hhnFEARfan's HHN 23 review extravaganza!

[hhnFEARfan]

So heres my HHN 23 review! I went on 10/20 and it was really crowded...But it was UCF night so it was expected. I managed to see everything I wanted to see. So lets start with the houses!(in order from greatest to least)

1) Cabin In The Woods 10/10- My absolute favorite this year! It was so scary and intense I wanted to cry! It felt like I was actually in the movie! Such an amazing house!

2) An American Werewolf In London 10/10- Brilliant house! Very scary and the sets were so emmersive and exactly like the movie! Those Wolfs almost gave me a heart attack even though theyre just animatronics...

3) Evil Dead 10/10- Another perfect house! Everything in the house was exactly like the movie down right to the dead cat scene! Lots of good scares!

4) Urban Legends: La Llorona 8/10- Ive never seen such a beautiful house in a tent before(besides Nevermore)

and the mirror room was intense! But overall the house was just creepy not too scary. I loved how you entered her under water world that was really creative.

5) Havoc: Derailed 8/10- Not as intense as the first Havoc house from 2010...But it was pretty cool. Theres some scenes that are pretty amazing for a Disaster Queue house..It was only "scary" at the very end. I was expecting more but its still a good house.

6) Resident Evil: Escape from Racoon City 7.5/10- This felt like it was suppose to be a comedy house...There were some unique things like the pause scene and wide sets..But even the characters look kinda goofy lol. Not many scares and kinda short. I feel like if youre a fan of the games you will like it.

7) The Walking Dead: No Safe Haven 6/10- I didnt care much for this house but it was better than last years house I guess.

8) Afterlife: Deaths Vengeance 6/10- A very disorienting house...Better than Penn & Teller but not as good as The In-Between.

Now onto the streets...THEY WERE POOP!

1.) In all four years Ive been this year has had the least actors in the streets.

2.) It gets boring seeing the zombies over and over again...Thats why the streets usually strive off of diversity...one central theme in the streets will get boring and repetitive.

3.) The Zombies werent very interactive like the Legions or past scarezone characters were.

4.) They were not in the stores, restaurants, or waiting outside of bathrooms or ride exits this year.

5.) The Walking Dead theme song was cool with the bass drop but even that eventually got annoying hearing over and over again.

rating: I dont even know what to rate this...

Overall Event rating: 9.5/10 (Because of the houses.)

THINGS I WOULD CHANGE FOR NEXT YEAR:

1.) Bring back the Themes & Icons- This year attempted to have a theme but it ultimately fell flat do to some Walkers...I really want a theme that ties everything together and tells a storyline and a powerful icon that has an overwhelming presence as though they are the ones controlling the event creating the chaos for that certain year. Remember Universal you can still have a mixture of original content and IPs while having a theme/storyline and icon. You managed to pull it off in 2007 & 2009 why cant you do it now?

2.) NO MORE WALKING DEAD. It was an overkill bringing it back as a house and making it the whole entire street experience this year. It would hurt the event even more bringing it back a 3rd year. I feel as though TWD is whats getting in the way of having a theme/storyline and icon. Evil Takes root had potential but failed as the theme.

So thats it for now...Cant wait for HHN 24!!

Oh and Rocky Horror and Bill & Ted were excellent shows!!

[Aaronupsidasium]

I'm pretty sure Evil Takes Root was created by Universal's marketing department after seeing that they got the rights to Cabin, Evil Dead and American Werewolf. A&D usually works with marketing but sometimes they seem to go on different directions.

The Walking Dead is the highest rated show for viewers 18-35 (beating network shows, The Wold Series and the NFL) so I don't see Universal letting it go anytime soon...

[Cody]

The Walking Dead is the highest rated show for viewers 18-35 (beating network shows, The Wold Series and the NFL) so I don't see Universal letting it go anytime soon...

Many of the people who attend HHN are longtime fans, or people who have at least attended for multiple years. It's become expected for well over a decade that every Halloween Horror Nights changes things up massively and rarely has a sequel house in the very next year, let alone doing like Hollywood does and having sequels for several years in a row. The show may be popular, but the first house was low in the ratings and this one rarely made it to the top of the list. Meanwhile, all of the other IPs like Cabin, Evil Dead, and especially Werewolf took the prize. Even Resident Evil began to improve as the event went on.

TWD has likely overstayed its welcome, especially after it took over the streets completely. The executives aren't just machines who push whichever button makes them the most money; they do look at what people want.