Freak Posted October 16, 2013 Share Posted October 16, 2013 I really procrastinated on this review so I decided to finally take the time out to do a review on my experience. I'm just going to review the houses.shows and cut right to the chase. The Walking Dead: No Safe Haven! - First house that we hit as soon as the gates opened. This was a walk-on since everyone hit all of the sound stage houses first so this was great for us. There was some very good detail in the house, but the Woodbury scene felt a little cheap in this scene with the brick walls. I got some really good scares in here but I prefer Hollywood's version with how they faithfully recreated all of the scenes. Cell Black C looked much smaller than I imagined. Scares: A- Sets: B- Overall: B Urban Legends: La Llorona - Wow. For a sprung tent house, this was absolutely beautiful. I thought both of Hollywood's incarnations were some of the most beautiful sets that they have ever done, but I think Orlando has stepped it up a notch here with the scares and the sets. The underwater scene was really cool and the river scene that they did was BEAUTIFUL. If felt like I was right in the middle of a village. Very well done house and definitely better than the Hollywood version. I just prefer the West coast's facade a bit more though. Scares: A Sets: A Overall: A Afterlife: Death's Vengeance 3D - To me, this was the weaker of the houses as 3D mazes just aren't my cup o' tea. The sets were very bland, BUT the scares VERY much made up for that. This was more of a visual/cool house to disorient your vision to make things much scarier. That's exactly what this house did and I liked it. I thought that room with the killer in the electric chair over your head was a really cool room. Scares: A Sets: C- Overall: B- Bill & Ted's Excellent Halloween Adventure: After not being so impressed with our Bill and Ted show over on the West (It has improved though), I think this is the much better show. I thought the jokes regarding Avatarland and JJ Abrams were hilarious! I also loved how the whole plot of the show actually RELATED TO HALLOWEEN! HOLY SMOKES WHAT A CONCEPT! This was actually the first time I saw Bill and Ted over on the East since I skipped it when I went in 2010. Pretty solid show. Overall: B+ American Werewolf in London - Being a fan of the film, I was really excited to be able to go through this. I have to say, everything about this house seemed perfect. When I walked through the transformation scene, I just couldn't help myself pointing at the scareactor yelling, "You need to kill yourself David!", and going through the Slaughtered Lamb asking what that star was on the wall for. The puppets for the werewolves were AMAZING! Picadilly Circus looked incredible with all of that immersion and that girl on the double-decker gave me the best scare of the night! I loved it so much, I want this to come to Hollywood next year. Even if it's not quite as good, that's fine with me. I just want to experience this again next year. I'm in the popular consensus that this was the best house of the event. Scares: A+ Sets: A+ Overall: A+ Evil Dead - Everything about this house was SO much better than what Hollywood did. All of the scenes from the movie that Hollywood did with static dummies were all done with live actors in this one. Again, this is another one that Orlando did far better than the West coast. The finale was so much more epic with the large room and the cabin exterior as well as the basement scene. The whole house felt like I was actually in a cabin...in the woods. I was also surprised that this didn't feel at all too similar to the other house which I hinted at earlier. Really good house. Scoreboard - Orlando: 2 Murdy: 1 Scares: B+ Sets: A Overall: A- Havoc: Derailed - This was actually my most-anticipated house since I thought the whole concept of a derailed train sounded awesome, but it actually didn't come off as strong as I had hoped. I did get some good scares in this house, but the sets seemed a little repetitive. The crashed train was neat but it didn't really feel that convincing. I enjoyed it nonetheless. Oh, wasn't there supposed to be a slanted platform from the Forsaken in there? Maybe that got cut? Scares: B Sets: B- Overall: B- Cabin in the Woods - I loved this movie, but not quite as much as AWiL, so I may be a little bias towards this. But I thought it was cool that they took a different approach to this house from the regular "We're just going to walk through the most memorable scenes from the movie" approach. They actually had you be apart of the action by using the facility staff to communicate with you. With that aside, I also loved how they built an actual cabin for the house. It looked really neat but I didn't like how it was just a straight-shot right through the wide room. I'm sure the scareactors got tired of hearing the "Help us!" audio queue thousands of times during the night. Despite the really cool scare where the guy would get you from above you, I didn't think this house was as scary as everything else. I thought the final scene was cool and I did spot the Thing and Jack! This is another property I'd like to see come to Hollywood, but I would prefer AWiL over this though. Scares: B- Sets: A (Cabin was awesome) Overall: B+ Resident Evil: Escape from Raccoon City: I'm not a big fan of the games, so this probably didn't impress me as much. This is another of the less-scarier houses but the sets were REALLY cool. Aside from the lack of scares, one thing I hated about this house was that it was LOUD. Oh my word, I had to cover my ears in the part with Nemesis shooting down at you it was so ear-piercingly