Grimp0nd Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 Ok this is a little late (blame only doing the last week of the event and having to wait til i got back to England to write this) but i figure better late than never. This is as much to remind myself in the future of my thoughts as it is to share them with everyone so here goes. My overall view was this was a better event than last year and i enjoyed my four visits a lot. I thought the houses this year were all good and the most well designed and detailed of any year i've done so far (the last four if you were wondering) although some of the scarezones were sorely lacking in scares and atmosphere. I'll concentrate first on the houses giving them a mark out of 10. The Forsaken Prior to the event this was one of my most anticipated houses and was the first house i visited this year. I don't know whether it was because of my high expectations or the weeks of looking forward to HHN but the first time i visited this house i came out a little dissapointed. In my experience when you look forward to something so much it's hard for it to live up to expectations so maybe that was it. That doesn't mean i thought it was a bad house, far from it. The sets of the fort and ship were immersive and really well done. The scares were a bit lacking and the glowing green eyes (while cool) on the dead sailors didn't help because you mostly saw them coming. In that respect i really felt bad for the scareactors because they really tried. The screen with the dead sailors leaving the ship and coming towards the fort was a nice idea but could have been more more effective i think (maybe a practice run for next year?). RATING 7 The In Between This was the second house i visited and in contrast i wasn't that excited about this one before i got in it. Having never experienced a 3D house before i really didn't know what to expect but i was pleasantly surprised. This house blew me away and took me out of my comfort zone. It's hard to prepare for a scare when you don't have any depth perception or any idea if a scareactor is real or a prop. The tunnel combined with 3D effects had me totally disorientated from the start and was awesome. I found it impossible to walk through it without holding on to the rails, top marks Universal. Other rooms like the string room and the laser room were original and memorable if not that scary and will probably stick in my memory for quite some time. Is it wrong i want a laser room in my house lol? RATING 9 Nevermore The Madness Of Poe Quoth the grimp0nd....give me more. Great sets, great actors and some very consistant scares. A special shout out goes to the scareactor who jumps out holding Poe's severed head, you got me more than once. Some very memorable scenes in this one like the room with the masked dancers and the room with the with the ravens. Very enjoyable throughout. RATING 8 Saws n Steam Into The Machine I again wasn't expecting much from a Jaws queue house. This broke the curse for me. Once again great sets and enthusiastic scareactors. Some very good scenes including the waterfall scene and the one where the guy is carving the face down victims leg off. Gory but very well done. RATING 8 H.R. Bloodengutz Presents Holidays Of Horror I think i told everyone before the event that this was the only house i wasn't at all interested in. How could i enjoy a comedy house? How wrong was i? Although i didn't really get any scares in here (ok the Feaster Bunny got me once) i was always entertained. My congratulations to the excellent H.R. Bloodengutz himself in the opening room who was not only funny and entertaining but played the role beautifully. Our group (Myself, Tweedle, Source and Aaron) always took the time to talk to him and were never dissapointed. I think we all thought he'd have made a better icon than the desperately dissapointing Lady Luck and i hope to see him get another house next year. I also thought the reaction from the Leprachauns to us shouting Lucky Charms was pretty funny, thanks for playing along guys. RATING 8 The Thing Love the movie, couldn't wait to experience the house, i was a little dissapointed. It seemed a little empty and devoid of scares. It did deliver on the sets and the animatronics were very interesting if not scary. I did feel as though i was walking through the real station so that was a success but it really needed more variation of scareactors and more of them. I still enjoyed this house but it could have been so much more. RATING 6 Nightingales Blood Prey Awesome! It really felt like a world war trench. I think the concept of the Nightingales is brilliant and i really want to see them back in another setting. They are just so evil lol. I loved the idea that it was as important to look up as it was to look forward in this house and could fully believe that there was a war going on beyond the lip of the trench. A very memorable house. RATING 8 Winters Night The Haunting Of Hawthorn Cemetery I had a hard time deciding whether this or In Between was my favorite house of the year so in the end i going to call it a tie. The snow effect at the start instantly set the scene, it was just a bit frustrating that half the time it didn't work. From then on in the atmosphere was amazing and creepy. Liked the weeping angel (as i'm a Dr Who fan) and each and every scareactor seemed interesting. The peephole to the miniature scene was an obvious distraction but you just had to look anyway. Glad i did. Got a good scare there. Every area of this house was creepy and i loved it, i was constantly on edge and the scares were consistant. It was awesome. RATING 9 Scarezones Im not going to review each zone seperately as this review is dragging on long enough already but here is a brief overview of my thoughts on them. Most of the scarezones this year (with the exception of 7 and Acid Assault) were too small. Grown Evil was pretty to look at and the costumes were very good but the zone was too small. Canyon Of Dark Souls was a nice idea, the fog very effective but the zone was too small to be effective. Nightmaze was also small but that was the least of its problems. This area was almost a total waste of space. On all but one visit i never saw a gate move, never got a scare and was never entertained. On one occasion we actully saw two disinterested scareactors in this zone off to the side chatting to each other. This was the worst scarezone i've ever experienced i'm sad to say. When this zone was first revealed i, like many thought it sounded cool. But the more i thought about the logistics of pulling this off the more i feared it was not going to work. I'm unhappy to say that this seemed the case. Such a shame. Your Luck Has Run Out, another tiny zone was fairly weak too. It relied on the beautiful up high Lady Lucks to distract while the beastly ones on the ground jumping out of the shadows for the scare. This unfortunately like the icon herself was a bit two dimensional. Really dissapointed with the concept and use of the icon this year it seemed almost like an after thought. The zones wern't all bad though. 7 was very well done, a decent size and well populated. The ladies on the stage all played their roles well and really seemed into what they were doing. The minions were enthusiastic and busy while the costumes were great also. I can't really fault this zone. Acid Assault was another good zone. The projections were not that good up close but from a distance were awesome. This is another effect that i can't help feeling they were testing for next year. The scareactors and costumes again excelled here. This is what i expect from a zone with good use of street props to sell the area too. A special mention to the scareactor in the wheelchair, you were bloody awesome and i couldn't believe how fast you moved. The shows Bill And Ted - I'd heard some bad reviews of this and was expecting the worst. I was pleasantly surprised and i found i enjoyed and understood most of it (sometimes it's hard for a Brit to get all the jokes based on American pop culture) which helps. Definately better than last years and the final show of the year was certainly worth catching. Chow stole the show for me. Death Drums - Yawn. Drummers and dancers. Seriously? This is supposed to be at least equal to shows such as Brian Brushwood? Not for me. It came over as a cost cutting exercise to me and not original at all. Universal if you are listening please, please, please don't bring this back. So in closing i'd say Halloween Horror Nights 21 was pretty damn good. The scarezones may have been weak but the houses more than made up for them. Maybe next year we'll get both awesome or am i being greedy lol? Had a fantastic time, with some great people and got my face on the group photo on the last night too. Not bad, not bad at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teach Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 Great review!! Glad to hear that you had a blast. Sorry to hear that Forsaken was a disappointment... it was my husband's favorite. Glad to hear you made it home safely. Can't wait for some tidbits of info about HHN 22! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grimp0nd Posted November 12, 2011 Author Share Posted November 12, 2011 Thanks Teach. I still enjoyed Forsaken just not as much as I thought I might. As for HHN 22 I'm looking forward to the speculation too, bring it on! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PWT Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 Nice review, agreed with most of your ratings and your opinion of Death Drums. (Which I keep hearing people say how much they love it...) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AaronPaHHNFan Posted November 13, 2011 Share Posted November 13, 2011 Good review Jason. I had a blast and you know I can't wait to do it again next year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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