DTH316 Posted October 21, 2011 Share Posted October 21, 2011 HHNH: 10/20/11 Got to the park at about 7:20ish. Immediately hit Terror Tram. NO WAIT. Literally walked on. Awesomeness. My thoughts remain the same on the story element on the tram and how it could've been pulled off better on the route. Getting rid of the mini maze also seems like a mistake as well. As much of a traffic jam it created, it at least TRIED to accomplish a Stab 8 set or Stabathon or whatever it was going for. Now it's just Ghostface at the Bates Motel. I don't think I even heard the soundbytes in this area from Scream 4 that used to be playing. One thing that was really bugging me though was pretty much EVERY blackout (are they considered blackouts when it's the Terror Tram? haha) was yelling every 10 seconds "no flash!" I could've sworn TT was the only place where flash and sticking around to take pictures was acceptable. Whatever the change may be now is diminishing some of the fun of this attraction. Repeatability: 3 [Nothing epic as it should've been; feels very stale; loss of mini maze loses a bit of potential variety. Nothing felt worth seeing again since last time since there was no - -] Improvement: 0 [Nothing was tweaked to the form of positivity as I was lead to believe. It was simply TT without the mini maze.] Downfalls: - 3 [Taking away the mini maze, once again, bad decision. The theme was flat before but now it's not represented at all in any shape or fashion on the route, making everything set up useless. I don't know what the situation was with it or why it had to go but at least move it elsewhere.] Repeat worth total: 0 points Right after, we head down the escalators to hit Alice Cooper. Ran into a 5 minute line, but no worries. It was still before 8 and everything down there was still very empty. And as last time (I was with different people), I had to explain who Alice Cooper was, which then also brought up the question, "so... why give him a maze?" Entered the maze and the energy was picked up in the beginning of the maze in comparison to last time. The scares started right off and I was very glad about that since before I didn't get anything out of it until about more than half way. Let me just say the scareactors were on their freakin' GAME tonight. Just on fire and working it. They really caught their groove since the first night I came. This is what I expected to see on my first trip. Best cast award goes to these fellows. Repeatability: 10 [Caught a lot of new details that made it seem more like an HHN maze to me this time - - as you may remember, I said it kinda just felt like a really good Knotts maze before - - but this time I took extra note to soak everything in. The scares, sets, music - - everything. Huge repeat value as I got something completely different than I did the first time. Improvement: 8 [Entire first half of the maze was better. The stilt guys were EVERYWHERE. I thought there was only one but there were at least 5 toying with us in the French Revolution scene and then a few more that just popped out at the most random moments of the maze. And the ending sequences are still intense from the asylum and on. Not more so than before, but it stayed at the same level with some extra tweaks so it gets bonus points for that. Oh and got a GREAT scare in the Ethyl room, I didn't even know there was a scareactor in that room until this walkthrough! Didn't see 'em in videos or hear about 'em or nothing. Their boohole and that moment totally caught me by surprise.] Downfall: 0. [Absolutely nothing. Nothing but add ons for this trip through and it actually BOOSTED up the rating above Hostel for me for the entire event this year - - my new least from greatest list will be up at the end.] Repeat Worth Total: 18 Wandered on over to Hostel and waited about 5 minutes. The Slovakian girls were literally at the door of the maze this time which was interesting. I told my friends to say the codename and they did. The girls wanted them to repeat it again but my friends chickened out, thinking that I was trying to trick them into getting targeted by the monsters or something. While going through, once again, the entire first half is devoid of scares. Last time I gave the benefit of the doubt that I just missed them but I didn't see anything going on. Half way through the maze, I saw there was some cast switching going on so I figured maybe that's why the first half was missing some slack. Second half, from the Mrs. Bathory scene on, picked up a bit but nothing substantial. The guys with the scissors overhead were less fiesty this time around. I actually saw Steven in the maze this time, screaming his freakin' HEAD OFF with "get me out of here!" Man, I believed he was absolutely being tortured, it was freakin' me out! Another notable scareactor is the guy in the locker room with the gun - - truly this guy must be insane or something because he pulls off his role so well. Other than that, everything felt very flat or that we missed something but I'm PRETTY sure it was because of the cast switch and jumping right in might be a task. However, the maze in general I started to like less as all I could think was Saw this time and I tried my hardest not to but that's truly what it felt like to me. Oh and sadly the dog scene at the end did nothing for me this time. They're actually a bit hard to see since they're at waist levelish. Repeatability: 7 [i guess it was cool to see it at a lower hype level than I saw it before so than I could concentrate on the maze itself instead of performances. Unfortunately, doing that just made me see Saw more. Still very grotesque for me though which had me in awe of all the gruesome detail] Improvements: 5 [steven's and the locker room guy's performances really blew it away for me, plus I got the locker room scare this time, which made me happy but I missed quite a few more but it all kinda evens out.] Downfall: -5 [Cast switches