Opening night impressions

[dave]

man, I am dog tired right now. I walked through the arches at about 4pm and made it over to kid zone the long way by 4:30. there was already a huge line of annual passholders waiting to get the preview going, way more than I remember there being last year. I met a lovely woman from HNN while in line to get my wristband, but I unfortunately can't remember her name. I then met JDW in line for afterlife. I also met a couple more later in the evening, I think justman and his girl, and then a couple of guys (one wearing this year's shirt) who were in a RIP tour. Anyway, nice meeting all of you!

I did like 7 hours non-stop. I'm morphan 4 lyf, but that was like a baccanoid level marathon. 13 houses in all since a friend showed up at 7 and I repeated more than I normally would. the cue lines are horrendously laid out. very poorly designed in the soundstages area. waaaay too much walking back and forth. I understand it's to try and control guest flow, but the way they have it done is downright abusive. also, not very smart implementation of express lines in that area. the worst is by beetlejuice though, what a bottleneck for express there. speaking of express, you're gonna want it. now if you go on an off peak night, you might be ok. but friday & saturday it is absolutely necessary. it seemed like there were twice as many people tonight than last year's opening night, and I don't blame that on the rain last year either (milli vanilli reference, showing my age).

scarezones were pretty good this year, well populated. I didn't get a chance to run into the chainsaw drill team, but the scareactors I did see put on a good show. uni scattered a good amount of props around the park, and the barn was great (the well "walker" is behind it!)

here is how I rank the houses:

American Werewolf in London - I was in heaven with this house. a damn impressive job. this one delivers on the hype. bravo to creative, a&d, everybody. it is the best film to house translation ever at HHN. before this year we've had many "inspired" by houses, and there have been some anthology houses that do a good job recreating one or maybe two scenes, but few "you're in the movie" houses. but this house really is like stepping into the movie. there's a little bit of artistic license taken with the set design (understandably), but overall it is damn close to the movie. music & dialogue are put in straight from the film. I don't even want to spoil anything. if you're a fan of this classic, you cannot be disappointed (unless you go through the house during a shift change and you miss stuff). my first trip through the house it was like a perfect show. I caught every single cue right on time. my second trip, not so much, so it does make a difference (you gotta see dinosaurs on the dinosaur tour to get the full effect, know what I mean?) make this house a priority, do not skip it.

Cabin in the Woods - another impressive representation of a movie. fans of this one will be very pleased. it's a blast, and it really feels like you're there during the chaos of the film. only thing missing was a scene of the sacrifice chamber, but you won't mind. no unicorn that I saw, but you get to see some other standout monsters from the cubes. I highly recommend anyone that goes to HHN with you watch the movie, but it isn't necessary to enjoy it. I went with a friend of mine who still hasn't seen CitW and he really dug this house.

Evil Dead - here's yet another decent movie-come-to-life house. pretty respectable job. very creative entrance displaying blown up pages out of the necronomicon. loved that, very aesthetically pleasing. they even give a nod to the original trilogy by having professor knowby's recording playing when you walk in the soundstage. the ending is freaking great. I loved what they did there with some fire effects, and they bookend this house with you exiting past more necronomicon pages. good stuff.

La Llorona - the best of the original houses this year in my opinion. really atmospheric, and great set design. there's audio and some video playing outside of the house that tries to concisely explain the theme of the house/urban legend, which is nice. pepper's ghost effect makes a welcome return, but I didn't really get the scare factor I was expecting after seeing vids of the hollywood version. no big puppet eating a woman, and not very scary make-up/masks on la llorona. still a good ghost story house though. and, yes, the drowned kids are in the river (for now).

The Walking Dead - I'd say this one is improved over last year. the governor's room with the trophy bookcase of zombie heads in fish tanks is awesome, but I would say that overall the woodbury section is just ok. the prison section is great though. loved the cellblock part toward the end. only character from the show that I saw represented was merle. this is more of an "inspired by" house than an actual "you're in the show" house. still worth checking out though.

Afterlife - this is the most "artsy" of the houses. best use of 3D effects in a haunted house that universal has done yet. might not be some people's favorite if they're big jack or chucky fans (my favorite was last year's classic monsters house), but a fine 3D house none-the-less. some trippy stuff going on with the lights. probably the coolest of the original houses this year. it was so nice, I went through it twice. it may creep up my list as the event goes on.

Resident Evil - well, I applaud the effort, but it falls short of my expectations. good to see leon and jill, but I wasn't overly impressed. I liked the little nods to the game with hidden herbs in pots, the typewriter, some of the building facades, but for me I was hoping for a bit more with the monsters and set design. nemesis seemed a little too small, maybe because you only see him standing on top of a building above you, and he never says "STARS" like in the game! there was only one hunter I saw, and it didn't look right from the quick glance I got at it. the zombies didn't seem like RE zombies either, maybe I'm just not remembering a chef zombie from RE 2 & 3. the lickers were ok, the dogs could have been used more effectively. I think universal would have been better served setting this house after the original game in the mansion. I will of course go back through this house throughout the event to try and see if I missed anything. maybe I'm being too rough on it, but I had really high hopes. it was my second most anticipated house. at this point I'd say last year's silent hill was a better video game house.

Havoc 2 - I like the concept. I like the effect of riding on a train. even the sets in their simplicity of recreating train cars is done well. but they wait too long for the crash to happen, and I didn't even hear an audio cue of a train crashing/derailing. the room with the train car turned on it's side is neat, but there aren't really any scares in this one. unless you get scared by the prisoners who are in cages in the beginning of the maze. just kind of a boring house for me. didn't help that I waited like 30 minutes for it in the express line, what a joke. and, yes, I will go through this house again at least a couple more times to give it the benefit of the doubt as I have FFP+express.

overall a solid event this year. I am pleased. I almost feel like I already got my monies worth just from American Werewolf alone.

oh, and a side note for frequent fear/legendary truth people. I saw that there were posts with toppers of the LT emblem at the end of each maze. because I did not enter the event through the front of the park, I don't know if they had tables set up and new RFID cards to activate. I don't know where mine from last year's is, so I didn't have anything to swipe to test them out. I also didn't see anything on the site before I left for universal, nor have I received an email about this. not sure what's up with all that.

so there you have it. he's chainsaw, and I'm dave, and we'll see you . . . at the movies.