Pehyde's trip review

[pehyde]

WARNING Spoilers ahead, I'm going to go into some detail of all of the houses. Also, this will probably be pretty long (I tend to be "long-winded" when I type things out).

I got to go to HHN XX this year on Saturday October 2nd, which happened to be my birthday. It will be my only chance of going this year, so I wanted to make sure I could get to see everything. I went with my brother, his girlfriend, and two other female friends who I knew were "screamers" so I was expecting to have lots of fun laughing at their scares.

We got to the park and through the gates just after 6, and immediately saw the Chainsaw Drill Team. These guys were already scaring guests and my friends made sure to steer our group clear of them. We decided to head toward the soundstages first so walked through Esqueleto Muerte. Although it was still bright outside, the scareactors were still getting some scares with good distractions. The scarezone looked cool, but we knew we would come back to it later when it was dark so we hurried through. We came up to Legendary Truth first, and with a 15 minute wait decided to do it. The wait in line was a little longer than 15 minutes, but it gave us time to decide on an order for the group to go through: I would go first, my brother would be last, and the three girls decided they would be safest in the middle.

Legendary Truth -6:30

They were pulsing in groups of about 20 people at a time, and we ended up right in the middle of one of these groups. We walked inside and I was amazed by the facade. I had seen pictures (the one from one of the videos on the website) but I was still surprised at how awesome it looked in person. We walked up the porch steps and the Spirit Seeker was running back and forth at the line telling people about their investigation. He actually scared one of my friends. We kept going through the house (actually missing the scareactor in the floor in the hallway this time through), but the ghost behind the wall paper scrim was a really cool effect and scared one of my friends so much I got pushed into the person in the conga line in front of me. I believe next was the sitting room where the ghost face appears in the windows (great effect if you get it timed right). My brother's girlfriend is pretty short and there was an actor in this room that happened to be at her eye-level that terrified her so much she let out a huge scream that I actually thought was a sound effect from the house. I ended up laughing about it through the next few rooms so may have missed a few scares here and there. The next room I remember was the bed scene, which was a cool effect, but looks pretty uncomfortable for the actor there actually. There were a few more hallways where I got some scares and saw some cool scenes (was the Storyteller in a mirror effect here?). We missed the chair scareactor's prompt this time around, but the statues in the last room were great and served as a cool finale. (I'm going to put my rankings at the end as I went through most of the houses twice).

We were out of Legendary Truth by 6:30 and got in line for Psychoscareapy next with another 15 minute wait.

Psychoscareapy - 6:50

I've loved the two Psychoscareapy houses that I had gone through in years past, so was definitely looking forward to this house. I loved how Shadybrook looked decrepit and condemned. The girl in the front with the scissors coming out of her eye was really gross-looking and one of the most memorable parts of the house. The cell hallway with the hands sticking out was creepy, I don't think any of them reached out towards me, but I'm know they scared someone in my group, because I was pushed forward quickly out of the scene. The scareactor at the start of the library was good, coming out with his scare yelling "Quiet in the library". I hit the Red Button as I passed it (it was cool to see), and the air jets and noise scared the hell out of my friends. The guy opposite of "sparky" (the electric chair scene) attacked my group and was an intense scare. The strobes at the end really set up a few scares, and one of the inmates got pretty close to me and I actually felt scared for the first time here.

We next walked over to Hades and with a 10 minute wait (that was actually closer to 5) we did it next.

Hades - 7:05

I wasn't really impressed with the facade here, but loud music and the smoke made it seem pretty ominous. We were attacked as soon as we got inside by Charon (I think) and all of the scareactors seemed to be going after anyone that came through. The Stygian Witches looked amazing and really freaked out one of my friends, and the Medusa scenes were some of the coolest in the house, I especially liked the stone Medusa head effect at the end. The Minotaur looked pretty scary actually and the labyrinth was such an amazing effect (that I didn't figure out until the second time through the house). The throne at the end definitely confused everyone since they were expecting someone to pop out from around it since no one was sitting there. Still this was an amazing house.