or empty rooms right as I was going through. This was a bit unavoidable so I can't really blame anyone for this but for the experience as a whole, it wasn't as top notch as last time. It just sucks for the two times I was in this maze, I never got to see the whole thing ON.] Repeat Worth Total: 7 Hit Jurassic Park then Mummy and went back up the escalator. HOTC said a 5 minute wait while everything else had about 20 or 30 so I thought it would be the best moment. Finally got to walk through Freakz and I honestly don't remember much. I don't think I was targeted once while going through. While I'm on that subject, I was targeted only once through Zombieville but I at least saw them interacting with other guests. I didn't get much out of the Zombieville set either as I think Freakz looks a lot more cool. However, scares were around me more in Zombieville so it edges out the competition. With that said, my fav scarezone still has to be Klownz. Got targeted a thousand times while going through there but it also helps it's an area I ended up going through more than half a dozen times. Anywho, the line for HOTC turned out to really be 20. Decided to go without the 3D glasses this time and I'm glad I did, got to focus on a lot of the detail. A group of fun guys was behind us in line and we let 'em go in front so we can watch them get scared - - it was great. I didn't go through this on opening night so I'll rate it in comparison with last year. Still, the first 1/3 of the maze is so boring. The Murder Ride is just endless walls with no scares in them. That was my main complaint last year. Also, this maze doesn't ellicit a feeling of fear within me still but at least this time it got more startles. Tiny was going NUTS on those stilts. He was ALL around that room which is much more than I saw him do last year. A lot of the cast was very into it too, however, I would've lived and never were to have cared much if this weren't to have returned - - even though it was better for me this year. Repeatability: 4 [The maze is only decent to me - - it just doesn't blow me away like something of the caliber like The Thing or La Llorona. Experience being a bit more amped helped things but I was bored of the scenery.] Improvements: 8 [Got more scares this time, felt more energy.] Downfall: -3 [Just not my favorite maze and it just doesn't have enough scares in the first third.] Repeat Total Worth: 8 FINALLY tried Doc Brown's chicken after more than half a decade! It was pretty good for theme park food. Right after, headed to La Llorona since it only had a 15 minute wait. Got in line, it was more like 10. The queue for the maze really sets things up nicely and I have to say, this maze was SCARIER than it was when I went through it before. The creepy element was still there but the scares were just much harder and really shaking. I went in through the maze AGAIN later on in the night and we were getting the tail end of stuff but it STILL is pretty damn creepy. Even the La Llorona at the exit made me jump back pretty good even though I'm used to the scare being there! Also didn't help that my group was fast pacing it out the maze instead of just soaking it all in the second time around, which I realize is probably the only benefit of conga line style when you're with a bunch of scaredy cat women. Repeatability: 10 [Amazing environments to be in awe of. Creepiest vibe I think I've ever had in a maze other than TCM. Almost felt like my first time through again.] Improvements: 10 [Everything was amped up more than it was before. Two major things that made it extra creepy and gave me extra scares: 1) Picture frame. I had no idea the first time going through that this was a scrim. This time, I'm going through and I'm looking at the picture and I see La Llorona giving me the SCARIEST FUCKING LOOK ever from behind it. Then the lights dim - - then BAM - she pops out. It was like a triple scare! You see her, she disappears and it's creepy and then she jumps out of the frame. Holy crap! 2) The last scene of the bed, the grim reaper popped out! I hadn't seen that in any of the videos before and this was totally new to me and caught me off gaurd so damn good. Another really great creepy effect is right before the scare in the river, you can see La Llorona kinda just hovering over in the corner. She lights up and then goes dark and then on the opposite side, a live actor of La Llorona pops out. Freakin' AWESOME. Downfall: 1 [The dark room's door was WIDE open, making it bright and there was no scareactor in there on the first trip. On the second trip, luckily it was closed and luckily someone in there was doing something other than feathering people. So one bad thing got made up for; plus the graveyard stilt walker wasn't doing the pedal scare either time I went through, which disappointed me because that was one of my biggest scares on the first time I went through opening night.] Total Repeat Points: 19 [Fun fact, even with the repeats of some mazes, since I've only gone through them all once each year, the HHN maze I've gone through the most other than the HoH is La Llorona with a total of 3 times in this season since we did it twice tonight (I know, that sounds like nothing but I just realized it!)] After that, we went to Wolfman. I don't know, what's there to say? Repeatability: 5 [Luckily, the HOH is naturally a good maze. As an overlay, not many points.] Improvements: 4 [Going through, a LOT of the Terror Tram cast went into this maze! It was awesome being randomly scared by bushman. Also, got a good scare from Gollum at the end of the maze who comes out of the tiniest crevis in a wall] Downfall: 0 [Well, nothing really other than the obvious of it not being a good overlay.] Total Repeat Points: 9 Right after, hit up the Thing. While in line, I so happened to be standing right next to the one and only Freak! He joined our group for this maze and for when we repeated La Llorona. Got