MMAfreak Posted October 20, 2010 Share Posted October 20, 2010 I just arrived home from my 3 day trip to HHN this weekend with my girlfriend. Now, i could do what most of the reviews are on this forum, but I had significantly different experiences each night, so i thought the best idea was to review each day I went. Friday, Oct. 15: I arrive at the park around 8 pm with my girlfriend, both of us getting off a plane only a few hours ago. This is her real first halloween event, let alone a HHN event. She's also easily terrified by horror films. You may guess where this will be going. Anyways, being that it was 2 hours since the event started, we were able to get in quick and easily to the event. The first thing i noticed was Esqueleto Muerte, which I was never fully impressed with. The overall colors were just too much for me and didn't really terrify me, and neither did it scare my girlfriend. So, she thinks she's seen the worse of it and that this should be smooth sailing. We then go to enter Legendary Truth. Now, first off, I am in love with the opening facade of this house, coming from an old New England town with creepy old houses, this house exemplified it perfectly. It was a gorgeous house all the way through, with great new effects. My girlfriend would not realize this as she decided to go more with the route of grasping my arm really tight with both hands and closing her eyes the whole way through. She was picked on quite well by all scareactors in the house. After that house we were on our way to Psychoscareapy, and she was starting to think that this wasn't the best idea. Once again, i LOVED the opening facade of scareapy, it was like a little story if you were willing to look at the details (the mattress over the barbed wire, the ladder, the pulled back fence). Thats always been a selling point of HHN to me, the detail of the sets. But after the faced, it felt very boring. I didn't know if they were suppose to be ghosts or still patients or what, and the house just felt kinda plain. but once again, she decided to go through this house blind, and was once again attacked by all scareactors. She started to see this trend as we left the house. She thinks that it is because she is holding onto my left arm, so that must be where most of the scareactors are, so she transitions to my right arm for Hades. Alot of people enjoyed the opening facade of Hades, but everytime i went through it just felt like something out of Indiana Jones. Anyways, the house it self i enjoyed, especially all the interesting characters within. The one cheap point is that there was no hades to be found. There is literally a throne built for him in the last scene and he isn't there. It felt like "Oh, you were looking for Hades? you just missed him, ran out to get milk". New update on Girlfriend though, she attempts to open eyes for this house, but then promptly closes them and keeps them closed when she say the cyclops. As we leave the house, she once again is in wonder why she is being targeted for scares, at which point I feel bad and inform her that she is a cute little white girl who is obviously terrified and clinging to her boyfriend for dear life. Seriously, everytime she got scared, her legs would give out and she swung from my arm like a rope swing, almost dropped me a few times. Anyways, now she is determined to not be afraid anymore, at which time she is interrupted by a chainsaw and immediately jumps on my arm, scooby style. So, at this point we move on through saws'n'steam, which was a cool area, but at that point I was all pooped out with the chainsaws. So we move on to Zombieggedon, which was just a fun house overall and all the little detail had me just curious the whole way through, and the first house my girlfriend was alright through, being that the scares were more comical throughout. We leave the house into the Mardi Gras style scarezone, which I found no real use for, the scareactors were trying their hardest, but it was understaffed and too spread out each time i walked through. On to Bill and Ted's from there, and....jesus, was it bad. It has tainted the bill and ted franchise for me. I mean, it literally felt like a live performance of those horrible [enter movie genre here] movies that are popular with tweenagers, I almost got up and left halfway through i was so distraught with it. I mean really, it was just a crummy, crummy year. After that disappointment, it was on to the Orphanage, hopefully something to clear up that bad after-B&T show taste i had in my mouth. This is when i learned that my girlfriend was terrified of the concept of evil children. This was going to be fun. I may have forgotten to mention this earlier, but the process of her getting scared was her freaking out, me laughing, her hitting me. Moving on, the Orphanage was fantastic, it was just so well made, and i was really freaked by it...until the "trick or treat" part. It was a good scare when it first appeared, but i was stuck backed up in line right near if for a good minute and a half, and i heard that recorded voice over and over, and after a while, it was the funniest thing I had ever heard, at which point me and her laughed our way through the rest of the house, After that we decided to backtrack and hit the Brushwood show "Malice", i believe, the second show. It was good, but not scary amazing, and quite short, and it will always be a bad memory in my mind because of one thing: Those f*cking light-up hats. I put up my story about that on the rant thread. Anyways, after leaving the show hotblooded, and missing Rocky Horror quite alot now, we moved on the HAVOC. Now, alot of people don't like havoc because of its repetition. i