foREVer56's Thurs Sep29 review

[foREVer56]

i went last night, the 29th. i waited in finnegans til 5:50 and stayed until 10:45. we managed to do B&T, walk through all 6 SZ's multiple times, and did all 8 houses, doing thing and nightingales twice and WN 3 times. all in all, i found this year better than last year and every year ive gone. i thought the attention to detail was immaculate, and i got some very good scares all over the place. it was a very fun night and i cant wait to do it again the 27th.

SPOILERS AHEAD

Houses(in order in which i visited them):

Winter's Night: The Haunting of Hawthorn Cemetery: this was the first house i did and we were the first people of the night in it, so we pretty much ran through the entire thing and missed every single scare and effect(literaly), so it was a defenite to do again. This has to be the most detailed house ive ever been in. its so incredibly beautiful. the facade is gorgeous, the scenes are very articulated, and i thought it was very well done. the scares on my 2nd trip through were actually very good and i felt this house had the strongest finale if you timed it right. If the cast got a little more aggressive, this could easily be HOTY. Very good house, defenitely better than last years LT.

Sets:10/10

Scares:8/10

Overall:9/10

When we got out of there we got in line to go to

The THING: again, we were one of the first people in the house and missed a lot of detail/scares as we walked very fast through it. but on the second time, i found it wasnt that spectacular. the facade is incredible and i love the fact that its snowing ( ) and the sets were very nice, but the house doesnt have that many scares. there's a few puppets here and there that are pretty awesome, but the cast needs to be a little more aggressive. i didnt get much activity. I really found the finale lacking and the hallway before it could use a SA or 2. Still 100x better than 2007's thing.

Sets:9/10

Scares:7/10

Overall:8/10

Nightingales or Bloodengutz didnt open until 6:15/6:30 so we headed to the next house that was open,

Jaws & Steam: Into the Machine: i must say, this house really suprised me. this was my least anticipated house because i didnt expect much from it. even with people on here raving about it, i still wasn't feeling it. But when we got there, there was literally noone in the house or behind us the entire time, so we had every effect/scares to our selves, which really enhanced the experience. i thought the cast in here was the best cast of any house. every actor went at us, and they all had agression and energy. the fact that it was 6:10 and the first day of the HHN week probably helped that a little bit . I think the drop fence from ZG is a waste of a room and shouldve been another room with SA's. i didnt see the scene where the machine was eating a persons legs, but i saw the big daddy behind the waterfall at the end. very nice touch. this is defenitely my favorite house of the night. i only did it once, sadly due to the fact that when we got over to it again the line was 45 min.

Sets:9/10

Scares:10/10

Overall:9.5/10

we continued around to the kid zone and headed to

The Forsaken: from what i heard coming out of rehersals, this house sounded spectacular. they were right about the sets. the scares...not so much. there were a few good SA's getting scares, and the people in the tilted ship scene were getting some scares, but the really open scene where theres about 4 SA's acting as mannequins on stairs and then one walking back and forth i thought was pointless. i believe this was cast b because it was just after 6:30 when i got inside. it was defenitely way too short and the finale was not very good at all. it kinda just ended. my least favorite as of now.

Sets:10/10

Scares:5/10

Overall: 7.5/10

We walked out the exit and right into the line for

The In-Between: i had really high hopes for this house. it sounded awesome and the way the people at the tweetup described it made it sound like it has potential for HOTY. it defenitely has potential to do that, but its not there as of now. they were defenitely not joking about the sets. some scanes in this house are so incredibly awesome i have no idea how they pulled it off, especially the laser scene. i completely missed the invisible floor room. the only reason why its not one of my favorites is because i missed every scare and only did the house 1 time. my friend standing behind me got all the scares in this house. i saw some of the actors getting scares, so they were defenitely doing a good job, i just didnt get much action. cant wait to give this another go.

