors have notes, and I am sure some of it will be better come Thursday the 30th. HOWEVER, I will put money on there being many mixed reviews opening weekend. Regardless, you guys all want to hear about houses and streets so let us get onto them.

Okay, sorry. I have some more writing. I am going to break down everything in the order I saw it. At EP, some houses open at 7:45 and others at 8. Being the strategist I am I was smart and started at a tent that opened at 7:45 (Catacombs). Then I went around and I saw all the houses and half the scarezones (I would have seen all of them, but that is for later).

Catacombs: Black Death Rising- This one is going to make lots of peoples top 3 list, not mine, but lots of people. This is a solid GOOD house and for whatever reason, that particular Tent has fared better over the years (better houses). Has many details, great story line, Cast A was rocking it, and there was some great effects and what not. All I have to say is look up or you might miss a great scare and some detail. Catacombs you are no. 5 on my list just because the ones that rocked...rocked. You get a 'B'.

Havoc: Dogs of War- Yo Havoc I'ma let you finish but Catacombs is the best tent of 2010...Some people I am sure will disagree with me but I just did not care for this house. Talent was rocking it and I came into this house with absolutely no opinion on it so that did not influence it. It might climb up my list later, or improve over time, which it probably will but right now I'm not feeling Havoc, I can't put my finger on it though. Havoc gets a 'C' for now.

Orfanage: Ashes to Ashes- To all you actors in this house I am sorry, I really am. This review is nothing against you people but I HATE THIS HOUSE.... I hate it a lot. I will give it a couple more chances but I hate this house. Hype killed it for me. I was expecting there to be fire everywhere (only 5 seconds of fire really?), all the scenes felt VERY similar, and all the costumes were pretty much the same. I feel for you Orfanage actors, I have been in Jaws Que so I know how that is but ugh, I do not like your house. My apologies...but an 'F'.

Zombie Gras-My first HHN 20 street (and only 1 of 3 I got to experience with actors). I like this, I think it is VASTLY under populated but I love the concept and I love how easily one could be distracted. Great concept, relatively good execution; ZG gets a ...'B'

Zombiegeddon- Honestly I am partial to this house. A large number of my friends are in this house, and I really like zombies. With that said this house KICKS ASS. It is great. If you thought this was going to be the funny house...oh, how wrong you are. This house delivers on scares on massive levels. It is great, it is fun, and it has has massive potential to scare me and if has potential to scare me well then it will probably rock the average person. Easily my 3rd favorite and it gets an 'A-'.

Saws N' Steam-Chainsaws do not scare me, they never have and they never will. I DID however like this zone. Maybe because it was Steam Punk, I do not really know. It is not because I got scared because that sure did not happen but it was a fun zone. There are some great scare opportunities and this could very easily be a list topper. You get a 'B' good sir.

Hades: The Gates of Ruin-Compared to lots of houses this is good, however compared to its sound stage brethren...EH. I did not like this house. Something about it, I do not know. At that, I kinda sorta might hate it by the end of the event or I might love it. It could honestly go either way, we will see. Right now, I do not like this house. It gets a 'C-'

PsychoScareapy: Echoes of Shadybrook- I can honestly say I have never been threw a bad PS house. This is still VERY true, although this one is not my favorite. When I think of PS, I think of funny scares where PS Echoes is meant to be far more serious. PS2 will always be my fave, because of that. This house is good though. Very easy to enjoy, very aesthetically pleasing and when you see the red button, press that shit. You will thank me later. Nice and solid 'B'.

Legendary Truth: The Wyandot Estate- This house was ruined for me and it is still my 2nd fave. I love so much about this house. It easily has some of my favorite effects and favorite scares, this shit is easily my favorite, and I got a particularly great scare in this house. I will not ruin it but I love that it has a scare in the same vein as Dead Silence and Interstellar Terror. I really hope my walkthrough Friday propels this to my favorite. I really want this to be my favorite but it is not there yet. It gets an 'A'

The Coven- Or as I like to call it Estrogen Alley. I really like this concept, when I explained how it was supposed to be the opposite of the Salem Witch trials to my family they liked it too. This is a good scarezone and the talent was rocking. I got the best scare of the night in The Coven for whatever reason and I am very content with that. The Coven, you have an 'A' in my heart right now.