to chat it up with him in the 30 minute wait advertised as 45. Seriously, such a cool dude and I'm glad I bumped into him. We compared notes on what we hit throughout the night, talked about ideas and some rumors of what's in store for the future. Just a really good lucky surprise and coincidence; a HHN miracle, if you will. Great to talk to a fellow fan about the event (since the girls I was with tonight don't necessarily GET IT on that type of level) who I can tell is passionate about all things Haunt. Truly a cool guy that I can honestly say it was a pleasure to meet and I would say I'm very lucky to have met him by chance tonight; hopefully we meet up again with one another at a later night or event. As for the maze, once again - - all the air is being poured out into the queue (also, there's a little TV now set up playing the trailer over and over... why not use the projection like they did back for F13 in 07 & 08?) The temp inside had cooled down by a BIT and moreso towards the end but it's still not quite there. I'm not sure if they ever will get there but I can say the use of using up all that space for the units was probably a waste. The first scare is now a guy on the platform, who I truly didn't expect to see there. The first creature scare though is in the worst spot of the room. You could see it scare other people at least 3 or 4 times until it's your turn. This time, I also noticed an actual person in the body of The Thing being assimilated on the table. Must be a boring job since all he does is just lay there, haha. There was an extra scare actor or two that I noticed that was doing a fantastic job. Still though, the maze suffers from hallways and hallways of blank walls! Watching the movie (and going through a maze like Fallout Shelter) makes you wish they would put up some shelves, as you see in every hall of the movie. Repeatability: 10 (The maze still has the most startling scares with the most surprising creatures that never fail to get me. Always fun to see people's reactions to some of the more intense stuff.) Improvements: 8 (New actors in new places and they had their roles more fine tuned than before when I first went because back than they were more blocky with their movements which is understandable because they have those crazy suits on. Also, the scares were repeated at a much quicker rate so everyone in the room got them, which is a good thing since we conga lined most of the way and saw most of the scares before they happened, but at LEAST we got attacked ourselves, which is preferred than getting a tail end and never seeing it happen again.) Downfall: 0 (Nothing that I can think of that would negate this experience.) At this point, got some Cinnabon and sat around. We had thirty minutes to kill until Bill and Ted. La Llorona's wait went down to 5 minutes so we did it again with Freak. Afterwards, Freak went off to hit HOTC for his last maze of the night while I took my group to see Bill and Ted. LOTS of changes this year and I think many were for the better - - the show is still freakin' hilarious and I don't get a lot of the complaints. I would say it's on par with the other golden years - - it's just lacking Bill and Ted throughout who kinda just stand around (playing Tron in the background or sitting down watching girls dance haha). My friend got a lapdance from Thor, which made her first time ever to HHN more the better. Truly a classic moment. Wish I had my camera out! One odd thing that was happening though was towards the end of the show, everyone in my section started moving around and sitting somewhere else. Then the staff of the show all had concerned looks on their face while pointing up. I was concerned that it had something to do with the show but apparently it was a GIANT spider coming down towards the crowd. We were all directed to not go under it and I don't blame 'em for the worry - - that thing looked HUGE and poisonous. As we were leaving, which was only about 1:15, the chainsaw chaseout guys marched back in so we didn't get to experience that, which is a shame. All in all, a great night at Universal BUT I gotta say this is more of a one time experience for me. I'm glad I went twice THIS year to find that out though. I'll now go back to my normal routine of going once near the end of the run as things are just a lot smoother and fine tuned (unless a Scream or Evil Dead maze comes... those are my only two exceptions). Pretty much the ONLY MAJOR downfalls were Terror Tram and Hostel, but Hostel I can't say it was necessarily their fault for that happening. My opinon on this being somewhere in the middle of the best years remains and most of my maze picks kinda fall in the same order. From least to greatest (for tonight): Hostel The Wolfman House of 1000 Corpses Alice Cooper The Thing La Llorona From least to greatest (for event as a whole): The Wolfman House of 1000 Corpses Hostel Alice Cooper The Thing La Llorona Best years, in order: 08, 09, 10, 11, 07 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grindhousehero13 Posted October 22, 2011 Share Posted October 22, 2011 Murdy's now sicking his Spider on the public 0_0 ....... but great review, cool that you got to meet freak but I must ask since I go next week, The Thing was it better before or after seeing the movie? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DTH316 Posted October 22, 2011 Author Share Posted October 22, 2011 Better after I saw the movie. It all made much more sense now. Before the story just seemed a bit off but once you see the movie, you get the idea of why you're seeing certain things and get a better idea for story. Although the first 3 hallways and the entire last 1/4 of the maze are blank with random pop out holes within, I can say this maze represents the movie better than the Hostel maze does this year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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