We got out of Hades and it wasn't totally dark yet, so we decided to ride the Mummy. It was a five minute wait, but it was a lot darker outside by the time we were finished (it was about 7:20 by then). We decided to go through most of the scarezones now, starting with Saws and Steam. The whole of Sting Alley looks pretty ominous, with smoke everywhere, it was pretty hard to see. A scareactor got in one of our pictures and sufficiently freaked out one of my friends (she quickly moved away from him as he got in the picture). I wish the chainsaws were in Sting Alley instead of patrolling in the streets around it since the fog would hide them really well, but oh well. The mini-shows here were pretty cool to see and the chainsaw guys really got a few scares out of my group at the end.

We walked through the Coven next (7:30 ish). The Pilgrims being burned really stayed in character and I saw one of them get a couple of scares. The witches were really cool, and one of them came out of nowhere to scare my brother who doesn't look like he scares easily (he's 6'4" or so). From the Coven we went through Esqueleto Muerte. We knew about the scareactors in black in the coffins, so none of them actually scared us, but this zone looks great after dark.

We went to HHN: 20 Years of Fear next (7:40 maybe). It was cool to see Chucky get a scare and Mary Shaw on heelies was pretty funny to see. All of the costumes in this zone were great to see (I also remember a Frankenstein monster, and Wolfman that scared our group), and the crazy Alice (I think) was waiting just outside of the zone surprising me and giving me a scare. We went into Fear Revealed next (7:50). Jack and Cindy were surrounded by people waiting for pictures, so I don't think we saw much of them. Fear was a little disappointing, but I loved the details of the little figurine daggers that he wore. The girls wanted a picture with an icon, and we found the Caretaker by himself. They got a picture with him where he was staring pretty menacingly at one of them with his scissors ready to attack. While they were getting the picture, Cindy came up seemingly from nowhere and gave me a scare. She stayed for a second, asking if I liked playing and skipped away.

We left the zone and went through the Central Park pumpkins which looked awesome. We then headed towards the Hallow'd Past and since it was a 15 minute wait we got in line.

Hallow'd Past - 8:10

This first walkthrough I was a little disappointed. We ended up behind this guy that was kind of acting like a jackass throughout the house, so that didn't help. He would yell at the props and sometimes try to tell the scareactors what to do. The worst part was that he got hit with most of the scares. Even so, this house looks amazing. The warehouse in the beginning was great to try and find props from previous years, but even, though I understand the concept that they don't come alive until after the spinning tunnel, I think they are missing a lot of chances for scares in here. The Treaks and Foons room really seemed like a maze, and I loved them bringing back the Alice in Wonderland scene. Dead Exposure, one of my favorite houses ever, was cool to see again, but for some reason I don't think they captured the feel of the house there. Frightanic was nice to see, and I wish they had more scenes from earlier in the event like it. I liked seeing the Body Collectors back, but we had just missed the spine pulling. The Assistants though did get some people around us. I remember seeing Chance and Jack in the finale, but Chance never came out to scare. Jack did surprise us as we left, but this was the first house that no one in the group got any big scares.

We immediately turned from exiting this line to do Catacombs with a 15 minute wait.

Catacombs - 8:35

Though the facade wasn't very impressive, it hides a really cool house. The scenes all looked the same mostly, but they definitely looked like what I would think of Catacombs. The Plague Doctors in this house, though, were amazing. I got two or three good scares from them. I liked the coughing prompt as we walked by them. My whole group had some good scares in here and it was definitely one of everyone's favorite houses.

(to be continued since it is getting very late and this is already pretty long).

[RichieRocket]

Happy Belated Birthday !!!

Looking forward to part 2 of your review... Sounds like your group had a blast on your Birthday..

[LuitaChris]

Great job so far... looking forward to the rest of it

[pehyde]

Happy Belated Birthday !!!

Looking forward to part 2 of your review... Sounds like your group had a blast on your Birthday..

Great job so far... looking forward to the rest of it

Thanks guys, sorry it took so long, but here's Part 2 of the report.

So it's about 8:45 and since we just got out of the Catacombs, we decided to immediately get in line for Havoc in the next line.