Sets:10/10

Scares:6/10

Overall:8/10

After that we walked to the next tent,

Nevermore:The Madness of Poe: i had somewhat of an idea what to expect from what people have said and the video UO released, but i also heard this was not a house built for scares. i dont know where they got that idea from. i got a very good amount of scares in here and the sets were incredible for a tent. sure, the telltale heart room looked better in the picture, but it was still pretty cool. one of the stronger finales of the houses this year. would've loved to do this again but we left too early

Sets:10/10

Scares:9/10

Overall:9.5/10

we decided to skip the first B&T and finish the other 2 houses. first was

H.R. Bloodengutz Presents: Holidays of Horror:i heard some very bad reviews on the house and some very good ones, so i had no idea what to expect. i saw a good chunk of the queue video, but couldnt hear it very well. the cast was changing right before i got in the house, so i tried not to look at the costumes walking into the house. i found this house very balanced between funny and scary, and i got some really good scares in here. i thought the transition scenes were simple yet effective, and some scenes in here were really cool. loved the smell in the thankskilling room . the finale(ho,ho,homicide) was pretty good. loved the headless santa and the use of the mirror gag with the elf with the chainsaw in the last room. defenitely way better than ZG last year. or any disaster house that ive been in, for that matter.

Sets:9/10

Scares:7/10

Overall:8/10

we decided to see B&T at 8:45, so we only had about 45 min after this house. thankfully the next house had no line, so we did

Nighintgales:Blood Prey: this house really didnt have a facade if you ask me. you kinda just walk right into the trenches. i thought it was beautifully detailed like every other house and gome some excellent scares both runs through this house. the masks couldve been better. i liked how the nurses transformed into more distorted and more creepy banshees as the house progressed. this is another house i felt kindof just ended with no real finale. one of my favorites for sure and wouldn't mind a sequel, though it might not be necessary.

Sets:10/10

Scares:8/10

Overall:9/10

Most Anticipated pre-event:.....................House Rankings (as of now)

1.Nightingales..................................1.Jaws & Steam

2.Winter's Night................................2.Nevermore

3.In-Between....................................3.Nightingales

4.Nevermore.....................................4.Winter's Night

5.Forsaken......................................5.H.R.Bloodengutz

6.H.R.Bloodengutz...............................6.In-Between

7.THING.........................................7.THING

8.Jaws & Steam..................................8.Forsaken

Shows:

Bill & Ted: I was very dissapointed in B&T this year. it wasnt funny. this is the only i havent liked it. there were a few parts chuckle worhty, but nothing actually funny. wont be seeing it again this year.4/10

Scarezones: i was very pleased with the scarezones this year. i actually got scared in a few, and most set a very nice vibe.

Acid Assault: Very unique sz. the building projections look bad because its not dark enough. it looks so much better on video. but the SA's seemed to knew what they were doing. i saw the guy with no legs and he was doing better than half of the other SA's. i LOVED the soundtrack. it was perfect for the zone and it was just cool.

Atmosphere:9/10

Scares:6/10

Overall:7.5/10

Nightmaze: this wasnt too bad. it defenitely sounds so much better on paper, but its not a total failure. if it was darker and the gates moved faster, it would be so much better. but they cant do that for safety reasons im assuming. was not the worst zone of the year.

Atmosphere:4/10

Scares:4/10

Overall:4/10

Caonyon of Lost Souls: this was alright. it set a very nice atmosphere walking to the back of the park. i wish they had permanent SA's on the floor hiding in the curtains, they would've gotten so many more scares. not a bad zone though.

Atmosphere:8/10

Scares:4/10

Overall:6/10

Grown Evil: very dark zone. i wish it was a little darker, that way the SA's would get more scares. the darkest atmosphere in the streets IMO, and a very good zone.

Atmosphere:10/10

Scares:4/10

Overall:7/10

7:Best zone i've ever walked through. i saw the second and third stages, and got a lot of scares during both. loved how they transitioned throughout the night. the shadows of the temptresses were getting some nice scares and the temptresses were doing a great job distracting people. loved this zone thoroughly.

Atmosphere:7/10

Scares:9/10

Overall:8/10

Luck Has Run Out: not happy with this zone at all. they took the minions out of here and had them trolling the front of the park, making this zone very empty. plus the fact that the sound effects sounded like moaning babys didnt help either. WAY too short of a zone.

Atmosphere:5/10

Scares:3/10

Overall:4/10

Most Anticipated Pre-Event..................SZ Ranks (as of now)

1.7.........................................1.7

2.Grown Evil................................2.Acid Assault

3.Acid Assault..............................3.Grown Evil

4.Canyon of Lost Souls......................4.Canyon of Lost Souls

5.Luck Has Run Out..........................5.Nightmaze

6.Nightmaze.................................6.Luck Has Run Out

[I am Weighting]

Hey! We were there the same night! Very nice review and I liked reading it. I thought Nightingales had a fairly strong finale, it's just very hit or miss. Even more hit or miss than The Forsaken's.