The Thing: Assimilation (Reviews)

[Freak]

An encounter unlike anything man has ever seen has landed on an obscure Norwegian research base. Has this creature terrified you beyond your senses, or was the heart of the experience cold?

[falcons5]

My most anticipated maze of the night. I was a little let down. The actors had some awesome detailed get ups, but the lighting was poor in my opinion. Much of the maze was walking through empty wall space and there was 10 too many of those platic drop downs. There was a pitch black hallway, but nothing occurred. I liked it because I love The Thing and it is a must see because it is new but it wasn't all too special.

[Onca]

There was a pitch black hallway, but nothing occurred.

I think that was meant to build up anticipation, did you hear the sound effects of the previous room's Things in there? A person ahead of me actually turned on their phone's flashlight setting to make it out..

[falcons5]

It was a cool disorientating part but I couldn't hear much. Too many 13 year old girls screaming their heads off. I'll pay much closer attention my next trip. It'll actually give me a chance to appreciate the maze's set design as well as the detailed scareactors and animatronics.

[ScreamAtMe]

If there had to have been a maze I was "let down" by this year, it was this one. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't quite on par with my expectations.

Design : This was the one upside to this maze. The puppeteers and SAs were pushing around some amazing costumes and prosthetics, although I couldn't get over how much the creature looked like a giant praying mantis. Awesome props, and amazing animatronics. 4/5

Scareactors : This one had a lot of victims and not a lot of attackers, so there were a few rooms we'd walk through with people bleeding and begging for help, but no scares, which detracted a bit as I kept waiting for them to come. The few scares that came were all pretty much the same, but the SAs sold them as best they could, so A for effort. 4/5

Length : This one in my opinion could have been a little shorter, I found myself wanting it to be over, and then having to go through 4 more rooms. Definitely a couple of rooms that could have been left out, such as the plain black hallway and the garage room with the front of the truck. Just a bit too drawn out. 3/5

Other : There were a few cold spots here and there from the giant HVAC units, but all in all they were basically useless as by the time I made it through enough sweaty bodies had be dragged through the maze it was practically a sauna in there. One of the best facades of the night. 3/5

Overall : As far as my rankings stand, this one sits solidly in 5th, behind HoTC. I love the premise, and I'm a huge fan of the original movie, but I found myself after disappointed, to the point where my wife asked if I wanted to do it again at the end of the night as we had time to kill, and I passed to go sit in the VIP lounge and grab a diet coke. It was good, just wasn't great. C

[HorrorNights93]

ill have to agree with everyone. I had high expectations going through this maze and after i came out i was disappointed. i guess i set my expectations to high :/ Well basically the #1 room i was looking forward to was the pitch black room and that was a let down. To me it was "dark" but i was still able to see what was clearly going on. Yes it built up the anticpation but did they really waste a whole hallway without at least one SA in there ? Speaking of SA's there were hardly any in there. Most of the scares were based on effects and puppeteers. There were huge gaps of rooms we would walk through and nothing would be happening. And i expected this maze to be extremely cold. But when i walked through it was regular room tempature. This maze didnt impress me enough to convince me to stand in a 60min line last night and go again. The sets and costumes etc. were amazing though. I dont know this maze was just a let down personally for me. On my next trip ill make sure to re-do it and see if im reconvinced but as of now ill give it a 6/10 for effort. like ScreamAtMe said " it wasn't bad, but it wasn't quite on par with my expectations " ugh hopefully more SA's will be thrown in there to fix up those empty gaps of spaces.

Edited September 25, 2011 by HorrorNights93

[iRampage]

Creatures looked great.

SAs looked great.

But like everyone else had said, there weren't enough scares.

I actually went through twice though, because it was amazing to look at what Murdy did with the maze.

Creatures looked really awesome.

3.5/5. I wish I didn't have high expectations for this maze.

[DTH316]

Sounds like you guys went in at the wrong time. Every room when I went had someone in it, sometimes 2 or 3 people in it.

For example, [spoilerS] the room with the guy slitting his throat. Well, that's one. And then there's the guy who pops out with the weird hand from the door. And then there's a little hole where a creature pops out next to your hip area (next to the projection of the creature running on the wall). And then the room with the cut in half body in it jumps at you and then ofcourse a guy comes out of a door.

Watch the sharpproductions walkthrough of it. ALOT of the scareactors are actually just hidden in dark holes in the wall and you can't see them because of the lighting (but of course you can see ALL of them in nightvision)

But there is pretty much a boohole in every room and luckily, I got the scares from each of them.

But it's not the scares that disappointed me, it delivered on that front, it was the very blank sets.

Seriously, the first 2 or 3 hallways before the ice room were just BLANK.

And then the rooms where you turn down a hallway and another creature jumps out at you towards the end, all of the walls were once again blank.