loud. It was a cool scene though. This house felt more like a tribute/love note for the fans of the game as it didn't focus too much on the scares. Scares: C+ Sets: A+ Overall: B Rocky Horror Picture Show: I hate Rocky Horror. The movie nor this show is my cup of tea. I only saw this because my friend loves it. Not going to bother reviewing this. Afterwards, I had time to get a second round of the Mummy during the event (My favorite ride there) and a second trip through everything but Walking Dead. Overall, I had a BLAST at HHN. I think 2010 is a little better, but I loved having the privilege of getting to go. The scare tactics that were used all felt varied even though some of them felt very similar to Hollywood and got mixed in with some Haunt-style scares sing audio triggers. For example, if someone stood there like a statue, there would be a really loud audio trigger which felt super-effective. Murdy should look at Orlando's and see how they do it. Not every scare should be a guy jumping out of a curtain or a door that everyone can see, and certainly not every single scare has to use an obnoxious strobe light. The water gags were used very conservatively in La Llorona and Evil Dead and actually put you into the environment. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ferox Posted October 16, 2013 Share Posted October 16, 2013 Nice review but...Havoc? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freak Posted October 16, 2013 Author Share Posted October 16, 2013 Nice review but...Havoc? Oops. You're right. Added that to my review. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doctor Jeffula Posted October 16, 2013 Share Posted October 16, 2013 =( I like Rocky Horror!!!!!!!!!!! Its funny how AWIL is the Best maze at the event and i thought it would be a not so good idea for a maze but everyone seems to like it. I wouldnt mind it coming to Hollywood.Good review Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cody Posted October 17, 2013 Share Posted October 17, 2013 =( I like Rocky Horror!!!!!!!!!!! Its funny how AWIL is the Best maze at the event and i thought it would be a not so good idea for a maze but everyone seems to like it. I wouldnt mind it coming to Hollywood.Good review It was almost poised to be the underdog this year: it had almost zero advertising (even now it has barely any) and it's based on a movie from the early 80s (classic though it is). It ended up actually passing "underdog" status and has been probably the top rated house of the year since Day 1. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ferox Posted October 17, 2013 Share Posted October 17, 2013 So...werewolf was an underdog? Awful jokes aside, I think what seemed odd is using a property where you see very little werewolf action and that David would have to be a puppet or animatronic since he is bipedal. But clearly they found a way to fit plenty of werewolves in (even if it was just implied in the movie) and having amazing puppet/puppeteers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cody Posted October 17, 2013 Share Posted October 17, 2013 So...werewolf was an underdog? Awful jokes aside, I think what seemed odd is using a property where you see very little werewolf action and that David would have to be a puppet or animatronic since he is bipedal. But clearly they found a way to fit plenty of werewolves in (even if it was just implied in the movie) and having amazing puppet/puppeteers. Hm? The werewolf in AWIL is a quadruped and mostly resembles an overly-large canine. The wolves are all actual size as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ferox Posted October 17, 2013 Share Posted October 17, 2013 Yeah, it was late at night and I meant to say *wasn't bipedal.* My mistake, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doctor Jeffula Posted October 19, 2013 Share Posted October 19, 2013 It was almost poised to be the underdog this year: it had almost zero advertising (even now it has barely any) and it's based on a movie from the early 80s (classic though it is). It ended up actually passing "underdog" status and has been probably the top rated house of the year since Day 1. Even when the maze was just a rumor i was like "what? that sounds silly" i liked the movie but i didnt think it would fit well as a maze. Probably no advertising because Walking Dead is bogarting it all Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LV-426 Posted October 19, 2013 Share Posted October 19, 2013 =( I like Rocky Horror!!!!!!!!!!! Its funny how AWIL is the Best maze at the event and i thought it would be a not so good idea for a maze but everyone seems to like it. I wouldnt mind it coming to Hollywood.Good review I LOVE Rocky horror so double About AWIL, Yeah that was my biggest doubt before. I used to think the exact same way, I used to think "How in the world are they going to do this house without the wolf." I thought the house would focus more on the humans or something I never imagined they would go and do such amazing puppets. First Time I saw this house my jaw dropped. I couldn't believe they pretty much copied the wolf exactly like the movie prop. I was amazed by it. It's funny because you see the wolf way much more than you actually see it in the movie, so doing this house, not only do you come face to face with the werewolf, but you get to see him all the times the movie doesn't show him. So, yeah this house is definitely one of the best houses I've ever done. hands down. seeing that wolf creature in that flashing light is pretty freaky Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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