Horror Nights The Hallow'd Past- I went into this house not knowing what to expect and I'm glad. This house BLEW me away. It really is astounding. I liked what they did as a "facade". Without ruining it, it is VERY unconventional. The scenes were great it was delivering on scares. My only gripe is that the scenes before 2005 were minimal; it concentrated in large on post 2005. I could honestly care less though because they were rocking their shit. I love this house at the moment. I am slightly sad to report that I didn't see Eddie in the house but I saw Chance which is a fair trade...and she blew me a kiss so all parties were pleased. Seriously amazing house, 'A+' for you Hallow'd Past Coco you go Hallow'd Past Coco.

So, in order of my favorites at the moment, here they go.

1. Hallow'd Past

2. Legendary Truth

3. Zombiegeddon

4. PS: Echoes

5. Catacombs

6. Hades

7. Havoc

8. Orfanage.

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Jakemeister Newbie

Jakemeister

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I knew Orphanage wasn't going to be any good, But Hades?

In retrospect I can kinda put my finger on why and in all honesty auditory sense definitely have something to do with it, that the lack of Hades and the un-godly amount of mulch. If there is a Hades casted in this house I never saw him. There was techno music playing....and truck loads of mulch. Those 3 things kinda added up and threw it off for me.

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Cody Newbie

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Don't take these reviews at face value. For every review you read, there will be at least five different opinions. So don't take Jake's word to be true and decide that Orfanage is bad or Hades is bad until you go through. I've read several other reviews that practically worshiped Hades and said that the Orfanage was very scary and just needed some tweaking.

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Jakemeister Newbie

Jakemeister

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Don't take these reviews at face value. For every review you read, there will be at least five different opinions. So don't take Jake's word to be true and decide that Orfanage is bad or Hades is bad until you go through. I've read several other reviews that practically worshiped Hades and said that the Orfanage was very scary and just needed some tweaking.

Oh I'll be the first one to say that I went on employee preview and things might be different. Different things for different people as well. My opinion is just that, an opinion, no opinion is fact (well in my world they are) but seriously make your own opinions. I was just giving my piece.

How can techno music in a house be bad ;/

When was the last time you thought of Hell (Hades) with techno music? I can honestly say never. Although, listening to techno for hours on end would be hell unless I was at a rave. In essence...it doesn't fit.

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Cody Newbie

Cody

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I know it's your opinion. I just want to warn everyone that reviews aren't gospel, as I've seen some people take it. I know some people who believe other reviews so much that they've already decided which houses are crap without even being in them.

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Jakemeister Newbie

Jakemeister

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I know it's your opinion. I just want to warn everyone that reviews aren't gospel, as I've seen some people take it. I know some people who believe other reviews so much that they've already decided which houses are crap without even being in them.

I want people to go out and form their own opinions and usually Employee Preview reviews can completely 180 (well in some aspects), but I really am going to stand by there being lots of mixed reviews come Saturday morning.

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eyeballs Newbie

eyeballs

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I knew Orphanage wasn't going to be any good, But Hades?

I wasn't a fan of Hades either.

I know it's your opinion. I just want to warn everyone that reviews aren't gospel, as I've seen some people take it. I know some people who believe other reviews so much that they've already decided which houses are crap without even being in them.

Which is true, but the same can be said for people who have already decided which houses are going to be great and which aren't, regardless of reviews. I honestly think it's not wise to read a review before attending any sort of event, because you go in looking for the flaws the reviewer mentioned from the get go.

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Jakemeister Newbie

Jakemeister

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why was the LT house ruined for you?

great review by the way :)

Three girls freaked out mid 1st scene and made us the only one going threw the house which in essence seems like a great idea but it kinda back fired. Instead of getting scares like crazy Ops was trying to get us threw the house especially after my sister got lost and almost ran into an actor...lol.

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Dr. Jimmy Newbie

Dr. Jimmy

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Sounds hot Jake!

Your description of the Coven gets me all excited as Susannah Martin my Great Great Great Great etc. Grandmother, John Proctor my Great Great etc. Uncle and Mary Bradbury my Great Great etc. Aunt were all Salem Witches.