Edited September 25, 2011 by DTH316

[HorrorNights93]

i dont think i could of went at a bad time. I went around 7:30 after hostel and WTMN so everything should of still been fresh. I'll definitively be doing this over on my next trip on Friday to see if im reconvinced. I had such high expectation for this maze and it was such a let down. As a matter a fact ill make sure to be going to this first when everythings just put together. And really i expected the maze to be colder whats up with that ? i even wore a sweater but it got hot so i took it off.

[DTH316]

Well early doesn't always necessarily mean fresh/good, especially this early in the run. I think there's like a 30 - 60 minute time where scaractors are just warming up or regrooving back into the hang of something they're new at.

As I've always gone very late in the month, from my experience, the scareactors are always on top of how they're handling things, even if the choice is a bad one and/or not scary and/or I got the tail end of it, it seemed like they were sure of to make that choice. When I went opening night, I didn't catch that vibe; it still seemed very freshman like on a lot of people's parts in all of the mazes, even my favorite (La Llorona).

I have a feeling when I go back on the 20th, everything will be a lot more amped up and precise and the usual HHN experience I'm used to. They still did a good job but it just wasn't up to par from what I've experience in previous years in the mazes.

Yeah, I won't be going to another opening weekend for again; even if it is something I love like Evil Dead. I want the ultimate, fine tuned experience because now I see that's one of the main things I liked about HHN - - since it's such a repetitive/reset-like atmosphere, practice truly does make perfect.

[HorrorNights93]

well i went through it again today and let me tell you it was MUCH better than the first time around. i can see maybe murdy went through and addressed a few problems or maybe i just truly went in at a bad time. I got scares non stop from beginning to end. The pitch black room was actually DARK this time around i found myself running into a wall and im not sure if they put a SA over there but it felt like something grabbed me it was a good experience this time and i noticed more SA's this time around

[DTH316]

Glad you enjoyed it. It truly is awesome on the scare front, just not so much on the design front.

[Freak]

I actually enjoyed this house a LOT more than I did th first time I went in last weekend. It wasn't cold, but I did get some really good scares in there that I didn't get the first time. The "cheesy scene that I've seen done better in a carnival ride" effect has improved drastically, but still not the best thing (Ugh these puns) to use in the first place. Also, the dark room added a new scare in there that they used for Alice Cooper's black room. I would now rate this house an 8/10.

[HorrorNights93]

ok so they did add a new scare in the dark room lol i thought i was going crazy when i felt something touch me Alot of things changed drastically and im glad to see those changes. i would go with a 8/10 to for all the good scares i got in there this time around. There were still a few blanks room....well i only noticed like two this time which is better

yaaaaay i officially have 700 post

Edited October 1, 2011 by HorrorNights93

[Trevler]

Not a new scare. Its been there. Probably just missed it your first time through.

[DTH316]

The only "feather tickler" I remember from the mazes in the dark rooms was from La Llorona.

[Grindhousehero13]

The only "feather tickler" I remember from the mazes in the dark rooms was from La Llorona.

sharp put out a video for the thing last friday and the nightvision showed the "feather ninjas" as I call them in there.

[DTH316]

After seeing the movie, I gotta say they REALLY captured this film into a maze. A lot of the same details that looked almost exactly like the movie (the ice scene, for example). A couple of scenes don't fit (spoilers for the film and the maze) like the throat slashing guy, which isn't a scene they show in the film but it's rather quickly shown at the end (almost in the same way they show him in the 82 film when they discover him there all frozen). The monsters are also spot on. I mean, they don't have the billion tentacles flying about but if you ignore that, they look exact. The movie made me appreciate the maze a bit more and the maze made me like the movie a bit more also haha. And off topic, it even made me like the 82 Thing a bit more also.

[Freak]

They changed a few things in this house for the better.

1) In the autopsy room (The one where the creature escapes), they have added a scareactor on the platform to scare those coming in. I'm glad they have used that plaform for something useful.

2) Even though the entire house in not cold, they've improved the temperature issue a bit. There are only some cold spots under the vents, but where there is snow in the scene, you really feel cold air, which is nice.

3) The truck effect has been perfected.

I liked the best my third time in there.

[iRampage]

hows the truck effect?

[Freak]

^ They fixed it by having the room very dark and by having the light flash and the horn honk loudly when it starts moving towards you.

[DTH316]

Yup, the room is MUCH darker now and the effect is less frequent than it used to be. I remember walking through on my first time at a normal pace and it went off at least 4 times. This time, it was a much slower pace and it went off once, which is a good thing. Plus the truck actually moves forward now, which I wasn't expecting and actually startled me.

[iRampage]

sounds great. yeah i remember when i went, it went off alot of times while walking through that small room.

plus it wasnt much of a scare because you already saw the truck and kinda knew what it was gonna do

[Trevler]

Fun Fact: That effect is controlled by a person, so how often it goes off is based on them.

[Freak]

^Not surprised. If it was done by a machine, like every dark ride in the country would have done, I could only imagine what that would cost each night to maintain such an effect.