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House of the Year


Karras
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148 members have voted

  1. 1. Favorite HHN 2011 House

    • Saws n' Steam: Into the Machine
      15
    • Nevermore: The Madness of Poe
      12
    • The Forsaken
      21
    • The In Between
      21
    • H.R. BloodnGutz presents Holidays of Horror
      13
    • Nightingales: Blood Prey
      38
    • Winter's Night: The Haunting of Hawthorn Cemetery
      26
    • The Thing
      2


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Even though:

1- it looks like Nighten ---------- that house of which we do not speak is winning pretty solidly

2- Said house became too intensely horrifying for me to enjoy (think Kristen Wiig in MacGruber "I peed my pants.......... I peed 'em.......")

3- Banshees are ridiculously horrifying

4- OMG they friggin' ripped people apart in that house

5- AND ITS GOING ON DURING A WAR WTH?

......

and...

Even though:

1- Winters' Night is coming in second so far

2- Winters' Night is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been

3- Dr. Who ftw

....

and...

Even though:

1- I'm pretty sure the gold bug was the wrong kind of bug

2- Poe wasn't yelling anything appropriate at the end when he went mad (how about you yell what Poe *did* yell at the end when he went mad, Brando?)

3- Human raven - I'm still trying to forget

4- Red Death wearing shiny bright red robe

5- Red Death room was painted one color

6- I am still sad there were no bells, since "The Bells" is one of my favorite poems

7- Burying in the wall from the Black Cat rather than Amontillado ? Why not pick the story more people know?

8- WHY IS THAT MAN CUT IN HALF WITH A PENDULUM - that ruins the whole point of the story........ The biggest affront of them all .......

9- I could keep going. But I won't.

....

I have to vote for Poe. BECAUSE:

1- Nightengales could've been just a big kinda dark (maybe dimly lit?) room with one or two of those banshees in it and it would've been The Win. It didn't need to rely on artistry - anybody who remembers what this house looks like didn't go through it right. Hands down it still wins for Most F-ing Scary.

2- Winters' Night has almost the opposite problem - it was so beautiful that it almost took away from the scare value .... Hands down it still wins for Most Beautiful.

3- .... I don't think any of this would be happening without Poe so there's not really a way for me to NOT vote for the Poe house. Ever wonder why Rolling Stone magazine chose the Rolling Stones' "Satisfaction" as the top song of all time? How about cus the magazine wouldn't ... be... having that list at all without their name lender?

4- .... Poe.

It's an unfair contest. Poe always wins. It's like ranking rock bands. If you want to come up with a different list than anybody else you have to exclude the Beatles because they are in everybody's top 3. They're the dad-gum BEATLES for Crying In The Mud.

....

...

SO in short, Poe House because Edgar Allan Poe is the Beatles.

Q.E.D.

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I had a very hard time ranking these. Every single house had merit and something to offer this year: not a single stinker. Well done A&D for some fantastic houses.

1) Nevermore: The Madness of Poe --- Say what you'd like, but some of the scares in here are just brilliant. Not to mention a fantastic tribute to some spooky Poe tales. Great story from beginning to end.

2) Winter's Night: The Haunting of Hawthorne Cemetery --- Some brilliant scares and some uninspired scares. Awesome show scenes. Absolutely stunning sets, chilling atmosphere. Wish there was more attention given to the plot, but that Distant Cemetery scare made up for it.

3) In-Between --- Absolute mindf*ck; reminds me a lot of Dead Exposure, my scariest house of all time. This house is SCARY even on repeat viewings since many of the scenes are designed in a way where you're either blinded or the actors have many places to leap out from. 3D seemed iffy, but I don't really care. A few uneven scenes kept it from the top. Appreciated the story told and how it kept to the site's backstory.

4) H.R. Bloodngutz presents Holidays of Horror --- My most improved house through the run. This ended up being a lot of peoples' favorite in the groups I took and I understand why... there's a lot of variety here in both the costumes and sets, it's SCARY without being TOO goofy (ala Cleaver), and every single cast member is 100% devoted to their roles. I want to echo everyone else in hoping for another Bloodngutz-centered house somewhere down the line. (Oh, and again, great story is told.)