Havoc - 9:00

It was a 10 minute wait for this house (probably one of the shortest waits I've ever been in for this tent throughout the years). I really liked this facade especially the gun that randomly moved around and shot. We got inside and as we turned out of the first room, the scareactor with the air gun got us immediately and he was very intense yelling at us. As we passed the guy in the cell behind the plexiglass he hit the glass scaring our whole group and as we turned to the other side, he got most of the group again. The rest of the house kept up the same intensity. In the barrel room, a scareactor came running at the group, screaming at us. I know he must have scared my friends behind me, because I was instantly pushed forward into almost a run. I got my most memorable scare from the house later in a short hallway. The hallway was dark and I realized that the lights would flash and there would be a scareactor on the ground jumping up to scare us. What I didn't realize was that there were two scareactors in the room. So as I focused on the one to the right of the door, the one on the left got in my face and scared the hell out of me. The rest of the house was a blur, except for getting hit by water in the scene before the exit. This house was definitely intense and although many of the scenes looked the same, it was one of the better non-soundstage houses of the night.

We were out of Havoc by 9:00 and decided it would be a good time to see Bill and Ted since the next show was at 9:15. Bill and Ted to me has gone downhill since my first year in 06, but I was willing to still give it a chance, despite some bad reviews on here. The show was good for a few laughs, but just seemed too disjointed and just had way random references (do they really expect the average HHN attendee to know who Dr. Who is? cause I know my friends had to ask me who he was). The show served as a nice break and a good rest, but my friends and I agreed that it really wasn't that great. I think the actors did a good job with what they had, but the story just wasn't great.

So it's almost 10 by this time and we decided to ride Men in Black since I knew the Orfanage would have a huge line after BIll and Ted had finished. We ended up in line near this group of drunken idiots that I was very glad we never saw in any of the houses because they would have easily ruined the experience. We moved on and decided to do the Orfanage finally at 10:15.

The Orfanage - 11:10

This was the longest wait of the night for us at 45 minutes. The wait was worth it, however, cause this was definitely a fun house. The kids in the house, although for the most part it was easy to see their hiding places, still got some scares from our group. The zoo room was really cool, the giraffe in the boo hole definitely scared us all and I loved the monkey reaching down from above us to serve as a distraction. The fire effect was really cool to see, and I think the smoke through the rest of the house definitely made it feel like the house was burning down. We didn't actually see the scareactors in the finale room, and I was a little upset that Cindy didn't scare us, but it was overall a pretty solid house.

It was about 11:15 by now and my friends wanted to stop to get something to eat. We stayed around Amity and got some food for about a half hour or so then headed toward Zombie Gras. Zombie Gras was a cool scarezone and I loved the music they were playing in it. The zombies all had great costumes and it was cool seeing the parade float there, but we actually didn't get many scares from here. We got in line for Zombiegeddon next.

Zombiegeddon - 12:10

There was a 10 minute wait for this house, but I almost wish it was a little longer because this was such a great queue video that I wanted to watch more of. It was pretty funny and set the story for the house. They were slightly pulsing the line for this and I ended up being first in a group of 20 or so. I liked the set-up room with the zombie in place of a secretary and all of the weapons sitting around. We barely missed the zombie baby scene and then it seemed like the house turned immediately to all of the zombies attacking us (I think we must have missed something that showed the parade float crashing into the house or something, but it seemed a little confusing). The rest of the house seemed to go by really quickly and I somehow kept missing all of the scare set-ups, which was a little disappointing, but it was pretty fun to leave the house right into the scarezone of the same theme. I wish Universal could do this more often.

We decided to walk back toward the soundstages and passed the Chainsaw Drill Team. One of my friends decided she'd be safer surrounded by everyone else in the group and one of the chainsaw guys saw this and yelled at her that they'll attack the people in the middle first. She got pretty scared and hurried out of the zone as he revved up his saw.

We decided that we should do a soundstage again and Legendary Truth had about a 15 minute wait, so we got in line and did the house at about 12:45. This time around the scareactor in the floor was there and scared most of the group. It was a really cool looking effect to be sure. Most of the scares were the same this time around, and I knew where to look so got to appreciate the details. Near the end the chair actor got our group and that was such a great costume and surprised the whole group. Two times through for the night and this was definitely a favorite house for the whole group.