Susannah and John were executed, but Mary escaped from Jail (good thing too, otherwise my cousin Ray would never have been born to write all those awesome books!) so to hear that this is a reverse of Salem makes me happy.

REVENGE FOR THE BLOOD OF THE ANCESTORS!!!

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Jakemeister Newbie

Jakemeister

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Sounds hot Jake!

Your description of the Coven gets me all excited as Susannah Martin my Great Great Great Great etc. Grandmother, John Proctor my Great Great etc. Uncle and Mary Bradbury my Great Great etc. Aunt were all Salem Witches.

Susannah and John were executed, but Mary escaped from Jail (good thing too, otherwise my cousin Ray would never have been born to write all those awesome books!) so to hear that this is a reverse of Salem makes me happy.

REVENGE FOR THE BLOOD OF THE ANCESTORS!!!

I don't know what cast it was and I can't speak for the other cast but that sort of theme for whatever really works for Shrek Alley. I was a HUGE fan of 'American Gothic' and 'The Coven' and AG are very much so in the same vein and I can honestly say what I've seen of 'The Coven' it kicks ass. I easily got my favorite scare of the night there.

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Cody Newbie

Cody

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Jake, Hades is a place, not a person. Chyron (I may be spelling this wrong) is the person who mans the boat on the river Styx and takes you across to Hades. There should be a Chyron, as I know someone cast as him.

Err, what?

Hades is a place AND a person. It refers to both the god and the Greek underworld, and was sometimes also used to refer to the god's home. It wasn't until after Homer that Hades started to also refer to a place rather than a god.

And yes, it's spelled Charon or Kharon. There's also a Chiron, who was a centaur. Easy to get them mixed up.

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Nightcrawler Newbie

Nightcrawler

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Sounds hot Jake!

Your description of the Coven gets me all excited as Susannah Martin my Great Great Great Great etc. Grandmother, John Proctor my Great Great etc. Uncle and Mary Bradbury my Great Great etc. Aunt were all Salem Witches.

Susannah and John were executed, but Mary escaped from Jail (good thing too, otherwise my cousin Ray would never have been born to write all those awesome books!) so to hear that this is a reverse of Salem makes me happy.

REVENGE FOR THE BLOOD OF THE ANCESTORS!!!

lol.

Though, having people burned at the stake in the scarezone is historically inaccurate, as none of the people executed at the Salem witch trials were burned at the stake. One (Giles Corey) was crushed under rocks, and the others were all hanged.

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Dr. Jimmy Newbie

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lol.

Though, having people burned at the stake in the scarezone is historically inaccurate, as none of the people executed at the Salem witch trials were burned at the stake. One (Giles Corey) was crushed under rocks, and the others were all hanged.

This is why I said executed instead of burnt. I am fully aware of how my ancestors were killed at Gallows Hill in Salem Village.

Of course trying to explain this always causes confusion as the widespread misconception of witches being burnt at Salem is so prevalent. Another misconception is that this occurred at Salem. The towns of Salem and Salem Village were actually two different albeit adjacent communities. The townsfolk of Salem village deep in shame for the hysteria that had run rampant through their town changed the name to Danvers in 1757.

Ironically, today the nearby city of Salem gets all the Witch oriented tourism which has become the economic life's blood of the community.

But that doesn't necessarily mean that the scarezone is historically inaccurate, as it doesn't show the witches of Salem being burnt, rather it shows the vengeful witches burning the Villagers who had killed others for witchcraft. These vengeful witches, aware that many of their sisters had been burnt at the stake in Europe chose this more traditional method to more fully exact their retribution.

Also for the sake of many who practice the Craft, some of whom post on this site I must now also issue the following disclaimer:

These are Fantasy/Horror representations of witches and by no means represent the real nature of Wicca or any other Pagan Nature worshiping practice. True Witches would never violate their belief that all life is sacred by murdering anyone. This goes against their innate love for the Great Mother who represents the very life force of the Earth and all her children, human and animal who dwell upon it. Rather they would seek to heal and restore peace and harmony rather than indulge in revenge.

Witches in fact, believe that they will receive back three times whatever they produce for good or evil, and thus are very careful to do only good.

However, this does not keep various Satanic worshipers or other darkside cultists from misusing the words Witch or Witchcraft to describe themselves and their activities, thus resulting in more confusion in popular culture.

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