HHN 23

[Barbaric Derek]

Here's my 2 cents...

We went Saturday 9/21 and got in at 4:30 for the AP event. Immediately, Walking Dead line backed up to 60 minutes so we went to La Llorona first. We then went through W.D. after since the line went down so quickly. By 6, the rest of the park was open to us. Scare actors didn't seem to flow into the streets until 6:45-ish. And it didn't rain on opening weekend! Woo Hoo.

Here's my house summary:

Evil Dead. 8 out of 10. My favorite house hands down. On two walk throughs we were lucky to get most of the scares. Get effects, sets and actors.

La Llorona. 8 out of 10. On our first walk through, we got all the scares but couldn't appreciate the details since it was 5 in the afternoon. On our second walk through, it was 10 at night but we missed a lot of the scares. Go at night and hope your timing is lucky and this will be a tremendous house.

American Werewolf in London. 5 out of 10. The sets are great once you get past the first half. The wolves are great if you get to see them. This house is to dark and way to empty. Needs a LOT of improvement. 0 scares on two walk throughs. Disappointed.

Havoc Derailed. 5 out of 10. Love the first part while you're "inside the train". Sad that Universal with all its abilities didn't put in a moving floor effect for the derailment. Cast needs to really work on the aggression. Could be a good house with some changes.

Resident Evil. 5 out of 10. Love the wide open sets but the costumes and props looked a bit on the cheesy side. Not many scares in this house.

Cain in the Woods. 3 out of 10. Met my low expectations. Some props were not "dressed" up with the right amount of blood and gore. Timing was off on many effects (light to sound) and didn't see as many different creatures as I thought I would and this comes from having very low expectations. No scares.

Walking Dead. 3 out of 10. Went through this house twice. Neither time did I get a scare and both times I saw poor quality masks & make up. I only give it 3 for the set design.

Afterlife. Skipped it. Never liked "3D" gimmick houses and after hearing it being compared non stop to the In Between... meh. I hated In Between so why waste my time.

Sacre zone.

Yeah, one big scare zone. Take away what very few set pieces are there and you get an entire theme park filled with "Wash, Rinse, Repeat". I have to say that it was cool at first. Some actors have good makeup but some still had the curse from last year with crappy masks with seams that don't blend. It was better than I expected but it was still disappointing to see how Universal has been treating scare zones these last two years.

Overeall Event: C-

All in all. We enjoyed the night but not due to scares... it was because we got to hang out with friends that we rarely ever get to see. And don't get me started on the so called "merchandise" this year. I'll just say this... to any of you who buy that lame "tastes like" tag line T-shirt, you're just cattle feeding the money machine. Don't ever let me hear you complain about poor merchandise when you buy crap like that.

My family won't be attending again this year. The event is not nearly scarey enough to justify spending the money. There are better haunt event & attractions. Universal could really stand to look at its competition and take some notes. The Golden Era of HHN died in 2000. Hoping it'll come back some day.

Edited September 22, 2013 by Barbaric Derek

[Barbaric Derek]

Side Note: To the punk wearing a black and red chainsaw baseball cap who was also wearing a Horror Nights Nightmares t-shirt screaming in my daughters ears in the Walking Dead... You are very lucky that it was my wife who told you to stop. I would have gotten operations to have you escorted out of the house. You are a poor representation of this forum and you should be ashamed of such behavior. Good thing you took her orders to stop... who knows what would have happened if you didn't. I'd like to point out to everyone here that if you're wearing a shirt that advertises an entity then you are being seen as a representative of that entity. I'm sure the admins & owner don't want to be associated with trouble makers who get thrown out of houses.

[Guest kiwisoup]

Thanks for the review, but I have to comment that you come off as quite bitter and it really makes me lose respect for someone when they purposely skip houses because they have low expectations. Cheers!

[Doctor Cogstein]

Agreeing with the post above, you did come off a bit hostile in this review.

You should give Afterlife a try, the scares are decent and the effects are used to their full advantage of distorting where to go. you could probably not wear the 3D glasses and be fine. Afterlife does not rely too much on the 3D aspect.

[DiegoDrummer]

Not just afterlife but the event itself. Go more than once,

I didnt wear the 3D glasses, and it looked ALOT BETTER. Also, what you should do at the entrance to each house, is walk slowly, so the people in front of you can walk away quickly, then you have the rest of the house scares to yourself. Thats what i do, which is why im never let down.

[Legacy]

Not just afterlife but the event itself. Go more than once,

Not everybody can or wants to attend more than once. If a person has a bad experience the one time they can attend, then it's not strictly their fault.

[LuitaChris]

Yea I can't take this review seriously... Seems like someone who went in with a negative view of the event before experiencing it.

[Barbaric Derek]

I've been attending HHN since 1993... if it seems that I am bitter than maybe its because I am. HHN has evolved, as all things do, but not in a good way. I've attended a single year as many as 8 times... this year will not get that privilege. Why should I toss money at something that I enjoy less and less? So I would say to you that you might consider thoughtfully why a long time attendee would post such things. There are positive things in this review... you simply chose not to read them which makes me believe some people will blindly love the event regardless of what Universal does. I am not that kind of fan. As Legacy says "its not strictly their fault". If you've attended in the pre-2000 era then you would have much more experience to base reviews from. Besides, I'm not posting to gain or lose anyone's respect... just venting my 2 cents towards the never ending money machine that HHN has become.

[JDW]

I agree it has become a money machine. But it didn't stop me fom enjoying most of it.

I have been since the beginning as well and, while I like the pre-iconic years, My favorites were 2002-2008.

That being said there are great houses every year. Everyone has different opinions on which ones are good and which ones aren't but even my least favorite houses this year (RE and Havoc) weren't that bad to me. It's is funny to me going in I thought CITW, Evil Dead, and TWD would be my least favorite... but Two of them are my top three and TWd wasn't as bad as I thought (read as wanted it to be )

I agree to an extent about the merchandise. Some of it was good but I'm not paying the prices even with the discount (except for the few obligatory things I always buy)

Your opinion is your opinion and, while I don't agree wth a lot of it, I respect it and am sorry you didn't have a good time with the event itself. I've learned to take it all in stride this year. It's just a Halloween event that I have little to no control over. If I don't have a good time I just wont go anymore. I don't really care anymore about pride in the event, the tradition of it's legacy, or longevity of my attendance. The evolution of the event has removed that from me. I don't care what IPs they bring in. I'll go and have fun. If I don't have fun then I will stop going.