The girls in the group were tired so we walked them to the exit and my brother and I stayed to try to get through a few more house walkthroughs. We went back through 20 Years of Fear which seemed scarier and more crowded with actors this time (about 1:00). We hurried through Fear Revealed and got in line for Hallow'd Past which had a 5 minute wait that was all just walking through the queue. This time around was such a better experience. We got hit with more of the scares early in the house. When we got to the Spine scene, the Body Collector had just started and the line stopped moving to watch it. It was a cool effect and everyone started clapping when it was over, which was awesome that so many people realized to do it. In the finale room I saw Chance, who didn't try to scare again, and Jack at the end who got the group in front of me. It was a really fun walkthrough and I was glad we got to do it again giving me a better house experience to remember.

We got in line for Catacombs next and while in line saw the cast change for Hallow'd Past. It was awesome as the Assistant attacked a girl in line behind us, running after her and leaning on the chain post. Catacombs was a good experience again, and those Plague Doctors still got me every time. When we finished it was about 1:15 and we got in line for Havoc again. There were about 30 people in line, but they were pulsing in groups so it took about 10 minutes to get to the front. They ended up pulsing so that my brother and I went in alone, about a minute and a half behind the group in front of us. It was a great experience, as we never saw another guest through the whole house. Almost all of the scareactors attacked us trying to scare and was just an awesome experience overall. All of the actors, after such a long night, were still on top of their games.

We decided to do the Orfanage, since there was almost no one in line as we passed it. They too were pulsing in groups, and actually held the line because there was a cast change. It was cool seeing the cast leave the house, as they all kept in character, holding hands and skipping until they were out of sight. My brother and I went through alone again. Another great experience. I got a few scares in here and finally saw Cindy in the finale room. I actually waved to her goodbye, and instead of trying to scare me head on, she came out of the side scaring me out of the house.

By now it was 1:40 and we wanted to go through the Coven and Saws and Steam again, so we skipped Zombiegeddon. We passed over Saws and Steam for the moment, and were actually attacked by two of the chainsaw guys as we were passing. One of them, a pretty big guy, moved into my path and eventually revved his chainsaw pretty close to my arm. I actually kind of ducked out of the way and was laughing all the way to the Coven. The Coven looked really cool this late at night and it was almost impossible to see the Witches coming at you in the fog. When they came though, I loved to see their costumes. I didn't get any scares here, but one of the older looking witches definitely scared my brother. We actually did a U-Turn and walked back through the Coven again to go to Saws and Steam. The chainsaw guys were still out and harassed us as we walked into Sting Alley. We seemed to be alone in there and all of the actors came towards us as we passed. It was fun to see the glowing eyes coming out of the fog.

As we got out of the zone it was 1:50 and we decided to do Hades as our last house. There were a few people in line (mostly scareactors who were done for the night I think) and we went right into the house. There didn't seem to be as much smoke at the facade this time, but we still got scares as we went into the first room. It was cool to see the details in all of the rooms this time. And I finally was able to realize what the trick was in the Minotaur room (awesome effect that has to get so many scares). In the last few rooms it seemed like every scareactor attacked us and I loved their dedication so late in the night. It was a great walkthrough and a good way to end the houses. We finally left the park through Esqueleto Muerte and the actors were still out. A few of the skeletons got in my path as I was leaving and I even got one of them cocking her head sideways at me which looked really cool with the lights. I was so glad they were still out so late and definitely appreciated it. It was a good finish to the night.

Very tired and sad that we wouldn't be back again, we left the park. It was a great event, with a perfect mixture of old and new. I feel like there were no really weak houses this year. We definitely had a great time and it was the perfect birthday trip for me.

[BabyFirefly]

Good to see you can get 4 houses done by 8:00 on a Saturday. Just in curiousity, did you have express or are those wait times for the regular cue? Also, were you wearing anything signifying the Vault or H N N (meaning the official t shirts?)

Thanks for this review...although I didn't fully read the houses bc I don't want everything to be spoiled