agree. It was a very repetitive house that really offered little story. But the plus sides of the house was the gorgeous outside facade and I love any house that has a alarm sound to it, i don't know, its a thing. Anyways, after that came the catacombs, which will last in my memory for one reason: The badass big bird gas masks. Holy crap, i want one sooo badly now! seriously, those things were cool. The house was well done as well and i loved the museum part of the house with the facts on the walls, very cool. From there it was on to the final house, Hallow'd Past. I had been building up this house in my mind for a while and got more and more excited as we got closer and i could see those cool pumpkin skeletons. And, overall, the house, from a HHN veteran of 7 years and just a HHN fan, was just very cool. I loved all the old sets and the old things within the warehouse. Just a very cool "look at that!" kinda house. Only complaint, and I've read it around here, no FEAR. Wasn't that kinda suppose to be his house. We kinda packed it up at that point and headed back to the hard rock to get some sleep, knowing we still had 2 scarezones to hit the next night. Saturday, Oct. 16 We head to the parks after a seriously expensive dinner at the hard rock (it was like Ivan Drago just KO'd my wallet), we were on our way to HHN. This night I remembered to bring my camera and ready to take a picture with every icon there. So, we do what we did the night before and got through most of the houses throughout the night and decided to hit up the "Menace" showing of Brushwood, at which point i realized it was the EXACT SAME ACT from the last 2 times he came. Sooner or later everyone is going to know your going to do the mass scare trick, jesus. Anyways, from there we headed over to The Coven since i had totally forgotten about it being there. It was a cool little scarezone, until i saw that crystal popping out of that rock, and from there it just killed to mood for me, kinda felt like i was at a really inbreed hippie retreat where everyone was named "moonbeam" and stuff. My mind wonders that far off the reservation, i know. Anyways, from there we decided to hit the VIP room, which i though was gonna be an exclusive dance with chance, but it wasn't as cool as that, still very interesting. Very interesting history throughout there (even though I am seriously bummed i missed out on the thursday shows in there). I took as many pictures as i could and talked to the guy in there and talked about our HHN tattoos (he had a chainsaw drill team tattoo from 200 and i had the whole terra cruenta tattooed down my spine). It was overall a very fun time in there. From there we hit FEAR revealed and 20 years of fear for pictures. 20 years of fear was a very cool scarezone and filled with some of my favorite characters from past events, which i made sure to get pictures with each one (except the wolfman, still really bummed about that =( ) Overall, i believe it to be either the best or tied with FEAR revealed. The only reason FEAR revealed was so good was because, just life 20 years, it had all the favorite icons from years past. I must say though, talk about underselling fear, guy just walks around looking down at people, doesn't really do much, and then poses for pictures by the 2 X's. Now, I'm in no way blaming the actor in the suit, its just the fact that you seriously limit what a icon can do when you put him on stilts, as quick movement is impossible, and really, there is very little you can do to scare, as everyone can see you a mile away. Anyways, i proceeded to get pictures with all the icons: The guy playing the caretaker seemed like he might actually be crazy, the usher and the director were pretty cool, the girl who played cindy was super polite, which is such a plus for me, my picture with fear was cool enough , except for the fact that he's looking off frame, like there is something much more important to be done rather that tourist pictures, and after the picture with chance, I asked my girlfriend why she never dresses up like that, at which point i got hit pretty good. The night is starting to dwindle down and i realize i don't have a picture with Jack, and Jack ain't taking no pictures with anybody, literally, he is just telling everyone to buzz off. So, theres about 30 minutes left in the night, and i really want this picture, so i walked up to him over by his little set and told him "Jack, I know your not taking pictures with anyone, but could you please make an exception and take a picture with me, please. I would be really grateful and it would make my night". I could see he was fighting with the idea in his head, but he finally gave in and took a picture with me, one of my most prized of the night. He did make me do him a favor though. After the picture was taken, he asked me to make the biggest commotion i could and draw the attention away from him so he could slip away. I obliged and just started screaming and waving my arms as he sneaked away. At that point I was spent and headed back to the hotel for a night of rest Sunday, Oct. 17: The only thing notable or different about this night is i saw picture booth jack in a wheelchair. Once in a lifetime picture was taken there And that is my review of HHN XX. Overall, i felt it was, not so much a subpar year, but nowhere near what I've seen in the past. Out of all the years I've gone, it could possibly be on the bottom of that list. Not exactly the best way to "Start a new age of fear" but hey, the A&D team have outdone themselves before. Look at HHN 17: It was an ok year that a lot of people felt cheated on, and the great Usher and Mary Shaw came out of that. So, while it was not one of their best years, I still look forward to future events Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troiandan Posted October 20, 2010 Share Posted October 20, 2010 Sunday, Oct. 17: The only thing notable or different about this night is i saw picture booth jack in a wheelchair. Once in a lifetime picture was taken there omg, that was my wheelchair Jack was in! He kept telling me "Mush, mush!" Any chance you could PM me with a copy of that photo? Once in a lifetime is right - too bad you weren't on the other side of the park earlier in the night, when Chance also took a ride in my chair! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