5) Saws'n'Steam: Into the Machine --- A straight up scary house with the most elaborate sets I've ever seen in the Jaws queue. The show scenes and victims helped this one stand out, as did the Bioshock influences (note: this ISN'T a Bioshock house, but it does take some very cool inspiration). Again, great casts (lot of devotion to the role, varying degrees of insanity and sinister intent), and a very cool story told. Wish there was more saws and a slightly more intense finale.

6) Nightingales: Blood Prey --- This is doubtlessly going to be a franchise house and I'm very chill with that. What I'm not chill with was how uneven this house was due to one of the casts kind of (for lack of better word) sucking. If you got the good cast, it ranks higher - if you get the bad cast, it ranks very low. Still, the audio and set design are great, and the premise and execution are strong. Some very cool scares, and awesome show scenes (if you're a lottery winner and you get to see them).

7) The Forsaken --- I hate to put this one so low because I actually do like it a lot. The sets are gorgeous, the plot strong and well-executed, and some fun surprises (tilted floor FTW). The casts have a high energy and got stronger over the course of the run. I like the eyes but it's a shame they gave away your location on occasion. Some scares are very predictable, others are well-timed. It just failed to capture my attention as some of the others did - not your fault, might just be the subject matter.

8) The THING --- This is the only house where I can honestly say I was disappointed to a degree. This was not a bad house, but it's not as great as it could've been - part of this is due to the film itself, which honestly does not lend itself well to a house at all. The repetitiveness of the costumes is a big factor, as are the oft-missed scenes (seriously, some of them take forever to reset). Both casts were inconsistent... sometimes people would try, sometimes they seemed very bored. The finale was weak - more time should've been spent in the ship I think. (Oh, and more giant puppets!)

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  • 2 weeks later...

8. The Thing (not as good as The Thing: Assimilation - the creatures and effects have improved, but we're watching the movie rather than being caught in it)

THIS was my biggest complaint about the THING:it was mostly a show house. the "war" was going on around you, there weren't many people scaring you. it was better than assimilation, though. i hated that house.

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  • 6 months later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Goes to show people really don't care about the overall scare factor of a house. Just that it looks cool.

I got scared more in that house than THING and Forsaken. There were plenty of scares in that house. Not to mention that it was the most atmosFEARic house last year. You probably missed them due to timing. That happens with every house. Its all about timing with houses. I did Hallowd Past last year and saw noone. I went back and did it again and saw them all. Same with In-Between last year.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I got scared more in that house than THING and Forsaken. There were plenty of scares in that house. Not to mention that it was the most atmosFEARic house last year. You probably missed them due to timing. That happens with every house. Its all about timing with houses. I did Hallowd Past last year and saw noone. I went back and did it again and saw them all. Same with In-Between last year.

I went through Winter's Night 6 times. The scares were always distant and easy to see. Plus all of the actors lacked the energy other houses had. It was just "Boo! Oh shit you saw me. I'll come back in a few."

Everyone I attended the event with and other friends I've talked to also said it was on the bottom of their list for 2011. The lack of traffic on non-peak nights should have produced amplified scares. I was really surprised when I came to this poll and saw it at #2.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've heard a lot of people raving about how great the houses were this year. Personally, I thought the lineup was very solid. Quality all around. No stinkers -- the Thing got the fewest Top House votes here, but it certainly wasn't awful. But also, no truly great houses. The In Between was a really good house, but it -- like all the other houses -- could not provide consistent scares. I'm sure plenty of people DID get consistent scares, but ultimately that's beside the point for the question I'm leading up to.

I've also heard people reference HHN 18 as having a poor lineup because of Reflections of Fear (even though between ST3, BC2, and DE, there were certainly very good houses present), which makes me wonder -- do people prefer years where the houses are all pretty solid (obviously, some houses are still pretty good, while others are just, shall we say, a little sub par?) or do they prefer years where you get 2-3 fantastic houses, 3-4 ok houses, and 1-2 bad houses?

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