armyofrobots Posted October 20, 2010 Share Posted October 20, 2010 years of fear was a very cool scarezone and filled with some of my favorite characters from past events, which i made sure to get pictures with each one (except the wolfman, still really bummed about that =( ) hahahaha... this made me laugh... but I'm sorry you didn't snag a picture with me or my counterpart. I know sometimes (most of the time) we just want to scare, it is our job title. And then on the flip side, some actors want to take pictures all the time. So we choose not to take pictures, specifically when a queue starts building. People get upset, but there's not much we can do about it. Sorry again duder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jakemeister Posted October 20, 2010 Share Posted October 20, 2010 Good review. I don't think the Usher came out of 2007 but Chance did. But seriously I enjoyed reading your review. Good stuff and glad to hear you enjoyed the event over all even though it does have its flaws. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Creeper06 Posted October 20, 2010 Share Posted October 20, 2010 hahahaha... this made me laugh... but I'm sorry you didn't snag a picture with me or my counterpart. I know sometimes (most of the time) we just want to scare, it is our job title. And then on the flip side, some actors want to take pictures all the time. So we choose not to take pictures, specifically when a queue starts building. People get upset, but there's not much we can do about it. Sorry again duder. Ahhhhhh.... so it was you! Wolfman is my favorite and I tried to get pictures with you both nights I went but you (and your "counterpart") kept running from cameras like they would seriously injure you. I eventually got a picture of just The Wolfman. It had to do. Sigh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jumboshrmp Posted October 20, 2010 Share Posted October 20, 2010 I enjoyed reading your review. It was in the form of a story and I enjoy when it's done like that. However, next time I'd recommend you break up the review into paragraphs, or at least hit the enter button after every few sentences. I found it very hard to read the giant wall of text without losing my spot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MMAfreak Posted October 21, 2010 Author Share Posted October 21, 2010 (edited) I enjoyed reading your review. It was in the form of a story and I enjoy when it's done like that. However, next time I'd recommend you break up the review into paragraphs, or at least hit the enter button after every few sentences. I found it very hard to read the giant wall of text without losing my spot. The funny thing is, that has been my problem writing things for years, i never break up into paragraphs. All my high school English teachers hated me for it, and i didn't realize how long it was until i posted and realized i kinda ranted my review. And to Troiandan, whats a PM? I'm newer to the site and i would love to send you the picture. Its on my facebook but the it wont let me post the link here Wait, never mind, it seemed to have worked...i think, clink on that underlined here? Edited October 21, 2010 by MMAfreak Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troiandan Posted October 21, 2010 Share Posted October 21, 2010 The funny thing is, that has been my problem writing things for years, i never break up into paragraphs. All my high school English teachers hated me for it, and i didn't realize how long it was until i posted and realized i kinda ranted my review. And to Troiandan, whats a PM? I'm newer to the site and i would love to send you the picture. Its on my facebook but the it wont let me post the link here Wait, never mind, it seemed to have worked...i think, clink on that underlined here? Yay, it did indeed work! Thank you so much!! Oh, and PM is personal (private) message. But this works great, for all to see. Thanks again!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mae Posted October 21, 2010 Share Posted October 21, 2010 (edited) Fun review! everytime i went through it just felt like something out of Indiana Jones. You say that like it’s a bad thing. i was stuck backed up in line right near if for a good minute and a half, and i heard that recorded voice over and over, and after a while, it was the funniest thing I had ever heard, at which point me and her laughed our way through the rest of the house I always get scared more when I start laughing. "Oh, you were looking for Hades? you just missed him, ran out to get milk". Actually, Hades has a prostate problem. "moonbeam" Extra cool points for the Lost Boys reference. VIP room, which i though was gonna be an exclusive dance with chance It’s a VIP lounge, silly, not the Champagne Room! It sounds like you had a good time, even if you weren’t overly impressed with the event. There’s something to be said for that! Mae Edited October 21, 2010 by Mae Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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